It is no longer shadow news that the immediate past Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi could become Minister of the Federal Government of Nigeria representing Ebonyi State at the federal cabinet under BolaTinubu as President of Nigeria. The nomination has been made with the Senate confirming it as a working proposal. It means that no Jupiter in human structure could stop him from assuming the position which everyone thought was rumour except the man who nominated him. For avoidance of elongation of the narrative as to why he should recuse himself of the position, the following should be considered germane by the powers that probate and reprobate:
One, David Umahi is from Uburu, Ohaozara LGA of Ebonyi State, a local government in the Ebonyi South Senatorial Zone. Between 2015-2023 he was Governor of Ebonyi State, his brother, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu from the same community was Minister of Science and Technology. That was a political power imbalance. It didn’t augor well with the principle of power balance and federal character. Sometime in 2022 when Dr Onu resigned and picked presidential form of the APC, Umahi nominated his brother in-law from Edda, then Afikpo South LGA still under Ebonyi South Senatorial Zone, one Prince Ekuma Nkama to replace Onu at the Federal Executive Council. These were outside other lofty positions at the federal and state levels Umahi cornered to his zone. In his own principle, there’s no power balance. It doesn’t exist. It’s either him or no one else.
We should recall that Umahi in a military style catapulted himself into the Senate from 4th place after the election of 2023 in Ebonyi South. He was said to have offered the Alex Ekwueme Federal University lecturer who was the returning officer to the election N100 million, two plots of land behind the Government House in Abakaliki. He was also said to have threatened to snuff life out of the poor Afikpo Associate Professor should he attempt rejecting his plump overture to falsify the result in his (Umahi) favour not minding whatever was the feeling of anyone. The lecturer succumbed and announced him winner. That was the greatest electoral fraud in the annals of Ebonyi democratic politics since 1999. Umahi never won in any of the five LGAs of the zone as PDP and Labour Party won the two House of Representatives Constituencies under the zone. Umahi undermined the massive damnation that trailed his malignant action and got himself feathered as the Senator representing Ebonyi South Senatorial Zone of Ebonyi State. As a criminally smart character he has always been, he purchased his way into becoming the Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate even as a first time Senator.
Umahi couldn’t wait for the outcome of the case at the election petition tribunal in Abuja. He dumped the stolen mandate for the Federal Executive Council. His nomination wasn’t coming from the Government House, Abakaliki as was the norm. The Governor of Ebonyi State nominated the immediate past Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State, Barr Dr Kelechi Igwe as the Ebonyi ministetial slot bearer. Umahi who hates his deputy for no known reason swore never to watch that snowball into reality. Having in his possession the Ebonyi people’s money for a period of eight years, he began sorting his way into the merchants in the State House, Abuja. He finally bought the nomination. One could wonder how much he’s going to make from the office after putting in some N1 billion as alleged, but for some of us who know his criminal ingenuity, he is going to milk down whatever Ministry he’s given to administer. He has the criminal cerebral gravitas to do so. He did it earlier in different capacities, so, the craft is in him.
It’s guessed that the President, Bola Tinubu might make him Minister of Works as an Engineer who has over the years been misconstrued as being a construction bard. But for Ebonyi people who are in full knowledge of his stock-in-trade, he’s the least experienced engineer in Ebonyi State. I’ll give the reason why he’s one.
Umahi became notorious in Nigeria for pouring raw cement on busy highways and called it concrete pavement road construction mechanism. Ebonyi soil remarkly is replete with Lead, Zinc, Salt and other smart solid mineral deposits which makes it unwise to host concrete pavement roads. He always boasted that his concrete pavement roads would last for a period of 50 years. Six months after construction of each of the roads, depletion set in. He was always patching up the failing parts. That instantly proved him a liar and deceiver. Ebonyi people began to see him as a political merchant whose assurances were mere political words far from the incandescence of reality.
Why did he adopt concrete roads pavement construction mechanism over the professional asphalting method? The reason is simple: to foster direct labour means of contract execution which availed him the latitude to personalise public resources. The truth is that he succeeded in personalising the resources of Ebonyi State and people for eight good years. The cement for all the construction works in the state was handled by his younger brother, Austin Umahi. His immediate elder brother, Roy Umahi handled the steel and metal aspect of the business. They purchased the building materials directly from the production furnaces, thereby making the retaillers in Ebonyi State vulnerable to no-sales market syndrome for the eight years period he was the officer commanding the state of Ebonyi. Upon meting out this criminal condition against our traders, he still imposed on them very high tax regimes. Within this period, he relocated the Building Materials Market to a more unorganised location. He didn’t deem it significant compensating those who lost their shops to him. He rather commandeered them into oblivion from the state. Some lost their lives in the sordid scenario. Umahi was usually high in drugs guffawing those victims of his criminal circumstance.
Umahi turned the Ebonyi economy into personal estate. Thousands of Ebonyi people died of hypertension under his draconian reign. Many are still bedridden as a result of his malignant actions all aimed at stealing and destroying… He turned governance of Ebonyi State into personal concern. His brothers were made criminal acolytes. People lost their lands and buildings in Ebonyi State. Businesses fled out of the state. Coca-Cola annex in the state fled. Michelin Auto fled. Companies fled in droves. He set communities into crisis just for political gains. Ebonyi became unbearably hostile under Umahi. Critics of his criminal administration were either killed, butchered or incarcerated including the writer of this epistle. Journalists fled from Ebonyi State. A Daily Sun reporter in Ebonyi, Obinna Odogwu fled back into Anambra State for the sake of his life and many more. Journalists were barred from covering programmes at Government House. Another Daily Sun reporter, Chijioke Agwu was arrested and celled in police for reporting ills perpetrated by the administration. Umahi’s reign was indeed horrendous. This writer was severally severely macheted, kidnapped, jailed and beaten up for criticising the jaunta-like administration of Umahi.
What about the shambolic Ebonyi Airport project he claimed gulped N35 billion? Is the airport working ever since he flagged it off? What about the smokescreen railway project he claimed initiating? The intentional misgivings of David Umahi can’t be written in one single paper. It’ll take a compendium to exhaust. And as direct witnesses to his predatory reign, we’re warning Nigeria and Nigerians of the doom coming through David Umahi. Ours is to inform. Making David Umahi Minister is like giving him garlands for all the atrocities he committed in Ebonyi State over the years. Nigerians will certainly learn what we learnt under him as Governor of Ebonyi State from 2015-2023.
•Nwoba Chika Nwoba is a social media influencer and wrote in from Amangwuru village, Ekpelu, Ikwo LGA of Ebonyi State.