Guber polls: Zoning tears Southeast apart

Different political blocs and cultural zones in the Southeast states are already positioning for the plum governorship seat of the respective states in the build up to the 2023 general elections.

One factor that has been recurrent in the permutations is the issue of charter of equity. Sunday Sun investigation showed that there is no written agreement in the states except in Abia, spelling out power sharing arrangement. At best, what is referred to as charter of equity is “a mere gentleman agreement that turned into some form of convention” overtime in those states.

For that reason, when it favours a section, they bandy the so-called equity charter and in another breathe, the same people will turn around to say that the purported charter is meaningless.

So, ahead of the 2023 election, tension is rising particularly in Enugu and Abia states where groups are divided on the issue of charter of equity.

Anambra 

But before then, the Anambra governorship slated for November 6 is around the corner and the question is what role will the charter of equity place in who succeeds Governor Willie Obiano?

Sunday Sun gathered that there was no official agreement among stakeholders in the state for a zoning arrangement. In fact, the issue of zoning was never on the table until former Governor Peter Obi began to shop for his successor in 2013/2014.

Obi was said to have opted to get his successor from Anambra North Senatorial District so that people from that area could have a taste of the Agu Awka Government House.

Other reasons given by those within the corridors of power in Anambra while Obi reigned said that because of the limited development projects in the northern part of the state, a governor from that area would make it a duty to develop there and make it more economically viable.

However, those who seemed to have a better knowledge of the politics behind that move said that there was more to it than met the eye.

Regardless of whatever the reason was, Obi succeeded in installing Obiano as his successor with the help of other eminent persons, including the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Senator Victor Umeh and wife of the late leader of the party, Mrs Bianca Ojukwu.

Today, the Obiano-led APGA government, not only made it clear that power would shift to Anambra South Senatorial District, but had gone ahead to elect its governorship candidate, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo from the zone as its candidate.

But APGA’s argument has been faulted by many political commentators in the state who made it clear that Anambra has no certified zoning arrangement whatsoever. In addition, candidates of major political parties had always emerged from the three zones in the state .

They equally argued that even if there was a charter, the governorship seat has rotated amongst the three Senatorial Districts of the state, and a fresh round could start from any of the zones.

Anambra South has produced four governors of the state in the persons of Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju and Dame Virgy Etiaba. Senator Andy Uba’s stint was punctured by the court that threw him out of office.

For Anambra Central, there are Senator Chris Ngige and Peter Obi, while the incumbent governor, Obiano, represents Anambra North.

Interestingly, most of the political parties that have fielded candidates for the November 6 election in the state, elected their candidates from Anambra South. What is not clear at the moment, is if the electorate in the state would vote based on zones or quality of candidates. The latter may be the case.

 

Enugu

In Enugu state, there is fierce disagreement on how zoning arrangement started with a group claiming that it started with the present democratic experience that commenced in 1999 and the other saying it was from the Second Republic.

The two groups also hold different opinions as to its smooth running in the state. While the post-1999 group feels it has been faithfully observed, the other holds that there was a hijack of the process that needed to be corrected if zoning must continue in the state.

Of interest is that these views were not just held by a particular zone, in other words, there are people and groups from each of the three Senatorial Districts supporting either of the views.

While the people of Enugu East zone are laying claim that 2023 is their turn and had the support of some groups from the two zones especially Enugu West zone, some groups are saying that now the governorship has rotated and gone round, the next round of rotation could start from any zone as there was no ballot cast to choose the first beneficiary zone.

Just like in Anambra, people from major political parties had at every governorship election contested from zones not favoured by the ruling party. So, it is only the ruling party in Enugu that could have the power to zone the position.

A proponent of zoning, Ernest Nweze, senior special assistant to the governor of the state, said that as one of the foundation members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, he was aware that the gubernatorial zoning in the state started “in 1998 during the preparation for the transition we are in now.”

He said: “By 1999, there was this hustling and bustling on the zone through which the governor will come from and by then a lot of guber aspirants were in the race. A meeting was held at the late Igwe Nnaji palace, at a time the settlement was to be done, it was agreed that any zone that first produced the governor will hand over to another zone at the expiration of their tenure and subsequently to the remaining zone.

“So, it happened that the lot fell on Enugu East and Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani was chosen to run for the PDP. Constitutionally, you cannot ask anybody not to contest, but what we have said that this thing will be coming from this zone, you as a Nigerian can contest, but Enugu State people or the electorate have their eyes on the ball; which is the zone chosen. So, at the end of the day, other parties bought the same idea as it was good and all fielded their candidates from that zone.

“So, Chimaroke won the election and at the end of his tenure it moved to Enugu West and Enugu West people chose Sullivan Chime and towards the end of his tenure the same scramble that is going on now started again and Sullivan said it is going to Enugu North. We are talking of post-1999, so he handed over to the Nsukka man who is the current governor (Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi). So, the first segment of the circle has been completed. Now, it goes back to Enugu East zone for us to maintain the clockwise. The zoning has been faithfully observed here in the state and as it is, the lot will fall on Enugu East to produce the next governor.”

But countering him, Chekwas Okonkwo who feels it is the turn of Enugu West said: “In Enugu State politics, we see Chief Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo, the former governor of old Anambra State as our political father in the state. In 1999, Nwobodo said it was the turn of Enugu West, because he and Chief C.C. Onoh from East had been governors, Dr. Okwy Nwodo from North had also been governor. Then he said it was the turn of Enugu West and former Minister of State for Health, the late Silas Iloh was penciled down for it. Then along the line something happened, they did a coup through the wife of Nwobodo and twisted the hand of Enugu West; taking their turn to Enugu East for Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani. And Enugu West walked out of Jim’s house then.

“So, because of this thing that happened then, I don’t think there is anything like zoning in Enugu State. If there should be zoning, Enugu West is the zone that should produce the next governor because if you come to the equation of the three senatorial zones, Enugu East, Enugu North and Enugu West; Enugu West has only been governor once in the person of Sullivan Chime. Enugu East has gone thrice, Chief C.C. Onoh, Jim Nwobodo and Chimaroke Nnamani, and then Enugu North has two in the persons of Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo and the present governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. So, you can see that it is Enugu West that is being cheated, but what we are saying now is not zoning, it’s how we can redeem Enugu State and make it work again.”

Already, all manner of scheming is going on including rallies with Governor Ugwuanyi in attendance where endorsements are publicly made in support of power shift to Enugu East zone.

But the organizers of the Enugu West solidarity rally tagged: “Ife-Emelumma Enugu West Unity Rally for Gburugburu”, got more than they bargained as elder statesman, Senator Hyde Onuaguluchi mounted the podium and declared that there is no zoning arrangement for the governorship election in the state.

He challenged all the key stakeholders present at the rally held at Awgu Local Government Area Secretariat, on Saturday, August 7, 2021, to state the specific details of such an alleged zoning arrangement, that he, himself was not privy to.

Onuaguluchi who likened what is happening to Ndigbo in Nigeria to exactly what greater Awgu people are passing through in Enugu State, however, urged the governor not to mind those talking of zoning the governorship as there had never been such an agreement.

Going memory lane, he said: “In 1990/1991, when I contested for governorship, there was no zoning. In 1999, when Chimaroke Nnamani from Enugu East, Victor Nduka Agu from Enugu West and Gbazueagu (Nweke Gbazueagu), also from Enugu West contested, there was no zoning. In 2003, Hon. Fidel Ayogu from Enugu North, Ugochukwu Agballah, Anayo Onwuegbu and Alex Obiechina, all from Enugu West contested against then incumbent, Chimaroke Nnamani, there was no zoning. In 2007, it was Okey Ezea from Enugu North versus Sullivan Chime and Ugochukwu Agballah from Enugu West. In 2011, it was Okey Ezea from Enugu North and then incumbent, Sullivan Chime from Enugu West. It has always been so.

“My father was a major political player and he was not aware of such. Myself, I have been involved in Enugu governorship politics before any of you here.”

Sunday Sun learnt that at a point, the organizers had to switch off the microphone, but Onuaguluchi held on to it, refusing to leave the stage without finishing his speech. He also vowed to lay a curse on whoever switched off the microphone.

However, Governor Ugwuanyi intervened by asking that the political war horse be allowed to finish his “table-shaking” speech.

Ebonyi

During the last stage of the struggle for the creation of Ebonyi State, its founding fathers made spirited efforts to entrench a power rotation system that will ensure that no part of the state monopolised the governorship. 

Founding fathers of the state operating under the aegis of Ebonyi State Creation Movement led by Chief Martin Elechi on October 2, 1994 set up a committee known as Charter of Equity Committee to outline modalities for rotation of power in the then emerging state. The Committee chaired by Chief Okeagu Ogada submitted its report to the leaders of Ebonyi State Creation Movement on July 21, 1996, three months before the creation of the state.

It was, however, gathered that the report was never adopted by members of the state creation movement as the two major blocs in the state: Abakaliki and Afikpo; failed to reach agreement on the choice of the state capital and which zone should produce the first governor of the state.

Speaking recently in Abakaliki, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, recounted the incidents of that period, noting that he was among the Igbo leaders sent to intervene in the matter by the then Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha.

Iwuanyanwu disclosed that it was in his house in Owerri that the last meeting on the matter was held.

According to Iwuanyanwu who was in Ebonyi for Governor David Umahi’s 58th birthday celebrations, the Ebonyi State Creation Movement led by Chief Martin Elechi, the late Dr Offia Nwali, Chief Francis Orji and Dr Agom Eze finally agreed at the meeting in his house that Abakaliki should be the state capital while Afikpo zone should produce the first governor of the state.

“We resolved that the headquarters should be in Abakaliki and that the first governor will come from the old Afikpo zone. That was the decision we took. Then we didn’t know the dynamics of politics. When the political activities started, parties were formed; APP selected a candidate from the Afikpo zone while PDP selected a candidate from the Abakaliki zone and when the election was conducted the PDP man from Abakaliki, Dr Sam Egwu won,” he said.

Iwuanyanwu’s story correctly explained how PDP took over the governorship of Ebonyi and rotated power among the three Senatorial Districts of the state for 21 years, from 1999 to 2020.

The first governor of the state, Dr Sam Egwu (Ebonyi North) in 2007 handed over to Chief Martin Elechi (Ebonyi Central). Martin Elechi governed the state from 2007 to 2015 and handed over to Dave Umahi (Ebonyi South).

However, in October 2020, Governor Umahi did the unthinkable when he defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC). He became the first governor in power in the state to leave PDP for another political party.

Following Governor Umahi’s defection to the APC, there has been fears and anxiety over the fate of zoning ahead of the 2023 governorship election.

Some political actors argue that since the governorship has rotated amongst the three zones of the state that the next round of zoning could start from any zone of the state. But some others argue that the next round of zoning should go back to Ebonyi North where it started in 1999.

But the Ezza clan in Ebonyi Central are clamouring that 2023 is their turn to produce the governor of the state given that they are the oldest and largest in population in the state.

Reacting to the arguments recently during stakeholders’ meeting with leaders of Ezza clan at the Christian Ecumenical Centre in Abakaliki, Governor Umahi said that the next governor of the state would come from the Abakaliki bloc, consisting of Ebonyi North and Ebonyi Central.

Meanwhile, natives of the state under the aegis of Association of Ebonyi State Indigenes in Diaspora (AESID) have rejected the zoning agreement, saying that competence, capability, and credibility should be the standard for anyone to succeed Umahi.  In a recent statement by its President, Paschal Oluchukwu, the group said that the campaign in the media by some interests to respect ‘charter of equity’ does not exist.

“The calls in some quarters for the mediocre acts of zoning of political offices have once again been brought to bear in the debate over who succeeds Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi in 2023.

“Those who engineer this premise their position on what they term equity and fairness in their delusional fantasy to keep an ‘equity bond’ that neither exists nor has ever been manifest in Ebonyi politics,” he stated.

 

Abia

The situation in Abia State is not any different, though its founding fathers enshrined ‘zoning’ in the Article of Association known as “Abia Charter of Equity”, proceeding the creation of the state. The major plank of the Abia Charter of Equity was that the governorship seat must be rotated among the state’s component parts.

Zoning could be said to be on course in Abia, even recent happenings indicated attempt to torpedo the whole sequence. It started in 1999, when Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Chief Whip of the Senate, who is from Abia North, became governor of the state.

After Kalu’s two terms in 2007, Senator Theodore Orji, from the Central Senatorial District assumed the mantle of leadership.

In line with the zoning arrangement, the governorship seat shifted to Abia South, where the current governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu hails from, when Orji finished in 2015.

However, the opposition political parties in the state mainly the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) have at various fora said that they would have nothing to do with zoning presently until they grab power before they could thinker with any zoning idea. So, with this, zoning has majorly domiciled with the PDP that has been ruling the state since 1999.

Regardless, within the PDP fold itself, the zoning arrangement appears threatened with recent developments which brewed crisis of interest in the Abia chapter of the party.

A group, Ukwa La Ngwa Elders’ Council made up mostly of PDP faithful from the Ngwa extraction, stirred the hornet’s nest on June 23, when they met at Isialangwa-North Local Government Area, and came up with a communiqué which read in part: “That the people of Ukwa La Ngwa remain conscious of the indisputable fact and truth that Abia State is basically made up of two different geo-political zones, Old Aba Division and Old Bende Division.

“That the good people of Ukwa La Ngwa, in pursuit of justice, equity and fairness, knowing that the people of old Bende have governed the state for an unbroken 16 years, 1999 to 2015, unequivocally demand and insist that they will also govern for 16 consecutive years, that is from 2015 to 2031.

“That, by virtue of justice, equity and fairness, the people of Ukwa La Ngwa will collectively and ceaselessly work for the democratic enthronement of Abia State governor of Ukwa La Ngwa extraction, from any of the three Ukwa La Ngwa Local Government Areas of Isialangwa-North, Isialangwa-South and Osisioma, otherwise known as Umunne Ato Ngwa in Abia Central Senatorial District, in 2023.

“That no Ukwa La Ngwa son, daughter or wife will dare accept the position of a governorship running mate in any political party for 2023 election.”

Among those who signed the communiqué for the group are Dr. Max Nduaguibe, its leader and Chief Acho Nwakanma, (former deputy governor of the state), deputy leader.

However, a day after the communiqué was issued, on June 24, another group from the same zone, the Joint Youth Council of Ukwa (JYCU), met and dissociated the Ukwa people from the communiqué issued by the Ukwa La Ngwa Elders’ Council. They were of the view that inasmuch as they agree that the old Aba Division should retain the governorship in 2023, it must come from Ukwa area. The Ukwa youths group made her position known through a communiqué it issued, which read in part: “That we, the people of Ukwa East/Ukwa West, that is, Ndoki and Asa people, are unarguably, a distinct political bloc in Abia State, with a distinct histo-cultural pedigree.

“That as a distinct political bloc, we, the people of Ndoki and Asa strongly believe that the governorship should be retained in old Aba Division; that is Ukwa La Ngwa in 2023.

“That as a distinct political bloc, we firmly and irrevocably advocate that, like what happened in Old Bende where governorship was held for 16 consecutive years by core Bende and Umuahia group, it is the turn of Ukwa people to mount the governorship of the state come 2023.”

From the other divide, Abia North PDP reacted swiftly. A statement endorsed by Chief Abraham Amah, PDP zonal chairman, Abia North regretted the current threat to the office of the executive governor requiring him to hand over power to a section of the state by 2023.

He noted that Abia South did not secure the governorship slot in 2015 and 2019 on the basis of threats, but rather on wide consultation amongst critical stakeholders.

Abraham made it clear that no section of the state can secure the governorship slot come 2023 on cheap threats and propaganda, adding that it was better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.

The polarization was going out of hand that the Abia State PDP State Working Committee met and in a statement directed “all our officers at all levels, but particularly at the state level, to desist from attending factional or sectional meetings aimed at the zoning of the 2023 governorship or any other position as the case may be in the state”.

Advising members of the party to shun any act capable of hitting up the polity, the SWC further cautioned its officers against signing any decision, communiqué or press release issued at any of such meetings, warning that sanction awaits anyone that would flout the directive.

As leader of the party in the state, Governor Ikpeazu came out strongly to douse the rising tension. In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka and entitled, “Don’t overheat the polity, I am still in charge”, the governor expressed deep concern at the “current exchange of political brickbats by politicians and groups over who succeeds him in 2023, such exchanges are unnecessary, premature and capable of distracting my administration”. 

Ikpeazu told the political gladiators that he was still in charge of the state and would not in any way or by any means be stampeded out of office by people he described as those who want to alter the natural order of things. 

Although the governor appreciated the rights of persons and groups to canvass their political ideas and preferences, but he warned that timing was of essence and critical in the permutations, warning them that there could only be one governor at any particular time.

He, however, assured that when the time was right, his successor will emerge through a peaceful process of consensus and justice, involving all interest groups in the state, insisting that it is God that anoints leaders.

 

Imo

After Chief Sam Mbakwe who hailed from the Okigwe zone became the first civilian governor in Imo State in 1979, the next civilian governor of the state was Chief Evans Enwerem from Owerri zone. By 1999, Chief Achike Udenwa from Orlu zone became governor and left office in 2007.

Zoning of the governorship became more pronounced as Udenwa’s tenure was coming to an end, but by the stroke of fate, power shifted to Okigwe zone with the emergence of Ikedi Ohakim on the platform of Progressive People Alliance (PPA).

But Ohakim could not complete eight years like his predecessor, as he lost the 2011 election to Chief Rochas Okorocha from Orlu zone. He like Udenwa also had his two terms.

The second tenure denied Ohakim is believed to have altered the political arrangement in Imo. Expectation was that a governor of Okigwe zone origin where Ohakim hails from, would have balanced the equation in 2019. But that did not happen.

Though Owerri zone was the beneficiary as Emeka Ihedioha succeeded Okorocha, but his victory song was cut short by the Supreme Court, which declared Hope Uzodimma of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from Orlu zone the real winner of the election.

The situation in Imo has no room for charter of equity given that Orlu zone has practically dominated the scene. This sets the stage for an epic battle in 2023 as Governor Uzodimma would naturally go for a second term; while the two others zones fight to have a bite of the political cake.

For State Chairman of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP) and ex-Commissioner for Information in the state, Chief Orikaeze Ajumbe, charter of equity could only be operational in the state when power reverts back to Okigwe zone to complete Ohakim’s tenure that lasted for only one term.

“It cannot work until Ohakim finishes his two terms, which Owerri zone supported to deny him. After that, power will go to Owerri zone. So, Okigwe zone should be supported to finish its remaining one term of four years and Ohakim is the only person assured by law to do only one term,” Ajumbe said.

As it stands, Orlu zone has held power almost consecutively for 17 years of eight years each of Udenwa and Okorocha and this present tenure of Uzodimma, thereby making nonsense of whatever charter of equity that may have existed in the state.

(Adapted from Sunday Sun)