Abia Charter of Equity tears political leaders apart

As the 2023 general elections draw closer, the issue of which zone will produce the next governor of Abia State is threatening the relative peace in the oil-producing state.

Torn apart and at each other’s throats are the Old Bende zone and Aba zone.

The second term of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who is from Aba zone (Ngwa), will expire in May 2023.

BusinessDay gathered that his kinsmen, the Ukwa-Ngwa zone, are rooting for another eight years to correct what they termed the “imbalance” in the administration of the state, which, according to them, saw Old Bende, comprising Abia central and Abia North, occupy the seat of power for 18 years, and Aba zone having it for only eight years.

The root cause of the current imbroglio is said to be the statement made recently by the immediate past Governor, Theodore Orji, now a senator, that it was the turn of Abia North to produce the next governor.

He said this was in tandem with the state’s ‘Charter of Equity’ said to have been signed on August 2, 1981, by political leaders at the time they were lobbying for the creation of the state.

But his stance has pitched him against the political stakeholders of Ukwa-Ngwa zone who are insisting that the Old Aba Zone should produce Ikpeazu’s successor in 2023.

Orji was said to have invited some key political stakeholders from the 17 Local Government Areas in the state to his Umuahia country home penultimate Sunday where he told them that power had to go back to Abia North in 2023, in keeping with Abia Charter of Equity.

He was said to have expressed rage at those opposed to the prevailing zoning arrangement in the state, describing any attempt to change the formula as “a dangerous voyage”.

Orji, who facilitated the emergence and eventual victory of Ikpeazu in 2015, was said to have expressed anger over moves by the Ukwa-Ngwa zone to retain power beyond 2023, vowing that such injustice should not be allowed.

He reportedly told the gathering to return to their various communities with the message that power must return to Abia North in 2023.

The position of the former governor received applause from political players present at the meeting as echoes of ‘Father of Equity rented the atmosphere,” according to witnesses.

”Again Senator Orji has sent a clear signal to all those scheming to truncate Abia Charter of Equity recommended by our founding fathers that they are on their own,” Ifeanyi Umere, one of his loyalists said.

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But the former governor’s position did not go down well with the Ukwa-Ngwa zone, as they insisted that power should rotate between Umuahia and Aba zones.

Among those rooting for the return of power to Ukwa-Ngwa are Nkechi Nwogu, a one-time senator and current chairman, Governing Council, University of Calabar; Enyinnaya Abaribe, Senate minority leader, and Max Nduaguibe.

Those in support of power rotation to Abia north include former governors Theodore Orji and Orji Uzor Kalu; Mao Ohuabunwa, a former senator; and Benjamin Kalu, chairman House of Representatives Committee on Media and Publicity, who is said to be nursing a governorship ambition.

In its response to the senator, the Ukwa-Ngwa Leaders of Thought said, “Eighteen years of Umuahia (old Bende) Zone to eight years of Aba Zone cannot be equity.”

They insisted in a letter signed by Kenneth Nkoro, chairman, and Henry Irondi, secretary, that any other interpretation amounted to attempts to distort the meaning and intentions of the Abia Charter Equity.

They cited the Abia Charter of Equity, which was quoted as saying that “the principle behind the Charter of Equity was that power should rotate between Aba and Umuahia (old Bende), the two parties to the agreement which pre-dated the creation of Abia State 10 years later.”

The group said, “The record of the civilian governorship of Abia State shows Umuahia (Old Bende) Zone has dominated so much that equation does not balance. Umuahia has produced Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, two years of January 1992-November 1993; Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, eight years of May 1999 to May 2007; Dr Theodore Orji, another eight years of May 2007 to May 2015. It adds up to 18 years. Aba Zone has had only Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, who will complete eight years from May 2015 to May 2023.

“What type of equity equates eight years to 18 years? Was equity absent when Umuahia Zone had the governorship for 18 years? Another eight years for Umuahia Zone would be 26 years for Umuahia Zone and eight years for Aba Zone. We do not see any equity in that proposal.”