Between the Imo chapter of equity and the Orlu zone governorship aspirants

Before the last governorship election in Imo State, the incumbent governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, while on a campaign trail, had assured the people of the state, particularly the people of the Owerri zone, that the seat would come to their zone after his tenure. The political promise that the governor made was what every fair-minded citizen of the state should agree with without any equivocation.

Imo State is made up of three senatorial districts -the Imo West senatorial district otherwise known as the Orlu zone, the Imo East senatorial district otherwise known as the Owerri zone and the Imo North senatorial district otherwise known as the Okigwe zone.

Just like a one-time former deputy governor, Prince Eze Madumere, in his recent article, succinctly wrote that the Orlu zone has dominated the governorship seat for about 21 years in the present fourth republic democratic dispensation, which is about 26 years. The Okigwe zone had the seat for four years, and the Owerri zone had it for almost eight months.

Therefore, as the next governorship election of late 2027 draws closer by the day, equity, justice, fairness, and every adjective suitable for what is good demand that the seat should rotate to either Owerri zone or Okigwe zone, particularly the former, since the zone had governed the state for a cumulative 29 months between Evan Enwerem’s 22 months and Emeka Ihedioha’s 7 months in the history of the old Imo State created in 1976.

Recently, some governorship aspirants from the Orlu zone have been expressing their interest in the seat after the tenure of the incumbent. Granted that the Constitution of Nigeria entitles every eligible citizen of the state to aspire to the position irrespective of the Imo charter of equity. However, nobody with a conscience will support the aspirations of those from the Orlu zone to take over from the incumbent when his tenure expires in January 2028.

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The implausible argument in some quarters is that Governor Uzodimma himself also took over from the then Governor Rochas Okorocha, who is also from the same Orlu zone, so why can’t they aspire to the position and replicate what Uzodimma did?

What happened in 2019 and what will happen in 2027 would be different. Uzodimma’s case was a peculiar case. He came on a rescue mission to save the state from the inordinate ambition of a particular family to appropriate the state as a personal property. Without the intervention of Governor Uzodimma, Uche Nwosu would be the governor of the state to date. If Uzodimma didn’t wrest the All Progressives Congress (APC) state structure from the then Governor Okorocha, Uche Nwosu would have been unchallenged for the ticket of the APC. And if that had happened, Ihedioha himself wouldn’t have tasted the seat for the seven months that he was there. The combined might of the then federal and state governments would have bulldozed Uche Nwosu straight into the Government House.

Senator Uzodimma had wanted to return to the Senate in 2019, but when he witnessed the state about to be annexed as a personal property, he jettisoned the senatorial ambition and plunged head-on into the governorship position. His intervention was fortuitous because he had the necessary connections to those who controlled the levers of power in the party at the federal level.

Against this backdrop, Uzodimma’s intervention in 2019 cannot be juxtaposed with the current quest for the governorship seat from those from the Orlu zone. None of the rumoured governorship aspirants from the Orlu zone has the kind of political gravitas that Uzodimma had in 2019. Recently, there’s a news report that a former managing director of an interventionist agency had expressed his interest in the governorship position. The reports alluded to the fact that people in the diaspora who could not even vote during the election were the ones promoting his governorship ambition. I laughed in Greek because the man has never contested any election before in his life, and he wants to begin his political adventure with the governorship ambition even if the incumbent is from the same Orlu zone as himself. I wish him the best of luck.

Maduako, writes from Owerri via [email protected] (08061562735)