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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Leadership of various political blocs in Abia State are bickering over which zone would produce Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s successor in 2023.
Governor Ikpeazu is from Abia South senatorial zone. While Abia North is insisting the governorship seat should revert to the zone where it started in 1999, the people of Ukwa Ngwa bloc are insisting it is the turn of Ngwa in Abia Central.
Speaking in Aba during a political gathering of Ukwa Ngwa youths tagged: “Ike Ngwu 2022,” President, Supreme Council of Ukwa Ngwa Youths, Dannie Ubani, warned that any political party that fails to zone its 2023 governorship ticket to Ukwa Ngwa bloc in Abia State would lose the election.
Ubani insisted that 2023 is the turn of Ukwa Ngwa people to take another eight years at the governorship position to make them at par with their Old Bende brothers that occupied the seat for 16 uninterrupted years.
“Political parties are the vehicle through which political aspirations are actualised. We are making a clarion call and demand that for any political party to have the prospects, the hope and the promises of winning the next governorship election in Abia State, such political parties should show their seriousness by committing themselves to the ideals of fairness, justice and fair play by zoning their governorship ticket exclusively to Ukwa Ngwaland.
“Our stand is that the next governor will build on the foundations laid by Ikpeazu. In line with the Abia charter of equity, no other people deserve the governorship than the Ukwa Ngwa.”
Other speakers at the event such as Maduka Ezeibe and Chibuike Nwokeukwu, said political power should remain with the Ngwa bloc.
However, Abia North Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) elders have insisted that based on the Abia charter of equity, the governorship position must go back to Abia North in 2023.
In a recent statement, immediate past secretary to the state government, Eme Okoro, on behalf of the elders, buttressed the need for power to revert to Abia North where it started in 1999 to build peace, eschew bitterness, rancour and disunity among people of the state.
“Democratic ideals can only be achieved and made sustainable when justice, equity and fairness are on full display whenever democratic issues are at stake. As democrats, we are being tested today by the desire of some persons among us to pull down the strongest pillar of our brotherhood by trying to change the goalpost in the middle of the game just to favour a particular team.
“Since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999, many states, including Abia, have enjoyed peaceful rotation of power between and among the senatorial zones that make up each state. Different states call the arrangement different names to drive home the essence and benefits of rotating executive power among the zones. Some call it accord of power rotation; others call it peaceful rotation of power.
“In Abia, God’s Own State, it was aptly christened Abia charter of equity by our founding fathers.”
The elders appealed to Ikpeazu to work with other stakeholders and men of goodwill to ensure power rotates to Abia North in 2023 for justice, fairness and equity to prevail.
