Politics
Enugu East Senate: Why Chimaroke Nnamani was defeated
In a 25th September 2022 tweet, former governor of Enugu State, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, chided critics, who vowed to punish him in the 2023 polls or warned him to watch the mode of politics he was playing ahead of the general election. Part of that tweet reads: “Let’s assume I lose? Will you cry for me? I go home singing alleluia? Governor! Senator? 23 years? Win-win”.
Unfortunately, he has refused to allow Nkanu land, the PDP, and Enugu State any rest since his defeat. He has blamed everyone else but himself for his loss. Since he doesn’t seem to understand why he lost his re-election, I have undertaken to highlight 10 out of a thousand and one reasons he lost for him to reflect on and thank me later.
1. Political miscalculation and false sense of invincibility*: Nnamani should admit that he totally misread the 2023 general election. He misjudged the dynamics of that election, underrated the determination of OBIdients and typically overrated himself. He swan against the current of the overwhelming quest for Igbo presidency represented by Peter Obi. Even when the Church got involved, Nnamani went on campaigning, not even for PDP’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, but for Bola Tinubu of the APC. Yet Nnamani felt that even if he defecated in the church, the people would simply clap and vote for him. In the aforementioned 25th September tweet, he said: “Do I have problem winning election in Enugu? …Be serious and think! Who will beat me in an election in Enugu?” He suddenly forgot that he could not win even a single councillorship seat and consistently lost his senatorial bid during his Peoples Democratic Change (PDC) experiment until he retired to America. So, his claim to political invincibility ahead of 2023 elections is a psychosis and self-delusion of monumental proportions that should interest political scholars.
2. He did not campaign*: Let Nnamani show Nigerians anywhere he PERSONALLY mounted the podium to address a single campaign rally during the campaign window from October 2022 to Thursday, March 16. He did not even show up at any of the town hall meetings in the 68 Development Areas/Centres by the governorship candidate of his party, Dr. Peter Mbah, not even one that held at Agbani. Nnamani did not also personally participate in a single community or ward tours of his party.
3. Poor representation*: Only one good turn deserves another. We cannot be reinforcing the failure and wasted years that Nnamani’s eight years in the Senate (2007 to 2011 and 2019 to 2023) represent. Nnoli Nnaji’s four years as a Member of House of Representatives have totally eclipsed Ebeano’s eight years as a Senator. Even the few projects that he got, he took to his private investments like the Mea Mater College at Ojiagu Agbani. He equally failed Nkanu as govenernor for eight years. The good roads in Nkanu land today, including Ozalla-Agbani-Akpugo-Amagunze road leading to his hometown were courtesy of a senator from another zone and Nnoli Nnaji has now taken over.
4. Political greed*: If Nnamani was truly interested in a governor of Nkanu extraction, the sensible thing he should have done was to cede the senatorial seat to Isi-Uzo LGA, especially in view of the far-reaching campaign and plots by a section of the state to usurp that opportunity. But he was the first to pick the PDP Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms for the Senate in Enugu State without recourse to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. In other words, it was his senatorial seat over and above everything else. Yet he expected Isi-Uzo to clap and vote for him.
5. He was far removed from the people*: Nnamani’s case is the case of the proverbial Eze Onyeagwanam, who forbade his people to correct him or call his attention to anything going wrong with or around him. So, on a day his royal regalia was stained by excreta, he wore it to the new yam festival at the market square because no one could come close or tell him a thing. Nnamani felt he was a deity and that what entire Nkanu land and the PDP owed him was libations.
6. The corruption tag*: There is the corruption tag that follows Chimaroke Nnamani that needs not be serialised here. The general feeling is that he stole Enugu State blind, invested the same money right inside Enugu – Agbani, Rangers Avenue, etc. to rub it in our faces. His companies have been officially been taken over in plea bargains and, in fact, the general belief is that any misgovernance, malfeasance, and underdevelopment that hunts Enugu State today, has its origin in Chimaroke Nnamani as the first governor of post-military era Enugu State. He milked the state dry.
7. Electoral reforms*: Whereas in the past, Chimaroke Nnamani could have rigged himself into the Senate, electoral reforms have vitiated most of his former winning formulas. Nnamani still fails to reckon the implications of the introduction of more technologies like the BVAS, direct transmission of election results, the I-Rev technology, etc. in the electoral process in the Electoral ACT 2022. He still lives in the days when men toiled and queued under the scorching sun casting ballots while his goons manufactured results in the cool comforts of hotel rooms. That is exactly why he easily concluded that he was rigged out and that those, who purportedly rigged him out, also rigged for the same Labour Party that did everything within their powers to stop Mbah’s declaration as the winner and issuance of Certificate of Return to him. It doesn’t just add up at all. Much as our elections still have a long way to go, they are much better than the system operated in the heydays of Ebeano.
8. Growing sophistication of Enugu voters*: Chimaroke still lives in a world where an average voter, voted political parties instead of candidates. That is the only way he expected everyone, who voted for Dr. Peter Mbah to vote for him. I am from Akpugo, but I registered to vote in Enugu East LGA where I reside. I am incurably OBIdient and voted for Obi in the presidential election. But I’m not a Labourer. If the governorship election had held on 11th March, I could have voted for Frank Nweke of APGA. Mbah was never on the menu for me. And it had nothing to do with him as a person, but about his association with Chimaroke Nnamani and the PDP. But after listening to him on Urban FM a few days to the rescheduled election, it was clear to my mind that he was by every stretch of judgment the most qualified in terms of intellect, plan for the state, exposure, reach, and what one has built outside the government. And there were many like me, who were able to look beyond the political platforms of candidates to look at their capacity, character, and competence. So, on the same day, I voted for Labour Party in the senate and House of Assembly elections, but voted for Peter Mbah in the governorship ballot; likewise everyone in my family and circle of friends. Examples abound across the country.
9. The death of Oyibo Chukwu* : The death of Oyibo Chukwu, the senatorial candidate of the Labour Party sounded the death knell on Ebeano’s re-election bid. Honestly, I doubt that he was assassinated; and if he was, I would look inwards in the search for the culprits because Chimaroke should be smart enough to know that he stood to lose more from Oyibo’s demise. Predictably, Chijioke Edeoga, Nnia Nwodo, LP, and the deceased relations dramatised it. They held rallies and even brought Obi on a condolence visit. Unfortunately for Chimaroke, reputation was not on his side. Also, public sympathy naturally went with Oyibo Chukwu’s younger brother. Again, the death worsened the divisions in Nkanu land against Chimaroke.
10. A brutal past and present* : Chimaroke’s political history is reminiscent of political brutality that Enugu people want to forget in a hurry. His eight-year reign was underpinned by a scorched earth policy that brooked not oppositions and took no prisoners. The tales of inexplicable political murders like that of Hon. Nwabueze Ugwu’s brother are still fresh on people’s minds. Boys prowled the streets with “iron” and the political promotions that brought dimwits to limelight were predicated on ability to visit terror and violence on voices of dissent – be it the Church, priests, and political opponents. In Ebeano’s heydays, who could have freely abused him as a sitting Governor and still sleep in Enugu State? Even at his age, we saw how he physically attacked Chijioke Edeoga during the PDP governorship primary and how his thugs nearly killed a former Enugu South Council Chairman, Chiene I. Chiene in his presence.
Chimaroke Nnamani should sing alleluia and retire – just as he tweeted on 25th September. Fortunes have smiled on him. But he should also take out time to reflect and mend his ways should he still want to remain politically relevant. Trying to delegitimise Mbah’s victory on the ground that Mbah won on the same day that he lost is a no-brainer. It boils down to his characteristic envy that makes him hate to behold a greater than himself and that super delusion that always makes him think that nobody can amount to anything without him.
Ironically, if their was one single reason Mbah struggled with that election, it was the Chimaroke Nnamani, whose association weighed down on his candidacy like a load of weight sand. For most of us, especially the OBIdients, the more he attacks Mbah, the more we love the governor-elect. We are happy that our worst fears of an overbearing godfather breathing down a governor’s neck were ill founded.
• Nwodo writes from Abakpa-Nike, Enugu
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld a Federal High Court judgment restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising state congresses conducted by committees appointed by the David Mark-led caretaker leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
In a split decision of two to one, the three-member panel affirmed the earlier ruling of the Federal High Court, holding that the congresses organised under the caretaker committee violated an existing court order.
Justice Okon Abang, who delivered the lead judgment, ruled that there was no basis to set aside the restraining order issued by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik on April 29.
The appellate court also upheld the lower court’s decision barring the caretaker leadership from interfering with the functions and tenure of the party’s duly elected state executive committees.
According to the court, the ADC Constitution vests the responsibility for conducting state congresses in the elected state executive committees, not the national caretaker leadership.
Justice Donatus Okorowo concurred with the lead judgment, while Justice Abba Mohammed dissented, arguing that the matter was an internal affair of the political party and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the courts.
The suit was filed by aggrieved members of the ADC, who challenged the legality of committees established by the David Mark-led caretaker leadership to conduct state congresses. They argued that the appointments breached the party’s constitution, insisting that only duly elected party organs had the authority to organise state congresses.
In its earlier ruling, the Federal High Court held that the four-year tenure of the ADC’s State Working Committees and State Executive Committees remained valid until fresh congresses and a national convention were properly conducted.
Justice Abdulmalik further ruled that neither the 1999 Constitution nor the ADC Constitution empowered the caretaker committee to appoint committees to conduct state congresses.
While noting that courts generally refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of political parties, the judge held that judicial intervention is justified where constitutional or statutory provisions are alleged to have been breached.
Affirming the lower court’s decision, the Court of Appeal declared the state congresses and national convention conducted by the David Mark-led caretaker leadership null and void for being carried out in defiance of an existing court order.
The appellate court stressed that once a dispute raises constitutional issues, it ceases to be merely an internal party matter and becomes subject to judicial review.
Consequently, the court dismissed the ADC’s appeal, upheld all the orders of the Federal High Court, and awarded ₦10 million in costs against the party.
By Chinedu Sabastine
A pro-Yoruba women group, operating under the banner of Yoruba Women in Politics (YWIP), has applauded the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Benjamin Obi Nwoye, for strengthening the party across the Southern part of Nigeria barely three months he assumed office.
They said: “Dr. Benjamin Obi Nwoye is a very honest and open person. He has done considerably well,” the group said.
He was also praised for displaying high democratic ideals and delivering electoral victories for the ruling party in Southern Nigeria.
Chairperson of the women group Mrs. Dorothy Akinyele, in a statement issued in Akure, the Ondo state capital on Saturday applauded Nwoye “for his loyalty, strength of character, and consistency of purpose to the cause of democracy.”
They expressed delight and satisfaction “with the high degree of determination so far exhibited by Nwoye to applying the principle of fair play in treating all party members and asserting independence and neutrality in most cases.”
The highly revered South West women body also commended Nwoye “for deepening the party’s structures in the South-west, South-South and South-East, empowering women and youth and building a stronger APC and a more inclusive future for Nigeria.”
In particular, the women lauded Nwoye “for mobilizing support for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 general election, preserving the progressive ideals upon which the APC was built and curtailing the abuse of democratic norms in the ruling party.”
According to them, “Dr. Benjamin Obi Nwoye is level headed, has milk of human kindness flowing in his veins and committed to the success of President Tinubu and the party in 2027 and beyond,” YWIP said.
It therefore, described Dr. Nwoye as “the influential exponent of national unity,” extolling him for ensuring a smooth internal
Democratic process in his home state Enugu, the coal city state.
The Presidential Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has dismissed a public debate challenge from the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, saying the minister must first become a presidential candidate before seeking such an engagement.
Obi made the remark during an interview with media entrepreneur Chude Jideonwo, where he responded to Umahi’s challenge following his criticism of the condition of Nigerian road.
The former Anambra State governor argued that presidential debates are reserved for candidates seeking the nation’s highest office, insisting that Umahi does not fit that category.
According to Obi, the controversy over the poor state of the roads had already produced results, noting that his criticism prompted repairs.
“If he is inviting me to a debate as a presidential candidate, then he has to become a presidential candidate first,” Obi said.
Drawing an analogy with international football, the NDC presidential flagbearer likened Umahi’s challenge to a team that failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup inviting a qualified team to a match.“The World Cup is going on now. You cannot stay outside and invite a team that qualified for the World Cup to come and play against you simply because you think you are good. No. There is a qualification process,” he added.
Obi maintained that leadership should be measured by performance rather than rhetoric, suggesting that the repairs carried out after his criticism underscored the importance of holding public officials accountable.
His response comes days after Umahi declared that Obi posed no political threat to President Bola Tinubu or the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), while challenging him to a public debate over the state of federal roads and infrastructure across the country.
Ada Ogbu, who made the clarification in a statement posted on her official X account on Saturday, was responding to Keyamo’s ultimatum demanding that Obi apologise to airport officials, pay a ₦25,000 parking fine or face action by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).Executive Branch
Ogbu, who described herself as an eyewitness, maintained that she was among those who accompanied Obi to the airport on Saturday, July 4, and categorically denied the minister’s claim that the politician was driven by a police officer.
“As a member of the team that accompanied His Excellency @PeterObi to the Abuja airport on Saturday, July 4, I can state categorically that he does not have a police officer as his driver in Abuja. Therefore, if airport CCTV captured a police officer entering the driver’s seat of a vehicle, that vehicle could not have been Mr. Obi’s,” she stated.
She further argued that the incident highlighted by Keyamo was different from the one Obi narrated during his interview with media personality Chude Jideonwo.
According to her, Obi’s frequent travels across the country have exposed him and his aides to repeated hostile treatment by airport personnel.Government
“It is also important to note that Mr. Obi travels through as many as ten Nigerian airports every week. Over time, there have been several acts of hostility directed at him and members of his team by airport personnel across different locations,” Ogbu said.
She concluded that the aviation minister had referenced an entirely separate incident.
“Based on the account shared by the Honourable Minister, it is clear that the incident Mr. Obi referenced during his interview with @Chude did not occur on the date or at the airport cited by the Minister. They are plainly two different incidents.”
Her reaction comes hours after Keyamo released CCTV-based findings from an internal inquiry into the airport incident, insisting Obi must publicly apologise to airport workers and pay the prescribed parking fine within one week or risk further action by FAAN.
President Bola Tinubu on Friday formally retained Vice President Kashim Shettima as his running mate for the 2027 presidential election.
This was as political parties made last-minute moves to beat the Independent National Electoral Commission’s deadline for the submission of presidential and National Assembly candidates.
The ruling All Progressives Congress presented the nomination forms of Tinubu and Shettima to its National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, in Abuja for onward transmission to INEC, effectively ending months of speculation that the President could replace his deputy with a northern Christian.
The development came as INEC confirmed that it had received the presidential and vice-presidential nominations of the African Democratic Congress, Nigeria Democratic Congress, Social Democratic Party, Action Alliance, African Action Congress, Peoples Redemption Party and Young Progressives Party.
Meanwhile, several other political parties continued uploading the names of their candidates ahead of the commission’s Saturday midnight deadline.
The electoral commission had fixed July 11, 2026, as the deadline for political parties to upload the nomination forms of their presidential and National Assembly candidates through its online nomination portal in accordance with Section 29(1) of the Electoral Act, 2026.
The submission exercise, which commenced on June 27, covers Forms EC9 and EC9A to EC9E for presidential, vice-presidential, Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
According to the timetable released by the commission, political parties are expected to begin uploading the names of governorship and State House of Assembly candidates from July 18, with the exercise ending on August 8.
INEC is scheduled to publish the personal particulars of presidential and National Assembly candidates on August 1, while those of governorship and state assembly candidates will be displayed on August 29 to allow members of the public raise objections where necessary.
The commission also fixed August 22 as the deadline for the withdrawal and substitution of presidential and National Assembly candidates, while governorship and state assembly candidates have until September 19 for withdrawal or replacement in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
The July 11 deadline marks one of the most critical stages in the build-up to the 2027 general elections, as only candidates validly nominated by political parties through primaries monitored by INEC are eligible for submission.
The commission had repeatedly warned political parties against submitting the names of candidates different from those who emerged from duly monitored primaries, insisting that any nomination outside the provisions of the Electoral Act and its regulations would be rejected.
Against this backdrop, the APC used Friday’s presentation ceremony to publicly affirm its presidential ticket, signalling that it would head into the 2027 contest without altering the Muslim-Muslim ticket that secured victory in the 2023 presidential election.
Following President Tinubu’s emergence as the APC’s presidential candidate during the party’s convention, political discussions had intensified over whether the President would retain Shettima or opt for another running mate to broaden the party’s electoral appeal.
Those speculations gathered momentum in recent months amid reports that the ruling party was considering a northern Christian as vice-presidential candidate to address concerns over religious balancing.
Friday’s submission, however, ended the uncertainty, with the APC formally presenting Tinubu and Shettima as its flag bearers for the 2027 election.
The nomination documents were presented on behalf of the President by his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Ibrahim Masari, during a ceremony attended by members of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, the National Assembly, the Federal Executive Council, the APC National Working Committee, state chairmen of the party and APC governorship candidates.
Earlier, the APC National Organising Secretary, Sulaiman Argungu, described the event as the formal presentation of the duly completed nomination forms of the party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
Argungu noted that President Tinubu had earlier secured the party’s presidential ticket through what he described as a transparent primary election, and urged party members to remain united ahead of the 2027 polls.
He also commended the President for what he described as the achievements of his administration before formally handing over the nomination documents to the APC National Chairman for onward submission to INEC.
Speaking on behalf of APC governors, Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, reaffirmed the governors’ support for President Tinubu and the party leadership.
“We are delighted that this event is coming after a well-organised and thoroughly supervised primary process. We reiterate our commitment to continue supporting President Tinubu and the party,” he said.
Uzodimma said the APC remained committed to internal democracy and inclusiveness, adding that the governors would continue mobilising support for the President across the country.
“We will continue to support him in the larger interest of Nigerians and to take the country to greater heights. To the National Working Committee, we reaffirm our support. Together, we are going to deliver victory for President Tinubu and ensure the party wins all elective positions, including the National and State Assemblies,” he added.
Receiving the nomination forms, APC National Chairman, Prof. Yilwatda, described the event as a reflection of the confidence reposed in President Tinubu by millions of party members across the country.
According to him, the President’s endorsement by members of the party demonstrated widespread support for his administration and its policies.
He stated, “Today is a reflection of the wishes of over 12 million members of the APC who overwhelmingly voted for Mr. President as the party’s candidate for the 2027 presidential election. We are proud that APC members across the country cast over 12 million votes for Mr. President and overwhelmingly endorsed him.
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