Last week in Owerri, the Imo state capital, President Muhammadu Buhari, while addressing a campaign rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC), caused a stir when he told the gathering, made up mostly APC members and supporters, to vote for any candidate of their choices “across party lines”. This statement was immediately interpreted by many to mean that the president is not in support of the governorship candidate of his party, APC, in the state, Senator Hope Uzodimma.
They argued that President Buhari made the statement in order to buoy the chances of Uche Nwosu, the son-in-law of the state governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, and governorship candidate of the Action Alliance, AA. Okorocha is strongly opposed the candidacy of Uzodimma and has publicly vowed to stop him from emerging as his successor. Although the presidency has since debunked the insinuation that Buhari is anti Uzodimma’s candidacy, the controversy generated by his statement on Tuesday, January 29 2019 at Dan Anyiam stadium, Owerri has lingered on.
Reports have it that the Nwosu/ Okorocha camp has been jubilating since then, apparently in the belief that the president’s statement was a veiled support for Nwosu. It is gathered that there are also celebrations in some quarters in the other three major political parties vying for the office of the state governor, notably, PDP APGA and ACCORD. However, majority of Imo indigenes, together with most keen watchers of the political terrain in the state, point out that President Buhari’s statement has further brought to the fore the debate over the propriety of another fellow from Orlu zone (where both Uzodimma and Nwosu come from) still emerging as the governor of the state at the forth coming general elections.
It is the view of a vast majority of citizens of the state that the office this time around should go to either of Owerri or Okigwe zone, given that Orlu has held the position for 16 years since the beginning of the current democratic dispensation in 1999. Save between 2007 and 2011 when Okigwe held the position through Governor Ikedi Ohakim, Orlu zone, many argue, has “monopolized”. The predecessor and successor of Ohakim, Achike Udenwa (1999-2007) and Rochas Okorocha (2011-2019) both come from the zone. The agitation for power shift in the state is not new but it has gotten to a crescendo in the current election season; with leaders in both Owerri and Okigwe zones apparently determined to stop at nothing to ensure that Orlu does not take back the office this time around.
Not unexpectedly, there are quite a number of influential and highly respected leaders in Orlu zone who are also standing firm in support of the move to end the zone’s apparent monopoly of the office. The arrow head of this tendency is a former governor of the state, Chief Achike Udenwa, himself a native of Orlu zone. Udenwa has repeatedly argued in favour of the office of the governor getting out of Orlu. At a recent campaign rally of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Chief Udenwa told the audience that “any fellow from Owerri or Okigwe zone who votes for an Orlu governorship candidate is a fool”.
The language may appear too strong but many observers believe that it captures the mood among a vast majority of the people in the two areas – Owerri and Okigwe. Incidentally, Udenwa is a beneficiary of a deliberate policy of rotating the office of the governor among the three zones of Orlu, Okigwe and Owerri, beginning from Orlu in 1999. As a matter of fact, the story, which every school boy in Imo would easily real out, is that in the primary election of the PDP in 1999, a candidate from Owerri zone came first but that the then leaders of the party decided to give the ticket to Udenwa in order to kick start a charter of equity they had envisaged would be strickly adhered to in the course of the new republic.
The choice of Orlu zone for the beginning of the new experiment was informed by the fact that in the immediate past two democratic dispensations (the second republic and the hybrid third republic), both Okigwe and Owerri zones had produced the state chief executives: Okigwe through Sam Mbakwe (1979-1983) and Owerri through Evan Enwerem. To underscore the resolve of political leaders in the state to cede the office of the governor to Orlu zone in 1999, even the then All Peoples Party (APP), PDP’s only rival, also chose its governorship candidate from Orlu zone in the person of Ezekiel Izuogu.
Another chieftain of the PDP in Orlu zone who is also for the office of the state governor moving out of the area is Chief Greg Mbadiwe, former Nigerian Ambassador to Congo Brazaville. Mbadiwe, who was a frontline contender for the office in the match towards the current republic (he contested with Udenwa and others, including the current governor, Rochas Okorocha), says he is supporting the candidate of his party, Emeka Ihedioha, who happens to come from Owerri zone and that “if that gives credence to the argument in favour of zoning and equity, I would like to be part of it”.
Similarly, a former chairman of the PDP in the state, Dr. Alex Obi, is of the view that “it is totally wrong and against moral judgment for the office of the Imo state governor to return to Orlu zone in 2019. Orlu has had it for 16 years at a stretched. It is only proper that another zone be given a chance, this time around Owerri zone. Okigwe has held it for a total period of eight years through Mbakwe and Ohakim but Owerri has held it for only 30 months. Power sharing is important for stability and apart from its intrinsic value, it is necessary for development. If we ignore power sharing, we will be putting the stability of the state at great jeopardy”
However, another political leader in Owerri zone, Captain David Mbamara (Rrtd), himself a former governorship candidate, holds a view that is remarkably different from that of Obi. Mbamara agrees that the office of the governor has to move out of Orlu but not necessarily to Owerri zone as prescribed by Obi. The retired army officer is of the view that the office should go to Okigwe zone in 2019 to enable the area do a total of eight years. Reminded that Mbakwe and Ohakim had already given Okigwe zone a total of eight years, Mbamara said it is wrong to bring in Mbakwe’s tenure into the current calculations.
According to him, “the critical period being considered is that of between 1999 and now or at worst back to the Enwerem days”. He explains that Mbakwe governed the old Imo state which included the current Abia state and part of the present-day Ebonyi state and during which period the Imo charter of equity had not yet come into existence. “As far as some of us are concerned, it is Okigwe zone that is at the receiving end. The zone was unjustly deprived of doing a second term to catch up with Orlu. The same Orlu has done another eight years. I think the most sensible thing to do in order to correct the anomaly is to allow Okigwe zone to do another term of four years. Then it comes to Owerri, my own zone”.
Another indigene of Owerri zone, and US-based communications expert, Prof. Anthony Njoku, is of the view that the cry of marginalization by Owerri zone is “orchestrated”. He says: “if we are to be sincere to our selves, Owerri zone has benefited the most in the current democratic dispensation. Between 1999 and now, it has produced a senate president, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives and four ministers. This is aside the fact that Owerri, the state capital, and its environs have a chunk of the physical infrastructural development in the state. Almost all the adjoining towns and villages are turning into urban areas.
Go to Naze up to Agbala in Owerri North; go to Owerri west which habours two federal tertiary institutions and see the transformations in these areas. The cost of land in these areas has risen by more than 300% in the last ten years. That’s an obvious advantage compared with Okigwe and Orlu zones. We all agree that the office of the governor should rotate and that it will come to Owerri zone is as sure as that tomorrow will come. What we should do in the time being is to have an open mind and show less desperation”.
However, another chieftain of the PDP in Okigwe zone, Dr. Fabian Ihekweme, is of a contrary view. Ihekweme, leader of the breakaway New PDP in the state, argues that the idea of zoning has not been properly articulated and that as such, the state has to start all over again by going back Orlu zone where it all began from. Incidentally, Ihekweme led his breakaway group into the APC at the January 29, 2019 rally. But if these men are seen as talking out of partisan interest, the same cannot be said of Mr. Kanayo Esinulo, a veteran journalist, writer and acclaimed commentator on public affairs.
Esinulo is of the view that “for the sake of equity, the governorship should go outside Orlu zone after residing there for 16 years in the current dispensation”. Continuing, Esinulo, who was the chief press secretary to the late Biafran leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu- Ojukwu, and was in exile with the Biafran leader for ten years said: “mind you, I come from Orlu but I have always tried to be just and fair and remain loyal to certain values the good people of Imo state share”. Throughout the length and breadth of the state, there is an overwhelming argument against an Orlu governor in 2019 but at the same time a lot of fears are being entertained over the matter.
These fears stem mostly from the fact that the political establishments at both the state and federal levels seem not to be enamoured by the call for equity in the state. The first to swim against the tide is the state governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha who is pushing his so-in-law, Nwosu to succeed him. In the count down to the party primaries last year, Okorocha, worked very hard to Nwosu emerge as the governorship candidate of the APC but a coalition of stakeholders in the party, which was battling with the governor over sundry issues, resisted him.
The coalition, which was made up mostly of prominent politicians from both Owerri and Okigwe zones, had as its ultimate objective not only to ensure that the governor’s son-in-law did not emerge as the APC’s governorship candidate, but also that no other fellow from Orlu zone took the ticket. Among these politicians were Okorocha’s deputy, Eze Madumere, who had become estranged from him over the same issue of succession, Ifeanyi Araraume, who was vigorously pursuing the party’s governorship ticket, Osita Izunaso, the then national organizing secretary of the party and Senator Ben. Uwajumogu, another former ally of Okorocha but whom later fell out with him.
At a point, however, Senator Hope Uzodimma, representing Orlu zone (Imo West) in the national assembly, joined the coalition but he was not quite visible, amid insinuations in certain quarters that he was in cahoots with Okorocha to help the latter install his son-in-law in exchange for a return ticket to the senate. Thus, with such an array of personalities, there were high hopes among the people that Okorocha’s plans were bound to fail. But that came only by half. The coalition succeeded in preventing Okoracha’s son-in-law from clinching the APC’s governorship ticket but it failed to ensure that another Orlu zone fellow did not grab it.
Instead, Senator Uzodimma, after a big tussle with Okorocha, took the ticket. Undaunted, however, the governor took his boy and a motley of strategic stakeholders in the APC to another party, the Action Alliance (AA), where Nwosu promptly grabbed a governorship ticket. The governor and his son-in-law have since transmogrified the hitherto unknown AA into a party to watch as far as the 2019 general elections are concern. Today, the party boasts of an avalanche of state-of-the-art vehicles branded in its name and campaign images and exotic bill boards ubiquitously placed at strategic positions across the state.
As a matter of fact, not a few believe, rightly or wrongly, that Okorocha may well succeed in his plan to impose Nwosu on the state as its next governor, regardless of the noticeable exploits of the candidates of the other parties, notably PDP, ACCORD, APGA and APC where Uzodimma is equally mounting a formidable campaign. As the official candidate of the APC, which controls the federal government, Uzodimma certainly enjoys a lot of advantage. Against the back drop of insinuations that the APC has concluded plains to take advantage of its incumbency to rig the presidential election in its favour, not a few believe that Uzodimma will automatically emerge as governor once President Buhari is pronounced winner of the February 16 2019 election; despite Okorocha’s repeated vows that Uzodimma can only become the governor over his, Okorocha’s, “dead body”.
Even so, the determination of Okorocha to produce his successor himself is no less worrisome, in as much as many observers think it is a tall order. For many, therefore, what this mean in effect is that it would be naïve to completely dismiss the possibility of the next governor of the state still coming from Orlu zone, either through Nwosu of AA or Uzodimma of the APC. Before last Tuesday, the worry in several quarters in the state was the apparent connivance of the presidency and the APC national leadership over some of the antics of the Okorocha-Nwosu camp. The latter had nearly succeeds in creating the impression that the presidency is backing Nwosu. The state is inundated with bill boards and posters carrying the photographs of Nwosu and that of President Buhari together.
Although the Uzodimma camp also has similar bill boards and posters, they do not match the ubiquity of that of Nwosu; fueling insinuations in some quarters, especially among anti Uzodimma elements, that Okorocha might have gotten assurances from some powerful quarters in Abuja that Buhari will eventually back Nwosu, a belief fueled by the event of last Tuesday regardless of the fact that at the same venue, the APC National chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, announce that the party is not in alliance with any other.
As things stand, there is mounting anxiety in the state over what some observers see as an apparent insensitivity on the part of both the presidency and the national leadership of the APC to fears among the people of Okigwe and Owerri zones over the possible emergence of another governor from Orlu zone. It is difficult to say what precise actions the far majority of Imolites, who hanker for a change, may take but the tension arising from the current situation is quite palpable.
However, it is not all despondency. Some well meaning citizens of the state are working towards a strategic alliance between Owerri and Okigwe together with some elements in Orlu to ensure that the office those not return to Orlu. Prominent in this is the ongoing talks among some leaders in Owerri zone to draft the immediate past governor of the state, Ikedi Ohakim, into an arrangement that will have him elected as the next governor so as to pave way for a fellow from Owerri zone 2023. Ohakim is from Okiwge zone.
Highly reliable sources revealed to this newspaper that some notable leaders in Owerri zone have decided to back Ohakim in his bid to return to the office he was schemed out from in 2011. It was learnt that the Owerri leaders came to this decision after realizing that the most visible governorship candidate from the zone, Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP, is lacking in acceptability across the state.
Ihedioha’s candidacy is suffering a setback in Owerri zone and even right in Mbaise where he comes from. The dusts raised by the October 1, 2018 governorship primaries is yet to settle as Senator Samuel Anyanwu is still insisting that he was manipulated out of the primary election. Only a few days ago, the Supreme Court ruled against an appeal by Ihedioha for a discontinuation of the case at the state high court. What this means, according to observers, is that Ihedioha may well fly the flag of the party but he may not enjoy the support of members of the Senator Anyanwu camp. Incidentally, the breakaway New PDP which joined the APC at the Owerri rally last Tuesday is made up mostly of supporters of Senator Anyanwu.
It is in a bid to forestall the possible emergence of either Nwosu or Uzodimma, sources reveal, that some Owerri leaders decided to go into this strategic alliance with Ohakim and ensure that he succeeds in his return bid. The attraction is that since Ohakim has only one more term of four years to do, he will prepare to handover to Owerri zone after his tenure in 2023.
Sources revealed that Owerri zone leaders believe that their plan will get the blessing of their Okigwe counterparts, the final calculation being that with the coming together of Owerri and Okigwe zones, along with the cooperation of elements in Orlu zone who are against the emergence of another Orlu zone fellow as governor, Ohakim stands shoulders high over Uzodimma and Nwosu.
Yet these remain mere strategies. Whether they will succeed or not lies in the bowel of time especially as the Orlu zone candidates and their supporters are also plotting their respective ways with almost the same level of determination. In the time being, however, one thing that is clear is that whoever emerges as the next governor of the state will face a Herculean task of restoring social and political harmony among a people that were hither to reputed as among the most peace -loving in the entire country.