Abah Joshua
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ebonyi State, Chief Abia Onyike, has drawn the attention of Governor David Umahi to the fact that scoring 100 percent in an election by a political party, was alien to democratic tendencies.
Onyike, a former Commissioner for Information in the state, was reacting to Governor Umahi’s comment on Saturday, that no other political party existed in the state, other than the All Progresives Congress.
The governor spoke in Uburu, in the Ohaozara Local Government Area of the state during the local government election, after casting his vote, on Saturday.
He had said, “I can say that I am quite satisfied with the report I am getting from the polling units.
“It is very peaceful, the turn out is quite impressive and the people are voting very freely for candidates of their preferences.
“There is no other political party in Ebonyi State. We have done quite well and no other political party in Ebonyi can boast of any reason why anybody in Ebonyi should vote for such party other than APC. We have performed. We have transformed the state, so Ebonyi people will not listen to promises, they are going to be listening to promises fulfilled under my administration and by the party, APC.”
But in a statement, on Sunday, the PDP stalwart described Governor Umahi as an emergency politician, who lacked the requesite training in the practice of politics.
The statement read, “Umahi is an emergency politician. He has no single training in the theory and practice of politics. He always sounds very mechanical any time he delves into political analysis.
“For him to say that there is no other political party in Ebonyi with the exception of APC tells you of his parochial framework for analysing political trends. He is not worried that other parties decided to boycot his stage-managed local government election.
“He doesn’t even know that scoring a 100% in an election is alien to democratic political culture. Such things can only happen under one-party communist systems. People are tired of this man’s backward antics. He has few months to leave office.
“Very soon, his anti-democratic mentality will vanish with him in our political landscape. We need fresh air in the state to return to the proper development trajectory which has been terribly polluted by these prebendal opportunists.”
