It is not for mere grandstanding and populist exercise that Abia State governor, T. A. Orji, has always assured that at the end of his tenure in 2015, the pendulum of power would shift to Ukwa Ngwa bloc of the state. There are reasons of fact and history behind the governor’s assertion.
At the creation of the state 23 years ago, the founding fathers had arrived at an understanding that power should be rotating between the two major blocs that make up the state. They are Old Bende and Ukwa-Ngwa people (old Aba Division). Old Bende comprises the present-day Bende, Arochukwu, Ohafia, Isiukwuato, Umunneochi, Ikwuano, Umuahia North and Umuahia South Local Government Areas. Ukwa-Ngwa, on the other hand, consists of the present-day Isiala Ngwa North, Isiala Ngwa South, Obingwa, Osisioma, Ugwunagbo, Aba North, Aba South, Ukwa East and Ukwa West Local Government Areas.
At the time of the accord, Afikpo, currently in Ebonyi State, was part of Old Bende. The founding fathers who fashioned the accord had reasoned that rotation of power between the two major blocs would foster peace, equity and promote even development in the state. The document, christened “Abia Charter of Equity”, was signed and sealed by the patriots.
Incidentally, since the creation of Abia, no Ukwa-Ngwa person has had a shot at the government house. When the governor therefore pledged that his successor would emerge from the bloc, his action understandably elicited huge ululation. Based on that, many credible names from the Ukwa-Ngwa axis have signified interest in going for the prime office in the state.
But in light of unfolding developments in the state’s politics, the excitement engineered by the governor’s promise may not be all-encompassing. There are insinuations, for instance, of some names being anointed for the office and other key positions in the state. There are allegations that the governor zoned out the Ngwa people in Abia Central to pave way for the emergence of his son as speaker and adopted Ikpeazu Okezie as the preferred governorship candidate. There is also the case of a return ticket to the Senate given to Enyinnaya Abaribe by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) national leadership.
Abaribe and Okezie are from Abia South senatorial district and could, on the surface, be said to have fitted into the governor’s pledge of transferring power to the zone. But beyond that casual interpretation is the fact that the action would be undermining the very essence of Abia Charter of Equity. Okezie and Abaribe are from Obingwa council. As it stands today, conceding the two vital positions to the two from Ngwa sub-clan has automatically favoured marginalisation of the Ukwa axis.
Remarkably, leading sons and daughters of Ukwa are known to have spoken forcefully in support of conceding power to the Ukwa-Ngwa bloc. Among those that had stridently made case for the power shift was Adolphus Wabara, former Senate president. In making the agitation, they had believed, and rightly, that with the governorship slot in one axis of the two, the senatorial ticket would go to the other divide. But with the emerging scenario in which Abaribe is said to have been assured of a return ticket to the Senate and Okezie, his Obingwa kinsman, touted for the governorship position, the Ukwa area has been virtually excluded from the key offices in the state.
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The danger in this crass insensitivity is huge. Ukwa, in the first instance, is natural revenue base for Abia. Aside from its rich agricultural and aquatic contributions to the coffers of the state, it also harbours the crude oil resources that qualify the state as an oil-producing state. The area is also endowed with immense human capital resource. Consequently, excluding its indigenes from key levels of decision-making processes in the state and, by extension, the federal level, may not augur well for political development in the state. The people, as it is, are justifiably having the impression that they are not being adequately recognised in the state’s power equation.
The immediate fallout of the situation is that there is the growing feeling of betrayal from among Ukwa people that their Ngwa brothers may have deceived them into believing that their support to secure a shift in the power equation of the state would guarantee equity and fairness in the way key political positions accruing to that political arrangement would be shared among the people in the zone. It is believed that the ministerial slot for the state has also been promised to a displaced Ngwa senator from Abia Central in exchange for her Senate position.
The plight of the Ukwa people is even made worse in the unfortunate development by the kind of leadership that former Senate president and illustrious son of the area is providing them. It is a well-known fact that good leaders are like oracles. They posses uncommon vision and are able to smell from distance harmful projections even before they are hatched.
In a recent interview granted by Wabara to a national daily, the former number three citizen in Nigeria had displayed a high degree of political naivety when he spoke sagaciously against dissenting voices in the power shift permutations in the state.
Today, as matters stand, those who had stood firmly against the obvious structural defects contained in the much-touted power rotation gambits in the state have been vindicated by the turn of events.
Watchers of political events in Abia State are of the view that Wabara’s political significance may have been whittled down by the present developments in the political firmament of Abia South senatorial zone. It is therefore imperative for Ukwa people to begin to look inwards with a view to critically assessing the challenge posed by the unfortunate scenario and working towards taking their destinies in their own hands. A credible alternative platform may provide the desired solution to mitigate this ugly development.
Emma Ogbuehi
