Enugu State
2023 Elections: Who will represent the Enugu North Local Government?
“If you ask me na who I go ask
The matter wey we see so e tay wey e start
No be me go talk am e heavy for mouth
If you ask me the matter for ground eh
Na who I go ask”….Omawumi
Many may have forgotten the Nigerian female Musician, Omawumi, whose song in pidgin Enugu, “If you ask me (Na who I go ask) poses a rhetorical question that probably would not be answered.
Omawumi’s song brings back to the reminiscence of how Enugu, first as a cosmopolitan city, started in 1904 and its graduation to the Igbo capital before the creation of Enugu state in 1991. Where did Enugu start, who championed the Wawa cause and the eventual state creation? Who made the sacrifices in both human and land provisions, where every Dick and Harry have today come to lay prostrate claims of ownership, divisions and clannishness?
But for the sacrifices of the Enugu-Ngwo and later Ogui-Nike communities, would Enugu and its surrounding communities have been lifted to understand what political agitation is all about? So how come that the first has now been confined to obscurity and their voices suppressed because the sages of the people have established a general platform and moved on?
These are questions that beg for answers but for how long shall precursors continue to remain the hewers of wood. These are the people that developed the city and are in the position to recreate and extend the same achievement to the rest of the state. Unfortunately, though, some of the illustrious sons of Enugu North local government have sold their birthright, shifting their support to the other parts of Enugu East senatorial zone to produce the next governor of Enugu state.
But the local government council cannot be in lack of human resources because if it is about western civilization, they were the first to embrace the white man’s ways of life in the state and there is an Igbo adage that a woman who started cooking before her neighbour would obviously gather more used up cooking utensils than her later contemporary.
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Enugu North local government is not part of the Nkanu solidarity movement and has restrained itself from the noisy political propaganda in the recent time but has always shown solidarity for the state despite its relegation in the schemes of the state. Prof. Agu Gab Agu after losing the 2019 senatorial ticket to Chimaroke Nnamani refused to go to court, unlike others, but retained faith with the party and the stakeholders, yet gratitude is yet to be extended to his local government area.
Zoning is good if it is properly applied and in relation to Enugu North local government, if there is a general agreement that there is zoning in Enugu state, there should be a micro-zoning as well. It would be painful and an assault on the sensibilities of the people of Enugu North local government and Isi-Uzo if they are not given due share as part of Enugu east senatorial district. In the current equity debate for the zone, Isi-Uzo is even gaining more sympathy than Enugu North local government, whereas both are the most marginalized council areas of the zone that have never been allowed to produce even a Senator, let alone a governor for the senatorial district.
The case of Enugu North local government is even more pathetic when juxtaposed with its worse tragedy of not even having a statutory commissioner in the state executive council. A part of the cosmopolitan community cannot even boast of a traditional ruler and does not even have it at all. Can it be truly said that in the spirit of federalism, Enugu north local government is part of Enugu state?
The tragedy of the present debate on which local government in Enugu East senatorial district should produce the next governor of the state has unfortunately been reduced to Nkanu division which is just one component of the senatorial district.
The agitators on their self volition clandestinely reduced the Enugu east senatorial district to mean Nkanu zone as if there is anything as Nakanu senatorial district in the 1999 constitution which regulates the current Nigeria polity.
Selfishly and ignorantly, the agitators appropriate Nkanu as being the largest population content of the senatorial zone, regardless of the huge population of Enugu north local government that is by far more than the two Nkanu subdivided council areas.
The 2006 population figure of the six local government areas in Enugu East senatorial district stood at 1,166,864, out of which the two Nkanu local government councils contributed only 300, 967 which is less than 30 percent of the entire population of the senatorial districty. So, where lies the lie that Nkanu is the majority population of Enugu east senatorial district? The Nike clan that Nkanu claims to be one of theirs is actually of the Ugwunyi ancestral clan and the overbearing Nkanu has never given Nike a chance to rear its head in the senatorial district.
We all know how Senator Gil Nnaji made it to the Senate in suppression of the ‘Core Nkanu’ that will never give any other person a chance to hold a common political position in the senatorial district.
The Ngwo and the Isi-Uzo are not known as Nkanu, yet, even if they are in the minority, should they not be given the opportunity to produce representatives of the zone. Whereas the Igbo are clamouring for Nigeria presidency in 2023, back home in the Igbo enclave, some clans behave like the northern Nigeria whom they accuse of political oppression.
It was for this fear of marginalisation that brought about the Sir Henry Willink Commission of 1957 and whose submission came to be known as the Willink’s Report of 1958, when the minority nationalities of the Eastern Nigeria protested that everything in the eastern Nigeria was ‘Igbonized’ to the extent that even the Ijaw or the Annang tribes were referred to as Igbo and their true identity and fair shares were buried and subsumed into the Igbo.
Presumed that the governorship position has been zoned to Enugu east senatorial district, it is only rational that there should be a table conference where components of the zone that had had due shares would give way for those that have not had, if we are really serious about equity and zoning, except if it is just a mere lip service mantra.
Truth is that the next governor of Enugu state should be produced from Enugu North local government, given the fact that it played vital role in the creation of the state and even the Chief C.C Onoh (of the Udi Division) who was the arrow head behind the state creation was only produced for three months, a very insignificant period when compared to the resources expended in the pursuit of the Wawa liberation and subsequent state creation.
Enugu South LGA has produced a Governor, had Senate for numerous times; same as the Nkanu division that has had eight years of governorship, deputy governorship as well as the Senate, while Enugu East LGA has had the Senate for eight years. This statistics therefore leaves Enugu North and Isi-Uzo as the most disadvantaged LGAs in the senatorial district. It is either Isi-Uzo produces the 2023 Governor or Enugu North goes to the Senate or vise versa.
In the real sense of it, Chief C.C Onoh is supposed to be given exclusive prerogative to become governor, not denominated to any local government, because of his emancipation role. This was a practice that prevailed when the Igbo were original in their culture and respect for people-oriented leaders as CC. Onoh is a child of Enugu state and should be given the deserved privilege even posthumously because he has his children and kindred that he left behind.
Therefore, going forward, without creating unnecessary drama and much ado about nothing, everything that should be shared in Enugu east senatorial zone should all be placed on the table and equal representatives of each of the six local government councils would be invited and the positions shared giving first choices to the more disadvantaged local government councils which is Enugu North and Isi-Uzo. In this way, the zone will be in unison while cohesion among the councils will be achieved.
Indeed Enugu North local government has illustrious sons and daughters from Ngwo, Ogui-Nike and the urban residents who have distinguished themselves in administration and other endeavours that can eminently lead as Governors or Senators. Prof. Agu Gab Agu exhibited political maturity when he conceded to Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani who was rewarded the Senate position in 2019. The Chairman of Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, Dr. Josef-Ken Onoh has shown courage in leadership of the municipal agency, performing exceedingly well in the difficult job of controlling obstinate residents in development activities within the Capital territory. At the Ogui flank, Mr. Emeka Edeh proved that Enugu North local government can be sanitized and its status uplifted, just within the few years he was chairman of the City council.
All these other people from Nkanu contesting for governorship position should tell the Enugu people the value they have added to the state since creation which was masterminded by leaders in Enugu North local government. They have no investment in the state and they are not intending to have one except to take away from the state. The Nkanu people took away ESUT from Nsukka and Enugu North LGAs to Agbani, the have been ministers, Governors and Deputies, Inspector General of Police, NDLEA Chairman, Chief Judge, military Administrators, just to name but a few positions. In the same manner, the Nigeria law school was moved to Agbani and named after their illustrious son, and other establishments. The political zone of Enugu East Senatorial district was instituted at Agbani that is not Central.
The people of Enugu North LGA have shown solidarity and support to the present administration in the state and the administration is bound to reciprocate their humility.
