The adaption of the report of a seven man panel has, however, been laced with mixed reactions with Onyebuchi faulting the panel and the House for purportedly setting an agenda before the panel.
Onyebuchi, has, however, been faulted by the most high profile politician to have emerged from Enugu State, Senator Ken Nnamani who served as Senate President between 2005 and 2007.
Senator Nnamani in an interview faulted Onyebuchi for bringing the woes upon himself supposedly by being intransigent and refusing to resign when ordered by Governor Sullivan Chime. Excerpts:
What is your reaction to the removal of Mr. Onyebuchi as deputy governor?
Those who advised him to fight on are the ones he should hold responsible for his impeachment because he had the opportunity of resigning because that was the better option but some people encouraged him to go on and gave him lawyers. If he has now been impeached it is unfortunate, that is what he brought on himself.
What is the lesson that can be learnt from this?
A deputy governor is not a governor and must learn not to equate himself with the governor. There is a need for tolerance both on the side of the governor and on the side of the deputy, but if they start exchanging words and you are having two captains in a boat, there is always a consequence.
The deputy governor said he was like a slave to Governor Chime and that he was impeached because he sought to contest the Enugu East senatorial seat against Governor Chime’s Chief of Staff, Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo.
I am from that senatorial zone and the deputy governor is not a threat to anybody’s political ambition. He has never vied for councillorship, he has never vied for election before and to all of a sudden think he has become a threat in a senatorial race is most unfortunate. I don’t think there is any relationship between his so called ambition of wanting to become a senator and his predicament.
It is just an act of intransigence and he is to be blamed. He allowed himself to be influenced. When he knew that the man he was working with was no longer prepared to tolerate him, it was time for him to go. He wanted to slug it out and that is the price he is paying.
He is not a threat to anybody at all and I am sure he knows that himself. I don’t see how he could have jumped and won a senatorial seat. Based on what? It is not possible. In a free and fair election he cannot consider himself a threat to anyone.
You said he was misled. By who?
Anyhow he got the impression that by hiring attorneys that he could have won. I told him and I am quoting myself now, “You have two options, one is to cleanly resign and go about your own business and keep quiet and the other is to slug it out, but that if you slug it out you are not likely to win even if you went there with a platoon of senior advocates, I don’t see you winning.”
This advise was given to him on the 23rd of July and I am giving you dates showing that I memorised the matter. His problem was (started) on the 16th of July which was a Wednesday, and he came to my office seven days after, on the 23rd. He was being unreasonably stubborn.
Considering the case against him such as not representing the governor at the foundation laying ceremony for the Second Niger Bridge, Mr. Onyebuchi said he was there?
But what of the Southeast Governors Forum, was he there?
He said he could not take orders from the protocol officer and that the governor normally gave orders directly to him or through a manifest
Did he call the governor to say that your aide has asked me to do so, so and so? What do you want me to say when I get there?
He claimed he could not reach the governor by telephone
Okay, did he send a text? All these were the arguments we had in my office. I told him that if you called and you didn’t get through did you send him a text? Is it in your phone? Did you store it? It is possible you may have called him and didn’t reach him, how about text message?
There is no way you can prove this. It is a lesson on stubbornness. I gave him all the scenarios and instead of taking my advice, his friends started attacking me in various newspapers that Nnamani asked him to resign.
It is not me who asked him to resign. I have no transaction with him and whether he is there or not…it is unfortunate anyway.
Source: Vanguard
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