Abia North Puts Right Foot Forward With Nwaka’s Guber Bid

Politicians from Abia North senatorial district of Abia State are putting up a stiff fight to have the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party zoned to them, writes Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo 

It’s hard for any Abia politician, especially in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to feign ignorance of the power shift agitation bellowing from the Abia North Senatorial district. Those who may want to block their ears against the deafening clamour might even end up with ruptured eardrums. In this current season of political transition the air is well saturated by Abia North with what they feel is a justified demand for power to return to the zone.

Despite the apparent indifference and delay tactics of the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to address the concerns of Abia North, the clamour has refused to fizzle out. If anything, it is growing in intensity. The argument of the protagonists is that the power rotation principle in Abia has gone full cycle with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who is from Abia South and was handed over the baton by his predecessor, Senator Theodore Orji from Abia Central zone. With Governor Ikpeazu’s second tenure set to terminate in 2023 there is heightened expectation from the ruling party to pronounce where the direction of the power shift compass. Abia North stakeholders insist governorship seat therefore should return to the northern part of Abia where it started the downward journey in 1999, moving steadily to Abia Central and finally to Abia South.

The clamour and debate around the direction of power rotation in 2023 gained traction in 2015 shortly after Ikpeazu was inaugurated for his second tenure. Since then Abia North stakeholders have maintained that their zone has capable men and women who are well qualified to pilot the affairs of Abia effectively. At the turn of the year all eyes were fixed on the political arena in search of prospective governorship aspirants from Abia North who were expected to start rising like the morning sun. All the while those nursing governorship ambitions were contented with confining their dreams within their families and close circles while engaging in “consultations”.

The waiting game for aspirants to start strutting out to the political arena becomes worrisome at some point as the arena remains unusually empty at this period leading to general election. Where are the governorship aspirants? That is the question popping out of the lips of observers of Abia politics. On February 2, 2023, the state chairman of Abia PDP even had to confess that “we have no aspirant yet for the governorship and other elective positions.” According to him, the party leadership “has no records” of any 2023 governorship aspirant and if indeed there were any aspirants, it could be that they were still making their ambitions known at their community levels.

Not any more. On February 15, 2023 Senator Emma Nwaka became the first governorship aspirant on PDP platform to formally declare his ambition to become the governor of Abia State in 2023. Nwaka, a Third Republic Senator is not only from Abia North but also from Isuikwuato, which represents the letter ‘I’ in Abia. Standing before the State Executive Committee of PDP at the party’s secretariat in Umuahia he declared: “Here am I, send me”. He actually waxed biblical as he drew inspiration from prophet Isaiah who had in similar fashion responded to a divine call to become a prophet. It was Nwaka’s expression of his willingness and readiness to serve the people of Abia at the highest level.

There are others from Abia North nursing ambitions to become Abia governor under the platform of the ruling party as well as on the side of the opposition parties. But so far only Senator Nwaka has stepped out to be seen. His public declaration of his governorship ambition is significant in the sense that Abia North has put its right foot forward. It has demonstrated that it’s not just enough to be asking for power shift, it’s equally imperative to that those to take the reins of power should start coming out for proper scrutiny of their capacity and antecedents. Significantly, Isuikwuato is asking that the governorship seat should be micro-zoned to the area given that every other component districts from which the name Abia was derived have all taken their turns in occupying Abia’s highest office.

Nwaka is at home in the art of making kings. He was the chairman of Abia PDP between 2011 and 2015. Under his watch the party recorded its best election results ever in 2011 when in addition to retaining the governorship seat the PDP also took the three senatorial seats, eight House of Representatives slots and had a complete sweep of the State Assembly seats. The ruling party had a firm grip of Abia which emboldened Nwaka to invent the slogan “Abia is PDP and PDP is Abia.”

So, having successfully crowned kings, Nwaka feels that the time is  ripe for him to also wear the crown and preside over the affairs of Abia as governor. According to him, the “inspiration” hit him a year ago. His first reaction was to pray over it and then inform his family about it before following up with consultations starting from his Ward 5 Oguduasa, Isuikwuato local government. This bottom-top consultations, meant that he also took his consultations to party leaders and stakeholders at the local governments, zone and state levels in that order. The assuring responses in the course of his wide and varied consultations propelled the former party chairman to storm Umuahia with a throng of supporters and asked the current state party leaders to consider him as the right person to be the flag bearer of PDP in the 2023 Abia governorship poll.

As nothing is settled yet on the issue of zoning of the governorship seat in the ruling party, a fierce competition looms large for the aspirants that would eventually emerge. But Senator Nwaka’s visit to the party leadership for further consultations on his ambition added fuel to the already raging fire of power shift to Abia North. Party chairman, Dr Asiforo Okere and members of the State Working Committee(SWC) that received Nwaka’s entourage were told point-blank that the party must heed the clamour from Abia North and zone the governorship ticket upwards.

Former chairman of Isuikwuato Local Government, Hon Obinna Ekekwe, who was in the entourage, reminded the party leaders that PDP has been maintaining “a sequence of power rotation” since 1999, adding that the state would be the better for it if the chain is not broken. “Our appeal from Abia North is: let this sequence continue,” he said. Ekekwe noted that Abia PDP has remained peaceful since Nwaka passed the baton of leadership to his successors (because) he bequeathed “equity and fairness.”
He called on the party leadership and faithful not only to support Abia North in its quest for power shift but also pin-point it straight to Isuikwuato district. The party chieftain left a caveat that “anything short of this, there’ll be rancour in the party.”

Hon. Onyejelem Amaechi, a party stalwart and former chairman of PDP, Umuahia North Local Government in Abia Central wholly agreed with the position of his fellow party members from Abia North. He did not mince words that the governorship ticket should be zoned to Abia North and Isuikwuato in particular. Amaechi appealed to the conscience of the party leaders, saying, “Senator Nwaka is a good man and he gave PDP good leadership, adding that equity has been prevailing in Abia State hence “it won’t stop now that it is the turn of Isuikwuato” to benefit from it. A former party woman leader, Mrs. Kate Obiechina also testified about Nwaka, noting that he served the ruling party very well as chairman and it was during his time in office that Abia PDP recorded 100 percent success at the polls. To her, the party owed their former chairman a debt of gratitude and governorship ticket would be a fitting expression of gratitude “for a man who can make things happen for the good of all Abians”.

The Abia PDP chairman, Hon Okere agreed with every word spoken about his predecessor. He said that party leadership and members “are proud” of Senator Nwaka, adding, “We’re excited and encouraged” by his courage to aspire to become the governor of Abia State. “I can boldly say that we have a qualified aspirant,” enthused the party chairman, who was a member of Abia State House of Assembly during Nwaka’s tenure as Abia PDP chairman. He described his predecessor as a politician who “has already distinguished himself as a true party man” and knows the rules and follows due process.

Okere cited Nwaka’s decision to commence consultations about his governorship ambition right from the grassroots as a pointer that the former party chairman knows and observes the rules of the game. He said that Senator Nwaka’s request for support to become the party’s governorship flag bearer is not a tall order. Even at that the party chairman was non-committal in responding to Nwaka’s request as he merely assured that “we will put every aspirant on the same level and give everybody equal opportunity”. He assured that the ruling party would conduct transparent primary elections for the emergence of candidates it would present for elective offices in the forthcoming 2023 general election. “What is important for me,” he said,” is for the party to get it right and sustain the success (Nwaka) had recorded by scoring 100 percent in state and national elections.

Already the silence of Abia PDP leadership on zoning has created room for the possibility that governorship aspirants would sprout from every direction. Recently, the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe formally declared his interest to take over the governorship seat from his kinsman, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu. Both men hail from Obingwa Local Government in Abia South. But Nwaka is unfazed and ready to slug it out with all comers, including “the political moonlighters, who appear with loads of cash at every election cycle in search of platforms for the sole purpose of grabbing power”. He said that his confidence is firmly rooted in the “high level of acceptability which my aspiration has generated across the length and breath of Abia State.”

While the leadership of Abia PDP is still holding down the mute bottom on the issue of power rotation in 2023, Abia North is cheering Nwaka’s bold step. The people from this part of Abia are still raising high the decibels of their clamour for power rotation. Nonetheless, their front man in the race for the ruling party’s governorship ticket, Nwaka, has acknowledged the fact that “I’m not all alone” in the race for PDP gubernatorial ticket and whatever becomes the outcome of the party’s decision on zoning would not negatively affect his faith in PDP. No matter. Nothing is likely going to whittle down the self confidence he continues to exude. “I believe strongly that I am the best man to pick it (governorship ticket) if fidelity to the party in good and bad times, credibility and integrity are traits to be considered. And they should be,” he said.