A dozen days after Air Marshal SK Aneke of Ụmụaga, Udi LGA, another eagle landed in Ọzara, Nkanu West LGA. In Igbo folkloristics, such sightings are rare and revered.
Rumors had been rampant about nominating Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Sullivan Chime, Chimaroke Nnamani, or Jeff Nnamani for the open Enugu State seat in the federal executive council.
On November 4, President Tinubu nominated Attorney-General Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh, LL.D/PhD, SAN. I was not surprised: Gov. Peter Mbah had imbibed Chimaroke Nnamani’s style of appointments for the future.
I took note of Dr. Udeh in Ugwuanyi’s regime. As a Special Adviser and later Commissioner for Rural Development, he took on stabilizing town governments. While he ran in the 2023 PDP gubernatorial primaries, two of his native Ọzara dudes duked it out on APGA party platform: Frank Nweke and Dons Udeh (now late).
Mbah won eventually. I openly endorsed him for the same spot in the executive council to persevere on the peacemaking paths. Without stable and strong community governments, elitist city changes will benefit few Enugu people. I didn’t know he was a lawyer! Boom: He became the AG and later Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN. During the lawyers’ 2025 convention in Enugu, Senator Dino Melaye saw something and said something. Nigerians noticed.
With the exit of Uche Nnaji and the PDP-APC defection wave in October, Mbah captured the power to anoint a ministerial replacement. He deployed Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani philosophy: the perspective that projected Hon. Frank Nweke, then chief of staff to Gov. Nnamani, to become a minister and catapulted Mbah, fresh out of law school at Agbani, into the corridors of power in 2003.
The name “Nnamani” has become a recurring surname in politics. From DO Nnamani to Jeff Nnamani, we got the quintessential Chimaroke of the dividends-of-democracy fame and Senate President Ken Nnamani, the big barrier to President Obasanjo’s third-term vision.
Which Nnamani is Dr. Udeh trailing, thanks to the dividends of defection? No, it is not Chimaroke Nnamani, the erudite Ebeano exponent—another Nnamani, his uncle: Revered Supreme Court Justice Augustine Nnamani, Esq., PhD, SAN, a man of majesty, dignity, and integrity,
Justice Augustine Nnamani was a trailblazer. Before his 11 years on the Supreme Court, he was the Attorney General of Nigeria, a commissioner for housing, lands, and survey in East Central State, and an attorney-general of Anambra State. An erudite economist and a juggernaut of jurisprudence, he was one of the first five SANs from the East (including Olisachukwura, Nwakamma Okoro, Nwabueze, and GCM Onyiuke).
“The Oracle at the Pinnacle of Justice” was the first SAN in the Supreme Court. Nnamani nailed these stellar successes in his mid-50s. He passed away before becoming a surefire Chief Justice of Nigeria.
Good fruits do not fall far from the tree. Down the road from Augustine Nnamani Campus of the Nigerian Law School, a seed has germinated in Ọzara. From Dr. KT Udeh, “Ude Enugu,” we will pluck many more fruits from 042: the land of law lords. Just up the Udi Hills, we had the mightiest of Supreme Court: Justices Dadi Onyema (World Court), Nnaemeka Agu, Anthony Aniagolu, Dennis Edozie, Chris Chukwuma-Eneh, and Chima Centus Nweze, PhD.
Here is crossing fingers for a competent and capable citizen who is yet to display his full potential.
@OkaaMOE
Friday, November 7, 2025