The problem of people who don't have the gift of the garb in speech making but are always in a hurry to do so for undue relevance is that they often commit blunders.
Even though they know they have nothing to offer in terms of good speech, they always play to the gallery shamelessly, knowing fully well that talk is cheap. They often mistakenly believe that they can only be respected, recognised, or noticed when they speak.They seldom reason before they talk or realise their gaffe.
Anyone who has been conversant with Enugu politics knows what Senator Chuka Utazi was before he became a Senator in 2015. He was not the best of politicians in the state in all ramifications. The circumstance of his emergence as a Senator was nothing short of a miracle.
As a Senator for eight years, he has no spectacular or outstanding track record of performance both in the Chamber and his senatorial zone. He plays to the gallery so much with unguarded statements and blabbings. Just recently, at the twilight of his second tenure, he was seen commissioning three classrooms and boreholes in some communities in his senatorial zone, beating his chest for providing democracy dividends to the people, when his colleagues in other states were commissioning legacy projects like roads, hospitals and others.
Senator Utazi, who left Senate as a Minority Whip of PDP has always been a member of Labour Party in Enugu and in the day and PDP in Abuja in the day, since he lost his third ticket to then Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in 2022.
Not only that, Senator Utazi has been envious and uncomfortable of Ugwuanyi's intimidating and rising political profile that included 12 years in the House of Representatives, eight years as Governor and on the move to the Senate in 2023.
Senator Utazi, who is a known promoter and proponent of the Enugu Division and Nsukka Division before the 2023 governorship election, hoping to emerge Deputy in that arrangement has never been happy with Ugwuanyi for not acceding to the divisive plot and making him Deputy Governor.
That was why Senator Utazi conspired and connived with some narcissistic and sadistic political leaders from the Enugu North Senatorial zone, taking advantage of the bandwagon effect of Mr. Peter Obi's presidential ambition and church involvement to work against Ugwuanyi's senatorial ambition in 2023.
So nobody should be surprised seeing Senator Utazi throwing tantrums on Ugwuanyi in his usual incoherent and uncoordinated speech at the inauguration ceremony party of Senator Okey Ezea in Abuja recently. During the vituperation, Senator Utazi epitomised ungratefulness and ingratitude.
He is a man who doesn't know where the rain started beating him and will surely not know where it will stop. For Senator Utazi to allude in the speech that Bar. Okey Ezea is the most experienced and qualified of the parties' candidates in Enugu North Senatorial election is enough to show how shallow and petty-minded he is.
Even without knowing or asking about the parameters Senator Utazi used to arrive at his conclusion, one fact is that Bar. Okey Ezea has zero experience and knowledge in public service and hasn't done well in his private business.
Senator Utazi's indirect attack on Ugwuanyi in his speech at Senator Okey Ezea's inauguration party in Abuja is a continuation of his overt and covert denigration of Ugwuanyi for rising above him politically.
It would be recalled that due to his needless loquaciousness and undue political pontifications that have never paid off, Senator Utazi had before the 2023 elections openly cast aspersion at himself in an event in Nsukka, where he was struggling in a speech to throw tantrums at Ugwuanyi. That was after he relinquished his third term ticket to Ugwuanyi as agreed before his second term ticket in 2019.
Delivering lecture at the 3rd Annual Award and Lecture Series Organized by Star Lite Newspaper tagged "The Lure of Instant Gratifications VS The Hunger For Good Leadership: "The Dilemma of The Nigerian Voter held at Princess Alexandria Auditorium, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Senator
Utazi emphasised more on differentiating representative politics and executive politics.
Utazi told the good people of Nsukka that "the Senate is not just for anybody; it is not a job for anybody who has been former governor or has been Governor, councillor or commissioner."
Perusing through his speech, it is obvious that Utazi said nothing meaningful or reasonable. If the job of a Senator is not for former Governor, former Commissioner, or former Councillor, the question is: Who was Utazi before he became a Senator?
The truth is that Senator Utazi has, due to amnesia, tutored by hate, forgotten that he was just a former Commissioner and former House of Assembly member before he was made a Senator.
From Utazi's speech on that day, he indirectly indicted and contradicted himself at the same time.
Utazi simply told the whole world that he was not qualified to be Senator in the first place, having served as a lawmaker and a Commissioner. He also made it clear that he was railroaded into the Senate after betraying and sabotaging his brother.
Was Senator Utazi saying that his lacklustre performance in the Senate, without any tangible project to show, apart from noisemaking in the hallowed Chamber in the name of seeking for undue attention and sympathy is because he is not qualified to be in the Senate in the first place?
No wonder the people of the Enugu North Senatorial and even Utazi's local government, Uzo Uwani people have nothing to point at as democracy dividends for eight years of Utazi's stay in the Senate.
I can now understand why Senator Utazi knelt down, held Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and begged him for a second term ticket in 2019 at a public function in Uzo Uwani LGA with a solemn promise of not to seek for third term.
If Senator Utazi had performed during his first term, he wouldn't have cried and begged for a second term ticket that was benevolently given to him by Governor Ugwuanyi and the party leadership against all odds.
As a lawyer and lawmaker, Senator Utazi is in a position to know what qualifies one to be a Senator. But by Utazi's recent outbursts at the Starlite Lecture event in Nsukka last year and in Abuja recently, it is not in doubt that he has been overrated politically and otherwise for years. He lacks political sagacity, decorum, and savvy.
Who is Senator Utazi to state unequivocally that outcome of the 2023 senatorial election in Enugu North zone is a bold statement by Nsukka people, when it is obviously a betrayal, backstabbing and conspiracy against Governor Ugwuanyi by Enugu North PDP stakeholders including Utazi, the church and others.
Conspirators, ingrates and backstabbers like Senator Utazi have been visiting, confessing and genuflecting and apologising to Ugwuanyi for forgiveness since after the 2023 elections, they betrayed him. They are known and they know themselves.
Senator Utazi should know that no matter how envious and malicious he is to Ugwuanyi, neither him nor Senator Ezea will equal Ugwuanyi's political records.
Besides, I am not God, but the downfall of a man is not the end of his life. Ugwuanyi had enjoyed 20 uninterrupted and unprecedented years of public service. He still has a brighter political future ahead.
He is the political pride of Enugu North Senatorial zone and remains the unsung democratic hero of Enugu State
