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By Chibuike Chime
The recycled narrative around Chief Uche Nnaji’s certificate controversy is not new, nor is it as straightforward as recent commentators would like the public to believe. What is being sold today as a moral crusade is, in reality, a long-running political weaponization of allegations—carefully deployed by familiar actors whose own roles in weakening the APC in Enugu State are conveniently omitted.
Yes, the certificate allegation dates back to 1999. But what is often ignored is the political context of that era: a vicious struggle for Enugu East, betrayal within PDP ranks, and a desperate attempt by Senator Ken Nnamani to delegitimize an opponent who had just defeated him at the polls. The allegation was not pursued to its logical legal conclusion then, nor was it proven in court. Instead, it became a recurring political chant—resurrected only when expedient.
If this matter was as open-and-shut as portrayed, why did it lie dormant for years when Ken Nnamani and Uche Nnaji were politically aligned? Why did peace, public camaraderie, and mutual political relevance suddenly coexist with an alleged “existential forgery”? Selective outrage is not integrity; it is strategy.
Fast-forward to 2023. Senator Ken Nnamani, now operating less as a party man and more as a political free agent, openly worked against the APC—supporting PDP and Labour Party candidates while still claiming APC membership. His refusal to support the APC governorship candidate in his own state was not driven by sudden moral clarity but by unresolved personal and factional calculations. This is a critical point often glossed over by those now presenting him as a neutral whistleblower.
Eugene Odoh’s role follows a similar pattern. Once a central figure in Uche Nnaji’s political machinery, Odoh’s transformation into the loudest accuser coincided precisely with personal fallout and loss of political relevance within the APC structure. His serial party-hopping, open campaigns for rival parties while retaining APC membership, and eventual suspension for anti-party activities significantly weaken his credibility as a principled actor. Allegations repeated endlessly do not become facts simply because they are loud.
More importantly, both Ken Nnamani and Eugene Odoh played objectively destructive roles against APC interests in Enugu. Their actions contributed to confusion, factionalism, and the weakening of party cohesion at critical moments. Any serious political analysis must ask: who benefited from a fractured APC in Enugu? Certainly not the party.
This brings us to the dangerous oversimplification now being pushed—that Governor Peter Mbah is either the beneficiary or silent sponsor of every internal APC realignment. Political reality across Nigeria tells a different story. In APC-controlled states and states where governors defected into the APC, party leadership conventionally gravitates to the sitting governor. Enugu is not an exception; it is the rule. Benue, Akwa Ibom, Plateau, Bayelsa, and Kano all followed the same pattern.
However, Governor Mbah must tread carefully. Politics is not only about pyrrhic victory of deploying allies to tamper with Uche Nnaji certificate and burning billions of Enugu money in court to ensure that justice is aborted; it is about the company one keeps. Characters like Ken Nnamani and Eugene Odoh have demonstrated, repeatedly, that loyalty is transactional and temporary. More critically, figures like Barr. Ugochukwu Agballah—skilled in internal maneuvering, paperwork politics, and quiet structural control—must be handled with extreme caution. Political vipers rarely strike loudly; they wait patiently.
Chief Uche Nnaji has been in court since November 2025 asking the court to compel the authorities of UNN superintendent by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Simon Ortuanya, to release an ordinary transcript so as to being this back and forth certificate allegation to an end but political interest and compromise will not allow him. Nnaji still awaits the court to issue their instruction.
The simplest antidote to rumor is transparency. Which brings us to the most fundamental question that remains unanswered and undermines all grand narratives: if the accusations are baseless, why has the University of Nigeria, Nsukka found it so difficult to release a straightforward academic transcript?
This is the crux of the matter. Not online wars. Not proxy blame games. Not recycled accusations. Institutions resolve credibility crises with documents, not press statements. The continued opacity of UNN fuels speculation and gives oxygen to political enemies—past and present.
Finally, Enugu APC did not arrive at this crossroads because of one man’s certificate alone. It arrived here through years of sabotage dressed as concern, disloyalty masked as principle, and political actors who burn down party houses to stay warm for one night.
In Enugu politics, history shows that the loudest accusers are often the most dangerous allies. Agballah is one of them and that is after 25 years of democracy. Nnaji was the only one that gave his political life meaning and he typically behaved true to his original character of betrayal by burning the same house that gave him warmth and now he will understand what political harmattan cold looks like
