That Chijioke Edeoga, the embattled and purported Labour Party governorship candidate in Enugu State, is running to fail again is a fact to which he concedes, but willfully dabbles into the race with the vile intent to upset the apple cart. Chijioke vowed that since Ugwuanyi did not give him the governorship ticket of the PDP that he would do everything possible to scuttle Ugwuanyi's senatorial bid. But that is Chijioke falling where his carcass may not be gathered. Ugwuanyi is a generalissimo. He is the master on the chessboard and knows how to navigate through the political labyrinth.
Edeoga has no such capacity to scuttle Ugwuanyi's bid. Many political watchers are amused and entertained at Edeoga's ant-like efforts to play the devil to Ugwuanyi's and Peter Mbah's political cause. Edeoga has yet to cease sulking like a baby since he lost at the gubernatorial election to the people's choice, the highly cerebral Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, and so nurses vendetta against Governor Ugwuanyi to childish stretch.Chijioke knows that no party can beat the PDP in Enugu State but elected to run for the governorship in Labour Party to rebel against Ugwuanyi. He knows he will fail, after all, the money being wasted is not his.
Chijioke had expected Governor Ugwuanyi to give him the governorship ticket of the PDP singlehanded and bankroll the bid. What many political watchers could not fathom was how Edeoga could have expected Ugwuanyi to cede the ticket to him all alone in a democratic setting like ours. Everyone knows that electioneering is capital intensive. Chijioke had shortly been rehabilitated as he had been out of job for many years after his disastrous outing in the House of Representatives where he tactlessly ran campaign of calumny, characteristic of him, against President Obasanjo in the name of running errands for Ghali Umar Na'Abba, the then speaker of the House of Representatives. Obasanjo then wielded a big stick on him, and ensured he never returned to the national assembly the second time. Chijioke thereafter languished in obscurity for years in political wilderness untill Ugwuanyi remembered him and made him a commissioner in his government, a position he held for seven years untill the spirit of Lucifer possessed him and caused the belligerent Chijioke to rebel against his boss and the will of the people. Edeoga himself had confessed he didn't have the financial war-chest to prosecute his governorship bid. What was it he did for Ugwuanyi that he would expect the governor to bankroll his lackluster bid to the governorship seat? It was a case of hanging his bag where his hand could not reach. Meanwhile, Chijioke has nothing to offer. Ugwuanyi whose thoughts are good for Ndi Enugu could not have left the highly visionary candidate, Peter Mbah, for a nothing Chijioke whose only qualification to be governor is his overambition and avarice.
Governor Ugwuanyi had known Chijioke Edeoga for many years and they did live together at New Haven Enugu. He knows that Chijioke lacks leadership capacity. He knows that Chijioke is belligerent, bitter, vindictive, selfish and greedy. These are no virtues. It was actually out of pity and Ugwuanyi's relationship with Eugene Edeoga, Chijioke's younger brother, that made Ugwuanyi appoint Chijioke a commissioner in his administration; otherwise, Chijioke Edeoga is no fit for any position in a government that would succeed. While in the Ministry of Local Government Affairs as its commissioner, Chijioke reportedly scammed the local governments to the tune of N2 billion, using his LG News Magazine. Google the story. It is in the public domain.
Governor Ugwuanyi had dropped him after his first tenure, but Eugene who found favour in the sight of Ugwuanyi pleaded again and Chijioke was returned, but moved to Ministry of Environment, a ministry he messed up as Enugu streets were strewn with dirt under his watch.
Chijioke Edeoga in his immaturity and timidity has concentrated his uninspiring campaign at Nsukka all in the effort to impugn Governor Ugwuanyi. He and his ne'er-do-well cohorts of Nsukka General Assembly stock, senile dudes with snuff in palm and running nose, recruited one Okey Ezea, a failed businessman who himself had run bankrupt and now seeks rehabilitation through politics, to challenge Governor Ugwuanyi's senatorial bid from Labour Party. The garrulous and contumacious Okey Ezea, one crude thing from Ichi in Igbo-Eze South Local Government, is drown in the cesspool of name-calling. Nsukka people are amused at Ezea's display of senility every now and then and then wonder how such a weather-beaten spent fellow would offer Nsukka a better representation at the senate than Governor Ugwuanyi who had been at the national assembly for 12 years with clear evidence of impactful representation as well as a governor for 8 years. The offbeat dance of Edeoga and the scarecrow he recruited to challenge Governor Ugwuanyi is amusing. What then is this load the ant carries that bends its neck? Indeed, Chijioke Edeoga is childish.
Peter Ndubuisi Mbah is coasting home to victory. Chijioke knows it and trembles. He had in the past confessed with his mouth that Peter is far above him. He knows that PDP is unbeatable in Enugu State, much more now that the party has presented to the people a most credible candidate. Chijioke is deceived. Nsukka is not with him. The few Nsukka General Assembly old hags with him cannot even win election in their polling units. They are elders who should seek care at old people's homes. Are they now the ones to decide for Nsukka whither it goest? Of course no! They are the feeble stake to which Edeoga tied his illicit ambition to scuttle Ugwuanyi's senatorial bid; they are the ones Chijioke rely on to make him governor. Edeoga now behaves like someone whose senses have been taken away and now left with empty cranium; otherwise, who told him that such serious business as governance should be trifled with this moonlight dance of his? He knows he goes nowhere; Chijioke is running to fail and fail he will yet again.
