Sometime last year, one had cause to address the purported governorship zoning arrangement or agreement in Enugu, which, as many have rightly described it, is a sheer conspiracy by a political elite class to corner power for their selfish ends in 2023.

They started quite early in propagating the falsehood in the hope that, as Joseph Goebbels of Nazi Germany taught them, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, the people will eventually come to believe it”.

Besides their well-oiled media propaganda to that effect, these purveyors of falsehood have bankrolled all manner of rallies to drum home this falsehood. There were, for instance, the Oganihu Enugu East rally and Ife-Emelumma Enugu West rally, organised to sell this fictional governorship arrangement, which entitles Enugu East alone to the Government House in 2023. The organisers claim that the founding fathers of the state agreed that the governorship position would move from Enugu East, which turn was taken by Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, to Enugu West, which turn was taken by Barr. Sullivan Chime, then to Enugu North, which is currently occupying the Lion Building vide Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. Thereafter, power would return to Enugu East in 2023.

However, when confronted with raw facts regarding the governorship contests in Enugu State since 1999, their implausible and illogical tales by moonlight fall flat on their faces.

At the outset of the current democratic dispensation, Senator Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo and the PDP pioneer National Secretary and former governor of Enugu State, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, squared up in a proxy political duel. Nwobodo supported his kinsman, Dr. Nnamani from Enugu East zone, while Dr. Nwodo lined up behind Chief Nduka Agu, who hails from Udi in Enugu West. At the end of the day, Nwobodo had the upper hand through his Second Republic colleague, the late Chief Solomon Lar, who was the National Chairman of the PDP at the time.

With the hard-won PDP ticket in the kitty, Dr. Nnamani went on to square up to Chief Gbazuagu Nweke Gbazuagu, an indigene of Akpugoeze in Enugu West zone, who flew the All Peoples Party (APP) ticket in the 1999 governorship election.

It is noteworthy that Dr. Nnamani’s re-election victory in 2003 was not delivered on a platter of gold. It was one of the most savage elections in Enugu’s history. Nnamani squared up to Ambassador Fidel Ayogu from Enugu North, who flew the banner of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). The media as well as local and international election observers reported that election as very violent, with Nsukka (Enugu North zone) recording the highest fatalities and arson that included personnel of the Police Mobile Force. Dr. Nnamani was not given a free ride because he came from Enugu East. In fact, besides Ambassador Ayogu, Barr. Peter Okonkwo (Ohamadike), who comes from Enugu North, and Chief Anayo Onwuegbu (Omeiheukwu) from Enugu West, contested against Dr. Nnamani.

Dr. Nnamani’s succession by Chime did not equally come as simple as they want to make Nigerians to believe. First, Dr. Nnamani did not settle for Chime, who is from Enugu West, over and above anyone else from Enugu North, based on any pre-agreed zoning arrangement. It was based purely on his own personal motives and permutations. It is an open secret that Nnamani preferred Chime because he thought that the later would be pliable so that he could continue to rule Enugu State by proxy. Unfortunately, as Mahmud Jega recently put it, Nigeria’s political history has shown, that anointing seldom works in our climes.

It is imperative to further recall that Dr. Ezenwata Okechukwu Itanyi (Enugu North), who was Dr. Nnamani’s deputy for eight years, gave Chime a run for his money in the governorship primary election that held at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium on December 10, 2006. It is noteworthy that Chime won by a little over 100 votes. Dr. Osita Ogbu, who is also from Enugu North and Anayo Onwuegbu, who is from Enugu West as well as Dr. John Nwokeabia, all participated in that primary election conducted by a committee led by Alhaji Shehu Sambo. Even at that, Itanyi and other contestants believed they were rigged out and went on to address a press conference at the Zodiac Hotels, Enugu.

Clearly, the votes garnered by Itanyi and the makeup of the contestants for the PDP ticket do not suggest any pre-agreed rotation of the governorship seat. Nor does the composition of the candidates in the main governorship election in 2007 suggest any zoning arrangement. Ugo Agballa and Chief Dubem Onyia, who both hail from Enugu West, contested on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Action Congress (AC), accordingly. But importantly, Barr. Okey Ezea (Ideke) of Labour Party and Ambassador Ayogu of the ANPP who both hail from Enugu North gave Chime a hot challenge.

After Chime secured his PDP second term ticket courtesy of people like the then President Goodluck Jonathan and Senator Ike Ekweremadu, he had two major challengers from Enugu North to contend with again in the 2011 governorship election. First was Ezea (Ideke) in Labour Party. Second and quite instructively was Dan Shere of the Peoples Democratic Congress (PDC), a party founded and promoted by ex-governor Chimaroke Nnamani to dislodge Chime, whom he had seriously fallen out with.

Ironically, the same man is today promoting a non-existent zoning arrangement. If Nnamani was aware of any zoning arrangement as he gleefully propagates today, why then did he field Shere from Enugu North against Chime when he had some of his staunch disciples like KGB Oguakwa in Enugu West that could have slugged it out with Chime? Ironically too, he recently claimed that a non-existent zoning agreement had knocked Ekweremadu off Enugu governorship ticket. One is compelled to wonder if Nnamani, who formed and funded a rival party to wrestle power from the PDP, albeit unsuccessfully, has the moral high ground to say that someone, who literally laid down his life and political career to salvage the PDP post-2015 when many beneficiaries of the party’s years in power deserted it cannot have PDP governorship ticket. This is not even about a presidential ticket.

Meanwhile, in 2015, Enugu North naturally got the governorship seat because it was the only senatorial zone yet to occupy the Lion Building since 1999. It was not based on any prearranged zoning order.

Chime confirmed this much in an interview he granted the Sun newspaper on November 23, 2018. He said: “When Chimaroke Nnamani became governor, it wasn’t zoned to Nkanu, he won against somebody from the West, even in his re-election bid. When I contested, it was free for everybody, people from the North, from the East, from the West, the same thing during my re-election.

“Then I said fate had made it that the East had done their two terms, myself in second term at the time, I said it will only be fair that we take it to the North to reduce tensions and I promised to work towards it. That was how it happened. We zoned it to the North, not that there was any agreement; it was common sense to reduce problems. I was the leader and I took that decision”.

When the interviewer asked him if he meant that Enugu never sat down at any time to agree on zoning of positions, he retorted: “Which people?”

However, it needs to be stressed that it was easier for Enugu North zone because Senator Ekweremadu, most likely pandering to equity, was not interested in the governorship seat in 2015. The real contention in 2015 was the Enugu West senatorial seat, which Chime as incumbent governor and Ekweremadu as incumbent Deputy Senate President were both eyeing. Thus, although Ekweremadu could have easily swooped on the governorship ticket after gaining the upper hand in the electoral delegates structure, he only took the senatorial ticket.

Besides, the full story is not that Chime anointed Ugwuanyi towards the end of his tenure as some want Nigerians to believe. Many colours of water passed under the bridge. By a stroke of fate, Ekweremadu found himself in a position to play a significant role in determining Chime’s successor. It could have been Senator Ayogu Eze, who had the full backing of the highest office in Abuja. It could also have been Chinedu Onu, whom Ekweremadu had earlier facilitated his appointment into the Board of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund). Ekweremadu, Ugwuanyi, Chief Asari Asari, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan are living witnesses to what transpired.

But for the sake of longstanding friendship with Ugwuanyi, need to keep Enugu PDP one, and also in order not to spite Chime, Ekweremadu pushed for Ugwuanyi’s emergence and walked with him all through the litigation over the authentic PDP candidate that Ayogu pushed all the way, up to the Supreme Court.

It is further recalled that Ekweremadu also had a golden opportunity to become Enugu’s governor in 2011 following the vicious and protracted battle for Chime’s PDP second term ticket. It is an open secret that Ekweremadu was offered the ticket in place of Chime, but he turned it down and fought for Chime to get the ticket. It was reliably gathered he insisted that Chime had done well enough and as such it would be unjust to deny him a second tenure.

So, when some political jobbers allege that Ekweremadu is trying to destroy an existing zoning arrangement with a “vaulting” gubernatorial ambition, the right questions would be: Which zoning arrangement/agreement? Who made the agreement? Where and when was it made? Why has nobody published the agreement for over two years now that they were challenged to do so?

Also, which vaulting ambition? When did it become a crime to seek to serve one’s people?

Besides, it is sad that a state facing mounting security issues, shortage of basic socio-economic infrastructure/amenities, and events with far-reaching socio-economic implications, such as the coming on stream of the Anambra International Cargo (and passenger) Airport, the fast-coming Ebonyi Airport, etc., is inundated with zoning campaigns when the preoccupations should have been debates and town hall meetings to determine the best hands for the job. And the circus goes on even when all the three zones have produced governors from 1999 to the present. Enugu cannot be reduced to a people, who busy themselves chasing rats while their house is on fire.

God forbid.

Dr. Austin Okolie is a Senior Lecturer, Senior Research Fellow, and Former State Director of the National Orientation Agency, Enugu State