Minister Umahi: A True David of our Time
By 
Ugonna Utulo
The man David Umahi is a political enigma, love him or loathe him. You have watched him ace political examinations, jumping landmines and roadblocks that would have otherwise destroyed any other person.
You have seen him prove naysayers wrong, in all ramifications, annihilating their supposed insider-knowledge predictions.
In Ebonyi, they were cocksure Umahi wouldn’t serve out his term. When his tranducers obtained a court order against he and his Deputy, emergency Nostradamuses were quick to nail the coffin of Umahi’s political career.
Depsite our warnings and admonitions, they were so sure of his political demise that they began a countdown. But Umahi, Minister David Umahi, the cat with nine lives, proved them wrong.
At the crescendo of the 2023 pre-election activities, their prophecies came again. The then president, they claimed, had anointed Elias Mbam, Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, against whoever Umahi supported.
Unfortunately for them, Umahi was properly rooted at the center of Nigerian politics, and not only did his preferred candidate trump Elias Mbam, he turned out to be the preferred candidate of the presidency.
These same prophets of doom predicted failure for everything Umahi. But again and again, Umahi continued to prove them wrong. The APC won the presidency, Umahi won his Senate seat, and became Deputy Majority Leader. Now Umahi is a Minister of the Federal Republic. The Minister of the powerful Ministry of Works.
David Umahi of Ebonyi State is Nigeria’s version of the biblical David who, banished to the bushes to tend to cattle, became chosen to be King over the people of Israel, and who, threatened on all sides, and with no chance of ever manifesting his star, still became King.
Umahi’s accomplishments as Governor of Ebonyi State, especially and particularly in the critical sector of infrastructure, could be compared to the feeding of multidues with a loave of bread. How Ebonyi with the most paltry allocation eclipsed other states in infrastructural development ought to be studied in Universities.
Umahi, a man who is always in control of his environment, dictating to nature rather than wait for nature to dictate to him, is a man to watch as far as Nigeria is concerned.
Ugonna Utulor.
