By Eze Nwamadi, Ogbonna Asadu, Ezema Igwenunu
Chijioke Edeoga deserves to be pitied, not necessarily for the woos he brought upon himself by taking a detour from his commendable submission to Peter Mbah after he had lost at the May 25, 2022 PDP Governorship Primaries held at Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu. No! Edeoga deserves to be pitied for the way his in-laws, the Nwodos, manipulated him for their selfish political interest. Chijioke became a willing tool of political vendetta in the hands of the Nwodos. Edeoga, ndoo!
Edeoga had behaved himself well when, in a press statement, pledged support to Mbah who emerged the PDP governorship flag bearer in Enugu State. Not only did Edeoga concede victory to Mbah, he also urged his supporters to support and work with Peter in order to realize Peter’s lofty objectives. He had gathered all his supporters at Bronza Bar at New Haven, Enugu, and prayed them to give Mbah maximum support. He did not stop at that; he also handed over his media team to Mbah. It was a thing of honour that would have boosted his political image. It was a decision that would bolster his wobbling political career. But it was not to be. He whom the gods would kill, they first make mad. He reneged on his pledge of loyalty and support to Mbah, and bolted to Labour Party. Edeoga, ndoo!
Out of the blues, Chijioke announced to the press that he had become the governorship candidate of Labour Party in Enugu State. This is the albatross that completely ruined him and his misguided desperate overambition. It would later be learnt that Edeoga did not have a mind of his own. He was and still is tied to the apron string of his in-laws, the Nwodos, through whose back he had ridden to some public offices in the past. Nnia Nwodo had some political scores to settle with Ugwuanyi, the then Governor of Enugu State, a maternal cousin of Edeoga’s, who did not find in Edeoga any atom of governorship material, and so looked for himself a worthy successor he found in the highly cerebral and resourceful enterpreneur, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah. Nnia readily found in Edeoga a willing pawn to trade with in the political market. He really exploited Edeoga’s desperation, and,so, railroaded him into the governorship race via Labour Party, a neophytic political party that became a conundrum for the aggrieved rejectees from the PDP and APC.
By this act, Nnia Nwodo completely unclad Edeoga of the fine fripperies his previous submission to Mbah had clothed his political career. Edeoga ndoo!
Chijioke is not a good student of political history. He would have learnt the fact that Peter Mbah would not be trifled with. Mbah is not a dance done with snuff in palm in the political arena. At the Enugu PDP Governorship Primaries, Edeoga scored paltry 9 votes to come second; whereas Mbah scored 790 votes out of the 807 votes cast. Edeoga had actually learnt his lesson and had taken it in the spirit of sportsmanship untill the iniquity of desperate overambition crept in on him. No thanks to his in-laws for whom he played Man Friday. Edeoga ndoo!
During the build up to the primaries, Edeoga played foul for it. His was brutish politics of calumny. Edeoga attacked everybody who aspired to the governorship. He had naively thought the governorship ticket of the PDP in Enugu State was his birthright. He did brag openly that he would succeed his cousin, Gov. Ugwuanyi, and anyone who dared him would have themselves to blame when he became governor. He was a master of fictions, propaganda and falsehoods, damaging ones at that. He wove all manner of fictions around Peter Mbah. Edeoga was behind the false allegation of plea bargain against Peter Mbah. It was Edeoga who also engineered the Ego Ndi Enugu narrative in his bid to besmear the image of Peter Mbah. Edeoga also wove the false narrative that Peter Mbah was on the wanted list of FBI. Peter then travelled to the US where he spent over two weeks and Edeoga’s FBI was no where to arrest Peter. When Mbah returned from the US, Edeoga resorted to another fake news that EFCC would arrest him. Besides Mbah, Edeoga bashed other aspirants like Chinyeaka Oha, Everest Nnaji (Odengene), Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai ( our present Deputy Governor), Barth Nnaji ( who is now hand in glove with Edeoga), and even supporters of Peter Mbah like Dr Dan Shere, Chief Vita Abba and so on. He also attacked his own brother from Eha-Amufu, Prof. Hilary Edeoga, branding him a fertilizer thief. He would generate damaging false narratives and then urge his media team to make them viral on social media. As a matter of fact, the media team belonged to Ugwuanyi but Edeoga hijacked it, and never paid the members a dime. He would even divert the honorarium Ugwuanyi provided for the team, and only paid them when it pleased him. But all these came to nothing. Edeoga lost at the primaries woefully. Edeoga ndoo!
Having been drafted into the governorship race through Labour Party, Chijioke refused to learn the lessons his previous failure at the PDP primaries held for him. He still carried on with culmination. He recruited some fellows with bad reputation into his camp for the nuisance value they held. Such discredited persons like Ikem Okuhu, Aniebolam Nwamu, and an internationally debarred purported lawyer, one Emeka Ugwuonye of fraudulent disrepute, into his team, besides other e-rats and data boys whose duty was to share on the social media fake news and false narratives the camp generated.
Meanwhile, Edeoga had no manifesto. He had nothing in his head for the governorship. All he needed do was generate damaging false narratives against his opponents. That actually was part of why Obi avoided him as one would a hot iron. Peter Obi rather endorsed Peter Mbah, and distanced himself from Edeoga, the ostensible candidate of his party. Obi would endorse Alex Otti, now governor of Abia State, but would have none of Edeoga and his despicable brand of politics and bad attitude to human relations. It apparently appeared Edeoga had no idea what governance entailed. While candidates like Peter Mbah and Alex Otti talked issues as fleshed out in their manifestos, Edeoga went about looking for whom to damage their reputation with his many falsehoods and make-believe fictions. At the polls, Chijioke yet again failed. He lost the governorship election to Peter Ndubuisi Mbah. Edeoga Ndoo!
Having been beaten two times, Edeoga could have learnt the lessons of failure, and then reinvent himself. Failure is the best teacher of a true worker. But Edeoga was found wanting in the spirit of service to the people. He is rather greedy, overambitious, desperate, careless, insensible, primitive, brutish and selfish. He was desperate and would give no thought to the whys and wherefores of his failures. He carried on like nothing happened, and then rushed to the Enugu State Election Petition Tribunal. As if he was bewitched, Edeoga presented to the tribunal puerile and weak prayers. He made the phantom claim of NYSC certificate forgery against Mbah his prime prayer; whereas, he had no proof of it.
Governor Mbah demonstrated the fact that he served and was cleared and paid his allowances to the last month of his service, and was duly issued his discharge certificate by the NYSC, something that the Directorate of Secret Service ( DSS) investigated, corroborated and testified before the court. The question of intention for forgery is quite commonsensical in that Mbah who already hold many degrees from world-class universities did not need NYSC certificate to qualify for governorship. Meanwhile, Mbah did not include NYSC discharge certificate in his affidavit to INEC. The other question of over-voting Edeoga claimed at Nkanu-East was also an orphan as Edeoga could not prove it. Meanwhile, the error in calculation was noticed by the court and 51 votes were discounted from the PDP, yet Mbah has a clear lead. Edeoga’s case was dismissed by the tribunal. Edeoga ndoo.
Now is the time for Chijioke Edeoga to reinvent himself. The judgement of the tribunal was detailed and exhaustive. Justice was served duly. What Edeoga should do now is congratulate Mbah, and join hand him in the development of Enugu State. Mbah is magnanimous with victory. He has yet again extended the olive to Edeoga and other candidates that ran against him in the governorship. It is all about community service, and if Edeoga had interest in service to the people of Enugu State, now is the time to prove it. But should he continue with his in-law- induced beast of self imprisoned in him, then many sorrows are inevitable for him and his misguided followers. Edeoga has rejected the judgment of the tribunal, and has elected to go to the Appeal Court where to burn his fingers yet again. Edeoga ndoo!
After Peter Mbah was announced the winner of the March 18 Governorship Elections in Enugu State, Edeoga set up what he called Mandate Recovery Project, and opened a bank account where he urged the public to donate to the said project. Many gullible persons obliged him, and doled out sums in millions of naira to him. Edeoga suddenly became rich, and now rides in a convoy of bullet-proof cars with retinue of security details. He is living off his victims of whom he swindled. Like Oliver Twist, he will be asking them for more donations as he goes on appeal, and the deceived may still comply. Feelers are that by hindsight, some of the donors whom Edeoga had promised to make rich when he became governor would be asking for refund, having seen through the culdesac on which Edeoga journeys. There is no reasonable person who read the judgment of the tribunal who would advise Edeoga to go on appeal. But Chijioke is stiff-necked. Some stakeholders and political pundits in Enugu had described him as a wicked boy whose heart is at his back. Edeoga is stubborn to elastic foolishness. He is also desperate, and his in-laws, one of them was his lawyer at the tribunal, and who refused to accept the clearly objective verdict of the tribunal, would also order him to move to the appellate court. But let Edeoga go to Hague, ‘eemeko meeko’. He has nothing to help his misguide bid to the governorship of Enugu State. Edeoga, ndoo.
But should Edeoga shun desperation and the manipulation of his in-laws, and take rational decisions like a man, he would have realized he has no destiny in the governance of Enugu State, at least in the next eight years. Peter does. To save his political career from complete extinction, Edeoga should concede defeat, congratulate Peter Mbah, and offer to join hand with him in the development agenda of the Mbah Administration. Otherwise, Chijioke should bid politics goodbye. Failure has held much for Chijioke Edeoga to learn from, and taking the lessons will do him good; rather than the pursuit of shadows at the appellate courts.
