The 2015 General Elections are fast approaching and many individuals
and groups who have political interest in those elections have begun to
make serious preparations. Among parties at national level we can
clearly see moves towards open mergers and unannounced working
arrangements; within the parties there are alignments and re-alignments,
defections and readmission of hitherto estranged groups, while within
civil society elements such as tribes, cultural groups and religious affiliations are seriously being factored into the political equation either directly or indirectly by
political interest groups who stand to gain or lose by that dynamic. In
this flux, influential economic blocks , prominent businessmen and
women, professional associations and many other interest groups also
play their part, all jostling to nudge the outcome of those elections
and the resultant governments to reflect their preferred choices. That is the way democracy was designed to work, and the fact that the process is beginning to take root in Nigeria shows that we are maturing in its practice.
That process will continue to deepen and what it should teach is the
imperative of deploying every legitimate weapon within their political
arsenal- population, propaganda, mass mobilisation, logistics, good
choice of candidates, etc for any individual or group to attain a desired political goal in today’s Nigeria.
There is no denying the fact that if an incumbent is standing for re-election, he does so with considerable advantages, and if he is not standing himself but favours a particular candidate, the latter also stands to benefit from hisinfluence.
But a major part of that influence is the assumption that the
incumbent’s endorsement galvanises his government and party machinery to
aggressively canvass the support of the masses for their chosen candidate to ensure victory. Prior to 2007 that support was widely advertised but it was
not considered very necessary because the incumbency factor was quite
effectively manifested in ways that were never countenanced by INEC or
the Electoral Act. Today that is gradually changing and most Nigerians
thank God for that. The vote now counts and will continue to count more
and more in future. The people’s belief in the power of their vote which was so justifiably tentative in 2011 will only be strengthened in 2015. This optimism is justified by the enthusiastic participation of the masses in elections that held in Edo and Ondo states since 2011. What all this means is that whatever the people of Nsukka cultural zone collectively
want in 2015 they must like any other group actively work for it while
welcoming any assistance that may come from other sources. So what do we
want in 2015 and why?
WHY AN NSUKKA MAN OR WOMAN FOR GOVERNOR IN 2015
It is true that the people of Nsukka overwhelmingly desire that one of their sons or daughters become
the governor of Enugu State in 2015. That desire is shared by all,
irrespective of party affiliation. It is also true that they tend to
assume that because of the justice of their aspiration, and because Governors Nnamani and Chime from Nkanu(Enugu East) and Udi (Enugu
West) would behave completed eight years each on the supposed slots of
their respective senatorial zones, the turn of an Nsukka man is held to be self evident and therefore bound to elicit the automatic support of the people of those zones. That is the hope that we, the Steering Committee of the Nsukka General Assembly who also fervently share that aspiration, would have wished to entertain. But even if we do,
we also recognise that it is our duty to do all in our power to
rekindle a spirit of oneness in our people, so that we can collectively
replicate that unity of purpose which we demonstrated so effectively in 1991, in order to make the work of those from other zones who support us that much easier and effectively challenge those who, in theexercise of
their constitutionally guaranteed rights, decide to back candidates who
may wish to contest from other zones. But why, one might ask, do we so passionately feel that our zone should produce the Governor of Enugu State in 2015?
To answer that question we make here an overview of how we have fared as a people under succeeding administrations, both military and civilian, since the end of the civil war. As part of the East Central and Anambra States, we were part of the Wawa people whose marginalisation the late Chief CC Onoh fought so vigorously against. During the reign of Governor Robert Akonobi, Anyamelu Clan was excised from Enugu State and included in Anambra State because of its crude oil potential, even though that clan had originally been transferred from OnitshaProvince to Nsukka Province by the British colonial administration because of its neglect by the former, and in spite
of its rapid development by the latter after that transfer. After Enugu
State was created by default in 1990, the civilian regime of HE Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo came in 1991 but only lasted fifteen months and the military
returned to power. Thereafter, none of the four Military Administrators
who were appointed on the slot of Enugu State by the Abacha regime, which adopted a policy of such appointments on state basis, came from Nsukka Cultural Zone, even though we had eminently qualified senior officers for such appointments. In the Abacha government’s creation of local governments, Enugu Local Government was split into three while Nsukka Local Government, even larger in landmass and comparable in population, remained untouched. In theredelineation of Senatorial Zones, following the exit of Abakaliki on the creation of Ebonyi State in 1996, while the expectation was that the new zones would follow cultural lines which had been the tradition Isi Uzo Local Government area, which had been so entrenched in Nsukka Cultural Zone that it produced Chief Isaiah Ani as our senator in the Second Republic, was excised from Nsukka and merged with Nkanu to form Enugu East Senatorial Zone. That the Isi Uzo people despite that excision still feel like part of Nsukka is amply demonstrated by the fact that they have rejoined the Adada State movement. In fact, since Dr Nwodo’ssojourn into Lion Building, no Nsukka man or woman has been governor, minister, federal permanent secretary or head of any federal parastatal. As a result, our youth
have been shut out of meaningful employment, our businessmen and women
have been denied government patronage and our zone has been deprived of
its fair share of infrastructural projects. Since 1999, the only federal
project executed in NsukkaCultural Zone has been the tarring of only 14 kilometers of the federal road linkingNsukka to Abakaliki through Ovoko, Obollo Afor, Ikem and Ehamufu at the rate of one kilometre per year, in spite of the hundreds of billions of Naira announced yearly as the national budget! Work on the reactivation of the Adada River Dam which had irrigated the Uzo Uwani farm settlement during the First Republic andwhich was started by the Federal Government has been stopped for no cogent reason. It is now rare to find Nsukka sons and daughters securing admission at officer level entry points to such strategic institutions as the Army, Navy, Airforce, SSS, NIA, Customs, Prisons, Civil Defence or Federal Road Safety Corps, or even securing state or federal government scholarships for graduate or postgraduate studies. We attach here an updated edition of ‘Nsukka In Chains’ a document which was first produced in 2007 which contains tables showing appointments,postings, privileges and projects with corresponding beneficiary names
and senatorial zones. Since the production of that document, no
remedial action has been taken; rather things continue to get worse as illustrated by the very recent denial of the chance to produce a minster from our zone when a vacancy occurred with the resignation of Professor Barth Nnaji. Since UNN was founded in 1960, noNsukka man or woman has been VC, Registrar, Chief Librarian or Bursar of that institution located by the grace of the revered Rt Hon. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe in the heart of Nsukka land.
We ask ourselves why this is so and we can find no justifiable reason. It is not as if we lack qualified manpower. According to Nsukka Legends, a compendium of prominent Nsukka sons and daughters, all trailblazers in their chosen fields ranging from the professions and business to politics and academia, the Association ofNsukka Professors now has in its membership 80 names, not counting those teaching in universities overseas. That shows a very deep pool of qualified manpower indeed. Nor can it be because the zone has not been voting for the ruling party as it has consistently done so either freely or under coercion from councillorship to presidential levels since 1999. So we cannot be receiving such
treatment because we as a people are in the opposition. Our shabby
treatment cannot also be because we lack voting strength because by
INEC’S official figures, we command 52% of registered voters in Enugu
State. We therefore conclude that all our travails arise because we have
no powerful figure to protect our interests, and because of the
peculiarities of Nigeria today the surest way to stop our maltreatment
is for one of our own to become governor of the state. Since we in the
General Assembly are not alone in this conviction, we go on in this
paper to survey the prevailing political landscape in Enugu State to
justify our urgent call for a refocusing of our people on a project which we all cherish, but which we may well lose by sheer complacency.
ENUGU STATE POLITICAL TERRAIN TODAY AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPACT ON OUR ASPIRATIONS
Today the PDP is in total control of the Government of Enugu State from councillors to the governor, including all federal electoral seats. Nobody can deny that. The PDP itself is run as a very disciplined line organisation with the governor at the apex implementing his chosen policies through the state and local government machineries. A new introduction is the stakeholders at all levels who now enforce the implementation
of the party line as defined by the Governor rather than by the formal
party organs. The stakeholders themselves do not initiate any political
projects on their own and either follow the Governor’s chosen decision
or second-guess him as closely as possible before they are made after
reading his body language. Why we make this analysis is to fully
understand the dilemma that would face any stakeholder of Nsukka origin should the governor for any reason decide to support a candidate from outside the zone. That
is so because one usually becomes a stakeholder by appointment and not
through elections but once so appointed, one commands immense influence
as a member of that exclusive club. We must therefore do all in our
power to woo them as individuals, since they cannot act as a group as we shall show here, to use whatever influence they possess to prevail on the governor to ensure that the PDP endorses an Nsukka candidatebefore the party publicly announces its choice. We make this recommendation because once such an announcement is made, the
stakeholders are likely to follow that candidate, wherever he comes
from, regardless of our aspirations as a people. It happened once in
2007 and there is no guarantee that it cannot happen again in 2015. While doing so we must also find ways to reach the people directly, as earlier stated not only to make the stakeholders’ jobs easier but also to prepare a fallback position for the realisation of our common objective.
Now we come to the Nsukka masses. The desire for an Nsukka Governor
is fervent in them but unfortunately while some of them still retain
their pre-2011 apathy towards voting and political participation, the
greater majority have been conditioned by our sad political history to
directly link casting their votes to receiving monetary or other
material gratification in
the belief that whoever they are voting for is doing his own personal
business. They have thus become so cynical that they coined the proverb ‘onye vu igu b’ewu naeso’; literally translated to mean that it is he who carries the palm fronds that the goats follow. The psychological self abasement embodied into that proverb which effectivelyclassifies the people as goats and the politicians as men eludes them totally. They are also strengthened in that mistaken credo by the political slogan of a very well known politician from Udenu who always describes his campaigns as ‘ashua’ or ‘market’ in the literal buy-and-sell sense. This attitude would have been funny except that if money continues to be the bottom line in Nsukka in 2015 we fear that candidates from other zones will certainly use their superior wealth to buy our people while keeping their own people who
know that power is infinitely more important than money, and who have a
better understanding of the benefits derivable from that power, united.
Next, we come to our political office-holding
representatives themselves. They are ultra loyal to the Governor and to
the party and they demand the same absolute loyalty from their
subordinates in the party. None of them after the reported bitter
experience of one of their leaders in 2007, who reportedly lost his senatorial ticket because he dared to present the demand of the Nsukka Caucus that the then governor endorse another Nsukka man as his successor, will ever dare to convene another such caucus to canvass something as sensitive today. That does not mean that they do not consider that it will be Nsukka’s turn
then but they will fight for that nomination only individually. On the
surface the odds should favour them because they went as far as publicly
announcing during campaign rallies in 2011 that the PDP’s candidate for
governor in 2015 would be an Nsukka man. It is therefore evident that even though one of them could be the ultimate beneficiary ofa masses-oriented
campaign for the fulfilment of such a pledge, their overt participation
in such a campaign cannot be taken for granted because they may feel
that the sitting governor could take it as an affront to his exclusive
right to determine his successor.
Next we come to other actors in the PDP. An instructive lesson we learn from that party’s recent history is its endorsement of Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate in spite of all zoning permutations in 2007, and its consistent choice ofgovernorship candidates from particular ethnic groups so far in Benue, Kogi, and Delta States to name a few. This shows that what borders the party is not zoning but the potential to win elections we
must therefore be prepared for candidates from other zones to contest
that party’s primaries and also the subsequent general elections,
especially since Nsukka indigenes did likewise both within the PDP andin other parties in past elections.
Finally, we come to our politicians in other parties. We appreciate their doggedness and we say to them and to Nsukka in general that we have no favoured candidate. What we are interested in is any party that will produce a good candidate of Nsukka origin
for election as Governor of Enugu State. We need a humble, honest,
compassionate, courageous, marketable and capable candidate who commands
a followership not only in Nsukka but also in other zones, and who possesses the resources that we sympathisers
can contribute to in the struggle. We only exhaustively analysed the
dynamics in the PDP because of the party’s present dominant position in
the state. In doing so, we cannot
rule out the possibility of changes in the cohesion and composition of
that party as the tenure of the present governor comes to its
constitutional limit and various interests begin to surface in the
supposed monolith. Such a development will also have potential
consequences for the opposition parties as they know so well. We also realise and we state here our awareness of the announced merger of the major opposition parties at national level under the All Progressives Congress and
we urge our politicians in such parties to at their own level
internalise the admonitions pouring in from across the nation that only
by placing the interest of that mega-party
over that of its constituent elements can they succeed in wresting
power from the ruling party. So how then do we mobilise our people?
STRATEGIES FOR MASS MOBILIZATION
From the foregoing, it is evident that at the start, only the civil society of Nsukkacan kick-start the process of mass sensitization and awareness that is necessary for the realisation of our dream. Critical elements of that society include prominentNsukka sons and daughters both within and outside the zone, representatives of influential institutions and organizations within the zone such as churches andmarket associations, lecturers and students in tertiary institutions, NGO’s, town unions, traditional rulers etc. The Steering Committee of Nsukka General
Assembly intends to invite such persons to a meeting to critically
brainstorm on this topic and fashion out the most effective way to
mobilise Nsukka masses
for the 2015 elections and how to reach out to other zones to lend us
their support. To demonstrate our total non-partisanship in this noble
quest, we are ready not only to stand down for fresh elections into the
executive of such an expanded body but even for a change of its name
should the majority desire it. After that body convenes, deliberates and
draws up a working plan we propose that it
shall then invite our politicians in all the parties, present the plan
to them, make amendments in the light of their inputs and then start
implementation. If we do it in that order, we hope to kill any suspicion
of a hidden agenda from any quarters so that we the people of Nsukka Cultural
Zone can unite, stand up for our rights for our sake and the sake of
our children’s future. If we do not stand up now, and if by commission
or omission we fail to elect an Nsukka man
as governor in 2015, the other senatorial zones in Enugu State will
conclude that we have voluntarily accepted the state of perpetual
second-class citizens. They will then reach an understanding to rule us in turn, further impoverish us, and finally extinguish whatever remains of our self esteem, cohesiveness and capacity to act in concert to protect our interest.We present here highlights of our recommended action plan for consideration by the expanded body when it meets.
The publication of this paper, or an edited version of it, in a national newspaper such as The Sun, an Nsukka focused magazine such as The Starlight, and a church publication such as The Shepherd, and on the internet blog like NSUKKA INSIDE OUT.
The mass production of the paper in pamphlet form for distribution throughout Nsukka cultural zone in schools, markets, churches and at social occasions such as weddings and funerals.
A formal endorsement of such publications by the Steering or Caretaker Committee, and a call to Nsukka people to form branches of Nsukka General Assembly in their localities, for the sole aim of mobilizing to produce a governor of Nsukka origin in 2015.
A formal presentation of a request to the major political parties to endorse a candidate of Nsukka origin for governor in 2015.
A
vote of confidence in the Steering Committee or in the alternative its
dissolution and the election of a Caretaker Committee to coordinate the
struggle.
The opening of a bank account with an appeal to our people to send donations for the struggle, particularly to defray the cost of publicity, into that account, along with the publicised appointment of reputable signatories and auditors for that account.
A formal appeal to religious bodies within the zone to support the struggle as a moral imperative.
An
invitation to our politicians active in all the parties to consider
this action plan, suggest modifications where necessary and endorse it
for implementation
PROF LAWRENCE OCHO – CHAIRMAN
MAJ GEN CHRIS EZE (RTD) –VICE CHIARMAN
PROF JULIUS ONAH – SECRETARY
DR MIKE AJOGWU (SAN) –MEMBER
CHIEF MRS MARIA OKWOR - MEMBER
1 comments:
I stand out to thank RtD Gen Chris Eze and his group for this master piece of information and I hope that youths can begin to read the hand writting on the walls.
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