By Prince Ejeh Josh

Since the announcement of the appointment of Chief Ikeje Asogwa, a seasoned administrator and an indomitable Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, stalwart, as the Director General, Peter Mbah and PDP Campaign Organization in Enugu State on Sunday, 4th day of September 2022, the opposition parties have been thrown into the state of political trepidation and self-defeatism having critically underscored Asogwa’s strategic bent to hand over seamless victory to the PDP in the state.

The mention of Asogwa’s name, for the opposition parties, means the end of the road to them. His name signals unnegotiable anticipated victory for the PDP for the simple reason that the people of the state are at home with him. Asogwa has endeared himself to the hearts of the people through his good and deliverable gestures in their lives. He cannot be faulted in any way when it comes to his celebrated records in the public and private sectors.

It's, therefore, not out of order to note emphatically that Asogwa has become a household name and his name synonymous with good governance and pacesetting. The good people of Enugu State will not forget the laudable impacts of Asogwa in hurry; even in many decades to come. Behind him, the trails of his good works are speaking loud. People are celebrating his leadership mettle. He is a blessing to his generation and humanity at large.

No wonder, when the politically vanquished and media hirelings are out, desperately bent at smearing his impeccable image before the public in order to paint him bad, the people of the state are quick to rebuke them and dismiss their lies with disdain. The public understands when desperation is at work. They know when frustration from inability to maneuver their way and milk the state dry is dragging. The antics of the serial failures occasioned by incompetence are well understood by the discerning people of the state. So, there’s no need to worry about who said what since it’s coming from the drowning merchants and political desperados.

Having seen that Asogwa means victory for the people, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the vainglorious Labour Party (LP), manned by accidental, incompetent and grossly inept candidates, have set out to besmirch the integrity and heroic image ingrained on the minds of the people of Enugu State by trying to rewrite history and represent a gory horror story fabricated out of their kettle of mendacity against a peace-loving, godly, benevolent and beneficent leader; Chief Asogwa. They’ve started shelling their tantrums, and the surge of their bazooka launched from all cylinders against the innocent man to hoodwink the unsuspecting citizens of the state is cut out and known to the people. No amount of campaign of calumny will deter Asogwa and the PDP from running a people-centered, people-driven and issue-based campaign when the time comes.

Featuring a pseudonym that goes by Innocent Ekwueme by these serial losers to attack the PDP, its gubernatorial candidate and its DG, will still not reduce the party’s votes since the people are determined to return PDP back to power at all flanks and levels.

For their information, Asogwa’s public record is there; clean, great and worthy of emulation. What motivates Asogwa the most is result. He believes in hardwork and service delivery. Unlike the lazy parasites trying to ride on the shoulders of some people to power, and those being pushed around by godfathers, Asogwa worked tirelessly as an entrepreneur and earned his every dim from his sweat. Before coming into the public service, the handiwork of Asogwa could be felt in the real estate as a developer, importer and exporter of goods and services. The entrepreneur was into manufacturing and owns conglomerates in different parts of the country and outside the shore of Nigeria. But as the saying goes; the lazy and miserably indolent minds always see hardworking people as enemies. But they were sleeping expecting manna to fall all through their youth while others were working.

Today, Asogwa has become one of the Nigerian employers of labour who has made many millionaires and proud owners of businesses. However, those whose sources of wealth have become outstandingly questionable and mostly referred to as accidental candidates in the APC, LP and APGA are out crying over their anticipated defeat. We cannot but pity them.

When Asogwa came in to head Enugu State Universal Basic Education, ENSUBEB, the body was almost moribund. Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi knew that the basic education of our children needed dire attention and the only way to rescue the state and put it back on track was to source for someone with the unblemished character and pedigree to deliver. Asogwa was brought in. In a matter of years, the primary education system was transformed. A system was set up and discipline was injected. For the first time in many years, the world celebrated Enugu State basic education system in Asogwa. World-class structures were erected with modern learning facilities. The best teachers were recruited and incentives in forms of monetary rewards, material and environmental comfortability. No wonder why Enugu State has consistently performed audaciously well, beating all the public secondary schools in Nigeria in its output. These are the products groomed, over the past years, by Ikeje Asogwa. We should give it to him.

As Asogwa is known; discipline is at the core of his work ethics. One must have character and integrity to navigate under Asogwa. He has aversion for corruption and will never tolerate that under his watch. Corruption is a cancer destroying our system, and once there are people out to fight it, many uninformed and untrained would want to fight back. Many who are beneficiaries of corruption will also do everything dirty to frustrate the anti-corruption policies. Skirmishes once witnessed in ENSUBEB and referred to by the so called Innocent Ekwueme could have been the resultant effect of Asogwa trying to get rid of the system of years of corruption, and those swindlers benefitting fatly from it trying to fight back. Asogwa is a roving force against corruption, and he did sanitize the basic education system.

We must fight corruption no matter what it takes before corruption kills all of us. Asogwa will continue to sanitize the system no matter the stage-managed macabre dance some people are putting up. Well, Chief Ikeje Asogwa, Ide Iheaka has won the hearts of the people with his anti-corruption battle. Heads must roll in order to be transformation and sanitization. That could have accounted for what happened then in ENSUBEB.

 Indeed, PDP in Enugu State has never had the history of rigging and has no reason to indulge in rigging. Not now that the people are itching for election days to come so that they can vote the party again to continue with its good governance mantra.

The PDP gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Peter Mbah has been described by the people as the best gift the PDP and Governor Ugwuanyi would gift the state because of his superior background both the public and private sectors. The innovative disruptor is coming! Mbah is a mobile and marketable candidate that emerged through a free and fair electoral process. The people Enugu State are happy, and they’ve rejected the bandwagons of failure epitomized by the APC, the LP and the APGA.