Three Frontrunners In Enugu Guber Race PDP APGA LP. Report from New Haven Foxxymobile agent Francis Obinna

Foremost of the frontrunners, Peter Ndubisi Mbah, 50, attorney at law, and native of Owo, in Nkanu East Local Government Area, is the governorship candidate of the PDP. Quiet, unassuming and soft spoken, he is an innovative business entrepreneur based in Lagos. He first got into the politics of Enugu State on invitation by Governor Chimaroke Nnamani. That was about 2003. First appointed the Chief of Staff, he later became the Commissioner for Finance. Then, as now, he was always benign, focused and purposeful. He avoided the rattles, rancor and razzmatazz of politics, especially the political circuses. Many actually thought that he was either shy or timid. And immediately after government, he proceeded back to Lagos, where he threw himself back into both formative and heady businesses. He never looked back, and had soon emerged a billionaire, at least in the Naira. Today, he plays in sectors like finance, investment, tourism/hospitality, real estate as well asthe heady oil & gas, among others.

Mba was then not a first timer in businessman. He actually went into trading immediately after secondary education, buying and selling commodities and stuffs on the West coast – Lagos, Cotonou, Lome and Accra – among other merchantile routes along the Atlantic. Prior to joining government, he had already established and ran thriving private high schools in Lagos – the Focus International Schools Group. He had run a thriving trading company and had become rich when he went for his degree in Law. This makes it laughable when people make the spurious claims that he got rich by his participation in Government in Enugu State.

Not true. Mbah became the Chief of Staff about the same time I was appointed a Commissioner, having been upgraded from my position as Chief Press Secretary. Mbah has always been an ambitious businessman, who always complained, albeit quietly, that he missed his business runs. For those close to him, he never hid his dislike for being in political circle where some inexplicable bickering, often not leading to making business and trading deals, were endless.

He commenced the oil & gas business from the scratch and made sudden strides by what he still calls simple disruptive innovation. He was the first to start out on what is called, ‘ship-to-dock barging.’ This is a kind of spot oil trading business. This meant running barges from tankers at high sea to docks, which helped in solving the problem of vessels waiting for months on end before securing the anchorage slots to enter and offload at the docks. Big players in the industry hardly considered such liberalized method of easing of the high pressure of lifting oil from giant tankers at sea to the docks. Before long, his business innovative was thriving and lucrative and he was in an upward swing in the field. So, when Mbah talks about ‘disruptive innovation’ as a kernel of his development plans, he appears to be stating what worked astoundingly for him..

Second of the quadruped is Frank Nweke Jnr, 57, of the APGA. He is a native of Ishi-Ozala in Nkanu West Local Government Area. He was the sleek, smooth, suave and urbane minister of Information in the Olusegun Obasanjo Federal Administration of 2004 to 2007. He first served as a Member of the Enugu Economic Team, 1999 – 2002, before he became the Chief of Staff to Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, he was actually succeeded by Dr. Mbah as he proceeded to Abuja to become a Minister. Contrary to the claims that Nnamani could not be challenged by his subordinates, this writer was a witness to many incidences where Nweke quietly, steadily and stubbornly disagreed with his principal. He once or twice got his principal to reverse his decisions to dismiss some political appointees on claims made by some local political chieftains. He shares this closeness and courage in dealing with the Principal with other capable strikers like Peter Mbah, Dan Shere, Chinyeaka Ohaa, and others not necessarily fitted to be mentioned here.

He has since been this usual rovingdeal maker, investment media promoter,social conciliator and informal diplomat, amidst playing politics as it comes along.Nweke is perpetually in search of peace and friendly relations.

When the books are written, he would not miss the description,‘a sedate and serene surrogate of ChimarokeNnamani,’ busting with immeasurable capacity, loyalty and courage. On that account, it is correct to state that Nwekedeals, breathes and exudes Ebeano, without the oft claimed predilection to violence. He is not timid. More than once, this writer had heard Governor Nnamani growl, “Frank delivers…he is a smooth operator…he can go into any office in this land.” Nweke speaks the three major Nigeria languages, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa, with the flourish of downtown happy-go-luckies. Born and raised in Maiduguri, schooled in Lagos and of Ishi-Ozala, Nkanu parentage, he blows the Nkanu-Igbo dialect with the taunts, gestures, jabs-and-stabs of playmates in the typical village square.

The third is Chijioke Edeoga, 61, native of EhaAmufu. He is the Labour Party candidate, and has been openly stated to be a cousin of the present governor, Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi. Ugwuanyi who appointed him as a double-Commissioner for two ministries: Local Government and Environment.

He started his political career in the old Enugu State government of Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo. By the time General Sani Abacha sacked all politicians, in 1993, he embarked on series of engagements and political forays, and soon headed for Lagos, where he joined yours truly and many other journalists in the Post Express newspapers, Apapa, Lagos. He was a Special Project Correspondent on the Special Projects Desk then headed by Mr. Chukwuemeka Gahia. This writer was then the Group Political Editor. Gahia, a seasoned journalist and fatherly personality later gave Edeogaa ‘privileged leave and cover’ as he returned to Enugu and successfully contested for the office of the Chairman, Isiuzo Local Government of Enugu State. In 1999, the Nwodos of Ukehe ensured a‘ packaging’ that landed him asthe Member representing Isiuzo/Enugu East Federal Constituency, in the House of Representatives. Unable to return to the HoR after 2003, he was now ‘packaged’ by Governor Nnamani to be elected the President General of Nkanu Peoples Assembly.

So, Edeoga is a redoubtable Ebeano man, despite efforts to distance self from the political organization.

He is also a formidable Gburugburu practitioner, being the only and first ever, two-tenure double-ministerial-Commissioner in the Gburugburuadministration. Strangely, though, the Ugwuanyiadministration is strongly criticized for failed performances in three major departments of Government: waste management services, local government services and public water services. Edeoga, his cousin, headed the first two under the Ministries of Environment and Local Government.

Investigative journalism takes a alot of time, effort and resources. Written by Foxxymobile agent

They are almost formidable candidates but I prefare Frank Nweke Jr.