By Austin Ogwuda

ENUGU—THE traditional ruler of Obimo community in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, Igwe Spencer Ugwoke, noted to be the oldest Igwe in the entire Nsukka and of the state is a man of many parts and blunt to a fault. In this encounter with our reporter, the Igwe opened up on why he is not hiding his partisanship in determining who becomes the next governor of Enugu State. He was very vociferous when this question was put to him.

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The occasion was during the hosting of a group of youths under the aegis of Nsukka Youth Integrity Development Foundation, NYIDF. The group which made Igwe Ugwoke their grand patron is a pressure group rooting for the Peoples Democratic Party PDP governorship candidate, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to become the next governor, insisting that it is the turn of Nsukka to produce a governor as they had been shut out for too long in the political history of Enugu State.

Having fired the first question on why he had to chest out so openly in support of Ugwuanyi on such a partisan pedestal, he reacted, this way “your first question on being partisan is still on the realm of imagination. “Secondly, I want to remove one thing you said here; that traditional rulers don’t engage in partisan politics. I am the traditional ruler of Obimo. If you are saying that Igwe should no be partisan, it depends on what you mean by partisan.

“My government is restricted within Obimo. I am partisan. Remove from your mind that Igwes should not be partisan. I said before that Igwes should be loyal to government in power. That is not partisanship. Do you want me to criticize everything the government has done when I am part and parcel of it? You can throw that question to those who don’t know their rights.

“I want you to report it clearly in your newspaper that Igwe of Obimo said he is partisan. I must say the truth even if it means to you that I am partisan. All the Igwes in Nsukka, about 33 of them, including the Igwe in Ayogu Eze’s home endorsed Gburugburu (Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi). “When the then Head of State came to Enugu and commissioned nine projects, yet none was done at Nsukka zone. He commissioned nine projects.

One was in Enugu West and eight were in Enugu East, none in Enugu North. I asked the then Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, why there was none in Enugu North, he told me to have patience, when Nsukka man comes to power, let him (Nsukka man) develop his area. “So, I think he has developed his place. Are you bringing development there again? No. The thing shifted to Enugu West and we did not get even one minister. We did not get even one ambassador. We did not even get one federal appointment. Our name is not being mentioned in NNPC. It is not even mentioned anywhere to attract any federal projects.

“There is no federal project in this zone as obtained in other zones. So, I want to use these boys (Nsukka Youth Integrity Development Foundation) to plant this idea for the incoming government in Enugu State. “We, however, want to embrace the whole state. We have to set an example. We do not want to concentrate everything in our zone because we produced the governor.

We must spread them to show example for others to emulate. We want to use this era to team up and work for PDP. We are all in PDP. Igwes should be loyal to any government in power and the government in power in Enugu State is PDP and we must be loyal to them. “The dream has come to fruition. Our governor should do whatever he thinks he can do using this opportunity. We are going to ask him to come and develop Nsukka. Look at Nsukka. Look at the roads. So, we want our man to use the opportunity well. It is not the ability. It is opportunity that we are lacking,” he stated.