Isiala Ngwa must not be shortchanged –Hon Enwereuzor 0 BY OUR REPORTER ON JULY 19, 2014 · POLITICS Chief Tony Enwereuzor is a former member representing Aba North and Aba South in the House of Representatives and a PDP governorship aspirant in Abia State in 2007. As the 2015 general election draws near, the political space in Abia State particularly the Ngwa area, where there is strong contention that the governorship should come from, is heating up. There has been permutation and counter permutation of which area the governorship should go to within the Ukwa/Ngwa enclave with some saying it should be for Ngwa people within Abia South senatorial zone, excluding those from the Central zone. Recently, Chief Enwereuzor had an interactive session with some journalists on this vexed issue. OKEY SAMPSON was there. Excerpts: What’s your opinion about the much talked about zoning of the governorship seat in Abia? Well, since the current administration started winding down so to say because we have a few months to the end, the governor has taken a position which everybody fills is fair and right and I was at Ngwa High school when the three local governments made up of Isiala Ngwa North, Isiala Ngwa South and Osisioma Ngwa Local Government gave him a reception, the governor said he was throwing the governorship position to the people of Ukwa/Ngwa zone and if you go back to history, you know that Abia State is politically divided into two blocs, the Old Bende and the Ukwa/Ngwa group. And nobody from the Ukwa/ Ngwa group, either in the military or civilian has ever, ever been a Chief executive of this state or any other state as was the practice during the military. So for this governor to say and repeat at many events that he is going to support people from Ukwa/ Ngwa zone, it is something that is highly commendable and I have every believe that Chief T.A Orji means it and it is now up to my people (Ukwa/ Ngwa) to put their acts together and brace up for the challenges ahead. There appears to be a consensus already among your people on where the governorship should come from going by what one of your prominent sons, Elder Emmanuel Adaelu said recently that the governorship is only for those who are from Abia South, excluding those from Abia Central. No such consensus had been reached and I must tell you that that statement credited to Elder Emmanuel Adaelu was very, very unfortunate because he is one of the respected persons in Ngwa land and his opinion many a times is taken very seriously but I think he missed the point because one would have expected Elder Adaelu to consult his people before making such statement. While not joining issues with him I think he is wrong again on the issue of governorship in Abia State as it concerns the Ngwa people. Example, in 2007, he conducted a straw poll in his house where I personally came first and the agreement was that whoever that came first out of nine of us would be forwarded to the party (PDP) as the sole candidate from the zone. I came first, rather than do that, he rushed to the then secretary of the party, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, who is still alive today and said unprintable things about my person, he said I did not have money, that I was involved in impeachment against former President Olusegun Obasanjo which is laughable because nobody impeached Obasanjo, but it was meant to disparage me and reduce my reputation and of course, he said I lacked the capacity to win election. He took the person who was third as the acceptable candidate and because his voice was loud and I didn’t know, Ojo Maduekwe adopted Chief Okezie Orji who came third and that is why we are where we are today; there was no reason why I wouldn’t have won the election by then. I said it is unfortunate again because the same thing is playing out now. Our senior brother (Elder Adaelu) should have consulted the people even if he feels otherwise and ask the opinion of the people. I am from Isiala Ngwa North, Ntigha is my village, in the history of this state, nobody from Isiala Ngwa has ever, ever achieved an executive position and of course, all these while from 1999 till date, all we (Ngwa people) have been is deputy, deputy, deputy. And in all these, they all came from the old Obioma Ngwa, nobody from Isiala Ngwa has ever been given an opportunity. I was so close to it, he truncated it on his own without considering the feelings of the people which I think was wrong. My concern now is that he is at it again. If we don’t say anything, this stand of his has the potential to derail the good thing we as people have laboured over the years to have. Since Isiala Ngwa people are said to be the head in Ngwa land, excluding them from the governorship race, would it amount to taking that which belongs to the first born and giving it to others, shouldn’t they be considered first? In fact in natural order that is how it should have been, but we are very fair minded people. All we have been asking for is to be given a level playing ground where all Ngwa sons and daughters will be able to participate. Maybe he (Elder Adaelu) is afraid that whoever he has in mind may not emerge in any straw poll to streamline the Ngwa people who want to run and therefore he forecloses as he would always do, the chances of somebody from Isiala Ngwa North and Isiala North South and this is unfortunate for somebody we hold in high esteem, somebody we think is our leader, I mean it calls to question the leadership which he portends to give to my people. Going by your question, nobody would know why he has done this; actually he is the one that is in the position to know why he has done this. First of all, it is wrong for him to assume that the people of Isiala Ngwa have nothing in the political stake of this state, it is absolutely wrong. In my own situation in 2007, its clear that he got a reward, he knows, he can not deny it. He got party patronage by the number of people he got into appointive and elective positions. Maybe, he has been offered again and it’s possible that this new package is why he believes he can railroad people of guided choice and that has the potential of exploding the political climate in this place and for a leader to have said this, I believe that Elder Adaelu should have consulted properly before coming out with the statement. What danger does his statement portend for Ukwa/Ngwa people with regard to the 2015 Abia governorship? Well, I’m not going to take his statement seriously; I’m going ahead with my ambition. He can do what he wants to do, but the party will also have a say. What the governor is looking up to is for people like him to advise him. You don’t concur on wrong things even when people assume things that are wrong, elder states person should say, hold it there, you do it that way. My worry is that for no reason in 2007, he truncated my ambition when he was the author of what happened. So I have this worry that he is zeroing his mind on somebody and that is not how leadership is sustained. When you become obviously partial, then you lose the moral high ground to allow people to accept you as a leader. As far as I know, Elder Adaelu is on his own in this matter because he can’t stop me nor can he stop any of our daughters or sons from Isiala Ngwa. Let me tell you something, in 1979, an Isiala Ngwa person was elected the deputy governor of old Imo state and it was a son from this same zone that took him to court and removed him. It’s painful and these actions call to mind those things that happen in those days and ever since, Dr. Bernard Amalaha was removed as late Dr. Sam Mbakwe’s deputy, nobody in Isiala Ngwa has gotten any elective position as on the executive arm. Ngwa people appear not united in their quest for the governorship of the state in 2015. If this continues, don’t you think it could erode the chances of Ngwa man becoming governor of Abia next year? Yes, that is why it calls to question, the leadership style of our senior brother, how he would allow himself to lose sight of history because he should have this at the back of his mind that the party can not stop anybody from running the primaries in this democratic setting. But the party has a way of appealing or making this thing be a merry go round. If he knows the full implication that what happened in his house was the reason everybody else got into the field in 2007, he shouldn’t have jumped into this foray without examining its serious implications. The implications are legion. He can’t stop me if I know that the process of stopping me is flawed. I can not be stopped by mere statement that the governorship is for the Abia South, said by whom? Is that what the PDP has said? The PDP has never said that Abia governorship is on senatorial basis. If you go to Rivers state, there are only two divides, upland, riverines and they all mix. The Ogonis are part of the senatorial zone that Chief Rotimi Amaechi comes from, but they are saying that Ogoni people deserve to be governor. The Degema, Abonima side, part of that local government is also with the Emoha people up to the Dr. Peter Odili side. You can not say the Degema man or the Abonima man who is riverine, because Dr. Odili has gone, he can not go. So where my senior brother got this feeling and it’s a fait accompli for him is what makes me feel sad. I’m saddened because it seems to me that he has lost sense of history of his people who have suffered tremendously. But the good thing is that he can not stop me, there are party rules, I buy my Form and he can’t stop anybody from that area who is serious to run and I know there are few who are serious to run. We expected him if he had wanted to exercise leadership to recall what he did in 2007 and say I’m going to do it right now and not to repeat it, jump into the bandwagon he served, said by who? And what is his basis of doing this to Ngwa people? And I emphasize that no Isiala person will accept this because you are now telling them they don’t belong anywhere. They are the proverbial bat; it’s neither a mammal nor a bird. The question I’m asking my brothers and sisters from Isiala Ngwa is that where are we in the political arrangement of Abia state? This is the first time it has been generally agreed in the state that the governorship should come to Ukwa/ Ngwa and the best thing could have been for us to come together and agree and if that is done, there will be no cause to grudge, but if you tell me I will not participate without any reason, I will have to exercise my right under the constitution, both of the party and of the country. Let it be known that my people are not going to accept what Elder Adaelu said. If a person from my area had lost out of consensus arrangement, we would have accepted that, but for a person to just wake up one morning and say the people of Isiala Ngwa who are the elder brothers of Ngwa people, should not be part of that process, we say no. As the elder brothers, Isiala Ngwa would have insisted that they should have the first shot since this is the first time the governorship is coming to Ngwa land, but being as liberal minded as we are, we are saying there should be a level playing field and whoever emerges based on that, we will support the person. But to say we should not be part of it, we will not accept that no matter the condition. The thing is that as long as we react this way and refuse the Adaelu concept of getting an Ngwa man, then the dangers are there. The danger number one is that everybody will be in the stadium to contest and it becomes a more expensive election, it becomes very dicey that it can even come here which will be unfortunate if it does not happen and that is why I still insist that Adaelu should recant the statement he made on the issue of 2015 governorship race in Abia.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 11:46:11 +0000
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