`…How the PDP Took the South-East for Granted and Why Enugu Must Now Rise from the Shackles of Political Captivity`
HON. ACJ-FAVOUR AMUKA’S POLITICAL DESK(Acjfavour1@gmail.com)
There’s a difference between loyalty and bondage. For too long, Enugu and the entire South-East have been trapped in the illusion that loyalty to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a badge of honour. But what honour lies in servitude? What pride can be found in a political relationship that gives everything and receives nothing?
Since 1999, we have poured our votes, our faith, and our future into a party that has treated us like tenants in a house we built. Election after election, we stood under the rain, queued under the sun, believing that our patience would one day be rewarded. Yet, twenty-five years later, what do we have to show? Empty promises, forgotten projects, and a region perpetually sidelined in the national conversation.
Let’s tell ourselves the truth: PDP has been unfair; not just to the South-East, but to Enugu in particular. We have been the most faithful lovers in a relationship where affection is one-sided. Every election, we delivered landslide victories. But when it was time for reward, recognition, or representation, we were told to “wait our turn.” The truth is, that turn never comes.
Go to Ninth Mile, and you’ll see trucks struggling through potholes that have become small valleys. Visit Oji River, and ask what happened to the industries that once gave our people jobs. Stop at the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, a national embarrassment, and tell me if this is how you treat your most loyal supporters. PDP promised renewal, but what Enugu got was abandonment.
We were there when the party was born; we fed it, nurtured it, defended it. Yet when positions of power were shared, from the presidency to the national assembly leadership, from ministerial portfolios to strategic national boards, the South-East was treated like an afterthought. No serious voice was allowed to speak for us. Instead, we got crumbs and slogans about “inclusiveness.”
But we are no longer fooled by grammar. Development is not a press release. Representation is not a handshake at campaign rallies. Loyalty should not mean silence in the face of injustice.
Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah represents a new kind of leadership, one that refuses to be trapped in yesterday’s sentiment. In just two years, he has done what many doubted possible. He brought water back to Enugu city, built smart schools that changed the face of rural education, and turned our state into a construction site of ideas and projects. Mbah’s leadership is a statement: that Enugu people are not destined for political pity, but for purposeful progress.
Yet, how long can a visionary thrive under a structure that sees Enugu only as a voting bloc, not as partners in progress? PDP has used the South-East as a loyal backup generator, remembered only when the lights go out elsewhere. We vote, they win, and then they vanish, until the next election cycle.
Now, the ground is shifting. Conversations are happening in quiet corners, in homes, town halls, and government offices. The people are asking questions they were once afraid to ask: What exactly has PDP done to justify our blind loyalty? What tangible federal project stands in Enugu today as a monument of our faithfulness? None that can match our sacrifice.
So, if Governor Mbah, a man with courage and clarity, decides to explore a new political home, let no one call it betrayal. Betrayal is what PDP has done to us for twenty-five years. Liberation is what Enugu seeks today.
A man does not remain in a marriage where he is constantly humiliated and forgotten. A people do not continue to pledge allegiance to a party that treats them as politically dispensable. The time for sentiment is over. The time for self-respect has come.
Let it be clear: this is not about hatred or vengeance. It is about freedom, the freedom to chart our destiny without waiting for approval from those who never valued our voice. The South-East must rise beyond emotional loyalty and build strategic alliances that secure our rightful place in the Nigerian equation.
Enugu must lead that rebirth. And if Peter Mbah becomes the symbol of that awakening, the leader who finally says enough, then history will remember him as the man who broke the chain.
There is a moral burden that comes with continued neglect. How long can a people remain faithful to a system that has refused to see their worth? Our elders say, “onye ajuju adighi efu uzo”, a person who asks questions cannot lose his way.
The story of Enugu under PDP is the story of a lover who stayed too long in a one-sided relationship.
But the most painful betrayal is not material; it is emotional. We are a proud people. We have given Nigeria some of its finest administrators, judges, soldiers, and thinkers. Yet, our consistent support for the PDP has yielded no sense of belonging. Loyalty without dignity becomes slavery. No region that values its children should continue to live on political leftovers.
The PDP, as it stands today, has failed to evolve. It has not rewarded courage; it has punished it. It has not nurtured excellence; it has feared it. Each time the South-East raised a voice for inclusion at the national table, the same PDP that the region carried on its back turned a deaf ear. The result is the same cycle of betrayal, a people perpetually loyal, yet perpetually neglected.
Enugu’s case is even more heartbreaking. For years, the state has delivered some of the party’s most dependable support. But when it comes to national recognition, strategic positioning, or federal presence, Enugu remains the forgotten bride. No major national office, no critical infrastructure allocation, no fair share in national appointments. Loyalty has become a curse.
Today, Enugu must ask that question. Has PDP truly been fair to us? Have our votes, our energy, our faith, and our sacrifices been honoured? Or have we been kept in a political waiting room with no appointment in sight?
Because no matter how long you dance in a burning house, loyalty will not quench the fire. Sometimes, the only way to survive is to walk out, not in anger, but in dignity.
For Enugu, that walk has become overdue.