IF I WERE CHIJIOKE EDEOGA
If I were Chijioke Edeoga, still smarting from the Federal High Court Abuja ruling that the primary election said to have produced me as Labour Party Enugu State Governorship candidate was a mere hoax, that is “a humorous or malicious deception; a plan to deceive a large number of people”, I would have upon returning from the court taken a full glass of Burukutu mixed with Ogogoro, blanked out and slept my self into stupor. Waking up, I will walk down the lonely path beside Ebonyi River from Umuhu into the forest of Umuhuali, sit beside the slowly flowing river and listen to the birds tweeting their message of admonition to me.
I would have, in that moment of silent splendour come to full terms with the reality that there comes a time when in the life of a man he takes a moment to go into deep introspection and strategic retrospection which will enable him sum up how far he has come and determine the rest of his actions over the remaining part of his life.
If I were Chijioke Edeoga, I would have in that moment done a quick but studious review of my time as the Local Government Chairman of Isi Uzo and seen how my singular tactless action of signing the document that carved out Isi Uzo from Nsukka Cultural Zone into Enugu East. I would have rather than blame Nkanu people for seeing me as a minority that I am, blamed myself for being utterly naive to have subscribed to the leading of my in-laws, the Nwodos who convinced me that rather than allow them join Ojebogene, their kith and kin in Udi and make them perpetual minority, it would be better that Isi Uzo be traded off. I would have judged myself guilty of enslaving my people because I wanted to satisfy my in-laws. Yes, in that sober moment, I would have gone stark naked, walk back to the bustling business environment, asked the petrified onlookers to tie me to the Uchakuru tree in Eke Eha AmufuMarket and make public spectacle of me. That way I would have began a journey of atonement. That market square would be a fitting Golgotha for me.
While tied to the Uchakuru tree, stark naked, beheld by my people, sweating blood of betrayal of the future of my people and living in denial over the years blaming other people for our woes, I will also rummage through the archives of my memory to recall how I squandered the opportunity to transform Isi Uzo Local Government into a model administrative bastion and an economic nerve centre. Under my tenure I was so selfish, and heeded the advice of some old Eha Amufu politicians who insisted that rather than focus on using the allocation available to us to work for Isi Uzo people, that all we needed to do was to map out some chunk to satiate the greed of my inlaw, especially the loquacious Nnia Nwodo whose appetite for free money is insatiable, share some among the likes of Ikeohas, Ogenyis, Ebes and then take the most chunk for ourselves. How I wish I didn’t listen to those hawks who even went on to make me believe that Ikem people should not be trusted as many of them are from Obollo, Umundu, Imilike etc. Such insidious and divisive politics informed my concentrating the infinitesimal development I was able to bring in Eha Amufu and totally neglecting the council headquarters. Today I am paying the prize in a harsh way as my support base across other parts of Isi Uzo is nothing to write home about. This is a typical had I known that comes at last. Even the other parts of Eha Amufu like Ihenyi, Umuhu, Orokoro, Ape-Mgbuji, Isu, Amede, Umujovu appear not to have forgiven me for the years I held them in consternation and derision. Yes, I graded and expanded my Mgbuji community road but while Ihenyi road was moaning for attention, I looked the other way, nor did I even consider it worthy to intervene in the Eha Amufu health centre that would have been beneficial to all. I was just a jack. My lackluster performance as Chairman of Isi Uzo is the singular reason I couldn’t chide Dr. Sam Ugwu, Augustine Nnamani, Benji Edoga my cousin and of course Jack Moore for their poor performance as Chairmen. Yes Equity calls me to order each time I attempted.
I will shamelessly go on to recollect that even my second attempt at handling official position was catastrophic. I can’t imagine myself talking to the Enugu Chamber of Commerce (ECCIMA) about creating employment opportunities when, while serving as Member House of Representatives, I could not influence the employment of a single person in both federal and state civil service.
Each time I look at my personal Assistant, I shudder in utter disbelief that this young man who served me as Personal Assistant while I was Chairman Isi Uzo is still not employed. What a brilliant guy I wasted and condemned to perpetual servitude under me. He was with me as Personal Assistant while I served this administration as a two time commissioner. He is a perfect emblem of my irresponsibility as a politician. How do I appease the gods that not a single Isi Uzo indigene got employment in any ministry, agency or parastatal? Not even in my Church, the Anglican Communion even as a gardener.
I would have painfully recalled that even when i went on to become a Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, yet, there was nothing I achieved for my people. I must have honestly adopted the political weapon of my in-law, which is “keep them lapping up after you each time and by that you hold them captive”. This Machiavellian approach to politics was what the new crop of politicians in Nsukka fought during the time of Chimaroke. I wish I had the willpower to untie the apron string that held me to that guy’s extremist philosophy.
How could I have unstrung myself when even their brother was and still remains a victim of his approach. Nnia and Grace called the shots in that family and their wish is a command. I recall telling my Eha Amufu people so during the argument over the choice of Hon Fidel Ayogu’s Governorship bid representing or otherwise Nsukka interest. Dr. Okwesilieze I recall was opposed to the choice of Hon Fidel Ayogu as a payback for not supporting his aspiration to become Governor of Enugu State in 1991. They ended up forcing Okwy to 16 Isi Uzo Street Independence Layout Enugu where they “decreed that the Nwodos must support Hon Fidel Ayogu”. That is how aggressive Nnia can be especially when his greed and interest is concerned. He needed the support of Nsukka people to run for Presidency under ANPP and he saw Hon Ayogu’s ambition as a fulcrum. Nothing else mattered.
I know that lamentation over spilled milk won’t help anything but permit me to unburden my pains. Yes, I will be satisfied to tell the world that I am incapable of being trusted with any leadership position, elective or appointive. Believe me when I say this, I would be a wise man to disqualify myself from public service for that would be enough atonement. At least.
As Chijioke Edeoga, I will painfully recall that I have had it bad in politics. The House of Representatives I went to was a reward in error. A fruit for my betraying my people. How would I forget that to pay me back for the yeoman job of signing off the fate of my people, Jim Nwobodo, the political lord of the ring of Enugu State and who called the shots in Enugu East Senatorial Zone invited me and said I should ready myself for the House of Representatives as a reward for appending my signature to the document that sold Isi Uzo to Enugu East and gave the Enugu divide two Senatorial Districts ahead of the most populous Enugu North zone. How can I not feel ashamed? How can I not feel cold at the betrayal of my people for filthy political compensation?.
If I were Chijioke Edeoga, I will, tied to that uchakuru tree, review my political journey with Chief Nnia Nwodo. Here is a man who sweet-tongued me into believing in what he termed Nsukka interest in 2003. Railroading me into an ill-fated, ego driven and self seeking enterprise of pushing Chimaroke out of the Governorship of Enugu State, I started on a path that was to make me politically irrelevant and ineffectual. I say this because if I was organised and focused, disassociating myself from him and his so called Nsukka irredentist out-of-favour politicians, I would have been far apart from Governor Ugwuanyi. He would have been taking orders from me. Yes, was I not a local Government Chairman, Member House of Representatives and Presidential Adviser, while he was still with Premier Brokers? But I joined forces with people who had lost touch with political reality. Conceiving in their hearts to mold Nsukka people into a formidable force to stop Chimaroke, Hon Fide Ayogu was dragged out to run for Governorship of Enugu. How would I have known that “it was mere grandstanding, blowing hot air, signifying nothing”!. Chimaroke, in conjunction with some emerging Nsukka political greats had given us bruises all over their bodies.
In my own ward, Mgbuji forces working for Chimaroke made sure we didn’t see the light of the day. They merely fizzled us out of the process, trammeled us and had us bowed and defeated. Even my boys who went to Umuhu the home town of Ejike Eze did not find their foot. They came home forlorn and melancholic. Across the state was the same story. We lost our deposit.
I literally went into political limbo, walking the political labyrinth unsure where to berth my ship.
Luck would come my way when Governor Ugwuanyi sought to appoint his commissioners. Yes, the Governor has relationship with us but honestly it was my brother, the mercurial and far more knowledgeable brother Eugene Edeoga that he wanted in his Executive Council. But Eugene doesn’t have interest in politics so he pleaded that I should be so appointed. My appointment brought me a new political lifeline.
I was very lucky not to have been sacked over instances of being off guard in the discharge of my duties as Commissioner for Local Government Matters. It was in my moment of absent mindedness that over 6000 ghost workers found their way into the payment voucher of local government areas. The state lost several millions and would have suffered if not that Governor Ugwuanyi in his nose for details discovered it and set up a committee to investigate. His benevolence saved me from sack. He later redeployed me to the Ministry of Environment.
Like Eke like Orie, I tearfully remember that I blew the chance to redeem myself. All those my grandstanding and empty lies about not being in charge was out of shamefacedness. Truth is I failed again. No amount of denial and lies by my media boys can subsume the fact that I was a colossal failure.
Having a history of successive failures is not a good credential to carry into the Governorship tussle of a state, especially when you have achievers on the stage. But poor me…my In-law lured me into the race, insisting that he will mobilise Nsukka General Assembly to adopt me under the pretence of Nsukka Agenda. I heedlessly jumped into the race.
The rest is now story as a more prepared Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah not just defeated me but trounced all of us. I already knew the end and so joined forces with him until my In-law and his camp of so called Nsukka leaders insisted I should join Labour Party.
Yes I am in Labour Party. But things are not turning out for good. It has been a journey on top of a surface littered with spikes and thorns. I will tell the story shortly…. Let me nurse my many wounds first….
To be continued
By Ebenyi Boniface writing from Ape-Mgbuji, Eha Amufu
