‘Allow Isuikwuato to produce governor in 2023 for Abia Charter of Equity’s sake’ – Founding Fathers plead

[From BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia]

“Abia State Founding Fathers (ASFF) prayed that justice, equity and fair play would prevail in Abia State during 2023 general elections, whereby the next Governor of the state will be produced by the Isuikwuato District.”

With the above position, the Abia State Founding Fathers voted for Isuikwuato Local Government Area of Abia State should be allowed to produce the next governor of the state in 2023, saying that it behooves all political parties in the state to field their governorship candidates from Isuikwuato District.

The position of the Founding Fathers’ was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting in Umuahia and is coming even after the intervention of the state governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, to stave off possible crises that may erupt from the fierce scramble for Abia State 2023 governorship slot which tended to pitch groups and sections of the state against each other.

The heating of the polity was triggered by the Ukwa la Ngwa people who rose from their Elder’s Council meeting at Isiangwa North local government area to insist that they should retain power for another eight years beginning from 2023, when they said the governorship slot should be zoned to Umunneato Ngwa in Abia Central Senatorial District.

Their position generated varied reactions, with people from Abia north and their supporters from other parts of the state insisting that power should return to Abia North from where it started in 1999.

Many groups joined the fray, insisting that they should produce Ikpeazu’s successor, before the governor came out openly to warn the agitators against stampeding him out of office or distracting him.

Just when it appeared that the clamour was beginning to simmer down, the Abia Founding Fathers emerged on the scene, asking that for equity sake, Isuikwuato, which was designated a District during the movement for creation of Abia, should be allowed to produce the next governorship of the state in 2023.

In the communiqué signed by the Chairman of the ASFF, Dr.O.J Onyike and Secretary, Engr. Prof A.N.N Nzeako, the Abia elders noted that the Abia Charter of Equity stipulates rotation of the governorship position between the Districts/ Senatorial zones, pointing out that Isiukwuato District has been sidetracked in the process, thereby resulting in distorting the laid down rotation order in the Charter of Equity.

Part of the communiqué read: “Isuikwuato District was a runner-up to Bende District in all the ramifications of eleven (11) years of Abia State Movement activities. By 2023, Isuikwuato District would have waited for 24 years and therefore deserves its rights of place in Abia State.  

“Unknown to many Abians and others, the name ABIA was coined from the first letters of the major four former Districts/Senatorial Zones that constituted the present Abia State, namely: A for Afikpo in Umuahia Senatorial Zone — Afikpo, Arochukwu/Ohiafia, Bende, |kwuano/Umuahia; B for Old Bende District; | for Isuikwuato District; and A for Aba Senatorial Zone comprising Aba, Isiala Ngwa, Obioma Ngwa and Ukwa.

“According to the Charter of Equity, the three groups, Umuahia Senatorial Zone, Abia Senatorial Zone and |suikwuato District subscribed to the Charter of Equity and jointly, in the spirit of equanimity, submitted a Request and Memorandum of Understanding to the National Assembly for creation of Abia State from Old Imo State.  

“They accepted the equity and equality of all the Senatorial Zones and Isuikwuato District. Thus, according to the Charter of Equity, the Governorship that is rotatory, should have gone from the now Abia North Senatorial Zone to Abia Central Senatorial Zone and then to Isuikwuato District (which did not happen) before Aba Senatorial Zone.

“The deaths of Rt. Hon. Dr. M.I. Okpara, and Senator Dr. Jaja Wachukwu culminated in a political eclipse of “Ihie” Abia. The latter day political gladiators “bu ndi amaghi ebe eliri ozu, si n’ukwu n’abo ya,” (those who never knew details of the struggle for the creation of Abia State) have left the State in a worrisome squalor in the 21st Century.

 “It is rather unfortunate that the Governors did not follow any stipulated order of rotation, thereby rubbishing the guidelines of the Charter of Equity and the good intentions of the Abia State Founding Fathers (ASFF).  

“That no eyebrows were raised by anybody or group of people, like the good people of Isuikwuato, who were sidetracked in the process, about the distortion of this laid down rotation order in the Charter of Equity, did not mean that the anomaly was not noticed by anybody, particularly the ASFF. It did not tantamount to the setting aside of the fundamental guidelines and principles of the Charter of Equity on good governance of Abia State. It is far from any of the above.

“The Charter of Equity is intended, among other objectives, to alley the fear of domination of one Senatorial Zone/District over the other, or of any form of marginalization in the governance of the State. It therefore becomes absolutely necessary to caution that no political exigency or partisanship should ever be allowed to enact any of the above dreaded fears, thereby jettisoning the enviable adorable name of Abia State as “God’s Own State.”

 The ASFF therefore appealed that Isuikwuato should be given the chance to taste the governor seat in 2023.