By Judith Nweze
It is indubitable that all has not been well with Enugu Labour Party, especially Chijioke Edeoga’s camp since the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja annulled the kangaro primary election that ushered him into the political field as the guber candidate of Enugu Labour Party.
Though he is always classified as a political desperado, his desperation heightened since the court ordered that a new primary election be conducted. This decision has made Edeoga lose lots of weight, not only because of the clear possibility of his losing the ticket to Evarest Nnaji (Odengene) who happens to be his closest party rival, and a strong one, but for the fact that his political career is now headed for a dead end.
Chijioke’s desperation could be well understood since he would not be able to enjoy the trust of PDP anymore after he betrayed the party, as he defected to Labour Party just days after he collapsed his structure and pledged his support for the PDP guber candidate Peter Mbah. He defected to LP with the sole aim of riding on Peter Obi’s wide acceptance to win the guber election. But now with the ruling of the court, Obi is not ready to identify with Edeoga, not to mention showing support for his embattled candidacy.
Edeoga had on Sunday, 11th December 2022, during his in-law, Nnia Nwodo’s birthday party shown the true character of what he is (a desperate politician) when he threw caution to the wind and broke Peter Obi’s protocol, wielding a fist as he made a juncous movement towards the Labour Party Presidential candidate.
Mouths were agape seeing such a commando juncaceous style of movement being made towards the presidential candidate with a disturbing vexation. On getting to Obi, the security personnel attached to the presidential candidate were seen clustering to shield their principal from a stranger whose countenance speaks more of frustration.
As they noticed a breach of their lines, they seized the factional guber candidate, Edeoga on his right arm, dragging him on, but was rescued by the shout of some members of Ohanaeze Ndigbo who had come to felicitate with their former boss. The noise from the elders who were shouting “he is candidate, he is a candidate” attracted the attention of Obi who was having a tete-a-tete with the celebrant, Nnia Nwodo on a corner of the hall and he signaled to his security aides to free Edeoga.
On regaining freedom from the clutches of those men, Edeoga hugged Peter Obi and posed for a picture as Obi stared in shock and tried distancing himself. The efforts made by Peter Obi to escape from the grip of Edeoga who needed a photo shot with him to boast or generate a fake news that he was endorsed by Obi was fruitless as Edeoga could not hold any pretense but wrapped his arm round Obi’s neck.
This caused a piss-off to the presidential candidate who was shouting “no, no, no, no” only for Edeoga’s men to swiftly overwhelmed Peter Obi and ordered for their camera men to do the needful.
From all that transpired, we could understand that Edeoga is battling to get hold of his legs in the Labour Party as his candidacy is being largely questioned by the national body of the party, including the who-is-who in the party who had already thrown their weights behind Evarest Nnaji.
Edeoga, no doubt is fighting to get the endorsement of Peter Obi, but the event of last Sunday could be conspicuous for the blind to see that Peter Obi is distancing himself from the political hawk who is busy hovering around looking for what to prey on.
Ordinarily, presidential candidates are the ones that should be looking for the attention of the state guber candidate since they are presumed to be those that can easily get down to the grassroots and canvas for votes for the party. Why should it be Edeoga that will be jumping from post to post looking for who to take pictures with when he should be busy preparing his manifesto to tell the people his plans for the state? The display of this strength of a pugilist just for a mere picture calls for questioning.
The truth remains that Edeoga believes politics is a do-or-die business, and one must always throw caution to the wind and get what he wants no matter what the cost may be.
One can also see that Edeoga is a man who cannot afford to stay one full year without licking from the State’s juicy pot, hence his indescribable quest for power, in order to continue greasing his greed and selfish needs from the common wealth of the people against the needs of the masses.
It has already dawned on the Labour Party state Chairman who orchestrated the kangaro election that produced Edeoga that he is on his own on the matter. The Labour Party Chairman has since then been attacked from all corners for causing such havoc in the state party. He has been receiving lots of bashes from the stakeholders of the party for kowtowing to Edeoga’s deceptive techniques. He is being blamed for allowing such an injustice to fly under his nose even when the agenda of the party is to initiate positive change and overhaul the system.
Why is Edeoga giving himself a high blood pressure by overstressing himself with fruitless campaigns when the Court had already made it known to him that he isn’t a candidate of the Labour Party by virtue of his inability to tender the receipt of his nomination form? Looking at how desperation has eaten a better part of him, one would not be far from the truth to say that it has negatively disrupted the mental aspect of his personality.
If not that Edeoga studied law in Buckingham University where law is studied within 18 months, he would have known that his inability to provide the receipt of his nomination form would nail him even at the apex court. But how can he be called a lawyer in Nigeria when he is yet to be called to the Nigerian Bar because of his inability to meet the requirements of the Nigerian Law School?
The truth is that with the way Edeoga is desperate about power, that is the way he will be desperate to loot the state’s treasury since he has no other business doing aside politics.
