Hon. Augustine Onyekachukwu Ike, before boasting about 20,000 votes and predicting Peter Obi’s defeat in Nnewi, perhaps you should remind Ndi Anambra how you got those votes in the first place.
You were a beneficiary of the late Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah’s political investment, influence and YPP structure.
The man practically babysat your political emergence, provided the platform and mobilised the political wave that brought you to the Anambra State House of Assembly.
You were not an electoral phenomenon independent of that structure.
You did not build that political wave; you rode on it.
And I recall your own acknowledgement that your personal resources and independent political influence had little to do with that electoral victory.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with benefiting from a political structure. That is how politics works.
But there is everything wrong with benefiting from somebody else’s political investment and subsequently developing an inflated sense of personal electoral invincibility.
The late Ifeanyi Ubah understood the importance of political organisation, relationships, grassroots mobilisation and strategic alliances.
He invested in a political movement that gave several people opportunities to occupy public offices.
His political contribution to your emergence should not be rewritten to satisfy your present political ego.
Today, you have suddenly become the custodian of political wisdom, boasting about electoral capacity and declaring who can or cannot win in Nnewi.
You even seem to suggest that Peter Obi’s electoral prospects depend on whether you or those in government permit him to win.
What an unfortunate understanding of democracy! Honourable, nobody owns the votes of Ndi Nnewi.
Political mandates are not family inheritances, and yesterday’s electoral victory is not a permanent certificate of political relevance.
More importantly, as your tenure winds down, there is a more important conversation taking place in Nnewi. People are asking for your SCORECARD.
What have you attracted to Nnewi North? What legislative interventions can you point to?
What tangible constituency projects have you facilitated? What difference has your representation made in the lives of ordinary people?
What will the people remember you for when the privilege of occupying that seat expires?
Instead of worrying about Peter Obi’s political structure, perhaps you should be more concerned about the political structure you are leaving behind and the legacy of your representation.
You clearly mistake political opportunity for personal political capacity. And let nobody mistake access to power for ownership of the people.
The fact that you currently enjoy political proximity to those in government does not mean the people have surrendered their democratic choices.
Local government chairmen, elected officials and government appointees do not own the electorate.
Peter Obi does not need your permission to seek the presidency, and Ndi Nnewi do not need your approval to support him.
No constituency in Anambra is anybody’s political estate. The votes belong to the people, not the politicians who once benefited from them.
2027 will be another examination. This time, everybody must come with their own record.
Let’s see who has actually earned the people’s confidence.
Cry not for Peter Obi. Cry for a political career that may have mistaken yesterday’s borrowed political capital for tomorrow’s guaranteed electoral victory.
Caleb Okeke-Enyobi is the State Director, New Media, NDC Anambra State Presidential Campaign Council.
