Enugu 2023: Barr. Edeoga And His Belated Lamentations
By Godfrey Agboeze
As of today, issues concerning Enugu 2023 governorship election had been concluded, decided and closed. This is following the Supreme Court judgment of 23rd December 2023 that affirmed and upheld the election of Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah as Governor. As it is, no one can revisit it. Governor Mbah on the hand had magnanimously extended olive branch to all those that dragged him legally for long to join him in moving the state forward.
But instead of cashing on the ample opportunity provided by Governor Mbah to redeem himself and his battered image by accepting the extended olive branch, the Enugu State Labour Party governorship candidate, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga has continued to toe the path of perfidy and infamy in search of cheap popularity that never secured him the governorship seat he was desperate for.
It is obvious that Barr. Edeoga has never learned lessons from the 2023 and may not learn again. If not, of what importance or value is Barr. Edeoga’s recent self glorification, pontification, publicity and grandstanding with the National Chairman of Labour Party, Barr. Julius Abure in Abuja in the name of setting up Labour Party Electoral Reform Committee?
Must Barr. Edeoga always seek undue media attention and baseless publicity at all times even after being defeated all rounds in an election that he deployed the greatest and unprecedented divisive and defamatory approaches to contest? How can Barr. Edeoga be equated with Mr. Peter Obi and tagged alongside Obi as the greatest two casualties of the 2023 general elections by Barr. Abure? Who was Barr. Edeoga, before he was misled and railroaded into Labour Party unprepared by his in-laws, the Nwodos after losing PDP governorship primary to Barr. Mbah, signed peace pact and accepted to work with and for Mbah?
What has been Barr. Edeoga’s trackrecord in public office and leadership before now, apart from the fact that he latched on his marital relationship with the Nwodo family to come to political limelight, where he has records of lacklustre and abysmal performance.?
Barr. Edeoga was not a casualty of the 2023 election in Enugu State and can never be. Rather he was the war monger, propagandist, blackmailer, tribalist, nepotist, irredentist, liar and bigot, who deployed all kinds of crude, clannush, sectional, religious and diabolical tactics to tear Enugu people apart in desperate pursuit of his now dead-on-arrival and rested governorship ambition.
Barr. Edeoga can’t claim to be casualty and cry victim in a war he declared against Enugu people, especially the people of Enugu North Senatorial zone for his selfish interest that didn’t materialize at the end of the day.
How can Barr. Edeoga cry victim of 2023 when he used his governorship project to weaponise, mislead and set majority of Enugu North Senatorial zone people against the rest of Enugu people, using their numerical strength, but forgetting that without unity of purpose and peace, numerical strength is of no effect.
How can he be tagged a casualty when he spearheaded, superintended and supervised the fabrications and peddling of fake news, calumnious articles, lies, libels, propaganda and blackmails against his rivals, judges, Ndi Enugu and political leaders within and outside the state in the media?
The people of Enugu State will not forget in a hurry the unparalleled divisiveness, acrimony, sadism, hatred and schism Barr. Edeoga desperately and intentionally brought into the politics of the state in pursuit of his selfish governorship ambition.
The greatest casualties of the 2023 elections in Enugu State were the majority of Enugu North Senatorial zone people that Barr. Edeoga deceitfully extorted financially, set against PDP, each other and the rest of Enugu people. They are forlon, confused, despondent, disappointed and helpless.
Just like thier paymasters, Barr. Edeoga and his co-travellers, they are yet to come terms with the realities that the issues of the 2023 governorship election in Enugu State are over and Governor Mbah is the governor of Enugu state till 2027 and will contest for second term and win, considering his sterling performance in office so far despite the needless and distractive legal tussles that has ended with the Supreme Court.
For now and moving forward, Barr. Edeoga and his cohorts should be the least of Ndi Enugu and Governor Mbah’s problems, because the train has already left the station and there should be no dull moment. Enugu is on the march to greatness with the ongoing massive infrastructural projects across the state, adequate security on ground and high influx of investments. That is what good governance and quality leadership mean, not Barr. Edeoga’s belated and sorrowful lamentations that are of no effect or value for the state.