As Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, and former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, square up again for the 2027 governorship election in the state, political observers are watching how the re-match between the two Nkanu brothers will play out,  LAWRENCE NJOKU reports. 

Until the 2027 general election is done and dusted, there will likely be no Uhuru in the political battle between Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, and the former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji. The two Nkanu brothers are central figures in the tense political rivalry in Enugu State ahead of the 2027 governorship election.

Mbah is currently serving his first tenure in office as governor. He is interested  in continuing for another four years should he win in the 2027 elections. Nnaji, on the other hand, is angling to replace him in office and has told anyone that cares to listen that he would serve for four years. His promise to serve for four years is based on the  zoning arrangement in the state.

Currently, that arrangement has placed political power in the hands of Enugu East Senatorial Zone where he and Mbah hail from. By May next year, Mbah would have  completed the first four years of the  two terms leaving the zone with another four years.

At the moment, Mbah has made the final lists of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), while Nnaji has also been listed by the Commission to fly the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the exercise.

Both men had battled for the governorship seat of the state before now. But at each level of the political battle Mbah had been the victor. One thing in the epicentre of their battle is that Nnaji is not dazed and has refused to give up.

The rivalry between the two had been there since 2023 when Nnaji picked the governorship ticket of the APC. He ran in the elections and lost to Mbah who was the candidate of the PDP. While Nnaji was beaten to a distant fourth position, Mbah was declared winner of the election. Nnaji polled 14,575 votes, representing about 4.5 per cent of the votes cast in the election, while Mbah secured 160,895 votes, about 44.88 per cent of the votes cast to win the election. This was the first defeat handed to Nnaji by Mbah.

But he was not perturbed about Mbah’s victory. That was apparently why he refused to go to court to challenge him when others who were part of the race, especially the Labour Party and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which came second and third respectively, filed petitions against the process of the election and its outcome.

Reserving his strength to fight another day, Nnaji quietly picked up a ministerial appointment and began to nurture what was remaining of the APC in the state to reposition it as a strong opposition. As he was succeeding, rumours soon began to spread that Mbah was interested in joining the party. Nnaji, as leader of the party, was said to have opposed the move.

Unfortunately, he could not remain as minister to continue to nurture the party, as he was forced to resign following alleged certificate forgery.

His fall from grace was a huge blow. He did not just lose the office he occupied; he also lost control of the APC in the state – a party he invested so much resources to revamp in the state after the 2023 general election with the hope of leveraging the platform for future elections.

Indeed, when Nnaji left as minister in October last year, Mbah, who was elected on the platform of the PDP, was ceremoniously received into the APC. He was also handed the party’s structure, which Nnaji had nurtured. To make the platform safe for Mbah, the national leadership of the party dissolved the state leadership that was loyal to Nnaji and appointed a Caretaker Committee that was apparently composed of Mbah’s men. The committee continued to run the party until March this year when an elected 36-member state executive emerged.

The emergence of the executive consolidated Mbah’s grip on the APC structure in the state and finally nailed the aspiration of Nnaji to make a comeback at the leadership of the party. This was the second defeat.

Nnaji, however, accused Mbah of masterminding the allegation of certificate forgery levelled against him. He had described the allegation as a politically motivated witch-hunt aimed at discrediting him.  He insisted that the forgery allegation arose because Mbah wanted to cross over to the APC but his (Nnaji) membership of the party was a serious obstacle.

Mbah denied the accusation through his aides, who stated that he neither had any hand in Nnaji’s fall nor in the investigation of his certificates. He subsequently dared him to provide proof of the accusation. However, Nnaji has since approached the court seeking acquittal from the allegation but the matter is still pending.

The 2027 Re-match
Nnaji appears poised to take his pound of flesh from Mbah. He seems to have realised that he has been exposed to public ridicule and believes the best way to redeem his image is a re-match with Mbah for Enugu’s top seat.

Thus, at the start of activities for the 2027 general election, Nnaji quietly worked his way back to the PDP to the disappointment of those who felt he would remain in the APC. This was followed by rumours that he had his eyes on the governorship of the state, which have become reality. Nnaji has picked the governorship ticket of the PDP and will fly the party’s flag next year. This has rekindled the political rivalry between him and Mbah.

The development has raised the political ante of Enugu State. Like a man with a mission, his target is the seat of governance. Achieving it is enough pay back to Mbah for whatever he has suffered in his hands.

But to Mbah, Nnaji is attempting an uphill task. Not after all the battles he fought to reposition himself politically; not with the milestones he has made in reconstructing Enugu and placing it on the world map in the last few years. Will he watch his dream of “tomorrow is here” fizzle out in less than eight years?

To achieve his aspirations, Nnaji has capitalised on the gaps and mistakes noticed in the Mbah administration to woo support from the masses. At every forum he appears, he tells the audience how poorly the administration has performed since inception and reassures them he was ready to do better and serve wisely. He reiterates that he is seeking power to change things for good and that he joined the race to restore Enugu to the path of good governance and save the future of the children that are allegedly being mismanaged. His messages have continued to endear him to the people.

He has criticised the current tax regime in the state, arguing that “excessive taxation” has driven up the cost of living in a state heavily populated by civil servants and small holder businesses. Nnaji has pledged that he would review the taxes to relieve financial burden on residents. This singular pledge has continued to resonate in the minds of certain residents, especially the downtrodden who have now branded him, “Uche Nnaji no tax.”

He recently signed a charter for one term to honour the zoning arrangement in the state during a civic reception held in his honour by his community and supporters. While signing the pact, Nnaji stated that the move was to ensure that the state’s traditional zoning arrangement remained balanced.

He has insisted that four years is enough for any governor that is focused to deliver common good to the people, pledging to prioritise infrastructure and industrial revolution to create jobs and reduce poverty in the state. He claimed he employed several Enugu indigenes as minister.

He has maintained that he has not been found guilty or convicted of any crime, stressing that the fact that the court recently approved release of his passport which was earlier seized was an indication that he would emerge victorious from the case.

On the other hand, supporters of Mbah have continued to urge the public to disregard him, insisting that he should not be trusted with public office. They insisted that his governorship ambition is largely influenced by the ongoing legal challenges and investigations by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).

They maintained that he betrayed public trust when he allegedly lied about his qualifying certificates, adding that lying with something of such nature means he was capable of lying over everything.

Mbah’s supporters also maintained that it was deceitful to claim “excessive taxation” in the state, stressing that only about 12 per cent of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) comes from personal income tax. They also dismissed his party, PDP, as a “dead opposition party,” saying no person with serious political ambition would like to pursue it through the platform.

However, Nnaji’s public outings and statements present him as a strong candidate in the election, making the outcome of the re-match predictable. A school of thought holds strongly that his incursions are putting Mbah back on the drawing board. This school believes that certain recent pronouncements of the government such as appointments, gratuity payments, removal of tolls, among others were made to checkmate his campaigns.

As the situation stands, the coming months will either resolve the political feud between the two or escalate it to the next level.