By Ngwuoke Ngwuoke
When on November 19, 2020, Chief David Umahi, then Governor of Ebonyi State defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, many people took the action with a pinch of salt. While some interpreted his defection as a sale-out, others saw it as a strategic step for self-preservation, seeing that his tenure as governor was drawing to a close.
Umahi himself did not leave anyone in doubt why he took the plunge. The Governor, who held sway as Chairman of South East Governor’s Forum, was a veritable authority and Spokesman for the South East political class.
He was therefore in a better position to interprete the actions and body language of the big shots in the PDP. He announced that going by his calculations, the Igbo had no place in the PDP. Pointedly, he declared that the party had no plans to yield to the clamour for a Presidential candidate of Igbo extraction in the 2023 general election. He said he was joining the APC to pursue the Igbo cause.
Since joining the APC, Umahi has not hidden his desire, infact his ambition, to be at the corridors of power in the party. He joined the presidential race under the party. When he did not make it, he threw his weight behind Ahmed Bola Tinubu who is now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Umahi himself got elected as Senator, to represent Afikpo South Senatorial zone. He went to work immediately and started consulting to become the Senate President, even as a new comer to the Red Chambers. Again, he did not make it. He supported Chief Godswill Akpabio who eventually clinched the position.
The appointment of principal officers of the Senate presented yet another political challenge to the Senators. A lot of wounds needed to be healed. Frayed nerves needed to be calmed. Fences needed to be mended. Bridges needed to be crossed. The expectation was that those that lost out in the power game would be compensated. Maybe, they were. Maybe, they were not.
In the long run, Senator David Umahi, became the Deputy Senate Leader, in one looks like a dream come true.
This is significant against the backdrop that he is a First Timer, not ranked. His emergence is therefore attestation to his acceptability within the party and his political sagacity.
Senator David Umahi, immediate past Governor of Ebonyi State did not succeed in becoming the President of Nigeria. Umahi did not succeed in becoming President of the Senate. He succeeded in becoming the Deputy Leader, the number fourth position in the hierarchy of the Senate.
That makes him the highest political office holder in the South East under the present dispensation.
