(As published in New Telegraph newspaper, Sunday 16th August, 2026)
By SHEDDY OZOENE
For over six weeks, the certificate controversy involving former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Enugu State, Chief Uche Nnaji, threatened to derail his determined effort to contest for the governorship of the state. The controversy took a more serious turn on July 1, when Nnaji was arrested in Abuja and detained by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
He was subsequently arraigned at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, July 13, on a six-count charge bordering on alleged certificate forgery and corruption. Since his release, however, not much has been heard from the former minister. Many people believed his political ambition has gone up in smoke. His aides, however, say the period has been one of reflection, reassessment and preparation for the political battle ahead.
Recent events, however, indicate that the embattled former minister may have taken his travails in his stride. Last Friday, he returned to Enugu for the first time since his detention and, at a reception organised by his Nkanu kinsmen in Akpugo, reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) pledging to serve only one term if elected. The gesture was significant. It demonstrated that his ambition remains undiminished and that the controversies surrounding him have not derailed his governorship bid.
If anything, he appears to still have enough political fire in his belly to mount a serious challenge—one that could make the 2027 governorship contest one of the most consequential electoral battles in the South-East.
His rebound is causing some stir within Enugu State government circles. For Onyekwere Nwobodo, media adviser to Governor Peter Mbah, who has remained determined to keep the certificate controversy on the political agenda, he would rather the former Minister concentrate on ‘cleaning his mess and answering to the criminal charges’ rather than focusing on the campaign to nowhere. Nwobodo described the MoU signing, in a Facebook post a day after, as another dubious venture, adding that “only those who do not know Uche Nnaji could be tempted to take him seriously.”
Nnaji is arguably the most formidable challenger to Mbah, and both men have an intriguing history in the contest. Nnaji was the APC governorship candidate in 2023, while Mbah won the governorship on the PDP platform, with Nnaji coming third behind Labour Party candidate Chijioke Edeoga. The political equation has, however, changed dramatically since last year when Mbah defected to the APC. His entry in to the APC altered the balance of power in the party and effectively displaced Nnaji as its dominant political figure in the state. Nnaji subsequently left the APC for the PDP.
Both men have now exchanged batons, flying the flags of the PDP and APC respectively in the race that is shaping up as a two-horse contest. Between them, there is little ideological difference as the exchange of political platforms have largely been in response to changing political calculations and strategic interests.
So, what are Nnaji’s chances?
Chief Robert Ngwu, who is directing the former Minister’s campaign strategy, believes they are strong. “Unlike in the past, we are going to base our campaign on mobilising the grassroots, where the core strength of the PDP in Enugu State is,” Ngwu said. He also offered a glimpse into the message Nnaji is likely to take to the electorate. According to him, the campaign will be issue-based, with emphasis on industrialisation and economic development that is focused on alleviating the suffering of the masses. Rather than allow the election to become a referendum on his legal troubles, Nnaji’s campaign is likely to shift the conversation towards jobs, industrialisation, infrastructure and economic opportunities.
How will Nnaji drive the conversation in a state where opinion is high across party lines that Governor Peter Mbah has indeed performed well? While some people may have one or two misgivings about his style of governance, most appear quite impressed by the strides recorded over the past three years. What, then, makes Uche Nnaji so confident that he can make a significant impact in the election despite the damage to his image and the crisis his party, the PDP, has faced in recent months?
His confidence may be in the PDP grassroots machine which has consistently delivered electoral victories in the state since 1999. But isn’t that confidence misplaced? While a significant number of the political actors who helped build and sustain the structure can still be found in the PDP after the governor moved to the APC, Nnaji’s challenge has been his inability to get them to transfer their loyalty to him. This has affected his effort to establish a sufficiently loyal and effective structure across the state’s 260 wards, partly because some of the party’s leaders still see him as an outsider.
Another potential complication for Nnaji is the continuing legal contention over the PDP governorship ticket. Chief Michael Nnamani, who hails from Akpofu in Nkanu West, has laid claim to the same PDP governorship ticket and instituted a legal challenge to Nnaji’s candidacy.
Chief Ojinnaka Basil Ani, a PDP stalwart and close ally of Nnaji, insists that there is no longer any question about who controls the party structure in Enugu following the emergence of Chief Vitus Okechi as state chairman. He also dismisses Nnamani’s claim to the governorship ticket, arguing that the recent upload of candidates on the INEC portal has effectively settled the matter.
Perhaps so, but in a season of uncertainty, a live court case can still give rise to a political development that may prove potentially dangerous.
For now, the Enugu governorship contest is beginning to take shape around Governor Peter Mbah and Uche Nnaji. Chinyeaka Ohaa of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to be at some distance behind. The NDC platform could, on paper, be a strong vehicle in Enugu, particularly given the influence and electoral energy associated with Peter Obi in the South-East. However, Ohaa’s emergence does not appear to have generated the level of enthusiasm some party members had expected, particularly in Enugu North Senatorial District, where the Labour Party made a clean sweep in the 2023 elections.
Mbah has the advantage of incumbency and the backing of the APC at the federal level. Nnaji, on the other hand, has the advantage of being the candidate of a party with deep roots in Enugu politics. But Nnaji has problems of his own. He has yet to demonstrate the organisational capacity to build and sustain an effective campaign structure across the state. His media presence is also considerably weak, making it impossible for his policies to be evaluated. More importantly, he has not shown that his campaign can move beyond the controversy surrounding him, unite the PDP structure and effectively mobilise the party’s grassroots network—a political machinery that has delivered electoral victories in Enugu for decades.
The road ahead is clearly uphill. But if he can overcome the legal and political challenges confronting him, rebuild his image and activate the PDP’s formidable grassroots network, he could still make the Enugu governorship race a much closer contest than many now expect.
