Is Peter Mbah only an interim governor?
2 min read
Mr Peter Mbah
By Emeka Ugwuonye
I’m confident that Peter Mbah will lose the case at the election tribunal, especially on apeal to the Supreme Court. My position is not to preempt the tribunals and the courts, and that is why I couch it in terms of what I feel.
I cannot see how Peter Mbah will win at the tribunal given the weight of the evidence against him, the state of the law, and the posture of the pleadings and any oral arguments by counsel. It is therefore a huge irony that Mbah is expected to govern the state normally in the circumstances. It is impossible to maintain a stable governance structures when there is such uncertainty in the air. How can he form a team?
Yet, despite the uncertainty, Governor Mbah must proceed to assume office in order to avoid a vacuum or a paralysis in the governance of Enugu State. Mbah is in the position of a power-holding figure, a proxy, who holds office while waiting for the rightful person to step in at a later date.
To further appreciate the quagmire Peter Mbah is stuck in, he is currently listing his appointees. Some of them are people whose destinies have been known to be tied to Mbah. However, there must be some good people who would have been able to serve under any other governor. Those are the ones facing the greatest confusion right now. An appointment by Mbah may be actually a disqualification for a person who could have served under Edeoga administration.
When in January, 2024, Edeoga has reclaimed his mandate through the courts and will be facing the task of making appointments, we hope that Mbah’s appointments now will not have tainted or contaminated some fine citizens of Enugu State, making it harder for them to be part of the rightful government. We are seeing people desperately lobbying for appointments in the Mbah administration. One lady was today writing and praising Mbah and even begging Mbah to appoint more women, which is a self-serving effort to get herself appointed. While we hope it works for her, the desperation is rather troubling.
Enugu people should know that anybody appointed by Governor Peter Mbah now will probably be out of office along with Mbah in December of 2023 when the courts shall have sacked Peter Mbah. It is unfortunate for the people of Enugu. This is the real damage done by INEC and corruption. But the state will heal. Governor Edeoga (as he will be rightly known from December 2023) will try his best to heal the state from these unfortunate turn of history and the traumatic experience that came with it.
