By Amos Ugwu
The emergence of Hon. Chijioke Edeoga as the candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for the Enugu governorship election has been greeted with reactions. Hon. Edeoga underwent a period of hibernation after being rigged out in the primary election of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
His involvement in the process had brought mass optimism and interest. One of the reasons being that lovers of justice all over the state looked forward to that healing and restorative period in the history of the state when justice would be done the long-marginalized people of Isi-Uzo Local government in Enugu East.
Another reason is that Chijioke Edeoga is well cast for the role; a charismatic, humble, honest intellectual and leader. He was equally seen as the only credible bulwark against Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani’s spirited efforts to again hijack the leadership of Enugu state. For obvious reasons, people feared the hovering ghosts of the past. Against expectation, the election was rigged in favor of Barr. Peter Mba, a candidate Nnamani had publicly and arrogantly endorsed.
Before the election, Sen. Nnamani continued to aggravate this fear. The self-styled autocrat of Enugu politics got on his social media handle to suggest that even if the PDP should impose a goat, it would bleat its way victoriously to the Lion Building. The backlash was instantaneous and overwhelming. The people of Enugu were offended by the relentless effrontery of a man who enjoys credit for the underdevelopment of the state. Sen. Chimaroke Nnamani remained as remorseless as he was unleashed. He continued to make it loud and clear that his Ebeano is back and that there is absolutely nothing the Enugu people can do about it.
In another post, just a few minutes after the obviously rigged primary election, he reminded history-wise people of George Wallace of Alabama; “ Ebeano today, Ebeano forever, “he bragged. George Wallace, as some of you might know, fought to keep America segregated. During an infamous speech to a wild audience of white supremacists, he had shouted “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Sen. Chimaroke Nnamani sees the Isi-Uzo people as fundamentally inferior to his “core Nkanu people,” and as a people who must perpetually remain fetchers of wood and drawers of water.
There is another chilling similarity: Nnamani is fighting to preserve the old, murderous order. Like Wallace, he cannot get over the fact that something could happen to his dreadful Ebeano family. He is hacking back, desperately, to the past, when impunity held sway, dissent snuffed out, thuggery handsomely rewarded and state resources mindlessly plundered. His over spilling joy is therefore explainable. Peter Mba is his realization of this dream, his chance to revive Ebeano.
With Edeoga then seemingly out of the picture, Enugu people were despondent. The state was ripe for a revolution but there was no one to bell the cat. Hon. Edeoga was still smarting from the betrayal he suffered in the hands of Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwunayi who fed him false hope and led him on, only to sell the PDP ticket at the eleventh hour. Indeed, it seemed, then, that Ebeano is fully back.
But all that have now changed.
Overwhelmed by the clamor of the Enugu people for change and to stop the possible return of the Ebeano dynasty, Hon Chijioke Edeoga stepped back into the arena. He is now running, as the reader knows, under the platform of Labour Party. There would be another special conspiracy of circumstances. At the national level, the LP have become the rallying cry of Nigerians for a country they could call their own. Peter Obi, the enormously loved presidential candidate of LP, is now the symbol of this mass resistance against bad governance.
Obi’s support across the country is like a whirlwind. Hon. Edeoga has found himself in a similar position in Enugu. He has become the symbol of the long-seething struggle to liberate Enugu from a monotonous and crime-infested politics. And from current state of ruin and tears-drawing decay. His acceptance across the state is similarly overwhelming.
Optimism has been in the air since he took the gauntlet. A lawyer wrote, after Edeoga was affirmed as the Bonafide candidate of LP for the governorship election; “Ndi Enugu, are we cursed? For 23 years all you get are wrapper for women, half bags of rice during the election and 5-10k for PDP Stakeholders. Even a child born in 1999 may have graduated from the university and served the country. All that must now change. Hon. Chijioke Edeoga is here to help us and we must support him.”
That is the feeling across the state. Throughout his career in politics, Hon. Edeoga has been a man with stubborn principles. He could have allied with the Ebeano family when everybody was doing so. But he stood his ground and firmly refused to identify with evil. It almost cost him his life. He was abducted and kept in the bush for many days for his people-spirited stance. He stood his ground and did not mind that his stay in the House of Representatives was truncated.
When Peter Obi was doing the right things in Anambra state, he did not know that Nigerians would one day discover and thrust him in the vanguard of a liberation struggle. Likewise, when Hon Chijioke Edeoga risked life and limb to stand uncompromisingly against the powerful forces that held Enugu down, he did not know that at a time when all that matters to an Enugu man is that Ebeano cult is not allowed back to the government house, he would be naturally positioned to lead the struggle. History is here again, now to vindicate the just.
