SEVEN SINS of Governor Sullivan Chime

By Christopher Ogbu

The global encomium that have greeted the transition of Nelson Mandela make me grin with envy because the rabblerousing, horrendous impunity, and grand corruption going on in Enugu State makes one to give up hope on the possibility of producing Nigeria's Mandela. Yet our politicians have largely kept mute, forgetting Dante Alighieri's counsel that "The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality".

As a matter of fact, governance stopped in the state on May 29, 2011, when Governor Sullivan Chime was sworn into Office for the second term. Not only is the state being mindlessly bled to death through monumental corruption and profligacy, we now live under conditions worse than Adolph Hitler's Germany. Today in Enugu, Chimecracy, a system of government in which dissent is an anathema, no matter how reasonable, while impunity and tyranny by one man, his family and cronies is a code of official conduct.

Though many, I have tried to summarise the ignominy going in Enugu into seven cardinal sins, namely, ingratitude, inflation of contracts, contracts sharing, money laundering, human rights abuse, poor workers' welfare, and perjury.

Ausonius once said that "Earth produces nothing worse than an ungrateful man". Governor Chime is one man whose political history is frost with innate ingratitude as though there is an unseen force propelling him to seek the destruction of all who made him.

A few examples would suffice. Everyone knows that Governor Chimaroke Nnamani literally made Sullivan Chime the Governor of Enugu State. But it is one misjudgment that the former Governor lives to regret as Sullivan literally destroyed Nnamani's political and economic empires once he became governor.

Former Governor of the state and National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, has his sad story to tell. Senator Jim Nwobodo was among those who helped Governor Chime to secure a second term ticket, but he rewarded Nwobodo by revoking his land title and sharing it to his cronies. Senator Ekweremadu and Members of the National Assembly form Enugu State literally weathered Chime's political storm for him in 2011 to ensure he got a second term ticket, among other support and solidarity.

Yet Chime started waging a cold and relentless war against them almost from the Okpara Square where he was sworn in. This war has now blown open as he has unleashed a smear campaign on the Senator Ekweremadu and other Members of the National Assembly from Enugu State as well as the sabotage of their Constituency Projects.

For instance, Governor Chime summoned a meeting of all traditional rulers in Enugu State on December 10, 2013 and decreed that any royal father that allowed a Constituency Project in his community without a written permission from him would be summarily dethroned. On 12th December 2013, the Governor, acting through the Chairman of Ezeagu LGA, stopped work at the National Youth Centre attracted by Senator Ekweremadu to lwolo for Ezeagu LGA.

credit:naij