By Reuben Onyishi
(Ugoachataberu)
A kind of fever pitch scramble for the governorship seat of Enugu State is all the rage. But for an aspirant who is opposed to zoning, the scramble and underhand deals to gain the seat are brewing at Enugu East Senatorial Zone made up of six local governments ( Isi-Uzo, Enugu East, Enugu North, Enugu South, Nkanu East and Nkanu West) and three federal constituencies( Isi-Uzo/ Enugu East, Enugu North/ Enugu South and Nkanu West/ Nkanu East constituencies).
The argument about the equality of the belongingness of the six local governments to the gerrymandered senatorial zone has been placed on the bossom of truth. The truth is that Enugu East Senatorial Zone did not pre-exist itself. It came into being the very moment the six local governments were brought together into that structure. So, there is neither core nor peripheral Enugu East Senatorial Zone. This question has been laid to rest.
A self-appointed team made up some leaders of Nkanu East Local Government and led by Prof. Bath Nnaji has been going around consulting stakeholders and wooing them to buy into the zoning of the governorship seat to Nkanu East Local Government. The team anchors its reason for asking that the seat be zoned to Nkanu East Local Government on the argument of the underdevelopment of the local government. Some political watchers have viewed the argument as weak and self-indicting. Many are amused as to why such a reason( if a reason it is) should be advanced by the team peopled by high net-worth persons from Nkanu East Local Government. Could it be that the would-be governor of Nkanu East extraction would concentrate development in Nkanu East Local Government as though he was elected the governor of Nkanu East? Isn’t the team giving the people a peep into what would be a clannish governor of Nkanu East extraction? Are governors elected to concentrate developments on their local governments? Isn’t the team inadvertently de-marketing Nkanu East Local Government? Why then would the people of Enugu State choose someone who will not replicate the altruistic disposition of Governor Ugwuanyi who evenly spread projects across the 17 local governments of the state without any clannish or nepotistic consideration? Besides that, the claim of underdevelopment is not properly thought out, in that it is an indictment on the past administrations dating back to the time of Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, a constituent of Nkanu West/ Nkanu East Federal Constituency. No government does all there is to be done within its tenure. Government is a continuum. No local government has been developed to satiety. Development is work-in- progress all over the world. So, indicting past and present administrations with the claim of one long night of the underdevelopment of Nkanu East from which a governor of Nkanu East extraction would deliver the local government sounds primitive and damned selfish. I doubt that the people of Enugu State will pander to such a dummy.
Besides the weak argument of underdevelopment(whatever that means), the team seems to have gone about their consultations with the instrument of propaganda which consists in what appears like lies and putting words into people’s mouths. It had begun with their claim that Chief Ken Nnamani said he had endorsed the zoning of the governorship seat to Nkanu East, a claim that Nnamani debunked as lies. The same team after consulting Chief Augustine Nnamani, the state chairman of the PDP, claimed and hyped it on social media that Nnamani, who is from Isi-Uzo, said he personally had a predilection for Nkanu East on grounds of underdevelopment. The incredulity of that claim came strongly when placed in the light of the fact that Isi-Uzo which shares border with Nkanu East has yet to attain development when considered in terms of the claims of Nkanu East. Again, the people of Isi-Uzo are also asking that the seat be zoned to their place since Isi-Uzo had never represented the senatorial district in any way;whereas, Nkanu East had produced deputy governors. So, it was incongruous and unthinkable that Nnamani would endorse Nkanu East for the governorship, leaving out his own local government that is apparently under-represented in Enugu East Senatorial Zone. That was quite clear even before Nnamani debunked the claim.
The same team has continued with its manner of consultation and has had no restraint on the way it went about misquoting those it consulted in order to create the impression everyone is in support of Nkanu East. Yesterday, the same team came up with yet another claim that Sullivan Chime, the former governor of Enugu State, who handed over power to Governor Ugwuanyi, had called on all political parties to choose their governorship candidates from Nkanu East Local Government. In an article written by one Chijioke Ogbodo published online and being hyped on social media within Enugu circle, Sullivan was said to have made the call on the same grounds of the underdevelopment of Nkanu East. One therefore, is bound to wonder if Sullivan could have indicted himself, for he was the governor of Enugu State for eight years and could have developed Nkanu East Local Government to his taste. However, going through that piece and reading in-between the lines, one would find that Sullivan, as quoted there, rather made a case for Enugu East Senatorial Zone and could not have specifically narrowed it down to Nkanu East Local Government. It appears the claims attributed to Sullivan are doctored. Sullivan mentioned Enugu South, Enugu North and Nkanu West as local governments in Enugu East Senatorial Zone that have produced governors and could not have said it had become the turn of Nkanu East when he did not even mention the other two local governments: Isi-Uzo and Enugu East local governments (a constituency) to determine their antecedents before drawing conclusions. Such conclusions as attributed to Sullivan are non-sequitur and could not have come from Sullivan who is a lawyer and well-experienced.
It is clear that the team from Nkanu East rather panders to propaganda than truth. Sullivan may have to clear the air on this, as it appears he was misquoted to feather the nest of Nkanu East.
In conclusion, the consultation team raised by Nkanu East local Government should reinvent itself and slough off its filthy rag of lies and misquoting people in order to create wrong impressions meant to deceive the people of Enugu State. They are free to make consultations, but they had better come up with a strong reason and convince the people as to why the zoning principles that are pointing to Isi-Uzo/ Enugu East constituency within Enugu East Senatorial Zone should be redirected to Nkanu West/ Nkanu East constituency (and specifically to Nkanu East Local Government); whereas, the constituency has had more than its fair share. Untill this is done, Nkanu East Local Government Consultation Team is merely entertaining the political scene clownishly and has absolutely nothing to offer. It is likely that the aspirants from the local government are smarting in the pains of the disservice of such weak argument and lies-ridden propaganda being bandied about by the team.
