Exactly one week after the 25th May 2022 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, quietude, disappointment, betrayal, and anger still pervades the entire firmament of the old Nsukka zone, which comprises the entire six local government areas of the Enugu senatorial zone and Isiuzo in Enugu East senatorial zone.

Until about a day to the state congress, which also doubled as the governorship primary election of the PDP, hopes were high on the part of the people of Isiuzo LGA and their bigger kits and kin, the Enugu North senatorial district that the exercise would mark a major step towards correcting what they see as an age-long marginalisation of the old Nsukka zone, since the start of the current democratic dispensation.

Before the creation of the current Enugu State, the old Enugu State was made up of Abakaliki senatorial zone, Enugu senatorial zone, and Nsukka senatorial zone. But following the creation of Ebonyi state through a merger of the Abakaliki zone and part of Abia State, it became expedient to create a third senatorial zone in Enugu State during the late General Sani Abacha’s transition to civil rule programme.

In quest for balance of both power and geography in the ensuing constituency delimitation, the Agbaja people had turned to Igbo-Etiti, which is of Ojebogene stock for them to join them, their kits and kin in Enugu West, to give Enugu West an advantage of six local governments, but they met a brick wall. With the political clouts of the likes of the immediate past governor of Enugu State at the time, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, and the rest of the powerful Nwodo dynasty, it was easier for Igbo-Etiti remain in Nsukka zone where they felt their bread was better buttered.

However, a former governor of the old Anambra State and Minister in Abacha’s regime, Senator Jim Nwobodo, an Nkanu man, was said to have engineered the creation of not only two senatorial districts (Enugu East zone and Enugu West zone) out of the old Enugu zone, but also the gerrymander of Isi-Uzo into the current Enugu East senatorial zone where he comes from to give them six local government against the old Nsukka zone, which would have boasted of seven LGA as against five each for Enugu West and Enugu East if it had been allowed to remain as it was.

This would have given Nsukka zone an undisputed upper hand as a senatorial district, but also political dominance in a four-cultural group struggle that comprise the Nsukka cultural group, the Nkanu cultural group in Enugu East, and Agbaja and Awgu cultural groups in Enugu State.

But the leaders of Nkanu land, including Nwobodo and the late traditional ruler of Nike, HRH Igwe Edward Nnaji, Odezuluigbo II, were said to have lobbied and gotten a buy-in of the leaders of Isi-Uzo like Senator Isaiah Ani for Isi-Uzo to join Nkanu to form Enugu East senatorial zone with assurances of equity and brotherly love in all ramifications, including the distributions of political opportunities and development projects.

However, that equity and brotherly love is what the people of Isi-Uzo believe that they have ben denied by their Nkanu brothers, who they accuse of marginalisation and intimidation in the scheme of things.

For instance, no Isi-Uzo man had been given the opportunity to be Senator since 1999, whereas Nkanu had produced Chief Jim Nwobodo, Senator Ken Nnamani, and Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, who has now picked PDP ticket to go back to the Senate for a third term at the expense of Isiuzo, which has not tasted the seat.
This too has been weaponised as an excuse to deny them opportunities. For instance, the Sullivan Chime administration appointed an Isi-Uzo man, Prof. Denchris Onah, as Vice Chancellor of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, but had to quickly reverse it due to the bitter protest by Nkanu people, who insisted that the position must go to “core Nkanu”. Chime consequently appointed Prof. Luke Anike, who hails from Nike in Enugu East LGA.

In the circumstance of the perceived marginalisation, Isi-Uzo are therefore more inclined to their Nsukka kits and kin rather than bonding with their Nkanu political brethren. In the ensuing crisis of identity and in an environment where clannishness is the order of the day in the dispensation of opportunities, professors of Isi-Uzo origin belong to the Association of Nsukka Professors.

*Enter Ugwuanyi With High Hopes Of An Isiuzo GOVERNORSHIP SLOT*

The coming of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was therefore hailed as a moment of liberation for the people of Isi-Uzo. The heart of an average Nsukka man is with Isi-Uzo and Ugwuanyi did not hide it.

Under Ugwuanyi, a few roads were done in Isi-Uzo. Though of low quality with some of them already washed away, just like other substandard projects by the administration, it at least marked a sense of belonging to the people.

But the real big deal the people expected was the emergence of an Isi-Uzo man as Ugwuanyi’s successor, for if not under Ugwuanyi, when else can that ever be possible.


*Ugwuanyi Bought Into The Plot*

 Political watchers took more than a passing note of the fact that most statewide government programmes or campaigns under Ugwuanyi often start from Isi-Uzo LGA and end in Udenu, his native LGA.

Also, Chief Augustine Nnamani, an Isi-Uzo from Neke, was elected twice as the PDP State Chairman. Many believed it was not only Ugwuanyi’s way of entrusting his political future and state party machinery in the hands of a brother, but also a way of paving way for an Isi-Uzo man to succeed him.

Immediately after Ugwuanyi’s re-election in 2019, particularly after the 2019 yuletide, a tide of zoning campaign to return power to Enugu East senatorial zone swept through Enugu’s political landscape and did not abate but instead rose in crescendo as the PDP went into the governorship primary election.

This was largely targeted at the governorship ambition of former Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, who hails from the Awgu cultural group in Enugu West zone.

While the people of Enugu East hinged their quest for the governorship seat on the claim that there was an accord among the founding fathers of the state to rotate power among the three geopolitical zone. This naturally means that power should return to the zone in 2023, having handed power to Enugu West in 2007 through Chime, who subsequently handed over to the incumbent governor in 2015.

But the Ekweremadu camp has continued to disagree with the argument, saying there was never any zoning agreement in the state.
They also argued that besides the fact that power had fully rotated round the three geopolitical zones, the Awgu cultural zone (comprising Aninri/Awgu/Oji River) where he comes from was yet to produce a governor in both the old Enugu and the current Enugu whereas some others had produced two.

Instructively, governor Ugwuanyi, who was seen as the unseen sponsor hand behind the zoning agitation, attended all of the rallies.
At the centre of the agitation and momentum for an Isi-Uzo governorship was the 'Ka Isiuzo Jee group,' which hyped the agitation to a defeating decibel.

While many believed that Ugwuanyi was the chief sponsor of the movement, others who claim to know the colours of water flowing from the Lion Building also swore that he was equally the brain behind other agitations like 'ka Nkanu East Jee'.

A hack writer from Isi-Uzo who writes for 'Ka Nkanu Eat Jee' was once confronted on why he was promoting Nkanu East governorship instead of his native Isi-Uzo. He replied that both were being sponsored by the Government House and he was promoting the brief he was given.

Meanwhile, Nsukka zone left none in doubt as to where their hearts lay in the 2023 governorship contest when they took the podium during the February 2022 council elections campaign in Igbo-Etiti attended by Ugwuanyi to canvass the succession of Ugwuanyi by the old Nsukka zone, with Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo narrowing it down to Isi-Uzo.

They saw this as the only way of correcting the “injustice” done to the old Nsukka zone by Chimaroke Nnamani, who they said retained power in old Enugu zone (which comprised the present Enugu West and Enugu East) by handing over power to Chime from Enugu West and rubbing it in by also making Sunday Onyebuchi from Enugu East Chime’s deputy.

Senator Chuka Utazi said as far as Nsukka people were concerned, the old Enugu zone had done 16 straight years and equity demanded that the old Nsukka zone must do their 16 straight years, irrespective of whatever senatorial zone they fell into currently.

*The Chijioke Edeoga Card*

At Eha-Amufu in Isi-Uzo LGA, Ugwuanyi has a first cousin, Chijioke Edeoga. A lawyer and former presidential aide, Ugwuanyi appointed him Commissioner for Local Government Affairs in his first tenure and reappointed as Commissioner for Environment in the current term.

Reliable sources had it that Ugwuanyi had reached an agreement with Isi-Uzo and Nsukka and he anointed him his successor. Although some people still had their doubts, given what is perceived as Ugwuanyi’s serial track record of not keeping his word, many believed that he would keep his words since Edeoga is the direct maternal cousin of Ugwuanyi.

But in case the choice of Edeoga was encumbered by their blood relationship, they ensured that other illustrious sons of Isi-Uzo, such as former Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Agriculture, Umudike, Prof. Hilary Edeoga, to picked form to join the gubernatorial contest.

However, some worry began to creep in when January, February, and March passed without the governor naming his successor. While many saw it as a strategy not to break the ranks of his followership in the face of Ekweremadu’s governorship ambition, which had grown into a movement of sort, others were particularly worried as reports filtered in that Ugwuanyi might have struck a deal with Chimaroke Nnamani and Peter Mba, a lawyer and CEO of Pinnacle Oil and Gas company to hand over to the later while the former would return to the Senate.

The trio were said to have reached a bargain some of which Mbah paid in cash, while the remaining was converted to shares in Pinnacle.

However, the people of Isi-Uzo and Nsukka as well as political analysts had their doubts. While the Edeoga campaign team and old Nsukka block were very confident in the agreement reached with Ugwuanyi, analysts observed that no Isi-Uzo man purchased PDP expression of interest form for the Senate. They all bought governorship forms. They reasoned that it was part of the concreteness of the accord with Ugwuanyi, adding that it was impossible for Ugwuanyi to hand both the governorship and senatorial seats to the “core Nkanu”.

But in an encounter earlier in May between Chimaroke Nnamani and a political stakeholder in Nkanu, Prince Joe Nwuko, during a consultative meeting of Nnmani’s constituents at Agbani, sparked fresh fears among the Isi-Uzo and Nsukka people, as the former governor authoritatively foreclosed the chances of Isi-Uzo to produce Ugwuanyi’s successor.

Dr. Nnamani was reacting to a billboard of Chijioke Edeoga sponsored by Prince Nwuko and mounted at Agbani, which is the former governor’s community.

On citing Nwuko at the event, Nnamani had rebuked him openly and harshly, asking Nwuko to “go write it down, Isi-Uzo is going nowhere”.

*The Shocker*

In view of these developments and inexplicable delays in naming his successor, agitated major old Nsukka zone leaders who met with Ugwuanyi on the cusps of the governorship primary to give immediate effect to the accord on naming Chijioke or anyone else from Isi-Uzo as his successor were shocked to their marrows, as the governor allegedly told them off. He was alleged to have claimed that he paid heavily to be named by Chime as his successor and that no Nsukka person contributed a dime.

A concerned Nsukka indigene, Dr. Hippo Chikwado Onah KSJI, had raised the alarm in various Nsukka WhatsApp platforms that Ugwuanyi was about to sell the governorship position to the highest bidder to the shame and chagrin of the entire old Nsukka zone.

He wrote: “Information reaching me this morning (25th May 2022) is that His Excellency, Rt Hon Dr. Ifeanyichukwu Lawrence Ugwuanyi, the Executive Governor of Enugu State confided in some Nsukka people day before yesterday in a secret meeting held in a private home somewhere in Independence Layout that he spent over N6 billion to buy his governorship seat from former Governor Sullivan Chime through Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo the former governor's Chief of Staff, and that nobody from Nsukka ever contributed a dime in support of his Governorship in 2015 and 2019.

“The same Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency, Rt Hon Dr Ifeanyichukwu Lawrence Ugwuanyi was quoted by the same reliable source that he was reported to PDP National Body that he wants to handover to his family relation and he was advised by the national leadership of the party that it will be unfair to allow one family to rule the state for 16 years.

“The Nsukka persons in this secret meeting reminded him that in the first place that he held the mandate of Nsukka people in the House of Representatives for over 12 years, after being a Chairman for Udenu LGA. They reminded him that the money he used in securing the governorship in 2015 was raised through the mandate given to his person by the good people of Nsukka.

“Secondly, they reminded him that Nsukka people all over Nigeria and all over the world mobilised both human and material support for His Excellency's gubernatorial election in 2015, which the whole Nigeria can testify to this fact.

“The Nsukka men, who held this secret meeting with His Excellency, Rt Hon. Ugwuanyi also reminded him that his current governorship was a mandate to Nsukka people and not to his person, that his claims to have purchased it for N6 billion could only be possible because it is a chance given by former Governor Sullivan Chime for Nsukka people; that if he wasn't an Nsukka contestant, that if he liked, let him spend N20 billion, he would never have got it, because it was the turn of Nsukka people.

“According to them, when His Excellency Governor Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi saw that they were making very truthful points against His Excellency's stand, he got angry and staged a walkout on those very important Nsukka political elders and think-tanks, saying he had no time to waste talking to such Nsukka personalities”.

Continuing, Dr. Onah stated: “Let me inform us that the Nsukka men am talking of were said to have raised one billion, two hundred million naira, which they donated in the said meeting as their support to the governor for the gubernatorial aspiration of Hon. Chijioke Jonathan Edeoga and the Isi-uzo / Enugu-North Senatorial zone alliance to win the Governorship seat for the next four years.

“Same grapevine has it that Governor Ugwuanyi asked the men to keep their money that he doesn't want to touch anybody's money!

“It should also be noted that another Nsukka philanthropist Evangelist Dr. Sam Onyishi called the same group and indicated interest to donate five billion naira in support of Nsukka cause and the actualisation of Hon. Chijioke Jonathan Edeoga gubernatorial election and since they told the governor about it, it is reported by Dr. Maduka Onyishi that His Excellency, Governor Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi has refused to pick his (Maduka Onyishi's) calls and has refused to reply his text messages to that effect. These are information from very reliable sources.

“It was gathered that it was His Excellency Governor Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi of Enugu State that visited a natural Nsukka hater Chief Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo after the said meeting with the Nsukka elders and agreed with him to grant the press release (announcing Peter Mbah as Ugwuanyi’s successor), which we all misunderstood yesterday (24th May 2022) as usurpation of His Excellency Governor Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi's role as a sitting governor of the State.

“Hearing this revelations late hours of last night jolted me to sleeplessness to this very morning. I still find it very difficult to believe up to this minute that I’m writing this painful post. I wish am truly dreaming!

“Then finally, I learnt the Governor last night released N400,000 with a secret note "vote Peter Mba" to each delegate (excluding Isi-Uzo and some noted Nsukka delegates) after happily receiving overwhelming electoral victory in the concluded PDP senatorial primary election in Nsukka Township Stadium yesterday in close company with Hon. Barr. Chijioke Jonathan Edeoga, who even called His Excellency's attention to the published press release of Jim Nwobodo, a card carrying member of APC and the Governor smiled and told him to ignore the same message!”

The narrator however said all he had written could only be confirmed by the outcome of the PDP primary election scheduled for that day.

“Well, remember all these things I am writing now are yet to be confirmed until after today's gubernatorial primary of the PDP here in Enugu!

“I sincerely pray to Almighty God, let all these information turnout to be lies at the end of the day, hoping we still remember my dream sometime ago; which was received with expected mixed feelings and reactions. What is happening today!

“I will be the happiest person to be proved totally wrong at the end of the day, today. God save the just!”, he concluded.

Meanwhile, whereas Onah’s allegations are yet to be independently confirmed, what can be confirmed today is that Peter Mbah, Chimaroke Nnamani’s former Chief of Staff and also a Commissioner for Finance in Nnmani’s administration, was overwhelmingly elected the PDP governorship candidate in Enugu State in the 2023 general election.

However, the primary election saw a gale of first, a withdrawal by Ekweremadu and stepping down by other contestants.

To drive the victory home, Nnamani was seen in a video, which trended online, harass and rain verbal abuses on Edeoga at the venue of the exercise, allegedly for refusing to step down for the anointed candidate, Peter Mbah.

He could be heard saying, “Who is your father? Who are you? Who are the Isi-Uzo?” in addition to other unprintable verbal missiles.

To seal what many saw as an assault on the psyche of an average Nsukka man, Dr. Nnmani and Ugwuanyi were seen dancing heartily to the beats of the revered Igede.

However, the primary election is apparently one of the many huddles that the trio of Ugwuanyi, Nnmani, and Mbah may have scale in the spirited efforts to deliver Mbah as the next governor of Enugu State.
Besides Ekweremadu, whose ambition have metamorphosed into a movement, Mbah’s emergence have met stiff opposition from the civil society and the church as a reincarnation of the Nnamani era with its better forgotten memories.