By Eze Nwamadi

Despite Edeoga's said victory at the Appeal Court where his controversial candidacy of the Labour Party was affirmed by the court, victory is far from Edeoga as the sky is far from the earth. What actually has taken place is sorrow postponed. 

Chijioke would better have been saved the waste of further energy and scarce resources, which he doesn't even have, for in vain he labours. The governorship election in Enugu State is already lost and won. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah is unbeatable. Edeoga knows it and trembles. It could be that all Chijioke Edeoga wants is answer the name, the Labour Party Governorship candidate; otherwise, he has no reason to continue dissipating energy the way he does by castigating people in the name of electioneering campaign.

Who will vote Chijioke when the three zones are taken by the PDP? Edeoga's misguided sentiments of currying favour from Enugu North Senatorial Zone to which he does not in any way belong has long lost its coated sugar around the cake. Edeoga had made the matter worse for himself when he took a running mate from Enugu West against the zoning tradition upon which he had anchored his aspiration, even during the build up to the primaries. Chijioke Edeoga is from Isi-Uzo and Isi-Uzo is in Enugu East Senatorial Zone to which the governorship seat is consciously zoned by virtually all the political parties. So, what is this hullabaloo about Nsukka being shortchanged when Edeoga is not from Nsukka? If anything, it is Edeoga that shortchanged Nsukka by ceding a position  traditionally meant for Nsukka to Oji River.

Anyone who could feel the political pulse in Enugu State would find that Edeoga's side of it reads quite very low. His attempts to ride on Obi's wave crest had failed woefully. His 'candidates candidates' show of shame during his godfather's 70th birthday anniversary had betrayed the fact that he was not on top of his game at the Labour Party, while he struggled to take pictures with Peter Obi for name-dropping intent. Peter Obi has distanced himself from Edeoga, knowing full well that Edeoga constitutes the load of a mixed multitude that has the capacity to dent his political image. He would not want to be associated with the cantankerous brand  Chijioke Edeoga's politics.By implication, Edeoga's acceptance within the Labour Party is few and far between.

Capt Evarest Nnaji, Odengene, on his own, is Edeoga's nemesis. Odengene is a gentleman who has the war-chest to prosecute his aspiration legally. He will not cave in before the verdict of the Appeal Court. The Supreme Court affords him the opportunity to seek redress and he will surely do that. There is no doubting the fact that so long as the matter subsists in court, Edeoga's candidacy remains as shaky as Parkinson in his hands. That has a way of creating uncertainties in his camp, and such uncertainties will likely take a toll on his already depreciated  support base. Meanwhile, those loyal to Odengene within the party surely would deprecate Edeoga's candidacy.

Even his reliance on Enugu North Senatorial Zone is a flash in the pan. Apart from the few politically diminished members of Nsukka General Assembly some of whom have repented and returned to the PDP, who support Edeoga in their irredentist crave for unwholesome political advantage, the people of the zone are with the PDP and are too wise to join the disgruntled turncoats in their wild goose chase.

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is a master of the game of politics and has the finesse to bring to bear his good thoughts for the people of Enugu State. That was why Ugwuanyi against clannish pressure opted for the best among the aspirants in the PDP, Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, who beat all the candidates in the gubernatorial election of the PDP in which Edeoga participated. Ugwuanyi will not lose election in Enugu State. He is a major factor that will decide the winner of the election. Ugwuanyi is loved by the people and where he goes they follow. It remains for us to see how Edeoga would upstage Ugwuanyi and twist the governorship sceptre off his tight grip. It is like passing a carmel  through the eye of a needle.Meanwhile, Edeoga's aspiration is founded on disobedience and rebellion to his master, Governor Ugwuanyi, who had pulled Edeoga from the dungeon of political irrelevance by appointing him a commissioner in his administration. Edeoga had served for seven years untill iniquity crept in on him; he became desperate and overambtious, and now wants to square it up with his boss, forgetting that the okra tree does not outgrow the one who planted it.

To add salt to injury, Edeoga has nothing going for him in terms of value proposition. Two months to the governorship polls, Edeoga has no manifesto. All he does is send some media rascals to write fictions against the set man, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the unbeatable candidate of the PDP. But many political watchers have dismissed Edeoga as someone who gropes in the dark. It was this kind of a thing that he did in the build up to the primaries, hoping to whittle down Peter Mbah's popularity with false propaganda via contrived fictions. A good student of politics 101 should have known that the strategy, if a strategy it is, does not work with the people of Enugu State. If anything, it earned Edeoga political rejection, as many regard him with disdain, dismissing him as a childish minor of an aspirant. He has continued with the same method and foolishly hope to get a better result with it.

A billion victories at the Appeal Court have no capacity to help Chijioke Edeoga in his governorship bid. All the perfume of Arabia cannot sweeten this soiled hand. Edeoga's candidature is founded on rebellion which according to the book of life is like the sin of witchcraft. He is politically adrift, rudderless and shipwrecked. There is actually nothing to celebrate. Celebration is far from Edeoga's bid. His continued kicks of a dying horse will gall the palates of whoever thinks that which will never shall be. Very soon, final funerals shall be danced on Edeoga's political grave. The court victory is greater sorrow adjourned.