RE: CHUKWUMA ODII VS FRANCIS NWIFURU: WILL ABAKALIKI BLOC WAKE UP?
FACTS AGAINST FICTION
The first headline was the title of the article written by Dr Obinna Oke from Ezza North LGA of Ebonyi State. In the brief article laced with partisan bias, Dr Oke tried so hard to spite the candidacy of High Chief Ifeanyi Odii as the 2023 PDP governorship candidate in Ebonyi State. Among the highlights of his article were that the immediate past Governor of Ebonyi State, Sen. David Umahi fielded Chief Odii as an artifice to retain power in the Ebonyi South Senatorial Zone against the Abakaliki bloc. He furthered by alleging that while the campaigns lasted, no attack was meted out on the PDP candidate as against what was the fate of the other candidates, moreover the APGA’s Professor Ben Odoh. Dr Oke also alleged that Umahi carefully designed a political coup against the Abakaliki bloc using his cousin, Chief Odii to achieve that by sponsoring him in the PDP against the other aspirants within the party. He also alleged that Umahi knew that the APC’s governorship candidate and the current Governor of Ebonyi State, Rt Hon. Francis Nwifuru was going to crash at the governorship election tribunal in Abuja by virtue of his purported defection and belonging to the PDP even till after the general elections, and still gave him the ticket of the APC. Dr Oke alleged as well that the outcome of the tribunal case was going to see Professor Odoh and Chief Odii going into a runoff poll, citing that it was going to be a fight between Ebonyi South and the Abakaliki bloc.
As the Publicity Secretary of PDP in Ebonyi State and a director in the governorship campaign council of the PDP, I think I’m in a better position to respond to the spurious punchlines Dr Obinna Oke tried to establish with regard to the subject matter. Narrating the account of the primary election of the PDP will take time, but I’ll just say a little as many knew, and still know what happened. To start with, Engr David Umahi isn’t a cousin of Chief Odii. They’re not from the same LGA neither do they share any consanguinal tie. Dr Oke lied in his effort to present a fictitious piece of narrative against the humane candidate of the PDP, Chief Ifeanyi Odii. Noteworthy here also is the fact that there’s no such thing as the Abakaliki Bloc in Ebonyi State. That existed during the defunct Anambra State where Anambra, Enugu and a part of the present day Ebonyi State were constituent to one state. Since after the creation of Ebonyi State in 1996, the state has ceased to exist in blocs. We rather have a three senatorial zone structure: Ebonyi Central, North and South. It’s instructive to assert that there’s no cultural tie that bonds Ebonyi North and Central as a bloc. Within the two zones exist the Korrin and Igboassa peoples with distinct difference in cultural backgrounds. They recognise themselves as independent peoples with different ancestral histories. One now would wonder where Dr Oke came about with the idea of the Abakaliki Bloc he so much betoned in the article. Ezza doesn’t celebrate any cultural feast together with Ikwo and Izzi, vice versa. To believe that Abakaliki Bloc exists, such cultural bond should be in place and not just a diction resuscitated in every election season just to whip prejudice.
It’ll make no meaning to start discussing the case at the tribunal judgment of which is still being expected. It could be tantamount to contravention of the legal rules. So, I won’t argue anything about the tribunal case and its prospects. The tribunal has the exclusive powers to declare who or not should be the true governor of Ebonyi State at the end of the arguments and counterarguments of the both parties.
It’s, therefore, pertinent to state that the governorship of Ebonyi State has never been hinged on a clearcut zoning scheme. It has always been a circumstantial turn of events as the three senatorial zones always produce aspirants and candidates in each year of election. The winner emerges from popular decision of the voters, not on the ground of where they’re from. Ebonyi State has grown past primordial bias of sectional interest. The choice of Chief Odii by the delegates at the PDP primary election in Abakaliki came as a result of his personality and track records as a business man and philanthropist. Ebonyians voted at the primary, not aliens. They knew that Chief Odii is from Ebonyi South and went ahead to vote for him. Ebonyians campaigned and voted for him during the main election. His candidacy came to route out what could have been a piece of disaster if not stopped midway in the PDP by producing him. It’s not in doubt that the polls of 2023 in Ebonyi State were manipulated in favour of the APC. It’s a fact for itself, reason the APGA governorship candidate whom Dr Oke supports went to court alongside Odii to seek redress.
Umahi against the claims of Obinna everybody knew how he stopped PDP from campaigning in the state. The resistance he met was as a result of the massive acceptance of the PDP by the people of the state. Umahi stopped PDP from campaigning in Ikwo. He sealed the campaign venue with sand. The chairman of Ikwo LGA through Umahi warned PDP not to campaign in Ikwo as the security of the members of the party wasn’t guaranteed. The same thing happened in Ishielu, Onicha, Ohaozara, Ivo, Ebonyi, Izzi and Abakaliki LGAs of the state. How then did Umahi support PDP’s Chief Odii? Umahi also stopped PDP from using the state-owned radio station, stadium and mounting the campaign billboards of the party among other threats that he attempted to execute against the party. Ebonyi State is currently in disarray and only Chief Odii has the wherewithal to fix the state bringing to bear his many years of exposure and economic development. As a private individual, his track records in talents development, capacity building, charitable giving, scholarship, economic empowerment, bursary awarding among others are obvious enough to be dampened by mere partisan sentiment borne of aggressive aggrandisement and clannish bias. Majority of the Ebonyi people pray and wish that the messianic intervention of Chief Odii comes to bear in the governance of the state in no time. Therefore, it’s appalling to allege that Chief Odii was the brainchild of Umahi even when Umahi was a menace to the man in question and his political party. It’s a fact too glaring to damn that Ifeanyi Odii is not a candidate borne out of zoning formula as such never existed in the first place. It’s a fact for itself as what’s on the wrist doesn’t require mirror to be seen.
▪︎ Nwoba Chika Nwoba,
Publicity Secretary of PDP in Ebonyi State.