Following the controversy raised by the Abia State’s Equity Charter which zoned the 2015  governorship slot to  Abia South Senatorial Zone through the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Vanguard went to Umuahia, Abia State to speak with Chief Ukpai Agwu Ukpai, one time SSA to Gov Theodore Orji on Security, Transport Commissioner, on the intrigues and intricacies behind the zoning. Excerpts

HOW was the Abia 2015  governorship zoned to the South Senatorial District arrived at?

The governor of Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji,  in his wisdom, told us that he is a product of zoning, and that is why he has to maintain zoning. Because if there were no zoning, may be, he wouldn’t have been a governor. Because he is a beneficiary of zoning arrangement, he decided to maintain that.

Ukpai Agwu

Now, the essence of zoning is to defuse political rancour, bickering and political violence in the state. Abia North was the last to produce executive governor, which was Orji Uzor Kalu. Now, the thing moved to Central which is where we are now, which is Governor T.A. Orji. It is just clear and fair and justifiable that the next the governor should come from South, which means the three senatorial zones in Abia state have had their own share of the governorship arrangement.

I wouldn’t know why anybody would like to challenge such arrangement. After that suggestion, the PDP Caucus, which is the highest body  in all PDP arrangements in the state, met here in Umuahia and they rose to declare that the governorship position has been zoned to Abia South. Thereafter, PDP stakeholders met and affirmed the same position. And the PDP in Abia state as a party also met and affirmed that the next governor would come from Abia South.

If the party structure has zoned her governorship position, I don’t know who will be challenging that. And we who are the politicians here believe in the party, you know party is supreme. Party decision is final. And a loyal, good party man has to obey the party’s decision. The party has said the governorship of Abia state has been zoned to Abia South.

But some say there was no zoning when North, Central produced governors. That contestants also came from other zones. Why this zoning that bars others?

Yes, we don’t expect everybody to go home after the decision. It is true that when Orji Uzor contested, people came out for governor. But the party stood and said it would go to the North. The party  zoned it to the North. The Central, the same thing.

People also came out to contest. After that, the party said it would go to Central. The party has also said it must go to South. It didn’t stop anybody from contesting. If you say you can challenge the decision of the party….Remember the party holds the machinery for election. If you think you can challenge the party machinery, oh, good and fair. The governor has not told anybody you should not contest. But he has told you that their position is that they will go to South and pick their candidate.

If zoned to the South, made of Ukwa/Ngwa, what happens to the Ngwa people in the Central? Are they not being marginalised?

No, they are not marginalized. The Ngwa in the Central, their geography is just the central. We are not doing ethnic politics here. If you are talking of ethnic politics, that is where you can talk of marginalisation. But the Ngwa in the Central belong to Central. And are part and parcel of this governor that is in the office right now. So, they cannot claim marginalisation. The man is representing them and they are there.

For in instance, I am from Ohafia. I will now say we have Nkporo, Abiriba and Ohafia-Ohafia North and South. So, if something is coming to Ohafia North; and I am in the South, will I now say I am marginalized? No. If it goes to the South, will Abiriba say it has been marginalized? No. By geography, they belong to the same constituency. There are no two ways about it. Nobody is being marginalized.

I saw Gov Orji’s  posters rooting to become senator for Central where Sen Nkechi Nwogu, an Ngwa represents at the Senate. Now, with the zoning, what happens to her? She can’t be senator. She can’t be governor.

No, she is free to contest the position that is zoned to them which is where she is. The governor says she can contest whatever position she wants. People have asked the governor to come out, given the way he has run his office.

He has impressed everybody from the South, in fact the entire Abia. And people from the Central are saying, “We will give you our support through prayers…to lead our senatorial zone.” Because has impressed everybody and they asked him to come out and contest.

And anybody is free to also contest the office. This is democracy. It’s government of the people by the people and for the people. Anybody you like you vote.

If the zoning formula works, what about the Senatorial and Rep positions as I have heard that Chukwumerije who has been there for about eight years wants to go back?

Why we are not bothered by all these other positions is that the executive, which is the governorship, is the man who holds the leadership of the state. To think of it, since the creation of Abia state, an Ngwa man has not been governor. And the only way we can make them feel they are part of Abia is to give them the opportunity to produce governor.

Both military appointments or in this democracy, they have not been able to produce one. And the only way it can be done is to support them to produce a governor. And it is by so doing that we can have a violent free political environment in Abia state. We don’t enjoy all this political violence, burning down houses, killing, maiming and all sorts. If this is well packaged and arranged, everywhere will be calm.

This arrangement now will be part of the political tradition  of Abia state government. At any particular time there is election, you know which zone it  will go. All parties go that zone and shop for their governorship candidate.

Why we are talking about this legislators’ thing, well, they don’t form or they don’t control except their various constituencies. If your constituency, which is a very minor group decides in your area that you it can go one hundred times because you have represented them very well, so be it. But this is what we have together.

And that is why we have decided to focus and put attention on how do we produce a governor without rancour in Abia state.