Onyeagocha’s usual loud-sounding nothing

By Oguwike Nwachuku

When Hon Uche Onyeagocha appeared on Arise News Television Tuesday morning, September 20, 2022, many had thought he had something new and reasonable to say. Reason is because he had earlier publicised that he was going to appear on the ‘Morning Show’ of the station.

But as usual, he showed up for the wrong reasons, displaying what everyone already knows about him – crass lawlessness, penchant for disrespect for constituted authority, unbridled exuberance only meant for youths young enough to be his children and more.

If I describe the time Onyeagocha spent on the programme as a wasted one, I would not be fair to the Television Station given the amount of money he and his sponsors would have paid for him to appear.

Precisely last week, one character who calls himself Ikenga Ugochinyere and speaking for Conference of United Political Parties (CUPP) raised the alarm about attempts to compromise the INEC voter register, and by extension, the 2023 general election.

Ugochinyere, who was obviously acting out a prepared script relied only on the local government area of Governor Hope Uzodimma and his Omuma electoral ward for his case study.

I wonder what lecturer would in good conscience give pass mark to a student who relies only on one case study in a research where there are several instances to cite.

Everybody became curious about Ugochinyere’s intention in a state where there are more than three hundred INEC electoral wards.  It did not take long before it was realized that he was doing a yeoman’s job for his sponsors in the Imo State People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Obviously, his sponsors gave him a clear mandate to embarrass Governor Uzodimma ahead of the coming polls, something they have been doing ever since the Supreme Court sacked them from office on January 14, 2020 for illegally assuming power they did not deserve.

The thinking in the PDP quarters is that Ugochinyere did not live up to the expectations of his sponsors with regard to the assignment given to him last week to discredit the INEC voter registration in Omuma and Oru East hence Onyeagocha’s appearance Tuesday.

Unfortunately for the Party and its sponsors, Onyeagocha’s outing succeeded in further exposing what every Imo person knows – the systematic campaign of calumny that Imo PDP and the sacked government of Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha have been engaged in against the Government of Sen. Uzodimma since he assumed office on January 15, 2020.  They have not stopped ruing over the loss of power and will stop at nothing to cut their own pound of flesh.

On Onyeagocha’s appearance on Arise News Television, he laboured so hard harping on the same unfounded allegations by Ugochinyere, about the alleged loading of the INEC system with fake names, but without a shred of evidence indicating that the electoral umpire has acquiesced in its obligation.

Questions put to Onyeagocha by the panelists were either parried, answered out of context or put him on his familiar mood which is to insult Governor Uzodimma, abuse the government of the State and other institutions of government like the judiciary and even the INEC.

The more Onyeagocha and his Party men try to deny their involvement in the crises ravaging Imo State, including security, the more they live in denial. On the programme he still acted it out.

Assuming but not conceding to the fact that Ugochinyere who is the PDP House of Representatives candidate for Ideato South and Onyeagocha who is the PDP senatorial candidate for Owerri zone are carrying out their civic responsibility of trying to find out how INEC’s registration exercise in Imo State has fared so far, why would they do so only in one local government out of 27 and only one INEC electoral Ward out of more than 300?

Why would the emphasis be on Hope Uzodimma’s LGA and Electoral Ward?  What happens to the Wards in Ideato South LGA where Ugochinyere hails from and standing for election or the nine LGAs with more than 108 Wards that constitute Owerri zone where Onyeagocha is from and running for Senate?

What is also wrong in Ugochinyere and Onyeagocha feeding us with report of their findings in their own localities as named above or in the local government areas and electoral wards of Ihedioha, Sam Daddy Anyanwu, Charles Ugwu among other top guns of the Imo PDP so that their findings could be seen as widespread and unbiased?

And this the question Rufai repeatedly put to Onyeagocha which he was content parrying and went off tangent to say he pities INEC as not being capable of dealing with the situation on ground.

Did you also notice that Onyeagocha did not hide his feeling that what they are doing is all about the office they lost on January 14, 2020 to Uzodimma? In other words, anything they could do to destroy Imo State and her reputation, denigrate Governor Uzodimma and destablise the government of the day did no matter to them.

But that is where Onyeagocha and his ilk have exposed their weaknesses because Imolites already know what their game plan is and will resist it with every ounce they can muster. Imo people are anxiously awaiting to see how their tyranny of anarchy will pan out in the days to come.

It is quite unfortunate and laughable that Onyeagocha and Ugochinyere, as PDP candidates, are invoking falsehood thinking they will win the hearts of the Imo electorate in the build up to the 2023 general election. What a dream?

The display of bravado associated with them on the television screens and pages of newspapers have not only exposed them as those who do not have the temperament to represent their people at the National Assembly, but it goes a long way to tell how far they can go to destroy their state on the altar of selfish aggrandizement.

The reason Imo State is still making steady progress today in virtually all areas despite the evil machinations of the opposition to derail the government is because Uzodimma is peaceful and God-fearing.

If I were Onyeagocha, I will rethink the penchant to always boast to confront the system. The fact is that he cannot willfully urinate in the well he wants to drink from thinking nobody is watching him. A man who claims he believes in God but delights in disrespecting those in positions of authority or chooses those to respect should know that the same God is watching him, except there is something wrong with his type of faith.

Truth is that Onyeagocha who thinks someone is after him should know that his intuition is playing game on him. If anything, it is his shadow, nay his apparition, that keeps appearing to him which he sees and tries to give a wrong interpretation.

.Nwachuku, Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to Governor Uzodimma writes from Owerri