2015: Zoning and the struggle for Enugu’s soul

ThE political situation in Enugu State is unique, especially as it concerns the politics of South-East geo-political zone. The reason is obvious: the state was the regional headquarters of the defunct Eastern Nigeria. Little wonder then that policy makers use the Coal City to feel the pulse of the Igbo nation. It is against this backdrop that the attention of political watchers is always drawn to the events emerging from the state and the struggle for the political structure in the state in next political dispensation, which has already been generating some heat, is not an exemption.The dominant political party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been in the saddle since 1999, producing almost all the elective candidates beginning from local to the National Assembly. But recent events that saw the playing up of the zoning principle by both the ruling party and the opposition, including the All Progressives Congress (APC), has brought a new dimension to the race to the Lion Building, Government House, Enugu. As it is, the PDP and APC, going by what they termed equity, justice and fairness, have indicated interest in fielding candidates only from the Enugu North senatorial zone. This has consequently made the political struggle very stiff. However, if the rivalry between Governor Sullivan Chime and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, is allowed to fester, observers of the politics of the state note that the implication is that the opposition will certainly be the gainer. Already, Senator Ekweremadu has made public his support for a governor of Nsukka extraction in 2015, even pledging to work with the people of the zone towards the realisation of their aspiration to produce a successor to Governor Chime. Speaking recently during a cultural night organised by the people of Nsukka zone in his honour at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Ekweremadu stated that his interest in Nsukka zone was not political but predicted on his conviction that his privileged position should be for the benefit of entire Enugu State, Nigeria and West Africa. “Now, some people will begin to wonder why my interest in Nsukka. My interest is nothing more than the fact that God has given me an opportunity, a privilege in this country and I believe that my state should benefit from it no matter any part of the state it might be; whether it is Enugu West, Enugu East or Enugu North, they are entitled to benefit from the opportunity the society has given me in this country. “We believe that whoever is going to be the next governor of Enugu will not only be interested in delivering democracy dividends, but must be interested in ensuring justice to every part of the state. So, I’m not here for politics; I will like to assure the people of Nsukka that whatever is their aspiration, I, Ike Ekweremadu will support it. I’m going to support it genuinely and honestly because I believe in a just society,” he said. Naturally, the words of the Mpu-born politician resonated with many Nsukka people at the dinner, as it put to rest the phobia that the lawmaker was plotting to abandon his re- election bid to the Upper House for gubernatorial race, which many Nsukka indigenes saw as a threat to the dream of having their son at Enugu Government House in 2015. For instance, the chairman on the occasion and former Minister of Information, Chief John Nwodo (Junior), quickly responded to Ekweremadu’s comments, saying “Ekweremadu has surreptitiously entered Nsukka and won the heart of the people by influencing the appointment of many Nsukka people into lucrative federal positions as well as attracting many infrastructural projects to the zone.” Chief Nwodo maintained that, “On the zoning of governorship slot to Nsukka zone in 2015, it will be the desire of the people to choose the most resourceful and capable person among their interested sons and not for somebody to be imposed on them.” “Mr Deputy Senate President, outside the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), no board is more important than the Education Trust Fund in Nigeria. You denied your own people a position on that board and brought it to an Nsukka man. But one local government in this state has taken governor, it has also taken Chief of Staff by extension, the position of the Attorney-General, which is the first commissioner of state; they have taken the secretary to the state government; they have taken ministerial position, special advisers; they have taken Class A Ambassador, and they have dominated our executive with reckless abandon. “They have moved to the parastatals; they have the Chief Medical Director of Enugu Teaching Hospital; they have been Vice-Chancellor of this University twice, and walk around as if they are the emperor of the state,” he said. Be that as it may, the issue of zoning, especially the governorship position in the state, has become very intense and contentious basically because the Greater Awgu cultural zone is making a strong, justified and moral claim to that position. To some political observers, it is an attempt to reconstruct or distort the political history of Enugu because at the outset of the present political dispensation in 1999, zoning consideration weighed heavily in the choice of a governorship candidate within the two mainstream political parties in the state at that time: the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the then All Peoples Party (APP). As it turned out, the candidate of the PDP (as he then was), Dr Chimaroke Nnamani from Enugu East Senatorial zone, emerged victorious at the inaugural polls of the Fourth Republic. He was succeeded in office by the present helmsman, Chime. The logical and rational expectation, according to the people of the state, therefore, will be that in 2015, a candidate from the Nsukka cultural area or Enugu North Senatorial zone extraction will step forward and succeed the incumbent. However, according to those who are not favourably disposed to the idea of the next governor emerging from among the Nsukka people, the pro-Nsukka group missed the mark because in limiting claims to 1999, adding that they lost sight of the fact that Enugu as a state did not begin in 1999. “If we should talk about zoning, then we must be prepared to go the whole hog. In other words, we should be able to state who has been in- charge in the state since its creation. The agitators for Nsukka governorship obliterated the fact and limited their comments to the present dispensation. Why would they do that, if not guided by intentions of mischief? “I want to say that they are entitled to their views but one wonders if in the course of expressing such views they should throw caution to the winds. Honestly, I cannot say that I find their views repugnant or unproductive but I consider them unrealistic and therefore illogical presentation of political issues appertaining to Enugu State and its political equation. “I find them so not just because they represent the views of a man or group of people wallowing in the hallucinatory obsession of a potential power-shift to their zone. In contrast, I consider the assertions as puerile and infantile because they are neither substantiated by experience nor anchored within the empirical realities of Enugu state experience. “It is the self-conceited sycophancy referred to above that has curtailed the power of hind- vision, caused shortsightedness and complete blindedness. It is this blindness of sycophancy and morbid intention to make the governor believe that he has made new political allies that would dismiss the fact that Enugu is composed of four distinct cultural zones or fail to acknowledge the truth that the only zone that has not been given the chance to govern the state is Greater Awgu,”Ngwuole Muoneke, a senior research fellow and public affairs analyst, noted. To Muoneke, “Governor Chime is from the Agbaja cultural area. The only one left is Greater Awgu. If the Agbaja and Greater Awgu cultural areas are lumped into one senatorial zone, that does not vitiate their specific cultural identities. There are four cultural areas in Enugu. This fact cannot be denied. If zoning should be sustained in the state in this instance, then it is the turn of Greater Awgu to produce the governor in 2015. The reason for this assertion is not far-fetched”. The Greater Awgu Forum (GAF) made a very strong case in an advertorial published in a newspaper last year. According to the forum, “There is no gubernatorial election in Enugu since 1999 where the Nsukka cultural area has not fielded strong candidates. In 2003 when Dr Chimaroke Nnamani was going for his second tenure in office, Honourable Fidel Ayogu; Dr Godsmark Ugwu; Chief Ifeanyi Okonkwo (Ohamadike); amongst others, from Nsukk adivision, contested the election. In 2007, Honourable Fidel Ayogu, Chief OkechukwuItanyi and Chief Okey Ezea and others again contested the governorship. Furthermore, in 2011, when the incumbent governor ran for a second tenure in office, notable Nsukka politicians like Chief Ikeje Asogwa (the present Managing Director, Enugu State Housing Corporation), Dr Dan Shere and Chief Okey Ezea contested vigorously against him. “The truth is that there is no zoning arrangement in Enugu. If there is, Nsukka area has consistently violated it.” Now that Senator Ekweremadu, the political leader of Enugu State and indeed the South- East zone has made a U-turn to join in the clamour for an Nsukka governor in 2015, Governor Chime’s insistence on an Nsukka person as his successor is seen by the Awgu people see as “the conscious conspiracy by some political interests in the state to continue marginalising Greater Awgu.