Chinedu Awo: A Man The Mud Has Refused To Stain
In my few years of political activism, I have observed all that political actors do in the political highways. I have seen both the good and dark sides of politics. In both ancient and modern political chronicles many have risen to reckoning through the positive side of politics. In Nigeria, especially Ebonyi State, predation, treachery, conspiracy, blackmail and deceit seem to have dominated the political culture. One often hears people, especially the young and political watchers, define politics as a game of deception, corruption, treachery, violence, predation, conspiracy villainy and other vices. Our political landscape is dotted with many political stars that have been pulled down and crushed like ancient empires through blackmail, bad faith, treachery, conspiracy and stark villainy.
The now defunct old Effium community, a place divinely endowed with all catalysts of progress and development such as diverse, cosmopolitan and industrious population; arable land, economically relevant flora and fauna; prized natural resources; good and amazing topography et cetera passed for the headquarters of politics of bad faith, blackmail and pathological vendetta. These robbed the defunct community and its people of all viability, development, progress, and, lately, peace. The story of the metamorphosis of the defunct Effium community into the Ebonyi equivalent of the infamous Gaza Strip, the pyramids of wasted innocent blood and valuable property are fresh in the minds.
From the old Effium, nay Ebonyi, political milieu, God raised, Hon. Chinedu Awo, a political meteor to lighten up public paths. Hon. Chinedu Awo typifies the saying that great gifts come in small package. Born on Thursday, February 1, 1979, in Unwuezeoka in the defunct Effium (now Ezekuna-Alioma) Community in Ohaukwu LGA of Ebonyi State, Ransome Chinedu Awo, attended Central School Effium (1986-1991); the prestigious National Grammar School, Nike, Enugu (1991-1994); St. Aidan's Secondary School, Umuezeoka in Ebonyi State (1994-1996); and the prestigious Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki (1999-2003).
Just like a former Nigerian president who claimed to be the most defamed sitting president in the history of Nigeria, Hon. Ransome Chinedu Awo is the most blackmailed and envied public figure in the history of the defunct Effium Community. The huge difference between the former president and Awo is that while the former president's political career was interrupted, all the buckets of mud thrown at Hon. Chinedu Awo over the years have refused to stain him. Rather, God has transformed the thick blackmail levied at Awo by his envy-driven traducers to organic manure for the growth and full blossom of Awo's political career and his total being: Hon. Ransome Chinedu Awo, a political scientist of effervescent charisma, has served at different times as a legislative aide to a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senior Technical Assistant to the governor of Ebonyi State, and former member of Ebonyi State House of Assembly. Currently Awo is the Senior Special Assistant on Power to the governor of Ebonyi State, Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru.
The bold peace initiatives of Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State in creating five fresh communities from the old Effium deserve support because it has offered the people a golden opportunity for a new and positive beginning. While some unpatriotic elements have refused to collapse their walls of hatred and mischief which led to the old calamity that befell the defunct Effium, Hon. Chinedu Awo has hit the ground running, building peace, fostering reconciliations and supporting the distraught members of the five new communities to heal and reinvent themselves for peaceful and lawful coexistence. Overawed by Hon. Awo's successes in those patriotic regards, Awo's traducers who seem to have taken up cheap blackmail as careers are not relenting.
Notwithstanding their antics, Awo, the undisputed political leader of Ezekuna-Alioma community has grown into a charismatic movement with influence cutting across the five autonomous communities that rose from the ashes of the defunct old Effium community and beyond. His charity work and political mentorship are legendary, producing an army of grateful and responsible political figures, business men and career civil servants beyond the old Effium. Awo's recent ₦1 million scholarship endowment fund for the Ngbo dancing lad and sponsorship of the medical treatment of a clergyman from the new Effium community are notable handshakes across the borders which have been commended by the wife of the Ebonyi governor and other Ebonyi people as the way to go. Many families who lost their breadwinners in the old Effium holocaust draw succour from Hon. Awo, who has become the fountain of succour for the downtrodden. Awo's support and encouragement of youths who lost their businesses or means of livelihood in the war have completely rehabilitated many and given others hope for normal life. This is the Ike-Oha difference that has made him a political enigma and imbued him with the infectious charisma which drives jealous and envious people nuts.
Hon. Ransome Chinedu Awo, a richly blessed Christian of the Methodist denomination, is married to Mrs Helen Awo, a princess of Izzi Nnodo Ekumenyi, and the marriage is blessed with children. It is certain that the best of Hon. Ransome Chinedu Awo (Ike-Oha 1 of Alioma and Ezekuna-Alioma communities) are yet to come.