The Enugu 2023 governorship race on Thursday, took a new twist as Barr. Chijioke Edeoga emerged as the labour party candidate in the state. Since the withdrawal of the party’s former candidate, Mr. Casmir Agbo, there has been a thick cloud of uncertainty over the authentic replacement for Mr. Agbo as several persons laid claims to the labour party ticket. These uncertainties were however laid to rest on Thursday 4th August 2022 as the party leadership conducted a fresh primary where Barr. Edeoga pulled 81 votes to emerge the winner and the gubernatorial flag bearer.
Barr. Edeoga who is the immediate past commissioner for environment in Enugu State was among the 17 aspirants that jostled for the gubernatorial ticket of the People’s Democratic Party. Until his last-minute withdrawal from the PDP gubernatorial primary which Mr. Peter Mba emerged in rather controversial circumstances, many pundits had favoured Edeoga to clinch the ticket due to his overwhelming popularity and public acceptance. However, this did not come to be as all aspirants were coerced at the tail end of the contest to step down for Governor Ugwuanyi’s preferred choice, Mr. Peter Mba.
The outcome of the PDP primaries in the state was described by many as undemocratic and a mere charade put together by the party leadership to lend credence to Governor Ugwuanyi’s undemocratic imposition of his preferred candidate against the yearnings and desire of “Ndi-Enugu”. This miscalculated move by the governor frayed nerves and generated unprecedented acrimony among party loyalists; signaling the beginning of the end of the PDP’s 23years of unbroken rule in the state.
The underperformance of the PDP-led government in Enugu state for the last seven years has sparked a resonating outcry for credible alternatives in the next elections. It has become conspicuous to the people of the state that the monopoly of the PDP has only succeeded in lowering the bar of leadership and, fueling the mediocre performance and sheer failure of the people in power. The people of Enugu are still counting their losses as the incumbent governor has grossly misgoverned the state and taken it many years back; presiding over the collapse of virtually every working system he inherited.
Although the likes of Mr. Frank Nweke II and Chief Uche Nnaji (Nwakeibeya) have emerged as flag bearers from the platforms of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the All Progressive Party (APC) respectively, Barr. Edeoga’s re-entry into the gubernatorial race under the platform of the Labour party marks an interesting twist in the race. Asides from rekindling the hopes of Ndi-Enugu on the possibility of having a keenly contested gubernatorial election in 2023, his candidature will be a rallying point for the people of the state to formidably disrupt the perennial menace of godfatherism and imposition of leaders which trademarked PDP’s leadership in the state.
The emergence of Barr. Edeoga as Labour party candidate has sent shockwaves to the PDP camp as his candidature is favored by the meteoric rise in the popularity of his party’s national flag bearer, Mr. Peter Obi who enjoys organic support from millions of Nigerian youths. At the moment, it is difficult to predict the outcome of the coming elections next year but certainly, it is not going be business as usual and a one-way traffic for the PDP.
Wilfred Okeke writes from Enugu, Nigeria.
