By Eze Joshua
Life is no longer the same for Chijioke Edeoga, the Labour Party governorship candidate, and his godfathers since the judgment of the Enugu Governorship Election Petition Tribunal served its justice.
Edeoga after losing the governorship ticket in the Peoples Democratic Party and pledged his support for Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the winner, had reneged on his promise after his godfathers served him a cup of vinegar that reset his brain and landed him into inexplicable political hallucinations.
As a man who does not have a mind of his own and as a lackey he is to the Nwodos, he was being used like a spanner in the hands of a mechanic. Edeoga understands signs very well as far as it is coming from Nnia Nwodo.
Like the Okwomma masquerade and its macabre dance, Edeoga after taking the vinegar from his in-law embarked on a dangerous dissipation of the unwarranted energy that nearly got his life extinguished. No doubt, Nnia had induced him and he assumed the position of the little bird ‘Nza’ that got himself over bloated with food and went ahead to challenge his chi to a contest. Of course, he will be smashed like a mosquito that perches in the palm of its hunter.
He got himself busy with propaganda, fabricating all sorts of lies, and formed a legion of social media attack dogs to tear the flesh of his opponents and their supporters. He assembled myriads of half-baked, hungry boys who claimed to study Law at the National Open University and were not called to bar for more than a decade. Their duties were to be misinterpreting the new electoral act to suit their own narrative and deceive some gullible electorate. A quintessential example was the issue of forgery which was a propaganda they formulated and had also gone to social media to deceive some gullible minds as to how it would not go well with the opposition, prophesying disqualification.
Edeoga had tested his popularity in the polling booths and failed. He was instructed to form a Group called Edeoga Mandate Recovery Project, a ponzi scheme that had left many households bankrupt today.
He had gone to seek the sympathy of the gullible businessmen from his cultural zone and also brainwashed many overambitious politicians who parted with their millions with an assurance of getting juicy political appointments once the court pronounced him the winner.
Just yesterday, one of the affected politicians whose money had gone down the drain told me how he was deceived into remitting virtually all he had into the Mandate Recovery Project, maintaining that the issue of forged NYSC Edeoga presented to him convinced him and he promised to gather all his political allies to invest in Edeoga’s court case, not knowing that the disclaimer issued by the NYSC was a deal that was done secretly in Abuja.
According to him, all the people who helped Edeoga to get the disclaimer issued by the NYSC DG are currently running helter-skelter as the suit filed by the Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah seeking N20bn damages from NYSC got them chickening out.
The judgment of Enugu tribunal affirming Gov. Mbah’s victory sounded like thunderbolts to all of those who invested hugely into Edeoga’s political project, 75% of the members exited the WhatsApp platform created for the Mandate Recovery Project, with each laying curses on the organizers as they exit. Another reliable source had told me that since the Mandate Recovery Project crashed, Edeoga has been going house to house, engaging with other people, assuring them of his victory at the appellate court but none has agreed to sponsor him. Some, as I was told had equally blocked him from calling them on the phone and had left instructions to their gatekeepers never to allow Okaome close to their houses.
Though, Mrs. Valerie Azinge (SAN), who is from Nwodo family had offered to take the matter up to the Supreme Court following the withdrawal of some of his senior counsel, but Okaome has been restless and totally out of space. A check at his Enugu residence shows he has embarked on a journey to an unknown destination since September 23, a few days after the court judgment. Remember, he was once reported to have barred all his supporters and errand boys from coming to his residence, as he would need a quiet time with his family.
Where had Okaome disappear to? Information I dug out, which is mostly considered to be true shows that he had travelled to Songhai Farm in Porto-Novo, Benin Republic where he had taken some youths for agricultural training. I believe this information to be very reliable because I know he recently bought over 50 hectares of land at Eha-Amufu, which he said would be used for different agricultural purpose. Edeoga said in his last interview on the radio that he has been in politics for over 35 years and is looking forward to bowing out should he lose at the tribunal. To him, it’s time to look for other ways to contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the state. He said he was emulating Olusegun Obasanjo who had gone into large-scale farming after taking a bow out of politics.
If Chijioke Edeoga had known that farming is a lucrative business, why did he choose to impoverish his supporters before going into this farming business? What is the need for the Mandate Recovery Project if not to enrich himself, having known that his petition against Mbah holds no water?
He probably wasn’t contesting governorship to make an impact on society but to enrich himself and his cronies. How far had the environment of Enugu faired while he was in the Ministry of Environment? Current reports on the discovery of illegal mining activities in Enugu have fingers pointing at the Labour Party governorship candidate, Edeoga. Over N100 million was being earmarked monthly for the evacuation of waste in Enugu, what happened to it? All the ESWAMA trucks left in his Ministry by Sullivan Chime’s administration, what happened to it, who auctioned them under the watch of Edeoga as a Commissioner for Environment? These questions need to be answered as Edeoga retires from politics.
As Edeoga’s political light dims, a lesson is left for those still in active politics to use the opportunity given to them to impact lives and leave a legacy that outlives them, unlike the man whose political retirement is already in view, and yet is left with no single constituency project as a House of Representatives member. As a council boss in Isi-Uzo, he couldn’t not point at any successful project his administration did. Under Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, he occupied a juicy position but sold all the employment slots that were given to him. The time is now to get it right so that posterity will smile at you. We wish Chijioke Edeoga well in his farming career.
Eze Joshua Nnabuchi writes from Igbo-Eze South
