Public Service Announcement to Dr. Ben Nwoye: Zoning is a Weapon, Not a Covenant

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From a Concerned Son of Amuri, Nkanu West LGA.

Dr. Ben Nwoye, Chairman of the APC State Caretaker Committee, your recent alarm against the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is not a call for political stability; it is a brazen attempt to invoke a "zoning covenant" that your political forebears in Nkanu were the first to shatter.

Before you counsel any resident to resist attempts to "undermine the long-standing governorship zoning arrangement," you must answer for the original sin against that same principle.

You claim that the zoning arrangement has ensured Enugu "uninterrupted peace" for decades. Let us recall the actual trajectory of power since the return to civil rule in 1999:

Enugu East (Nkanu): Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani served 8 years (1999–2007).

Enugu West: Sullivan Chime served 8 years (2007–2015).

Enugu North: Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi served 8 years (2015–2023).

Enugu East (Nkanu): Peter Mbah took office in 2023.

The agreement since 1999 was a rotation among the three senatorial zones. If the rotation was truly sequential, why is Enugu East (Nkanu) poised to hold the governorship for a staggering 16 consecutive years out of 24 years of the 4th Republic, between Chimaroke Nnamani and Peter Mbah, before the rotation can even get halfway back to Enugu West?

Who Disrupted the Zoning First? A History Lesson

Dr. Nwoye, your memory conveniently stops at 2027. Let us rewind to the period leading up to the 1999 democratic transition:

The Power Play: The political elite of Nkanu, under the leadership of powerful figures, openly disrupted the established rotational expectations to ensure that Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani (from Enugu East) secured the PDP ticket in 1999. They did this at the expense of aspirants who were expected to benefit from the established rotation, which some observers claim had been agreed upon since 1991.

The Usurpation: The de facto agreement meant to ensure justice and fair play was hijacked to produce a governor from a zone that, by rotational logic, should have waited its turn. This move secured the governorship for Nkanu for eight years, setting a precedent that power is taken, not waited for.

The very foundation of the zoning arrangement was shaken not by an opposition party's plot, but by the overwhelming influence of the ruling party’s leaders from Nkanu, who prioritized their sectional interests when the opportunity arose.

In Conclusion, A Warning, Not a Threat

You demand that residents resist the ADC's attempts to disrupt zoning. But Sir, you cannot cry "wolf" after the Nkanu power brokers long ago showed that the "zoning arrangement" is not a sacred pact but a tool of political convenience, to be invoked when it favours the incumbents and to be crushed when it does not. 

If the principle of rotation is so vital for stability, why did Nkanu leaders not allow it to run its course in 1999? If what was good for the goose then was Nkanu's eight-year term, then what is good for the gander now is a truly open, merit-based contest, or an equitable power shift that compensates the zones that have been marginalized by this historical power grab.

Your warning against destabilization rings hollow. The ADC is not plotting to destabilise Enugu; it is merely attempting to play by the rules your zone invented: power goes to those who can capture it, with or without zoning.

Ndi Enugu deserves peace, but peace cannot be built on the historical hypocrisy of claiming rotational justice while benefitting from rotational disruption.

The conversation about 2027 should not be about zoning; it should be about accountability, development, and a leader who will serve the entire state, not just a section of it.