On Friday July 12, some People’s Democratic Party(PDP) chieftains organized what could be called “Imo Summit” of Imo Charter of Equity”. According to what we picked from sundry sources, one of the objectives of the summit was to restore or reinstate what they called the moribund Imo “Charter of Equity” which was a Pan-Imo Accord between the three federating Senatorial Zone of the State. According to the conveners of the ill-fated summit,the three zones Okigwe, Orlu and Owerri Zones had agreed to rotate the office of Governor among themselves.What has come to me as a shock is that the PDP allowed political interest to kill an idea which would have played a great role in uniting the people of the three senatorial zones. It is a shock that the members of PDP are unable to differentiate their party’s agenda from a Pan-Imo Agenda of the entire people of Imo State. It is baffling and perplexing that any group of people could set out to embark on such an agenda without deferring to a sitting Governor whose tenure would be affected by whatever decision are reached in the so-called summit. Yet the ragtag event was patronized by some respected citizens including notable Professors and Attorneys- at – law and several others from various walks of life. Details of what transpired in the summit are still unfolding but I’ll be mortally disorientated if some of the Professors whose names were mentioned on the radio promo actually attended the summit.
As stated above, I had once made a case for a Pan Imo Summit which o called a Sovereign National Conference of Imo People which I described as a platform that would help to bind us together before a greater SNC for the Igbo nation and ultimately the greatest of them all – an octopus SNC of the entire people of Southern Nigeria. So, it rankles that this great idea has been killed in the pupa stage and destroyed by a group of politicians whose only agenda in politics is to feather their nests to the exclusion of the masses. Otherwise, how could any right thinking person embark on such a wild goose chase without having the humility to liaise with an incumbent state governor. It is only in a Mobocracy– a government without a leader- that such absurdly/aberration can be imagined.
The entire charade would have been applauded if they had held the jamboree in their party secretariat because it’s a family affair and PDP is well known as a party that approaches everything from the prism of a family affair cum esprit de corps. It is deplorable that a political party made up of very important personalities in the land did not feel any qualm of conscience in making efforts to force rotten yoghurt down the throats of the citizenry. It is more shameful and debilitating that some philosopher kings and intelligentsia in the land were accessories to this heinous ploy of forcing some quantity of hemlock down the throats of the unsuspecting and much maligned citizenry of Imo State. Or how else can you rationalize a scenario where some respected academics were mentioned as guest speakers?
The pertinent question is: Has there been any such thing as “Imo Charter of Equity” in the political evolution of Imo State? Who were the signatories? Where was the venue of the summit and can we take a look at the communiqué which, of course, should be a legal document duly signed, sealed, and delivered. Can the PDP group kindly place it on some of their gossip newspaper tabloids which have become the veritable trumpeters of propaganda to enable us take a peep into this document. This demand becomes pertinent because the PDP group is not talking of a prewar accord. They are talking of a charter that took place even when Dee Sam Mbakwe was here. So, they are not talking of a Methuselah charter but a charter that took place just yesterday and yet most of us are unable to take cognizance of such a landmark event.
The first time the present Imo State produced a civilian governor was in 1991 when Chief Evans Enwerem of the National Republic Convention emerged governor. His troubled and tempestuous tenure ended in December 1992? or so. In fact, throughout his tenure, he was in court against Dr. Alex Obi and Engineer Ezekiel Izuogu both of who were in the governorship tribunal to oppose his election victory. At that era, Nigeria operated a diarchy, a hybrid of civilian and military rule; while the states had elected civilian governors, General Babangida remained the Military-President-cum-Commander-in-Chief. However, General Babangida suddenly disbanded the diarchy and the class of Enwerem governors was sacked. So, in summary, the so- called Imo Charter Equity Accord was not yet there in the regimes of Dee Sam Mbakwe (Ph.D.) and Senator Evan Enwerem.
Achike Udenwa Regime: Chief Achike Udenwa was governor of Imo State from May 29th 1999-May 29th 2007). In the governorship election of 1999, there were candidates from the three senatorial zones of IMO State, but Chief Achike Udenwa won the poll. In 2003, Dee Sam Mbakwe caused a stir when he announced that it was the turn of Okigwe zone to produce a governor.In fact, Chief Sam Mbakwe actually bought spaces in the newspapers where he presented his son, Engineer Alex Mbakwe, as the next governor of Imo State.This particular action by Chief Sam Mbakwe proved beyond doubt that there was no existing pact on zoning of the governorship in Imo State as at year 2003, otherwise Chief Mbakwe would not have breached the accord because Dee Mbakwe was an accomplished gentleman and acclaimed Attorney- at- law. Furthermore, by the time Chief Achike Udenwa served out his tenure on May 29, 2007, there was no time Imo people came together to adopt a zoning arrangement that would be binding on all political parties in Imo State.
Chief Ikedi Ohakim Regime: After an exhaustive rummaging of my records, I wish to state with vehemence that Chief Ohakim actually banished the idea of zoning of the governorship in Imo State.While delivering his inaugural address on June 4, 2007, Governor, Ikedi Ohakim said: “Zones and zoning will disappear except as a means of electing senators to office and achieving a geographical spread in both the things we do and things we share. Preoccupation with where people come from is a disease that afflicts little minds. Henceforth, we will see Imo State as one people with a common destiny (Statesman Newspaper of Thursday, June 7, 2007: 13).
With this statement, Chief Ikedi Ohakim sounded a death knell on the governorship zoning in Imo State. Even if there was any zoning arrangement at the time, Governor Ohakim abolished it. Whereas there has been no Charter of Equity by NDIMO since Governor Ohakim was sacked on May 6th, 2011, the official position now is that there has never been any Pan zoning pact in Imo State. On the strength of the above clarification, I can confidently state without any fear of contradiction that I have proved there has never been an Imo Charter of Equity-Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
However, the above proof is without prejudice to the fact that the various political parties are free to agree on zoning. Zoning is a purely gentleman agreement which is binding in honour only because such a pact is not justiceable as no court may recognize it. But no political party has a right to force other political parties to adopt their in-house rules and manifesto. Since the PDP parade themselves as a party that will rule Nigeria for 60 years, they should not force a cup of hemlock down the throat of other political parties. In a democratic and pluralistic dispensation, it is only natural that the weaker political parties will choose their governorship candidates from a zone outside the PDP preferred zone. This is simple logic. This is the only way these smaller political parties can be competitive and capture market share. So, PDP should stop playing the dog in the manager. It should not poke nose into other party’s affairs. The PDP habit of becoming a meddlesome interloper in other political parities’ affair is unacceptable.
Governor Okorocha’s Regime: On the strength of the immutable facts canvassed above, it becomes a truism that Owelle Okorocha’s emergence as Governor in 2011 was not a breach of any aspect of either the 1999 constitution (as amended) or the Electoral Act. His victory reinforces the fact that no party can foist a candidate on another party. Since the zoning formular is not known to the constitution and one cannot breach a non-existent law, Owelle Okorocha’s victory in the 2011 poll is without blemish; it’s not tainted, it’s a victory of the highest quality.
The landmark achievements of Governor Okorocha have shown that zoning is a veritable stumbling block to our development as a nation. Zoning is a euphemism for incompetency and the enthronement of mediocrity in governance. It has become a way of disenfranchising the electorate by shriveling and narrowing down the choice of candidates during voting. Democracy is driven by choice while zoning is inimical and incompatible with choice, so, the emphasis on zoning in a democracy is an anathema, a misnomer especially at the State level, where we are all members of a family. However, at the Federal level, zoning makes a lot of sense because of the complex and heterogeneous nature of the socio-politico-cultural milieu from which we operate. Even at that, it is not feasible for zoning to be imposed on any political party in regard to the Presidency.
We have since discovered that zoning is a subtle way of shutting the masses out of the seat of power. It enables the filthy wealthy to perpetuate themselves in power for as long as they desire. Having looted the patrimony of state, they use this stolen money to become MUGABEs in politics. Think of a scenario where a councillorship position has been zoned to a particular politician, he becomes a councilor. Next time he uses his wealth to zone the local government chairmanship to himself.From there he zones the state assembly seat to himself and proceeds to the National assembly. From there he becomes a state governor. After serving out his legislative tenure in national assembly, he becomes a governor; he zones the senate to himself. When a ministerial vacancy occurs or federal appointment, he is the first choice. While this brigandage endures, the masses who are victims of financial impecuniosity watch as bystanders as if they were outcasts. So if zoning should be considered, it must have the face of equity and sanity. If you have ever occupied one office, allow others to take a shot at other openings. So, zoning as practised today in Imo State is unacceptable as it is a process through which political power rotates among a select few to the exclusion of the majority. This dichotomy persists because the real men of integrity are unable to mobilize the huge amount needed to buy the form mere declaration of interest in any elective office. In this way, the financially vulnerable are shut of power.
Imo state is composed of several subsets. So, the issue of zoning must be all embracing. Why should the chairmanship of Nigeria Bar Association, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Nigeria Society of Engineers or even Academic Staff Union of Universities and others not be zoned? In Journalism, a particular zone has always produced the State Chairman. Do other zones not have journalists? These are pertinent issues which must not be swept under the carpet. So, it is myopic to think of zoning from the prison of who becomes governor of Imo State. On a related note,Owerri Municipality has eleven wards out of which only four wards belong to the Owerri Nchi Ise or natives. In this scenario, is there any reason that a person from the other 26 Local Government Areas cannot be chairman of Owerri municipal council? The same applies to Orlu and Okigwe Municipal Councils. In fact, I do not think any indigene of Onitsha has ever been Chairman of Onitsha Municipal Council. Why must the chairmanship of Owerri Municipal, Orlu Municipal and Okigwe Municipal Councils be a special birth right of the natives. So, if we have remembered to adopt internal democracy, we must go full blast rather than use it to perpetuate some political bigwigs in the corridors of power.
So, it is not as simplistic as we tend to think. We must set up a Think Tank of men of impeccable and unimpeachable integrity to do the spade work. The time is not auspicious for any full blown discussion of zoning. At a time Imo politicians should hide their heads in shame for inability to conduct election in just one out of 747 Local Government Areas, some misguided elements are setting up platforms for a national summit on zoning. A cross section of our politicians is morally bankrupt hence nothing shocks them. They are people of seared conscience. It is despicable that at a time INEC has blacklisted Imo State on the grounds of wide scale election scam in Oguta rerun poll, some shameless politicians are setting up canopies to organize kangaroo workshops on sundry issues.
It is only in Imo State that some impetuous politicians can embark on such an important agenda as a Charter of Equity without liaising with the state governor. Those who do these things are mischievous and it is unfortunate that even some professors, intelligentsia and attorneys-at-law are part of this ploy. It is even more provocative when you consider the public utterances of the promoters of this summit.One of them was quoted as saying that governor Okorocha’s emergence as governor in 2011 was by accident. As Commissioner for Information under Ohakim Administration, this particular politician created more enemies for Governor Ikedi Ohakim on account of his unguarded and mischievous utterances. On one occasion, he described a revered attorney-at-law, as “a frustrated lunatic”. The problem of Imo State is caused by the virus of Otunbadi (the way people are). It was Karl Marx who once said that: “Every morbid society will always have their own morbid grave diggers”.
In conclusion, I wish to add that whereas Dee Sam Mbakwe (Ph.D.) presented his son, Engineer Alex Mbakwe, to run for governorship in 2003, whereas governor Ikedi Ohakim banned zoning in his aforementioned inaugural speech in Statesman Newspaper of 4th June, 2007, whereas the people of Imo State overwhelmingly voted Owelle Rochas as governor in 2011,it becomes an inescapable fact that Imo State has never had a properly constituted Charter of Equity on zoning. If we have now deemed it right to have such an Accord, we should approach the task with a sense of responsibility. We should not allow some elements who have vaulting and vaunting political agenda to truncate or foul the ambience.
The convener of the ill-fated event who described Governor Okorocha’s victory in 2011 as an accident did not remind his audience that the tragedy that befell Okigwe zone in the governorship election was also an accident in which the innocent people of Okigwe were victims. The pertinent question is:”where an accident occurs, should the victims be abandoned to die unattended to or should good Samaritans, sorry, good Nigerians rush to their rescue? The answer to the question will remain in the womb of time until Governor Okorocha reveals his 2015 agenda. Is he in the governorship race or not? When the time comes, there will be no shortage of responses on this accident of 2011 and its impact on 2015.
A few weeks ago, I called the GSM number of Mr. Japh Azubuine of Okigwe and asked: “Why are some people from Okigwe zone insisting that they must produce the next governor in 2015? Is it by force? Chief Azubuine’s responses disarmed me. Hear him: “Well, in as much as we wish to produce a governor and complete our tenure, it is not by force. It can only happen if our brothers in Orlu and Owerri can give us the support; after all, we have only six Local Government Areas. What a great answer. The Bible says it all: Blessed are the meek and humble for they shall inherit the land. There are some desperadoes and political demagogues elsewhere who have vowed to set Imo State on fire if they don’t produce the governor in 2015. When the green light on 2015 electioneering is given, the electorate will not hesitate to take sides in accordance with their perception, and convictions. Let’s make haste slowly on the issue of the co-called Charter of Equity. Since there is a serving governor who is constitutionally allowed to run a second tenure, why not wait and hear from him before we start mounting canopies for the reinstatement of a project that never existed.
In conclusion, it is pertinent to state that when a group of Igbo leaders planned to hold a political summit in Concorde Hotel, Owerri in 2009, I wrote a viewpoint entitled: “The lock out of Igbo Political leaders: In support of Ikedi Ohakim”. My grouse at the time was that it was an act of disrespect to hold such a summit in Owerri without the consent of the state governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim. I had asked why Dr. Alex Ekwueme the leader of the group avoided Anambra state and even his own Modotel Hotel in Owerri and preferred to use Concorde Hotel without obtaining permission from Governor Ikedi Ohakim.Most of my fans know that I was not a friend of the PDP Administration of Governor Ikedi Ohakim. This observation is pertinent because soon some misguided sycophants will rejoinder my piece and call me a stooge of Governor Okorocha. The fact is that since we staked our lives for the actualization of Okorocha’s 2011 government bid,I have not received even a mere thank you or a bottle of soft drink from the Rescue Imo Government. We were volunteers who headed to our homesteads after the victory of May 6th, 2011. So, I am not on Okorocha’s payroll at all. There is a need to emphasize that whatever I write in my column is purely based on my perception and not because Governor Okorocha is picking the bill. Again, Governor Okorocha is not owing me because I was a volunteer.It is left for the beneficiary of an act of volunteerism to decide what to do to a volunteer-whether to say thank you or not. In this case, where the Rescue Imo Administration of Governor Okorocha has decided not to say thank you, they have not sinned and life must go on. Imo is getting better
