An Igbo Idiom says that the frog doesn’t run in the daylight in vain. The recent attack on the campaign train of Mr. Peter Obi by Chimaroke Nnamani is strange to people that know the latter. Though Chimaroke is not a man that would be afraid of pulling out a cobra from a hole, but he would pull the serpent with another person’s hand.
I was young when Chimaroke Nnamani became the Governor of Enugu. That was in 1999. He was a young handsome man that had a brilliant plan for Hilltop State. Under Nnamani, the Nigerian Law School in Enugu wore a new face, the Enugu State University was relocated to Agbani and transformed into a piece of art. He built a tunnel in the city capital and Mea Mater Elizabeth Secondary School – which was the best Secondary School in South East at that time. Under his governance, the precious Cosmo FM was birthed in Enugu State. Chimaroke was phenomenal.
However, these were not the only things the government of Chimaroke Nnamani brought into the Coal City. No. While the development was going on, Enugu was hosting the most dangerous form of crime in the region. Unlike Anambra and Abia states that were battling with arm robbers, the perpetrators of the crime in Enugu were University undergraduates. They killed people daily. Cultism hit its peak in Enugu. Students of Enugu State University and Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu knew those cultists and how connected they were.
Nevertheless, there are untouchables in the system. The anti-cult institution in Nigeria is instituted to fight the boys in the street and spare their funders. Governor Chimaroke Nnamani was questioned by only the EFCC and they did nothing about the weaponization of undergraduates.
Chimaroke was also a master of the mafia game. He avoided the media war. When Mbaka rose against him, he did not defend himself openly. And when his successor, Governor Sullivan Chime, wanted to edge him out, he didn’t call a press conference. He took his time and later subdued all the uproar against him.
People that know Governor Chimaroke Nnamani would swear that he would never come out to the media to fight Peter Obi or anybody. He has the fund and could recruit a million online militants to fight his battle. Again, knowing that his arch antagonist, Mbaka, was against the candidacy of Peter Obi would have swayed his opinion. But it didn’t. The stake is too high. For reasons best known to him, Peter Obi should not succeed. He didn’t pay the best writers to drag down Peter Obi. He was ready to fight this battle with trolls and eagles on Twitter. It wasn’t the fight women indulge in and still find the time to hold their breasts. It was a fight to the death. And for Capone to join a fight he could send his best hitmen means that the battle needs the fiercest swordsman.
And Nigerians wonder what is there for the Ebeano Godfather.
