I remember clearly the narrative that was peddled in those days.
The very individuals whose records now raise serious questions were the loudest voices in circulation. They branded the then Chief of Staff, Edward Onoja, as the “de facto Governor,” claiming he controlled all twenty one local governments. They fabricated tales of nine billion naira sitting in an Access Bank account in his name. They went further to allege that alerts from all twenty one local government accounts were wired directly to his personal phone.
It did not stop there.
At one point, they even peddled the fiction that he owned the hundreds of EnyoOil outlets scattered across the country — a claim amplified, painfully, by some of his own kinsmen. There seemed to be nothing they were unwilling to attach to his name. If a rumor could travel, it was sent in his direction.
They sold the story that he diverted funds meant for the construction and renovation of the Ata Igala’s palace. They labeled him the architect of a government’s collapse. They carefully crafted a portrait of betrayal and fed it to the public, hoping repetition would substitute for evidence.
And at a critical moment, the narrative took an even darker turn. An Igala son was subtly positioned as the one who plunged his own people into hardship and darkness. It was no longer just politics. It was character assassination elevated to strategy.
What makes the distortion more striking is this: the same man they sought to demonize was instrumental in designing the strategic pathway that led them to power in the first place. Vision preceded victory. Structure preceded success. Strategy preceded celebration. Yet gratitude gave way to conspiracy.
Still, he chose silence.
His story increasingly resembles that of Joseph in the Holy Books — envied, misrepresented, sold into a narrative not of his making, yet preserved by divine purpose. Those who thought they were burying him were unknowingly positioning him.
Then came public misstatements and renewed attempts to cement falsehood as fact. But days later, something began to happen that no spin room could control. In open court, facts surfaced. Documents emerged. Evidence mounted. An avalanche of details and revelations unfolded before the nation and the world.
And in all of it, there was not even a whisper implicating the man they had tried so hard to hang their sins upon.
Silence, in this case, was not weakness. It was discipline. It was maturity. It was strength under provocation.
As the layers continue to peel back, a different picture is emerging. What was once portrayed as dominance now looks like diligence. What was labeled control now appears to have been coordination. What was framed as conspiracy now reads like competence.
And what they tried to present as darkness is beginning to look like the only light in a troubled system.
How he survived politically, reputationally, and physically through such coordinated hostility can only be attributed to divine mercy and sustaining grace. There are storms that strategy cannot navigate. There are battles that connections cannot win. There are moments when survival itself is evidence of providence.
Exodus reminds us that there are seasons when one must stand still and allow the Lord to fight the battle.
History is patient, but it is precise.
I look forward to the day Edward Onoja chooses to address the nation and the world. Not in anger. Not in vengeance. But to set the record straight. Clarity is not revenge. It is responsibility.
His restraint, composure, and strategic patience in the face of sustained attacks deserve serious study in global leadership circles. In an age of instant rebuttals and public outbursts, he chose stillness. In a time when many would have retaliated, he reflected. In moments designed to provoke, he endured.
Reputations are not destroyed by accusation. They are refined by endurance.
The truth is unfolding. The records are speaking. And time, as it always does, is separating noise from fact.
The world is watching. History is recording. And when the full story is finally told, it may well reveal that the one they tried hardest to diminish was, in fact, preserved for a greater chapter