By Ambrose Okechi
As the 2023 general election approaches and Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah is everywhere he should be at the right time marketing his well crafted agenda of development to the good people of Enugu State through a radical Town Hall meetings across the 68 development centres in the state, the opposition camps appear lost and dazed, left with nothing to canvass as development agenda to the people, except perhaps, flooding the social media spaces with baseless banters, diatribes, falsehoods and aspersions. As even their ranking leaders and candidates serenade our ears with their wanton follies and buffoonery, canvassing ill-narratives targeted at creating a sharp schism among Enugu People, one thing that will continue to agitate the minds of well discerning people of Enugu North Senatorial District, often referred to as Nsukka, is the propriety of the political grandstanding by Chief Nnia Nwodo, aimed at having his in-law and despatch rider, Bar. Chijioke Edeoga, the governorship flagbearer of Labour Party ride on the primordial sentiment of the so-called Nsukka phantom agenda in the forthcoming general elections. That way, Nwodo craftily assembled his proteges in Nsukka General Assembly; an assemblage of old and worn-out politicians in the zone to mouth Nsukka agenda, anchoring same on false claims to justice, fairness and equity. Of particular interest is his continued mouthing of marginalisation of Nsukka zone by the Enugu divide. This will form another story.
As strategic as their endorsement of the phantom Nsukka agenda is to the thinking and political calculation of the brains behind it and perhaps to the candidate, a careful peep into the endorsement raises more questions than answers.
One of the many questions is; does their endorsements of Nsukka Agenda win an election? If it does, why did Amb Fidel Ayogu and Barr Okey Ezeah win those days the group endorsed them? Why was it that Chijioke Edeoga lost woefully against Peter Mbah in the race of who to fly the flag of PDP in the gubernatorial election coming from the heels of his endorsement by the so called Nsukka Leaders under NGA? To provide an answer, Edeoga failed because (nemo dat quod non habet) that is “one cannot not give what he does not have”. It must then be stated that those who endorsed him never had the instruments needed to determine who won or not. So they lost it. The rest can be imagined. Measured against the backdrop of the adoption of Edeoga and railroading him into Labour party, it will suffice to say that those failed Nsukka leaders would even fare worse considering that they lack the clout as well as the political sagacity and political arithmetics to determine who wins election in Enugu North Senatorial District.
As a matter of fact, Nsukka General Assembly is an extension of Nnia Nwodo’s dream to call the shots and broker power in the zone. But painfully, the body, is to say the least, peopled by men and women who have lost touch with the wishes and aspiration of the Nsukka people who have grown in political awareness and are more determined than ever to define their political direction in line with contemporary realities.
Under the auspices of such forum, Nnia Nwodo has been marketing his divisive politics typical of his late father’s brush with the famed late Igwe Onyeama of Eke, in Ojebeoene cultural area where the Nwods are from. The Nwodos are Ojebeoene and do not belong to Nsukka Cultural divide even in the remotest aspect. For the Nwodos it has always been the struggle to take power. That lead to the rift with Onyeama that saw away from Onyeama that saw their grandfather fleeing to Ukehe, a more pliable land where he rode roughshod and exploited their pliant nature to ride to power and fame. We are not unaware of his skirmishes with Duke Itanyi. It has always been struggle for total control. So, it is in the nature of Nnia Nwodo, to always struggle for power using many fronts and subterfuges among which is whipping sentiment, and spawning narratives targeted at making Nsukka people hate their brothers from Enugu East and West.
Vexatious as it is nauseating is the foolery of playing up an ill contrived agenda anchored on sentiment that Chijioke Edeoga is an Nsukka Man and therefore should become an Nsukka project. It is no surprise that his minions in Nsukka General Assembly and their hangers-on bought into the gambit.
Leading the charge is Okey Ezea, Labour Party Senatorial Candidate Enugu North Senatorial District and a band ggof renegade journalists from the zone. No wonder Ezea was on hand in Uzo-Uwani local government asking the people to vote for Chijioke Edeoga because he is from Nsukka. Such a folly of the highest order.
Well, Nsukka people never gave any organ let alone the so-called Nsukka General Assembly the powers to speak for them. And not in the near future will they concede such powers to the any of such persons.. Come to think of it, who told them that what is uppermost in the minds of Nsukka people is electing an Enugu Governor of Nsukka extraction even if Edeoga is from Nsukka? To reasonable and objective minded Nsukka people, what is uppermost in their minds is the urgency of reclaiming our sense of judgment from the likes of the leaders of the Nsukka General Assembly and their Undertaker -in -Chief Nnia Nwodo, who from 1999 has not been able to strike the right cords in Enugu State. In a space of twenty three years led the group to pitch tents with different political parties in a desperate attempt to install their milk cow as Governor with no consideration of the consequences of shielding our people from mainstream politics in the state.
In 1999, they pitched with Nduka Agu and lost. In 2003, they came up with their spurious agenda and pitched with Amb Fidel Ayogu and failed woefully again. In 2007, they rallied round Okey Ezea and failed again. In 2011 they supported Chief Anayo Onwuegbu and failed. Unfazed, they went on in 2015 to scout for who to support from Nsukka. Unfortunately, Governor Ugwuanyi was smarter and more adept, clinching the ticket in grand style, went on to win the Governorship election..
Now in 2022/23, they have yet again pitched tent with Edeoga, an appendage of the Nwodo family, a servant boy of Nnia Nwodo even when they see that all odds are against him. For this selfish project, he came up again with Nsukka Agenda.
Nsukka people are minded to ignore them and their ill-timed, ill – engineered and ill –motivated agenda, as they cannot lose sight of the realities that the agitators for an Enugu Governor of Nsukka extraction do not mean any good for them. They seek to further divide Nsukka people and consign them to playing second fiddle.
Nsukka people cannot be deceived anymore as the truth has dawned on us.
In summary, the Nsukka agenda is one man’s desperate attempt to remain relevant and hijack the leadership of the Zone from the Senatorial zone’s distinguished and genuine leaders the people have come a long way to know and respect for their forthrightness, integrity and ability to manage all shades of interests in the zone.
What more proof does Nsukka people need to justify the argument that one man’s desperation for power is pulling a wool over the eyes of a few gullible ones? In year 2002, fully aware he was not going to make headway in the presidential race and despite all entreaties from his kith and kin, that his ambition would cost his senior brother, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo his position as National Secretary of PDP, he went on to contest that election. The consequence is known to all of us. Okwy was summarily thrown out by Obasanjo, who said tersely that he cannot work with a National Secretary of his party whose blood brother is running for Presidency in another party. Obasanjo was justified.
In 2010, when Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo emerged as National Chairman of PDP he struck again if not for our vigilance. He started nursing ambition to run for the Senate. When it became obvious that the youths were not going to give him any chance, he came up with yet another agenda designed to place him as a leader of a cause. To appear as the saint, he contrived the Nsukka agenda as if only Nsukka can make one a governor. The truth is that Nwodo is only misleading, by sheer strength of charlatanism, his few followers that he brainwashes to believe he is a true lover of Nsukka. But he is not. He is only scheming to become the bona fide leader of the zone, install a milk cow who will feed his insatiable appetite for filthy lucre and power.
Pertinent as it is worrisome is why the architects of such agenda have never sat down for once to review their political and public ratings in the zone. If they do, they will find out that they are the worst of vermin in the land and cannot win election in their polling booths. The forthcoming election will prove me right. Neither Nnia Nwodo nor his minions can foist a luck lustre ⁰candidate on Nsukka people riding on the thrust of phantom Nsukka Agenda.
By Ambrose Okechi
