Rt. Hon. Barr. Chijioke Jonathan Edeoga lost at the Tribunal in Enugu yesterday, and while I have always known what the outcome of the Judgement would be, I have been thrown aback by the reactions of people towards the Judgement, especially reactions of people in the Labour Party and some who claim to be advocates of Good Governance.
I was flabbergasted because those who could stoned Edeoga mercilessly in February 2022 if given the opportunity are the same people who have lifted Edeoga to become their Lord and savior in 2023, to the extent that they expect him to be the Messiah of Enugu and are genuinely aggrieved that he lost at the Tribunal.
And no, it’s not charlatans in the streets or party praise singers that I am talking about. Those wouldn’t deserve a mention from me.
I am talking of notable and respected members of the society who in all sincerity (or so I believed), have stood on the side of integrity, development and good Governance.
And it’s not that Chijioke Edeoga changed one bit from the man he was in February 2022, no. He has remained the Edeoga I have known since 2020.
I know I already question everything I once believed in, but this is a whole new level, because the fact that people I held in high esteem are suddenly standing strong behind Edeoga as the source of hope for the masses, makes feel that all the actions of Activists in the past and present were/are completely irrational.
If these men were paid to heap such accolades, respect, honour and belief in Edeoga, it would have been a lot easier for me to take in, but the fact that these people believe in and even contribute their own money to advance Edeoga’s cause is what gets me worried.
It gets me worried because it gives the feeling that all the heroes in history that I once honoured were bunch of average opportunists who on most cases, weren’t half the man the average school teacher is.
Why am I saying this? It’s because the Edeoga cult figure that these respected men are worshipping was our creation. A pet project of myself and a few of the boys of the former governor, primarily as a show of support and loyalty to our boss.
Let me tell you how it happened.
After Gov. Ugwuanyi won the 2019 elections, it was clear to all political players in the state that the next point of call was for Ugwuanyi to point the direction of where his successor would come from, so that politicians can go and grab a space in the next administration before everywhere is crowded.
When Gov. Ugwuanyi was asked, he said, “At the fullness of time, Justice, Equity and Fairness shall take Preeminence”.
That statement got all of us guessing. The LGA elections were to take place in 2020, February to be precise.
To launch the campaign for that election, Gov. Ugwuanyi fixed the venue in Isi Ụzọ Local Government. A very unlikely venue. It used to be Ọkpara Square where most State party functions are held.
We, the political speculators immediately connected the dots and declared that Governor Ugwuanyi used that event as a pointer to where the next Governor is going to come from.
At that time, there were 3 big stakeholders in Isi Ụzọ Local Government; The State Party Chairman, Augustine Nnamani, the House of Assembly Member, Chijioke Ugwueze(Aguiyi) and The the Commissioner for Environment, Chijioke Edeoga.
Unfortunately, Aguiyi died of COVID-19, leaving only Augustine and Edeoga. We, the speculators went to work again.
We analysed Ugwuanyi’s Statement of Justice, Equity and Fairness and put it side by side with the nonverbal pointer to Isi Ụzọ, and came to the conclusion that he was checking out these two.
Of those two, Chijioke Edeoga was the closest to the Governor. He was not just in his kitchen cabinet, he was the defacto Chief of Staff.
Gov. Ugwuanyi was not the kind of governor to delegate people to represent him, but in the very rare cases that he delegated people, he sent Chijioke Edeoga.
This, added to the fact that they shared common ancestry, and the fact that Edeoga was usually the man to meet if you want to have access to Ugwuanyi, we, the speculators, had no choice than to jump to the conclusion that Edeoga is the person Ugwuanyi had in mind.
It was at that point in 2020 that Okafor Sebastine (Bookastro), myself, Odo Hyginus (the Prof) and Johnpaul Anih (who would later join Labour party), coined the slogan *KA ISI ỤZỌ JEE*.
It’s worthy of note that Johnpaul Anih did not agree with us. He insisted that isi ụzọ is not core Nkanu. We had a friendly argument about it, which we washed down with catfish and fruit juice.
It’s also worthy of note that Sebastine Okafor was the one who finally pieced that phrase together and went ahead to present a strong argument for it on Facebook.
Edeoga was a very difficult product for us to market because, not only was he not in the good books of most people who believe he was the one giving the government a bad name.
For instance, he was sent to represent the Governor at Igbo Nsukka economic Summit, not only did he refuse to relay the governor’s message to us, he promised to support Zik’s award with ₦50,000 naira and never brought it till today.
When the governor sent him to find out how the government would assist to set up a brewery in Ụzọ Uwani LGA, the brainchild of Igbo Nsukka United Front to bring massive development to Nsukka Zone, Edeoga dismissed it as unnecessary and stated that Ike Ekweremmadu was using the brewery to destabilize the Zone.
Several other people had very unprintable words for Edeoga including how he was overriding commissioners and doing their jobs to maximize profit. For instance, he was publishing Newspapers and Magazines for the state when there was a Commissioner for information.
These and many other things made the marketing of the Chijioke Edeoga using the Ka Isi Ụzọ Jee mantra extremely difficult for us.
The worst part was that Edeoga had no antecedent, no record of achievements despite being in power for more than 20 years. He wasn’t fluent in speaking, didn’t have nice photos and dressing was below per.
Yet we aggressively marketed him on the backdrop of Justice, Equity and Fairness. We even had to stage a move to the then ESWAMA office to force them to clear debris in the state to make the marketing of Edeoga easier for us.
Sometimes, we would wonder why our boss chose him, but loyalty demands that we stand by our boss even when we are uncomfortable with it.
It was after several months of aggressive marketing, that our arguments started dominating political discussions and people began to form campaign groups around the Ka Isi Ụzọ Jee mantra.
This was how our pet project, cultivated in the bar close to FCMB, Presidential Road, turned to what we now have today, and seeing how the product of our marketing has made many deify whom they should stone, to the extent of being depressed that he lost, makes me want to believe that every hero I heard of could have been like Edeoga.
It was why we were all overjoyed immediately Gov. Ugwuanyi made his choice known and our jobs became simple and easy.
It’s a learning experience for all of us because the people we call war heroes could be those who hid somewhere while others were fighting.