By Onyedi Ojiabor
In Enugu State, the question of zoning or power rotation is the most contentious issue in the politics of succession to the Lion Building after Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in 2023.
The fuss did not just start from the build up to 2023 election however. A careful observation of Enugu politics shows it was orchestrated immediately upon Ugwuanyi’s inauguration for a second term in office.
Perhaps still hidden to many watchers of Enugu politics are the underlying interests driving the zoning debate.
The question largely unanswered is whether there is an agreed zoning arrangement in Enugu.
A former governor of the state, Sullivan Chime, gave insight into the matter in an interview he granted a national daily on 23rd November 2018.
“In 2013, when we were holding a town hall meeting in Nike Lake Hotel, one journalist asked since I was leaving office, which zone will succeed me as governor.
“When Chimaroke Nnamani became governor, it wasn’t zoned to Nkanu, he won against somebody from the West, even in his re-election bid.
“When I contested, it was free for everybody; people from the North, from the East, from the West. The same thing during my re-election.
“Then I said fate had made it that the East had done their two terms, myself in second term at the time. I said it will only be fair that we take it to the North to reduce tensions and I promised to work towards it.
“That was how it happened. We zoned it to the North, not that there was any agreement; it was common sense to reduce problems.
“I was the leader and I took that decision,” he noted, concluding that the people never sat down to adopt a zoning formula.
It may be worthy to note that, whereas Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, favoured Chime from Enugu West zone as his successor in 2007, Nnamani’s deputy, Dr. Ezenwata Okechukwu Itanyi, who hails from Enugu North, waged a vibrant campaign for the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) ticket in the primary election and was only beaten by Chime by a little over a hundred votes.
Instructively, what began as newspaper publications on a zoning arrangement by the founding fathers of Enugu State in which power should return to Enugu East zone, which held power in Dr. Nnamani from 1999 to 2007 before passing it on to Enugu West in Chime, who held sway from 2007 to 2015, soon metamorphosed into series of a rallies drumming up support for zoning of power to Enugu East senatorial district.
First was Odimma Nsukka rally where leaders of the zone openly canvassed the retention of power in the old Nsukka zone post-Ugwuanyi for equity.
The people claimed that the old Enugu zone (currently Enugu West and Enugu East senatorial zones) had done 16 years in Nnamani and Chime, hence the need for the old Nsukka zone (which comprises Isi-Uzo LGA in the current constituency delineation) order.
Then came the Oganiru Enugu East rally and Ife-Emelumma Enugu West rallies, both of which drummed support for an alleged zoning agreement based on which power should return to Enugu East in 2023.
What was quite interesting to discerning political watchers, was that Governor Ugwuanyi attended all the rallies.
This fanned the suspicion among political watchers that the entire rallies may have been plotted to abort Ekweremadu’s highly rumoured governorship aspiration in 2023.
Ekweremadu announced after the 2019 election that he would not return to the Senate.
The Ife-emelumma Enugu West rally was supposed to be the mother of rallies, being Ekweremadu’s zone.
But, Ekweremadu and all the National Assembly members from the zone boycotted it. It also ended in an anti-climax, as veteran politician, Senator Hyde Onuaguluchi was reported to have told Governor Ugwuanyi and the crowd that there was no zoning agreement in Enugu.
Turning to Ugwuanyi, the elder statesman, was said to have asked: “Your Excellency, are you a product of zoning?”Don’t mind those after their own pockets trying to mislead by claiming that there is zoning in Enugu State. It has never been so. In 1990/1991, when I contested for governorship, there was no zoning. In 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011, people from all the zones contested. 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”.
Interestingly, evidence exists of Enugu political chieftains, who denounced the existence of any zoning arrangement, but have turned back today to promote it.
One of such is a PDP chieftain in the state and former governorship aspirant who granted an elaborate interview where he emphatically stated, “We have not had zoning in Enugu State”.
“The concept is hinged on the fact that some time ago, it was strongly rumoured that the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu was interested in becoming the governor of the state (in 2015) and his no-love-lost relationship with the sitting governor (Chime) is a well known fact.
“To put a stop to that ambition, the governor started announcing that he had zoned the ticket of the party to Nsukka zone. It is a deliberate effort to steer up a sectional consciousness to be used against an envisaged enemy.
“I stand to be corrected. Let him (Chime) tell us any gathering in Enugu State that says we are going to start zoning. He was not a beneficiary of any zoning arrangement either; he was handpicked by former Governor Chimaroke”.
But, besides the Ife-emelumma rally in 2021. The PDP chieftain recently convened a press conference by some leaders of Greater Awgu to drum support for zoning the governorship to Enugu East zone.
Meanwhile, the clamour for zoning became even more strident following Ekweremadu’s declaration during the unveiling of his agenda to the media in Enugu.
In reaction to Ekweremadu’s declaration, a former Senator addressed a press conference where he brandished an alleged minutes of meeting of Enugu PDP Caucus of September 2013, where Enugu PDP stakeholders purportedly adopted a zoning formula.
The document expectedly found itself in a hurricane of controversies.
Besides the Ikeoha Campaign Organisation, which described it as a forgery and manipulation, several groups and persons have also questioned the document. One of them is the Enugu Rescue Group.
The group, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Hon. Ekike Tasia-Ilo, queried: “How come a motion on an important decision order of power rotation in the entire Enugu was moved by Chief Dubem Onyia from Udi (Agbaja clan), amended by Chief C.C Egumgbe from Udi (Agbaja clan), seconded by Senator Ben Collins Ndu from Ezeagu (Agbaja clan), and presided over by Sullivan Chime (Agbaja) Was that supposed to be a family get-together?
“If it was about the entire Enugu, how come such an important decision was purportedly taken by PDP Caucus meeting alone? What of the other political parties? What part of the PDP constitution empowers any organ at the state level to zone elective political offices? When did the State Caucus or National Caucus of the PDP as defined by the PDP constitution metamorphose from an advisory to a decision-making body.
“If it was an inclusive Enugu meeting, where were the traditional rulers, the town unions, youth, women, the four cultural zones of Enugu – Agbaja, Nsukka, Nkanu, and Awgu). If the governorship was zoned in 2013 as alleged in the document paraded by Ben-Collins Ndu, how then did Nnamani and Chime emerge. So, they were really no products of zoning as earlier alleged.”
But, the man at the centre of the zoning storm, Ekweremadu, maintained in a recent interview with The Nation that the zoning mantra was all a bid to stop him.
“Anybody talking about zoning in Enugu State, go and interrogate his reasons. It is either he has somebody in mind he wants to put or there is somebody he wants to stop. So, it is not borne of any antecedents, justice for anybody or the goodwill of Enugu people.
“Unfortunately, it is not making sense in Enugu. What they did was first to organize what they called rallies. They started with Enugu East to drum more support and spent N100million. When they spent the N100million, nothing happened and Ekweremadu kept pushing. They went to Enugu North and spent another N100million or more; they thought I would announce I am no more running, but it did not stop anything. So, they said okay, the final thing, let them go to my senatorial zone; they spent another N100million.
“In fact, one of the persons who organized the thing, did not know what they were up to and at the arena, when they said it was to drum support for zoning, he said no, that there was nothing like zoning. How can you say it was for zoning and myself and Hyde Onuaguluchi, Jim Nwobodo and all others were not there?”
Continuing, Ekweremadu told The Nation: “I was the Director-General of Chimaroke’s campaign organisation. Chimaroke did not emerge governor because of zoning. Remember that Jim Nwobodo, who is from the same Enugu East was actually supporting Okey Igwe Nwobodo harkened to the voice of his people, Nkanu people, to support one of them as governor.
“When Chimaroke now finished, he supported Sullivan Chime, not because there was any zoning and he knows that; I was there too. It was because of friendship of over so many years.
“So, by the time Sullivan finished, the two Senatorial zones of Enugu East and Enugu West had had the opportunity of producing governors and it made sense to any human being that the only remaining zone, Enugu North should produce the governor. It is just like if you have three pieces of meat in a plate and two have taken, there is no argument about who owns the third one. What will you say is your reason for zoning for instance the third meat? Because they claimed they came together in 2013 and zoned governorship to Enugu North. How do you do that when it was only one zone remaining?”
Collaborating Ekweremadu’s views that beneath the Enugu zoning frenzy is a long-drawn scheme by some individuals to put their own person in power.
An informed source told this paper: “They are yet to tell Enugu people the real motivation for all the zoning frenzy in Enugu. You want to hear from my mouth that the gaovernor’s preferred candidate, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga from Isi-Uzo, who just resigned as Commissioner for Environment to pursue his gubernatorial ambition is the in-law of the Nwodos? He is married to the daughter of Dr. Grace Obayi, the very powerful elder sister to Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, and the late Dr. Joe Nwodo. Besides, he is Ugwuanyi’s maternal cousin. Their mothers are sisters from Obolo-Eke married in Eha-Amufu in Isi-Uzo LGA and Orba in Udenu LGA.
“Ugwuanyi took him round the 17 local governments during the last council election campaigns, while “Ka Isi-Uzo Jee”, a political pressure group championing the emergence of an Isi-Uzo man as Ugwuanyi’s successor was the only such group given a stand all the local governments during the council election campaign.
“If you have observed well, every statewide PDP programme like campaigns, starts in Isi-Uzo council headquarters and ends in Udenu council headquarters. Isi-Uzo also produced the state chairman of the PDP. So, Ugwuanyi has never hidden his love for Isi-Uzo.
“Do you have to hear from me that Barr. Peter Mbah, whom Chimaroke Nnamani has been parading about, is his former Chief of Staff from Owo in Nkanu East LGA?
“So, instead of coming straight, they are running around the real issue. The real issue is that the Nwodos want their in-law as governor. Ugwuanyi wants his cousin as governor. Chimaroke wants his former Chief of Staff as governor. There are others like that too. But Ekweremadu too wants to be governor. That is the ABCD of the whole zoning furore.
To buttress his point, the source referred to the open statements by former governor, Dr. Nwodo and Senator Chuka Utazi during the council election campaign in Igbo-Etiti LGA.
Nwodo, it is recalled, canvassed power shift to Enugu East, but emphasised Isi-Uzo due to what he called age-long marginalisation of the LGA, which is the only council area carved from the old Nsukka zone into Enugu senatorial district during the constitution delineation under the late General Sani Abacha regime. This makes Isi-Uzo a minority in a predominantly Nkanu clan’s encalve.
On his part, Utazi argued that the geography known today as Enugu State originally comprised two zones, namely Enugu and Nsukka (which includes Isi-Uzo).
He insisted that since the old Enugu zone had done 16 years through ex-governors Nnamani and Chime, the old Nsukka zone (comprising Isi-Uzo) must produce Ugwuanyi’s successor. And that successor would occupy the Lion Building for eight straight years after Ugwuanyi to equalise old Enugu zone’s 16 years.
The horse trading and name calling in the state goes on. Not too long, the political coast will get clearer. Who takes over from Ugwuanyi?
Source: The Nation
