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By Nwankwo Marcel
Consequent upon his actions and inactions ever since he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in November 2020, immediate past governor of Ebonyi State and Minister of Works, David Umahi, has exhibited dispositions that have given him away as someone who has not done much for Igboland.
It was the revered columnist, Amanze Obi, in his article of July 5, 2018, who first metaphorically described David Umahi as Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian soldier. According to Amanze Obi, and I quote: “David Umahi, the governor of Ebonyi State, reminds me of the historical figure called Vidkun Quisling. Between 1940 and 1945, Norway, the Scandinavian country, faced a certain misfortune. It was ruled by Quisling, a Norwegian military officer and politician, who collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of Norway. He nominally headed the government of Norway after the country was occupied by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Quisling was a puppet of the enemy and was responsible for many of the atrocities visited on his people by Nazi Germany. He was shot for treason after the German defeat.”
He continued: “Umahi may not come away as a typical Vidkun Quisling. But he has exhibited tendencies that can easily give him away as someone who prefers to fraternize with those who do not mean well for his people to identifying with his people’s cause.
“In April 2016, Enugu State came under attack. Guntotting, trigger-happy blood suckers who were passed off as herdsmen had invaded Nimbo, a sleepy community in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of the state. By the time the night marauders were through with their concert of blood, over 50 people lay dead. Property worth hundreds of millions of naira, including places of worship, were destroyed.
“The mood of many across the length and breadth of Igboland supported this thinking. But Umahi, acting as an opposite man, and clearly unmindful of the mood of his people at that point in time, was quick to issue a disclaimer. He said he would not ban the herders from Ebonyi State because his people had no problem with the cattle rearers. He said the herdsmen were welcome to his state any day.”
With this interjection as then governor, Umahi dissociated himself and his government from whatever anybody was saying about the organised massacre in Enugu State. He did not appear bothered by it all. He is still gallivanting and posturing as though he owns Ebonyi State, where he although superintendented as governor.” Today, he acts like a demi-god thinking he is untouchable. The trending political threat associated with Governor Francis Nwifuru in Ebonyi State all emanated from Umahi’s style of governance and or demeanor.
In a video that went viral on January 24, 2026, the Minister of Works, Umahi was seen saying that his political influence and status have grown far beyond what they were when he served as governor. According to him, he is now 10 times bigger than he was during his time as governor.
He boasted in the viral video: “Come together. Tell your sons and daughters to come together. Let them approach me and state their needs and they will be attended to.
“I am 10 times bigger than when I was governor. God has blessed the Umahi family beyond wealth, and we are capable of funding anything.”
He questions and dismisses everyone else’s opinion as Adolf Hitler or Idi Amin of Uganda in Ebonyi State and other South-Eastern states. In 2023, he imposed the current Ebonyi governor, Nwifuru on the masses. It is still being alleged that the now governor, when he was speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, gave approvals to some of the needless and undisclosed loans Umahi sought and got as governor.
As an insatiable man, he made his son, Osborne Nweze Umahi, chairman of Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, against the wishes of the people of the area. His calculation is to have his son contest for House of Representatives in 2031, thus eventually preparing him for governorship contest later. While his son is a council chairman, Umahi would not wish the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the February 6, 2027, election, Chief (Dr.) Ifeanyichukwuma Odii, to freely seek the office.
In September, he boasted that he was responsible for the emasculation of PDP in Ebonyi State. Last month, the minister said he would personally stampede the PDP standard-bearer, Odii, to jettison his 2027 governorship ambition for Governor Nwifuru to continue, insisting that the governorship slot was yet to return to Ebonyi South senatorial district, which produced him as governor between 2015 and 2023.
Umahi said he would personally engage Odii at the appropriate time to step down for Nwifuru. “I will be the one to go and talk to the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ifeanyi Odii,” he had said.
Also, while addressing a few APC faithful in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, two weeks ago, he went comical and said: “What we have from Ebonyi South today is not a contestant, but a pretender,” referring to the PDP governorship candidate, Odii.
The PDP gubernatorial faithful, Odii, had since debunked stepping down for the governor, reiterating his resolve to save the state from the shackles of misgovernance and godfatherism, if elected.
But there are several questions on the lips of many Ebonyians who are against Umahi’s opposition to Chief Odii’s candidacy and good governance. If Odii was not a serious contender, why is Umahi having sleepless nights about his governorship candidacy?
According to a social media critic and public affairs analyst, Chika Nwoba, “President Tinubu should see Umahi in the lens of a sycophantic stakeholder who delivers his polling booth only in his reverie. For Umahi, Ebonyians know how to de-market him before Tinubu with their votes. So, if Tinubu loses election in Ebonyi State in 2027, the minister caused it.”
But one scenario is sure to play out in Ebonyi State in 2027. Ebonyi people know who the candidates are, Nwifuru and Odii and others, their records, their pedigree; and they currently feel the import of the backward condition of the state under Nwifuru’s watch. They have been told and equally understand what the Ebonyi economic indices were under Umahi as governor, and under incumbent governor Nwifuru and what they will look under Chief Odii as governor. Ebonyians will approach the polling booths and vote out of their own volution in 2027.
They won’t vote out of compulsion from the ruling APC.
Media director of the Obidient Movement, Onyeka Dike, recently cautioned that, instead of embarking on smear campaigns, Umahi should be worried that people talk ill of him.
People still talk about the five NELAN Consulting engineers who disappeared in Ebonyi State in November 2021, during his tenure as governor of Ebonyi State. The families of the late engineers continue to demand answers and challenge aspects of the official account.
Recently, Mary Habila, a 26-year-old member of the medical team attached to Umahi, died in his residence in Ebonyi State on June 27, 2026. The police announced an investigation and said a post-mortem examination was necessary to establish the cause of misforture.
Umahi has money and power, but why is controversy always following him?
•Comrade Marcel writes from Nnewi, Anambra State
