Abia guber: PDP at crossroads over zoning

A perspective on the crisis rocking Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over which of the three senatorial districts should produce the next governor of the state in the forthcoming 2023 general election and other issues

Since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been able to make all opposition parties appear worthless and incapable of wrestling power away from it in Abia State. However, the PDP did not make the opposition appear weak and unserious with good governance or through remarkable delivery of dividends of democracy which the people believed no other party can offer. The strength of the PDP in Abia State over the years is just about two simple words – agreement and unity.

These two elements have been PDP’s driving force in Abia despite abysmal performances that have left the state struggling to meet up with other states in all ramifications. The PDP has been navigating to victory in Abia to the chagrin of many right-thinking people considering its terrible performance. It has been many years of melodious political journey for the party since 1999 despite all the obvious failure in the areas of infrastructure. Today, the euphonious sounds are becoming cacophonous. The discordant tones are hitting the ears of every Abia person and every Nigerian. Clannishness, personal interest and narrating of stories either halfway by elders or editing out facts thereof to suit sectional and clannish arguments is now the order of the day.

Bone of contention

It is simply the search for a successor to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. This search has brought division to the PDP and with the way things are going, it has brought obvious factions that the party has always boasted will never happen. Abia, like every other state has three senatorial districts – Abia North, Abia Central and Abia South and the governorship has gone round the three zones. Before Ikpeazu, Senators Orji Uzor Kalu and Theodore Orji who hail from Abia North and Abia Central, re-spectively, have been governors as well. Ahead of the 2023 general election, the problem is which of the zones produces the next governor.

At a time the people of Abia North who started the leadership process in 1999 are expecting a return of power to their zone, a new argument suddenly emerged that the agreement for power rotation was never done in consideration of senatorial zones but rather on clannish consideration of the two old political blocs/clans that make up the state.

Proponents of the argument who are mainly PDP leaders from the nine local governments of the Old Aba bloc (Ukwa-Ngwa) are saying that the Old Umuahia bloc (Old Bende) shortchanged them in 2007 when Senator Theodore Orji who hails from Abia Central and Old Bende Bloc became governor after Orji Kalu who also hails from Abia North and Old Bende bloc. According to them, Ikpeazu’s successor must be someone from Abia Central but of Old Aba bloc because Abia Central Senatorial Zone is the only zone where three local government areas from both old political blocs were joined to form a senatorial district.

Part’s ‘double zoning’

position While the debate raged, it was shocking for most political stakeholders in Abia, when the state chapter of the PDP, in a statement signed by its chairman, Asiforo Okere, said it has zoned the governorship ticket to Abia Central and Abia North districts, a position many leaders of the party, including Members of Board of Trustees (BoT) have described as unacceptable and self-destructive. Those who hold this view said it is obvious that the leadership of the party in the state took the position in order to favour a particular zone and aspirant.

Theodore Orji, a former governor and senator representing Abia Central, who recently reiterated his earlier position that power should shift to Abia North in 2023, warned those he said were commissioned to set the state on fire to toe the path of peace in the interest of growth and development of the state. His words: “My attention has been drawn to the news in social media platforms and handles concerning Abia State governorship seat and where it is zoned to. Let me state categorically clear that my earlier position on the subject matter remains sacrosanct and unambiguous.

“All those working to set Abia state on fire should toe the path of peace, do a rethink and sustain the peace we have been savouring as God’s Own State. No one’s ambition or aspiration no matter how lofty is bigger than Abia State.”

Wabara insists on zoning

Also reacting to the development, Secretary of PDP’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and a former President of the Senate, Senator Adolphus Wabara, who hails from Ukwa East Local Government Area in Abia South Senatorial Zone of Old Aba bloc, said the decision is unconstitutional. He, particularly, stressed that the zoning formula is confusing and not clear to anyone. Wabara expressed shock that the party in Abia could take such a farreaching decision without first convening a meeting of the state caucus and party elders to deliberate on such a sensitive matter before going public. New Telegraph reports that before the party even went public with its decision to “double-zone” governorship ticket, Wabara, had warned that PDP might get a protest vote in Abia in 2023, should the party cede its governorship ticket to his Ukwa-Ngwa clan as against Abia North zone. He argued that the Ukwa-Ngwa clan should not be considered, adding that power should move back to Abia North where it started from in 1999 and warned that any attempt to make another Ngwa man succeed Ikpeazu who is also an Ngwa man would be counterproductive for PDP.

The former President of the Senate, who described the “double-zoning” as childish and laughable, said it is funny that the state chairman of the party went on a tour of 17 party LGA offices and then came up with this “childish zoning style.” According to him, tour of the councils by a party chairman is not where decision on zoning a vital office as that of governorship is taken.

Wabara asked Governor Ikpeazu to copy the openness of his predecessors who left no one in doubt about where their preferred successors would come from. He vowed not to be cowed from speaking truth to power, saying he is ready to lay down his life in the defence of a right cause and for the good of Abia State. “The worst that can happen is for me to be killed but I’m prepared to die at 74 if speaking the truth warrants that. Zoning one office to two districts is not in our constitution.

It has never happened before. Any law made from an answer to a question cannot stand the test of time. The governor should know that, he is a PhD holder,” he said He maintained that the governor and the party chairman cannot stay in the comfort of their offices and zone the position of Abia governor-ship without due consultation, adding that the PDP is a party that has a constitution and that he doesn’t know where the duo got the whole idea from.

His words: “As far as I and many other leaders of this party are concerned, they did not summon a meeting of the caucus. I’m not sure other leaders attended any caucus meeting not to talk of attending any elders’ council meeting where such decisions were reached. “I may not be a founding father of PDP but I am a founding member of the party. In 1998, when we founded this party, I did not see the likes of Okezie and Asiforo there.

The governor is our leader but let him tell us where the zoning decision was taken. “Although I may not be on the same page with him, others and I should be at the meeting where zoning will be discussed. We were not invited to such meetings and I’m not sure any of such meetings was held at all. So, you can’t come from behind and say you are zoning to two districts at once.

The governor cannot unilaterally zone the position. The state party chairman does not also have the powers. It’s only in Abia that things are turned upside down. “It is true the governor said he had seen two transitions but was this how his predecessors handled their own? They made pronouncements and we followed. We did not follow blindly. We followed because they consulted widely. He cannot read our constitution upside down and use excessive force because he is the governor. No, that won’t work!

I still stand by what I said before: If things are not done the right way, PDP will lose Abia State. So, we should try to do the right thing. “The governor said that very soon he will show the way. By the time he shows us the way, he will now realize the full error in zoning governorship position to two senatorial districts with the flimsy and illiterate excuse that there are so many aspirants from both zones. “Is that not why there is zoning to address such cases? This their zoning is absolute confusion, and he is still planning to blindfold us by leading us to the wrong way so that he will accommodate his interest of handing over power to another Ngwa man”

Abaribe insists on open contest

Senate Minority Leader and senator representing Abia South Senatorial Zone, Enyinnaya Abaribe, who has declared interest in the governorship race, described the Abia PDP decision as a huge joke that cannot stand the test of time. He advised the party not do anything that will lead PDP to defeat, saying: “Whenever you do something free, fair and transparent, nobody will complain.

It’s the time that you try to manipulate that you lead yourself into problems. The party in the state has no such right to stop anybody from contesting.” He added: “I’ll continue with my move and let everybody come out and test their popularity. The only screening is the one that’ll be done by the national party. People should ignore these people. Nobody should be worried. I’m the best man for the job. Nobody can push me behind.

I’m the sword of war of the entire Igbo land and I’m not going back on this. “My issue is not about zoning. I’m against people saying there should be no contest. If you are saying there should be no contest, you’re simply supporting mediocrity. What we should have now is wherever you’re from in Abia, show your hand. Come out, then campaign and let the people of Abia State who are delegates make their choices. “We’re in democracy; it is all about choice. Let delegates reject me and I’ll respect their choice, but I’ll not respect the choice of anybody who’ll say I am an authority, therefore you’ll not run. Nobody will shave my hair in my absence.”

Ugochukwu warns against avoidable crisis

Another member of PDP’s BoT, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, who hails from Umuahia in Old Bende bloc, said that from all indications, it is clear that the PDP in Abia is heading towards an avoidable crisis as the party has been involved in numerous controversies, all of which are now threatening to throw it into confusion and potential disaster. He said: “We have had the controversy over the zoning of the governorship ticket of the party, which has pitted party members in inter-ethnic vituperation and has severely polarised the party, with members exchanging brickbats across the widening ethnical fault lines.

“Then the party executive has announced a zoning formula, which frankly seems strange in relation to the ordinary meaning of the word ‘zoning.’ Worse still, the zoning decision was taken without the engagement of the statutory organs of the party, such as the state caucus, making it for all intents and purposes, an imposition. “In the midst of all this, there are reports that a chairman has been appointed for the PDP State Elders Committee outside a meeting of that organ of the party, which amounts to a breach of party constitution. And then there are stories, so far unconfirmed, that a governorship candidate has been anointed for the party.

“From all these, it is clear that our party is heading towards an avoidable crisis. Thank God we are not there yet. But we need to take urgent action to return the party to its normal democratic ways. I am therefore calling on the state chairman, Dr. Asiforo Okere, to take urgent action to call the party back from the brink by summoning as soon as possible, a meeting of the Abia State PDP Caucus to discuss these aberrations. “In the meantime, I urge our members to calm down and not exacerbate matters with inflammatory comments. It is my belief that our party can always resolve its problems without imperiling our dear party.”

Abia North shuns ‘despotic process’

The immediate-past Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr. Eme Okoro, who hails from Bende LGA in Abia North (Old Bende bloc), on his part, joined other prominent members of the PDP in Abia to fault the zoning of the 2023 governorship ticket to two different senatorial districts. Okoro who served as SSG under Ikpeazu’s first tenure dismissed the zoning as “a child’s play which lacks any scientific basis.” He stressed that Abia North Senatorial Zone rejects the strange zoning arrangement and will not succumb to what he termed a “despotic process.”

Okoro said that Abia North will resist any attempt to change the goal post in the middle of the game as the arrangement was a ploy to serve the selfish interest of a few. “It is rejected in its entirety. Abia North’s principal stakeholders have rejected it in its entirety, the concept of zoning two senatorial districts in order to find a successor. We won’t take this despotic decision lightly. We won’t be part of any political gimmick in order to satisfy personal desires,” he said.

Ukwa-Ngwa adamant

While several party chieftains are calling on PDP to shift power to Abia North in the interest of peace, so many PDP stakeholders of the Ukwa-Ngwa extraction are vehemently opposed to such, insisting that a person from Ngwa clan in Abia Central (Osisioma Local Government Area, Isiala-Ngwa North and Isiala-Ngwa South) will take over from Ikpeazu. To make their dream a reality, the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the Abia State University (ABSU), Prof. Uche Ikonne, who hails from Isiala-Ngwa, in Abia Central has been endorsed by notable Ukwa-Ngwa PDP stakeholders as their consensus candidate for the 2023 governorship race.

The endorsement has the support of powerful Ukwa-Ngwa political bigwigs in PDP led by the pioneer Attorney General of Abia State and Chief Theo Nkire (a Senior Advocate of Nigeria), who hails from Obingwa Local Government Area. The Ukwa-Ngwa PDP stakeholders, who met with Ikonne, said they are ready to purchase the nomination and expression of interest forms for him, while begging him to accept their call to serve Abia.

The Ukwa-Ngwa PDP stakeholders insisted that Ikonne’s endorsement as an Ngwa man is not a violation of the Abia Charter of Equity, which recommended power rotation among the three senatorial districts as the incumbent Ikpeazu is from Ngwa clan. Nkire noted that crusaders of Charter of Equity misinterpreted the document.

He said that contrary to misinterpretations by the proponents of the document, Abia Charter of Equity, which according to him was enacted 10 years before the creation of Abia State, recommended power rotation between the Old Bende and Aba divisions, and not rotation among three senatorial zones He argued that Aba Division now comprising the six local government areas in Abia South and the three Ngwa local government areas in Abia Central would only be in power for eight years by 2023, while power had resided with Old Bende for 18 years, which included that of Ogbonnaya Onu, who is part of Old Bende before the creation of Ebonyi State.

A former Commissioner for Information and the incumbent Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Deputy Governor, Chief Don Ubani, who hails from Ukwa West Local Government Area, who spoke on behalf of the Ukwa nation at the Ikonne’s endorsement, said Ukwa-Ngwa clan had been cheated enough by the Old Bende Division, hence their insistence to produce Ikpeazu’s successor. (New Telegraph)