Enugu chicken impeachment!

Foodstuffs seem to have found their way back to our polity and they seem to be gaining grounds in influencing the decisions of the Nigerian electorates and lawmakers alike. It is believed that like the first Adam, one of our leaders fell by an apple, and it seems now that another leader is giving way because of his love for chickens! The Deputy governor of Enugu state, Mr Onyebuchi was yesterday impeached by the state house of assembly on account of 'gross misconduct '. One would assume that like most impeached leaders, he would have a long list of offenses reeled out against him, but in his case, he had just two offenses; one of which was the running of a poultry in his official residence. According to his accusers, the stench from the poultry is a disgrace to the state and cannot be condoned. Now it seems that like on the animal farm, in Enugu state, all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. In the Governor's official residence, the Agricultural unit of the governor's house not only manages a poultry, but also has a piggery, and a ranch for rearing cattle. Some have even said that ostriches are being reared too! So I wonder if the fowls in the governors house are special breeds that do not have the smell that chickens are known for; or that the pigs in the pens are sanitary pigs. Anyway, we all know that most leaders that face impeachment threats in the history of our democracy were once faithfuls of the powers that be before they got penned in their bad books, and became candidates for witch hunting. Most of these embattled leaders usually had dirt on their garments and carcasses in their cupboards, so they were really liable for impeachment.  Mr Onyebuchi is however one of the minority whose wardrobe was spick and span. The only offense they could unearth was poultry farming and 'insubordination'. Now that's an epic offense! How dare he refuse to represent the governor in an event? It's good news to my ears that a public office holder in the present day Nigeria couldn't be impeached on corruption charges! I want to believe that his books are clean and no allegations in terms of fund misappropriation could be pinned on him, but a part of me thinks no corruption charges were mentioned because doing so would have exposed not just the deputy but his Boss and cohorts too. As we stay tuned and watch this drama unfold, I hope intending office holders are watching with rapt attention and learning lessons from the present and past leaders. One of the take home lessons from this episode will be: if you ever want to rear a bird, ostriches should be first on your list of options. They stink less!