By Olinya Samson Chinedu
Rising from the failed Labour Party Governorship Campaign flag which attracted 400 persons in his home ground of Eha Amufu, Isi Uzo Local Government Area, proceeding to the not-too-good spat by Chijioke Edeoga against both Nkanu people and the Enugu East Senatorial Candidate Elder Statesman Barr. Oyibo Chukwu, and to the immediate past accusation of abandonment by Dr Sam Onyishi and other of his supposed willing sponsors, one can safely conclude that Chijioke Edeoga is a mere trifler whose romance and love for trivialities while the party is going comatose is legendary and some kind of petrifying. Pointedly speaking, Mr. Edeoga perfectly reminds keen watchers of his meddlesomeness, the story of Emperor Nero, the Roman King who historians birthed the phrase “Nero fiddles while Rome burnt” to describe his indifference to important matters. It is not overstating anything to say that “Chijioke Edeoga fiddles while Labour Party he surreptitiously became its leader burns”. This is a fitting and kind description of a man who while others focused on very important matters, reconciles himself to oddities and vain trifling. Like Nero, Mr Edeoga is phenomenal in his romance with trivia or ignoring serious matters, and neglecting what should be of concern to him.
Like locust who went with his guitar playing and hopping from branch to branch during harvest season rather than imitate the ants to gather into the barn against the coming famine, the assumed labour party governorship candidate has been at his best loafing around, being the chief vendor of falsehood and mischievous lies against everyone and everything.
Let us take a trip down memory lane. In 1999, during the struggle for the soul of the Peoples Democratic Party between Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo and Dr. Jim Nwobodo, with him contesting for the Chairmanship ticket for Isi Uzo Local Government Area, Edoga rather than place himself strategically where the matter was being decided, was seen nosing and grinning from ear to ears boasting of how he would pick the ticket without stress. While he was about his childish fancy, his opponent, Osita Felix Ogene was about his business tucked deeply inside the main hall of the now defunct Presidential Hotel appealing to several stakeholders from both Isi Uzo and Dr. Jim Nwobodo, the Czar of PDP of then. That Ogene picked the ticket ahead of Edoga who could easily have plucked it off the branch courtesy of his relationship with Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, then National Secretary of the Party wasn’t surprising because triflers don’t pick apples even when rightly under the apple tree.
When it was announced that Osita Felix Ogene had picked the ticket, Late Chief Ikeoha, the PDP Chairman of Isi Uzo Local Government Area simply captured it thus “how will he not pick it when Edoga was busy doing nothing important while he was on everybody that mattered canvassing for support”?
With passage of time and other unmerited positions he was to occupy from 2003 it was assumed he would have found his right cord. On that thrust, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi benevolently appointed him into his cabinet as Commissioner for Local Government. At least he had been a Local Government Chairman and so must have garnered requisite experience to coordinate the supervising ministry. But a trifler is a trifler. Under his watch, ghost workers ran riot in all the local government, thus frittering government resources away into private pockets.
It may be recalled that Enugu State Government in 2017 said that it discovered and weeded out 6,280 ghost workers and pensioners from the nominal rolls of local governments councils and its Pensions Board.
Part of the discovery was the findings of a committee that disbursed the first tranche of the Paris Club Refund, which was used to offset the outstanding salaries and some pensions of Local Government workers and retirees respectively, totaling 3,462 ghost pensioners.
A Committee headed by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Edward Ubosi, had discovered 2,818 ghost workers in the nominal roll of Local Government staff.
One would readily ask: how did over six thousand ghost workers creep in into the local government service barely two years into the supervision of the Ministry of Local Government by Mr Edoga? Did he aid and abet such monumental fraud? This is a story for another day for Mr Integrity so for now let us yet conclude that as usual “Chijioke Edoga fiddles while Ghost Workers swarm into the sea of an arm of government under his watch”.
Consequent on his lackluster performance in that Ministry, the Governor moved him to Ministry of Environment to superintendent environmental issues in the state. It was hoped that once beaten twice shy but that was hoping against hope as he continued on the trajectory of his ineffectual attention to details. The environment suffered.
Across all rural communities, sand and gravel excavators were running riot depleting natural hills and escarpments, and in consequence engendering environmental degradation while Mr Edoga mopped on. The Ministry under him was unconcerned with procedures which included the performance of environmental impact assessment and other remedial assessments to ensure remediation of devastated areas. It is no more news that Edoga grossly failed and his failure stares him on the face daily, and the only thing that accounts for this is that “Chijioke Edeoga fiddled while Enugu State environment went from bad to worse”. Too bad a toga for one who aspires to lead, for he who is not diligent with small matters cannot be diligent with bigger matters.”
It was from this background of fiddling and carousing that Edeoga threw his hat into the ring as an aspirant for the PDP Governorship Flagbearer. But as expected, while others went about their aspiration focusing on far reaching consultations, selling their programmes of action, building bridges and networks, consolidating their support base, Edeoga merely empaneled a media team whose specific job was to tear to smithereens with fabricated stories, the likes of Jim Nwobodo, Chimaroke Nnamani, Dr. Peter Mbah, Captain Evarest Nnaji, Chinyeaka Oha, Prof Hillary Edoga, Engr Vitta Abba, Barr Ifeanyi Ossai and all the leaders of PDP in Enugu State. While his media boys took dictations from him and went on pillorying everyone, Edeoga went on his fiddling and carousing spree, hobnobbing with and and tearing asunder all nexus between him and anyone that could have been of help to his vaulting ambition. In the end he went on to scrap a scraggy 9 votes while the man Dr. Peter Mbah who he spent all his campaign effort on castigating polled a whooping 790 of the 810 total votes to clinch the ticket. While Mbah worked tirelessly to win the ticket, “Chijioke Edoga went on trifling while his ambition hung limply on a broken toadstool”.
Decamping to Labour Party and picking the Governorship ticket (still in doubt), it was expected that he will go about marketing his manifesto and leading his campaign with decorum befitting a Governorship candidate, but what a huge but expected disappointment! Obviously miffed by what has become the birth mark of Chijioke Edeoga, one political commentator, Ezema Igwenunu had this to say “it has become obvious Chijioke Edeoga and his men of diminished responsibilities have swarm themselves to exhaustion in the cesspool of calumny so much that they do nothing but continue to scavenge around the dustbin of mischievous and imaginative machination contrived against the incoming governor of Enugu State, Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah…”. He continued, “while Peter is busy digging deeper, talking governance, communicating his strategic objectives to enhance robust economy and clear roadmap to its realization, Chijioke is hallucinating in vain labour to dig out his imagined allegations against Mbah… in this orgiastic reverie mixed with sadistic crave for EFCC to initiate a case against Mbah who was discharged and acquitted over phantom allegations of financial malfeasance”.
Should anyone be surprised at Edoga’s infantile theatrics and love for trifling and making mountains out of molehills when things that matter are unattended to? Men and women of discernment won’t be surprised but the “the political ajambenes” in Labour Party have sold themselves silly to such politics of dumbness, ignorance, vindictiveness, bitterness and shameful hallucination, having wasted its governorship ticket on a dumb fellow called Chijioke Edeoga”.
It has become necessary therefore to advice the uncoordinated members of the Labour Party in Enugu State to tuck in their shamelessness inside their pockets and shut up their Governorship candidate and demand that he unveils his manifesto, assuming without conceding that he has what it takes to enunciate programmes of action for Enugu State.
It cannot be explained from any other angle other than “trifling when serious matters demand attention” why Mr Edeoga has not been able to come up with his manifesto.
Simple commonsense should educate members of Labour Party that they don’t have a serious candidate rather what they have is a confirmed serial failure and an attack dog who goes about “engaging in stupid arguments, claims and counter claims against the most outstanding Governorship candidate of PDP, Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah using his equally confused social media urchins flood social media spaces with his nonsense and baseless tales.”. But Enugu State is peopled by wise and discerning men and women” who see in Edeoga the newer version of Emperor Nero.
The earlier they come to the fullest realization that Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah is not deterred or concerned about their tantrums and vile languages but is rather focused on selling his manifesto of profound consolidation of the achievements of the present administration, reconstruction and rebuilding of the state to reasonably translate into the primus inter pares in the comity of states in Nigeria, and become a symbol and a signpost of reference in excellence.
Peter Mbah no doubt commands the pedigree, acumen, poise, zeal and enthusiasm needed to drive a new Enugu.
We won’t therefore stoop low to entrust our hopes into the hand of another Emperor Nero who will sit by, fiddle with his violin with Roman Empire burnt to ashes.
By Olinya Samson Chinedu
Ihenyi Eha Amufu
6th November, 2022
