Historically, zoning or rotation came into Nigerian political lexicon at the front burner in the mass media in the second republic when the concept of zoning of political offices was first introduced by the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) primarily to reduce friction associated with diverse inter-ethnic nationalities in the country.
Also, during a National Constitutional Conference, a fallout from the annulment of the June 12 1993 presidential election, seasoned administrators, technocrats and elderstatesmen which included Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Solomon Lar, Chief Bola Ige, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, canvassed for rotating the presidency between the North and the South and specifically among the six geopolitical zones (north-central, north-east, north-west, south-east, south-south, and south-west).
In the words of the current National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, “the zoning principle attained a healthy climax with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) led government, under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo”
The pan-Igbo Spokesman recalled “during the Obasanjo democratic era, zoning of political party offices was also displayed publicly to the admiration of all the participants.
“The zoning principle also applied to the ministries of the federal government, such that some ministries, categorized as Grade A, B, C, etc were resolved across the six geo-political zones of the country to ensure balance, equity and national loyalty; and even down to the federal boards and parastatals.
“The zoning system was so promoted that it was incorporated into the the constitution of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The APC, in order to beat the PDP in their own game, in 2014 zoned their presidential candidate to the North and the Vice Presidential candidate to the South and that was the APC trump card for the 2015 general election”, he noted.
Today, in Enugu State which is the centre of this piece, political tension is growing and zoning is being played up consequently polarizing political leaders in the state as they strategize ahead of the 2023 governorship election.
Interestingly both pro and anti-zoning system elements are anchoring on justice, equity and fairness to actualize their dream.
While the people of Enugu East Senatorial zone are insisting that it is their turn to produce the next governor after the incumbent (Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi) the loyalists to Senator Ike Ekweremadu are vehemently opposed to it, arguing that zoning of governorship was never followed and if at all, was not in a written document. They further said that since zoning has gone round the three zones, namely; Enugu-East, Enugu West and Enugu North, the tick for governorship should be thrown open for meritocracy to reign.
The third leg in the theory of zoning in the state is that the people of Enugu North senatorial zone are saying that equity, justice and fairness demand that the next round of rotating or zoning should begin from them, as they had waited for so long to come to the saddle.
Investigation by this reporter reveals that within the Enugu East Senatorial zone there is an underground fierce battle between the people of Isi-Uzo local government area and the core Nkanus who geographically occupy Enugu-East, Enugu South, Nkanu West, Nkanu East Local government areas.
Majority of the core Nkanus perceive people of Isi-Uzo local government area as Nsukka stock because of their affinity hence a governor of an Isi Uzo local government area is like a continuation of Enugu North Senatorial zone reign. These people, however, are slow to see reason that some people from Isi Uzo local government area also have cultural ties with the Nkanus.
Perhaps, it is against the aforementioned backdrop that many professionals and political office seekers are beginning to fault the misconception of the word “East” by pundits in x-raying the current politics of Coal City State.
For instance, a governorship aspirant in the State under the umbrella of PDP, Professor Jehu Onyekwere Nnaji, demanded that all the six Local Government Areas that make up Enugu East Senatorial Zones should be given a level playing ground to produce the next governor in 2023.
Professor Nnaji who spoke through telephone from Rome where he had gone for consultations, said, “I discovered that while the Governor of Enugu State Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and his predecessors have jointly affirmed that the next Governor of Enugu State will come from Enugu East Senatorial District that some persons have become misguided.
The Law guru remarked, “This misconception stems from the fact that they deliberately give a different meaning to ‘East’ by thwarting the East in Enugu East to mean Nkanu East local government or Enugu East local government while emphasizing only ‘East’ by eliminating the preceding taxonomy ‘Enugu’ and replacing it with Nkanu or by simply implying that Enugu East is to be understood as being a reference to the Local Government and not the Senatorial District” .
According to Professor Nnaji, ‘Some unscrupulous persons have gone further to draw non existent genealogical links between Isi-Uzo and Enugu East while others disassociate the cultural links between Nsukka and Isi-Uzo so as not to undermine Isi-Uzo in the current Gubernatorial considerations.
“All these tendentious permutations of concocting a different meaning to ‘East’ nomenclature will snowball into a new scenario of agitation within the Enugu East Senatorial District which will add to the heat in the polity especially when most in Enugu East Senatorial District view Senator Ekweremadu’s ambition to be inordinate knowing full well that Enugu West is not to be in the consideration in the scheme of things in the next gubernatorial elections of 2023.
“These situations and the dangers they portend have taken different dimensions as other political mischief makers have hijacked Enugu Politics seeing that Enugu is embroiled in determining how to roll out its long established Governorship zoning system which revolves around the three Senatorial Zones in a cyclic manner.
“Most of these mischief makers are not from Enugu and have migrated to Enugu from adjoining States of Ebonyi,Anambra,Abia and Imo.
“While we are not at war with our brothers and sisters from nearby Igbo speaking states that make up the Southeast of Nigeria, it has become pertinent to state that most of these mushroom political pundits and opinion leaders have established various whatsapp platforms, fake blogsites and other social media platforms and in some cases place calls to potential aspirants seeking money and other gratifications from them to promote them to emerge as favourite gubernatorial candidates.
“This they do by conducting fake opinion polls and ascribing fictitious marks to any aspirant(s) they have conned to pronounce them as the winning aspirants .
“While the Governor of Enugu is a distinguished politician that knows his onions and can’t be swayed by such obnoxious and mendacious poll results, the danger is that the unsuspecting public might be taken in by such fake postulations.
“It is time to nip such actions in the bud and put paid to such polls by nefarious individuals who want to heat up the polity of Enugu State and take advantage of its fragmentation therefrom.
The question in the lips of many people in Enugu and even beyond is, will zoning be altered in Enugu State in 2023?
In an interview with Mazi Kindness Jonah, a Civil Rights Activist based in Enugu, he said that for peace to reign in the state, zoning should be allowed to continue but a credible person should be given opportunity to emerge.
“There are highly intelligent people from Enugu East Senatorial District like Professor Jehu Onyekwere Nnaji and Professor Barth Nnaji from Nkanu West and Nkanu East local governments respectively, citing example of last Anambra gubernatorial poll where Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo beat other contestants”, he added.
Both Professors Jehu Nnaji and Barth Nnaji have wonderful pedigrees.
Professor Barth, renowned robotics engineer and former Minister of Power while Professor Jehu, a professor of International law and diplomacy was a grant recipient of the Foundazione Mediterraneo, Naples, Italy and distinguished professor/ visiting scholar of the University of Kansas law school USA,
“With the unfolding events, there is permutation that there is likely going to be a battle of wits between the trio of Professors Jehu, Barth and Senator Ekweremadu, the aspirations of the likes of Mr Peter Mbah, Hon Chijioke Edoga, Chief Chinyaka Ohaa, among others, notwithstanding”, he added.
Now that PDP has swept all the 17 local government chairmanship and Councillorship seats in the just concluded local government poll, will zoning take centre stage at its primaries especially with the galaxy of aspirants in the party? Time, so to say, will tell.
