Why Enugu Guber Contest Defies Judicial Autopsy

Oguejiofo T. Ujam canvasses the need for all political stakeholders in Enugu State to team up with Governor Peter Mbah to develop the Coal City state since the Appeal Court has affirmed the governor’s election in the March, 2023 poll.

Those who do not reflect on the lessons of history are bound to repeat the flaws of the past. The recent judgment by the Court of Appeal, which affirmed the ruling of Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah was properly returned as winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election in the state, did not disappoint.

What was surprising however, was that some commentators anticipated a different verdict. But, some of us who had taken time to study the dynamics of Enugu State politics, particularly its nuances, cleavages and contracts, expected nothing less.

It is good a thing that Chief Chijioke Jonathan Edeoga and the Labour Party (LP) approached the election petition tribunal and the appellate court to test the outcome of the governorship poll. The judicial autopsy helped in no small way to convince both Edeoga/LP and Governor Mbah, whose victory was being challenged, that there is something about Enugu that is beyond the ordinary electoral competition.

In 1977, I think Bob Marley must have had Enugu State governorship in mind when he released the Reggae Album, Exodus, and sang, “There is a natural mystic blowing through the air.” Indeed, only those who look and listen carefully hear and perceive the natural mystic.

In the build-up to the 2023 general elections, I remember that I authored a write-up where I laid out the possible scenarios that would determine the outcome of the governorship contest.

At the risk of sounding immodest, let me recall that I warned that the attempt by some political revisionists to redraw the electoral map of Enugu State could push the state back to its destructive and divisive past.

The point I tried to make is that in Enugu State, the exercise of democratic choice is predicated on not only very strong, but also a robust power rotation arrangement.

The zoning format in the state stands strong as a kind of ouster clause for any individual or group that may seek to breach it. Il

In simple language, it could be said that the vote for zoning precedes individual votes for candidates, which nonetheless is enhanced by presenting an electable individual from the favoured district.

It was based on the understanding of that interplay of zoning and general voter preferences that I predicted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could lose the governorship election if it failed to choose its flag bearer from Nkanu clan within the Enugu East Senatorial District. 

Also, my prediction sounded more as an alarm against the underground plots by some well-heeled Nsukka leaders of Enugu North Senatorial Zone to coral the then Governor, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, into supporting a candidate from within the Isi-Uzo Local Government Area, which is culturally linked to the Nsukka clan, but situated in the Enugu East Senatorial District. It was obvious that that group of politicians had a hideous intent to cheat, exploit and flout the well-defined Enugu State governorship sharing arrangement. 

Evidence from the recent National Assembly election in Enugu State suggest that the people of Nsukka decided to punish the former governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, for not acceding to the selfish intra-Enugu North zonal political gang-up to hand over power to their next of kin in Enugu East Senatorial Zone.

Additionally, that action was a mixture of greed and ungratefulness, because despite the quantum of social amenities provision and government good gestures to Nsukka zone during his eight years in office, the people were heavily mobilized and incentivized to vote against Ugwuanyi in the senatorial election. 

It should be noted that those who wanted Ugwuanyi to throw the state into needless turmoil by supporting a candidate from the same Nsukka cultural zone, gathered themselves and infiltrated a better organised and constructive group called Odimma Nsukka. When their divisive plot failed, they moved over to the Labour Party (LP), deceived and pulled out Hon. Chijioke Edeoga from PDP, where he contested, lost the governorship primary, congratulated and pledged support for Dr. Peter Mbah in line with the extant zoning tradition in Enugu State.

Some prime movers of Odimma Nsukka did not hide their narrow intentions, because as they mobilised the people of Enugu North Senatorial District or Nsukka zone, they made it clear that Nsukka must succeed Nsukka in the 2023 governorship election.

Not even the plan to pair up an Nsukka person with a governorship candidate from Enugu East Senatorial District, where the governorship slot rightly belonged could assuage their selfish demand.

I was compelled by the dangerous narratives of those leaders of Odimma Nsukka to author an article captioned, “Emerging Dangerous Power Rotation Narratives Around Post-Ugwuanyi Enugu State.” in that piece I quoted Okey Ezea, who stated during a rally by the group, as follows: “I am sure Odimma Nsukka is working for the betterment of Nsukka. I commend all those going about in Nsukka, but I have not heard you talk about the main message. The main message is that come 2023 an Nsukka man or woman would succeed Ugwuanyi. I am not afraid to say it. Quote me anywhere.

“By the workings of God, the governorship has rotated. We are at the last lap. As those who grew up in the village, fetched water from the streams and firewood from the farms, we know that if you are sharing anything, by the time the last person takes he should be the first to start the next round.

“Equity and natural justice demands that we have to begin another round. We do not maltreat people; we are not like Orlu or Tiv; we are fair-minded. We have the numbers and the demographic advantage. We must go out and look for it. We have done it before we shall do it again. Let us remove partisanship from it. Nsukka is well positioned to be beneficial to everybody.”

That was back in 2021. May be voters in Enugu North Senatorial Zone decided to fall for Okey Ezea’s divisive rhetoric by abandoning Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, but the realities on the ground showed that contrary to the postulations of some of these members of Odimma Nsukka, the zone alone cannot make any person governor of Enugu State. They did not have the numbers as claimed by Ezea.

It is therefore obvious that the socio-political configuration of Enugu State, especially the strong zoning convention, there was no way Dr. Peter Mbah and Ifeanyi Ossai would have lost the governorship poll. That truism is the latent fact that Edeoga and by extension, the Odimma Nsukka subset’s governorship election challenge is struggling against.

There are no positive indications that even if the matter goes on further appeal to the Supreme Court that there would be a different outcome. The recent presidential run-off election in Liberia clearly show what should obtain when the majority tendency favours a particular candidate.

Both the victor, Peter Mba, and the challenger, Chijioke Edeoga, should recognise the dominant sociological underpinning of governorship election in Enugu State.

If a relatively new-comer to Enugu politics, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, could defeat an established big name like Gbazuagu Nweke Gbazuagu in 1999, it is high time political gladiators acknowledged the somewhat obdurate voter behaviour of Enugu State electorate. There should be a limit to litigation if equity and not self glorification is at play.

Against that background, those interested in the governorship of Enugu State should either look towards Enugu West to prepare a candidate for the 2031 governorship poll or join hands with Governor Peter Mbah to sustain the disruptive socio-economic reengineering of development and governance currently going on in the state.

-Prof. Ujam writes from  Nsukka