Enugu: Sam Amadi misfired, and misfired needlessly, By Uche Anichukwu - Premium Times Nigeria
The dust raised by the contractual dispute between Amadeo Event Centre, a private enterprise in Enugu, and its client, the Nigeria Institute of Healthcare Givers and Medical Social Work Practitioners, has settled. It is now clear to Ndi Enugu and Nigerians that it was deliberately misrepresented by the Enugu opposition as an attempt by the Enugu State Government to bar the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, from holding their town hall meeting in the state capital.
Unable to campaign against Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah on performance, the opposition have adopted a campaign of calumny and the dirty art of disinformation as their only tools for political relevance. They have no single manifesto, except to contrive falsehoods to deceive and destroy reputations. While the factional senatorial candidate of the NDC for Enugu East Senatorial District, one Ada Ogbu, is a prime culprit, it is needless dignifying her with a riposte. Desperate people do desperate things.
The real disappointment in the entire drama is Sam Amadi, my good friend of over two decades and a public intellectual now turned politician. As one who has a reputation to protect, his piece on Governor Peter Mbah and Enugu State has left one wondering what came over him. Was it an error of judgement?
I do not think so. He is a lawyer. He knows about the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa’s (JSC) admonition in Garba v. University of Maiduguri (1986) 1 NWLR (Pt. 18) 550. According to the late sage, God gave us two ears to hear both sides. I was just a phone call away if he really wanted to hear the other side. But he chose politics over a balanced commentary.
All doubts as to his intention were cleared by his response to the reactions of Governor Mbah’s supporters and aides to his diatribe. Rather than remorsefully withdraw some of his obnoxious and fallacious claims, he embarked on self-glorification. It is the case of the proverbial hen. Her kindred were still expressing shock, watching the way she dismembered a heap of excreta with her toes, only for her to also employ her mouth (beak) in the disgusting enterprise.
Not many would understand the dangerousness of Amadi’s commentary, as his crafty art of disinformation was cloaked as genuine concerns of a public intellectual with a civil society background. That is exactly the reason we must separate Amadi the politician and a contender for the Imo State governorship seat on the platform of the NDC come November 2027 from Amadi the public intellectual to understand what drives not only his attack on Mbah’s government but also his takes on national issues going forward.
Only Amadi the politician could have claimed that Enugu State is the most politically violent state in Nigeria without reference to any survey to that effect, thus allowing his intellectualism to take flight in the face of dirty politicking, yet again. But Enugu State is adjudged by the Nigerian security sector and even the travel advisories of major world powers like the UK to be one of the most peaceful and secure states in Nigeria today.
He equally claimed that “Every week, one person would be shot dead at a political rally in Enugu.” Again, another wicked drinking parlour claim, not backed by verifiable facts. No names. No places. No dates. Just reckless politics and naked dance in the market square. It beggars belief, and one can only wonder how proud of himself Amadi was after reading his piece of diatribe the next morning.
Meanwhile, although he concedes that Mbah has the right to support President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, he betrayed his real grouse with Mbah when he claimed that Governor Mbah was trying to abolish political pluralism “because of his fears that he lacks the political capacity to get Tinubu 25% in Enugu State.”
There are two major problems with this statement. One is the entitlement mentality. Let us get something straight: Obi is pursuing his political dream, which is well within his rights. But his personal dream does not subsume that of every Igbo man or woman. By the way, I do not think that there is any reasonable Igbo man who does not support the Igbo presidency project. We can only differ in our approach.
While some believe they can go it alone here and now, banking on individual popularity, others believe it can only be realised through good timing and strategic alliances with other parts of the country. Neither of the two approaches deserves to be demonised, as both are working towards the same goal. Only time will prove one group right and the other wrong.
Besides, from the colonial era, when Samuel Goomsu Ikoku squared up against his father, Dr Alvan Ikoku, and defeated him to claim the Arochukwu constituency seat in the Eastern Region House of Assembly election in 1957, to the 1983 general elections, when Dr Edwin Onwudiwe of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) took on Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu of Shehu Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the battle for the Onitsha (old Anambra State) Senatorial District in 1983, politicians have always done their thing. Even Ojukwu joined the NPN instead of Zik’s NPP. Ojukwu’s wife is a serving minister in Tinubu’s cabinet. Does that mean the Ojukwu household is anti-Igbo? Not at all.
I equally cringe at the hypocrisy of praising Yoruba or Northern leaders who support Obi as heroes while demonising Igbo leaders who decide to support Tinubu or Atiku Abubakar. The likes of Amadi seem to forget that if everybody should strictly support his or her tribesman, then the South East, with the least number of registered voters (only 11,976,218 voters, or 11.58 per cent of INEC’s 103,428,715 voters), might never be able to produce the President of Nigeria.
Amadi also dabbled into the economy of Enugu. In acknowledging the state’s jump from the bottom of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) table before Mbah’s advent to third place (only behind Lagos and Rivers states) in 2025, he still misfired on how Enugu achieved the feat. As a lawyer, he understands that tax matters are on the Exclusive Legislative List, hence no State Assembly can legislate to increase or reduce tax, yet he still tried to create the false impression that Enugu citizens were being overtaxed. He claimed that the state’s IGR-to-GDP ratio did not justify the huge IGR revenue.
However, contrary to this misrepresentation, the state’s IGR surge did not come from tax. In fact, out of the N406.7 billion recorded by the state in 2025, for instance, tax revenue accounted for just N51.5bn, or 12.6 per cent, while non-tax revenue was N355.2bn, or 87.4 per cent of the total IGR. The surge was actually inspired by improved fiscal performance, which is why the state moved from 19th place on the States’ Fiscal Performance Measure in 2023 to 13th in 2025.
Mbah has been radical in deploying technology to block revenue leakages and sharp practices that moved public funds into private accounts. The government also widened the tax net to bring in more people to fulfil their civic obligations, while also digitising the entire revenue system to make revenue collection cost-effective.
Importantly, the state’s revenue base has been widened by the recovery, revival, optimisation, and monetisation of Enugu’s moribund assets – Nigergas Limited, Enugu United Palm Products Limited, Hotel Presidential, and the International Conference Centre – in addition to new ventures like Enugu Air, which are yielding revenues.
When Amadi talked down on Enugu’s GDP, he was apparently too blinded by partisanship to notice the disruptive and exponential economic diversification that has continued to take place in Enugu State since 2023. The Enugu he used to know as a civil service state has now become a major economic hub across all sectors: agriculture, manufacturing, trade, tourism, and others. So, while relying on the obsolete GDP rating, common sense should have told him that, in view of higher economic activities and investments in the last three years, Enugu’s GDP must have improved significantly.
In concluding, let it be known that Amadi’s purported pro-Igbo and Obi activism is steeped in selfish political calculations. Since he was unable to secure the Labour Party ticket for the 2023 Imo governorship election, his pedestrian calculation is that a victory for Obi in January will brighten his governorship ambition. And that is well within his rights as he strategises for his political ambition. But he should drop the pretence that he is doing it for Obi or that he loves Alaigbo more. He is actually looking out for himself. Period.
*Mr Uche Anichukwu, who is the Special Assistant to Governor Peter Mbah on External Relations, contributed this piece from Enugu.
