By Ogbonna Asadu

If there be an Igbo man who has done well for himself and of whom ndi Igbo are proud, Nnia Nwodo deserves a mention. He had set out early in life in politics, riding on the back of his father, Igwe John Ugwuamokofia Nwodo, former minister in the first republic. At the age of 27, Nnia Nwodo had become a political adviser to President Shehu Shagari, and was later to serve as minister of aviation in the same Shagari regime. Nnia had everything working out fine for him. He had read Law at the University of Ibadan where he emerged the president of the students' union and thereafter attended London School of Economics where his brother, the highly revered Late Joe Nwodo, had previously studied Law. Nnia would later serve in the military government of Adulsalam Abubakar as the minister of information and later emerged the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo. There is no doubt Nnia has had it good, and expectedly ranks highly among the illustrious sons of Igboland.

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Having served as the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, a foremost sociocultural organisation in Igboland, and by his experience and age of 70, Nnia deserves to be admitted into the hallowed hall of elder statesmen. In order words, it is not out of place to hold that Nnia has become a statesman. Statesmanship naturally confers on its holder attributes of wisdom, objectivity and selflessness. An elder statesman acquires for himself what Raymond Williams in his book, Illuminations, calls 'complex-seeing'. Ndi Igbo capture this in proverbial terms: that what an elder sees from the comfort of his stool, a child cannot see even on ten toes. So, there are aspects of thoughts and behaviour unseemly of an elder. An elder does not sit at home while the goat suffers the pain of partruition. An elder understands the benefits of unity and recommends it to his underlings. An elder does not take the part of division, knowing full well the truth in the aphorism: divided we fall; united we stand.

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Chief Nnia Nwodo did not live up to the expectation of an elder statesman of his calling at Onyohor in Igbo-Etiti Local Government Council of Enugu State few days ago where he stabbed the state with his sharp tongue and attempted to tear the string that held it together. His preachment of divisiveness and hate among the people of Enugu State all in his bid to satisfy his libidinal quest to foist his godson, Chijioke Edeoga, on the people as governor, is surely one of his most disastrous outings in life, an outing that has earned him many media- inflicted injuries and wounds he now licks. Nnia had thought to create unnecessary disaffection among Nsukka and Nkanu people for no just cause other than the quest to make a surrogate governor of Chijioke Edeoga. Even while delivering that sermon of hate, Nnia had lost his characteristic oratory as he tried to do the unnatural deed that breeds unnatural trouble. 

Indeed, his unnatural deeds bred for him unnatural trouble. The baradge of media inquisition his hate speech attracted to him might have taught him a lesson of his life. The social media within the Enugu circle was awash with the condemnation of Nnia's speech and his attempt to impugn the candidacy of Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, who commands unprecedented goodwill and acceptance among the Enugu citizens. How are the mighty fallen? What brand of hemlock could Nnia have drunk that he would at the twilight of his career and age swim in the cesspool of divisive politics? How would it be told that an elder statesman of Nnia's hue would dance naked at the marketplace, all in an attempt to sell a brand liability to the people of Enugu State?

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Nnia Nwodo has been going about doing everything to bring the person of Governor Ugwuanyi to disrepute and has unleashed his tongue against the governor who helped him become the Ohaneze Ndigbo President-General. It was Ugwuanyi who bankrolled his bid to that position and sustained him all through his tenure. Nnia would be so forgetful he would recruit Chijioke Edeoga, himself a beneficiary of the Ugwuanyi administration, to rebel against the governor and run against the popular wish of the people of Enugu State. Forgetfulness in theological studies is viewed a sin. Even men reflecting on the sin of forgetfulness, ingratitude, name their dogs do-not-remember-yeterday. But even the dogs remember to answer to their names.

It is quite a pity that someone of Nnia Nwodo standing, who had risen to limelight all his life, would choose to waste it all: his education, reputation and manners in pursuit of an eluding shadow, for the unrighteous cause of subverting the will of the people of Enugu State in the quest to smuggle Chijioke Edeoga, his man Friday, to Enugu Lion Building through the backdoor. Nnia would recreate history and subvert the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which placed Isi-Uzo in Enugu North Senatorial Zone and fashion for himself structures unknown to the people.

The people of Isi-Uzo have reacted to Nnia's denigrating assault on their identity, warning him not to trifle with them in his inordinate desire for a surrogate governor, as they are resolutely behind Governor Ugwuanyi, Peter Mbah and the PDP in Enugu State. The Isi-Uzo people clearly state that they are PDP; that PDP is Isi-Uzo; that they be counted out of Chijioke Edeoga's ill-advised governorship bid which is bound to fail woefully.

If Nnia Nwodo politically survives the media inquisition over his unseemly speech, he would refrain from hate speech, politics of bitterness, vile irredentism and address himself to his calling into statesmanship. Even Chijioke Edeoga will not forgive Nnia Nwodo for dragging him out into the cesspool even when he had pledged support to Peter Mbah. Chijioke would look back and bite his finger over his indiscretion and absolute lack of wisdom in pandering to Nnia's whims; whereas, he knows that Nnia has got no power to make him governor. If Nnia could, he would himself run. Then, after the governorship election in March, Chijioke would realize the folly in desperation, and gather the carcass of his political career and quietly bury it somewhere at Mgbuji.