By ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
I have often told my friends that; “Politics is not beauty pageantry”. We don’t get into politics to entertain people, but to either serve people by dominating them or to extort them while dominating them. No matter what the intention is, there is always dominance in the exercise of political power.
Politics is also war. It is not showbiz, even though, like in war, there is always an aspect of showiness in politics, but, in all, it is a bloody game of attrition, subterfuge, contrivances and deception. Politics is also a Godly game, in the truest sense of it. The first record of political warfare took place in Heaven. God trounced Lucifer and sent him permanently to Abyss. Who then are we, mere mortal politicians, to spare those who challenge our authority and wish to undermine us, if we have the opportunity?
Distinguished Senator Ifeanyi Ararume is eminently qualified for the position he was nominated for, hence my sincere congratulatory message to him as soon as that announcement was made, but politics, which was the reason for his nomination in the first place, was the same reason he lost that position, even before he was inaugurated. He wouldn’t tell anyone that he doesn’t know where his troubles are coming from.
Some of my friends have tried to play emotional blackmail games with this turn of events by arguing that the removal of the Isiebu strongman is a loss to Ndi Imo. They have gone ahead to suggest that the governor could have let the man keep the position, for the sake of some Imo people who might have benefited from him in that position. And I asked one of my friends who hold that opinion; “Why haven’t Ararume and his newfound allies not let Governor Uzodimma be, considering that numerous Imolites are benefiting and more will benefit from his being the governor? The truth is that if Ararume and his allies have their way, they would not wait for 2023 before they kick Governor Uzodimma out of Government House and lock him up in Kuje.
The NNPC job is huge. It is a big bargaining chip for politics in 2023 and beyond and the governor wouldn’t have found it easy if Ararume had retained that position. I do not have information about what the governor did to stop Ararume or if he was even the one that stopped him, but like I have argued elsewhere, the governor’s supporters are justified in their celebration over this political tragedy that befell the Isiebu refined politician. If the Senator was the governor, he would definitely not have allowed his ‘arch rival’ for the soul of the Party in the State and the State itself to take such a strategic edge.
Distinguished Senator Ararume is one of the most polished politicians we have from this part of Nigeria, he has also shown some good signs of being good with strategies and manoeuvres that go with politics, but his major albatross seems to be his inability to know when to start a fight and when to stop. Also, his associations seem to have robbed off on him wrongly more than once. These factors may have made it easy for the governor, if he is responsible for his current travails, to succeed easily in displacing him from that position.
The Senator who previously represented Imo North Senatorial District might have given his traducers a major weapon with which they might have nailed him by failing to revalidate his membership of APC when the Party gave the directive. This Party action may be nullified tomorrow, but for the moment, a loyal Party member who expects some reward from the Party should abide by Party’s rules and guidelines. The easiest argument anyone who wanted Ararume denied of that position would present is that you don’t reward a rebellious Party man or even a member of another Party while there are thousands of loyal Party members who can function well in the same position.
Beside the governor’s undeniable influence within the Party and in Aso Rock as well as Senator Ararume’s ‘dangerous’ circle of friends, Senator Ararume and his advisers are partly to be blamed for failing to tighten all loose bolts in their political vehicle. I think that the god that really dealt the Isiebu strongman the biggest blow is his failure to revalidate his Party membership.
This experience should serve as a reminder to those who wish to remain in APC but are being strong-headed about Party directives to obey and the ones not to obey, that they could face the same disappointment in the future if they are not careful.
