Hon. Linus Okowrie, the Labour Party’s Senatorial candidate (left) and Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State
By Hon. Linus Okorie
My attention has been drawn to the call by the outgoing governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, for the Southeast to produce the 10th President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This is a commendable call given not only the urgent need to reassure Ndigbo that they have an equal stake in the Nigerian Union; but the greater urgency to ensure a balance of harmony in our religiously heterogeneous polity.
Umahi who is temporarily parading with my mandate, which he stole on February 25, 2023, through a nebulous alliance with a discredited professor who served as the Returning Officer of the Ebonyi South Senatorial election, was also reported to have declared his interest to run for the exalted office of the President of the Senate.
This is an ambition that is not only incongruous, deceptive and a caricature, but definitely dead-on arrival. First, Umahi has no mandate with which to pursue his imaginary ambition with, as I am resolute in reclaiming my legitimate mandate at the election tribunal; the process of which is ongoing.
Secondly, and of grave importance, the extant rules of the Senate and its subsisting precedents are clear on the primacy of cognate legislative experience for any aspirant to the exalted office, who on assumption also doubles as the Chairman of the National Assembly.
Umahi, a greenhorn, who neither understands the basic rudiments of raising a simple motion nor the intricate protocols of managing the Senate floor and proceedings, even if his mandate were solid, can only be described as a joker seeking national attention to curry the long-lost sympathy of the good people of Ebonyi South as we get set for full tribunal hearings.
We note with amusement Umahi’s backdoor craftiness in drafting Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers State, to perhaps help him on the soon to be stillbirth ambition; the same man he once called “a thief with no intellectual content politics”.
This same Wike that Umahi then described as one who was “packing money that is public funds, not intellectual material, but just packing public funds”.
Matter of fact, no Senator-elect, political group or platform of worth will accord any seriousness to this over ambition, save as a material for after-hours political comedy.
It is important that as Ndigbo, we urgently revert to our old ways of putting our best foot forward. The Southeast cannot and should never allow self-serving political demagogues to usurp our opportunities, and we must take this seriously, especially in the Nigeria political turf that becomes more complex and dexterous by the daily.
Let me reassure those eminently qualified Senators of Southeast extraction, especially Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu and Sen. Osita Izunaso, that irrespective of political party differences, I wholeheartedly support their quest for the emergence of a Senate President from the Southeast, and I will continue to do so.
Accordingly, as I prosecute the fight to reclaim my stolen mandate, I join the patriotic call on the APC to cede the slot to the Southeast through zoning.
For the exemplary people of Ebonyi South Senatorial District, I urge you to remain steadfast, ignoring the worn-out pranks of my defeated opponent whose only aim is to pull the wool over your eyes in flying the kite of a utopian Senate Presidency.
It is his ploy to regenerate long faded public sympathy going into the tribunal hearings. In other words, he seeks to regain your erstwhile support through an antiquated political subterfuge fit only for the dustbin of rejected history. I know, of course, that you cannot be so easily deceived.
With your continued support and solidarity, I pledge to reclaim the mandate, which you gave me with your sweat and blood.
We are stronger together. Let us continue to bond and win!
…Rt. Hon. Linus Okorie, FCA, FCIA (#TheSenatorForAll), LP Senatorial Candidate, Ebonyi South, 27/3/2023
