By Charles Ogbu
Ever since losing his bid to return to the red chamber of the National Assembly, the ex two time governor of Enugu state and current senator representing Enugu East senatorial zone, Chimaroke Nnamani has been exhibiting conducts for which, in the days when treetops used to be the abode of the squirrel, his umunna would have since put him in chains.
The medical doctor-turned politician has blamed everything and everyone for his loss at the polls. Everyone except the actual reason; HIMSELF. From the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo to the entire Ndigbo down to Peter Obi and his supporters including the Enugu state governor-elect, Barr. Peter Mbah and the incumbent governor, His Excellency, Rt.Hon. Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the same Ugwuanyi who, in his pacifistic nature defied all pressure and counsel from different quarters and resuscitated Chimaroke’s political career from the dustbin of history where former governor Sullivan Chime had dumped it.
To be fair, Chimaroke has a justifiable reason to experience a total meltdown seeing as his over two decades in politics was unceremoniously brought to an inglorious end by a man, who was barely two weeks old in politics, Mr. Kelvin Chukwu of the Labour Party. But he just doesn’t have the right to threaten the peace of our dearly beloved state simply because he lost an election, which he never stood any chance of winning in the first place.
The problem with the likes of Chimaroke is that they seem to live in an alternate universe that exists only in their deluded mind. This is the only reason a character like Nnamani could think he would win a free and fair contest in the same state where he left nothing but trails of festival of blood, thuggery, institutionalization of cultism, a culture of prebendalism and a general atmosphere of fear and insecurity.
One is forced to ask, whose votes was Chimaroke banking on in the just concluded election??
His Nkanu people who hold him in contempt for CLANNISHLY concentrating the few developmental projects he attracted during his 8 year reign as governor in Agbani, his hometown and has brought virtually nothing in his 8 years sojourn in the National Assembly? Was senator Nnamani hoping the OBIDIENTS MOVEMENT would vote for him after his unwarranted verbal talibanism against the same Movement? Could he have been this deluded? Or was the ex governor thinking the relatives of thousands of people he left office as governor without paying their gratuity would vote for him? Or was he hoping to get votes from the same church that still blame him for scores of death at the Adoration ground when he was governor?
Truth is, if there is one thing Enugu people want to put behind them, it is the dark days of Ebeano in Enugu politics. Under Chimaroke’s reign as governor, so many Enugu people critical of the government were assassinated. I recall with grief, the gruesome murder of Engineer Victor Nwankwo, the Managing Director of Fourth Dimension Publishing Company and younger brother of Dr. Arthur Nwankwo. Victor was shot in front of his house at Independence Layout shortly after leaving the house of his brother, Arthur in the evening. And before his death, Victor had received threats from unknown sources not to publish a book he was working on, which catalogued the woeful performance of the then governor Nnamani between 1999 and 2003. And this was just one out of so many notable people that met their untimely death under the administration of the self-styled patriarch of the Ebeano political family.
In Enugu politics today, Chimaroke is not a name any smart politician would want to associate with. It is common knowledge that the only reason the governor-elect struggled to win his election was because of the perception that he has affiliations with Chimaroke; a perception that has now been finally buried. Every honest observer would tell you that on merit, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah stands tall above all his fellow competitors and would have won with a far wider margin if not for the Chimaroke factor. I mean, here is a man with a known business and very sound mind, articulate and clear headed about his ideas and plans for the state, yet, in an election in which he was unarguably the best candidate, he was almost beaten. Why? The Chimaroke factor!
Most of the battle the current governor, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is currently facing stems from his decision to bring Chimaroke back from political oblivion, dust him up and help him win a senate seat against advice from those well conversant with the treachery, volatility and emotional unstability of the Nkanu-born politician. I recall all the praises Nnamani showered on Ugwuanyi back then. Today, the same Nnamani is accusing the governor of betrayal, calling him unprintable names to his face. Please, who betrayed who, really?
Did Chimaroke expect the governor to truncate the peace the state is known for by using thuggery and violence to help him win election even against the wishes of the people as was the case when the former was the number 1 citizen of the state? Should the governor, Peter Mbah and all those Chimaroke have been attacking have snatched ballot boxes or destroyed the BVAS machines just to help Chimaroke return to the senate?
How can a man who has been governor for 8 years and senator for another 8 years continue to dance naked on Twitter simply because his people said they no longer want him as their representative?
How did my darling state end up with this type of character as governor to start with?
If Chimaroke is so desperate for a political appointment from Bola Ahmed Tinubu, there are other ways of going about it rather than this dance of shame. As an Nkanu man, I am deeply worried to witness this type of rascality from a man once seen by many as a leader. It is said that when a mad man is dancing naked in the market square, it is his family that feels the shame.
Curiously, this was the same man who, in his usual delusion of grandeur, made series of tweets before the election wherein he boasted that no one could defeat him in Enugu politics but added that in the event he loses, he would go home singing alleluia.
So I ask, when will Chimaroke honor his own words to go home singing alleluia now that he has been retired by the same people who employed him for the past 2 decades?
Meanwhile, I would advise both the incumbent governor and the governor-elect to head to any church of their choice for a special thanksgiving service. God has made light their heavy burden by taking the political liability called Chimaroke away from them. Good riddance to bad rubbish
