By Paul Odili
Posted to the Web: Wednesday, February 01, 2006

THE heat generated by Dr. Oscar Egwu-onwu, suspended chairman of Udi local government area to EFCC is showing no signing of cooling off. Egwuonwu, sensing  blood has sought every opening to trumpet his allegations. He has, following the declaration by Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, that he was prepared to cooperate  with the anti-corruption agency, and would if need be waive his immunity, to level more allegations against him. The governor’s initial response to the EFCC notice of  investigation has been widely applauded, even though he was not the one being directly probed. He could have pleaded immunity and charged EFCC of political  witch hunt. But rather than toe a path many people would expect him to, following similar precedents from other states, he elected an unlikely approach of  cooperation and openness. 

For the unwary it may not be obvious what Dr. Egwuonwu’s game plan is. As everyone knows, allegations of corruption against governors and public functionaries  are a regular fare, and in his case Egwuonwu figures he has cornered Nnamani. But, as everyone knows, there is as yet no direct linkage of any wrong doing either  against key officers of the government and they include the Political Adviser to the governor, Mr. Sam Ejiofor, Mr. Chinyeaka Oha, Accountant General, Mr. Peter  Mba, Finance Commissioner, or against the governor, though they have all been interrogated. 

But working to a script, Egwuonwu seized the publicity this whole affair has generated to pull more punches, by publishing a list of assets he says are owned by the  governor and their cost. These are weighty allegations, even though there is no evidence adduced.  This is not in itself surprising; every public functionary must realise  that when he has enemies, they would use every weapon to fight whenever there is a conflict. And in this regime of anti-corruption the best possible weapon to use is  to link in this case the chief executive of a state with massive fraud.

Has Nnamani been corrupt? Going by the published material provided by Egwuonwu alone it would seem so. But since talk is cheap, he is entitled to suggest that he  has the evidence, except that in this particular case the volume of investment on the assets is far in excess of what the state has received as statutory allocation since  1999. He cites about 10 privately owned assets, totaling 52 billion Naira, which the governor has used the state money to fund. Of particular interest here are three  investments which can only blow the mind, and they are according to Egwuonwu, an estate near Enugu Trade Fair Complex worth about 12 billion Naira, and  another palatial estate in forest close, opposite Anammco guest house valued at five billion Naira! Common does anybody believe that the governor can be this stupid  to have two investments worth 17 billion Naira in a state like Enugu with a population of three million people, and whose federal allocation is one of the smallest in the  country? And still remain governor of the state.

Egwuonwu is not done, he says the governor owns the Renaissance University and estimates that the project is in excess of 10 billion Naira! You know Naira may be  undervalued and not much what it was some years ago, but the various amounts being peddled  is numbing  notwithstanding. So the implied point is that what the  governor had done is to feather his own nest with state funds. In other places, it may well be correct. But Governor Nnamani has a particular ‘weakness’ and that is  his capacity to draw attention, some might even say undue attention to the activities of his government in the state by engaging the public and reaching out and inviting  critical and discerning audience to evaluate his claims. In 2005 alone, the President was in Enugu for three days, and he was followed shortly afterwards by EU  ambassadors on assessment of Enugu State. Both visits were well publicised and the opinion of these eminent personalities were widely quoted. They were suitably  impressed and believe Enugu government was on the right track in offering competent and transparent leadership for the people.

Furthermore, because resources are in themselves finite, it is hard to accept that while the government is engaged in several capital intensive projects apart from  meeting its statutory functions of payment of salaries and overhead obligations, that the governor  would find the money to sink in illicit assets valued at 52 billion  Naira, when the amount of federal allocation Enugu has received in six years totals 58 billion Naira! The sum does not add up, and this is where it seems mischief is at  play.  One of the basic tools of propaganda is to use big figures, the theory of telling a big lie to win attention as a way  to derogate the reputation of your opponent. 

This tool is often effective because ordinary people may not have the time to think through the full ramification of what is being said, but, because it is in print would  accept it as a fact, than if you use small figures. Also the implication of Egwuonwu’s allegations is that the only thing in Enugu is the so-called assets owned by the  governor. Haba! It should mean projects like: International conference centre; ESUT permanent  site, a project of 162 buildings; the Loma Linda estate, a building of  324 housing units, cumulatively estimated to have cost 30 billion Naira, just to mention a few of them are mere phantoms.

Politics in a campaign year can be quite vicious and this is beginning to look like one example of dirty games politicians play. As somebody had suggested  somewhere, the governor has his own weakness, but it is impossible to support the allegation he did nothing but amass ill-gotten wealth. Increasingly, the opinion is  gaining ground that he is being hassled because of his “inordinate ambition”; whatever that means. Smear campaign is one of the more effective ways to destroy your  opponent, and this one looks and smells like one.