The battle between Ikwuano and Isiala-Ngwa LGAs for Abia Central Senate seat promises to be one of the flash points of the 2023 General Election. Both LGAs, from the two broad divides - Old Bende and Old Aba - are yet to occupy the Senate seat and argue from a sense of emotional entitlement why 2023 is their turn. From Jaja Martin, an aide  to Chief Chuku Wachuku, the YPP Senatorial candidate for the seat comes this opening argument why it is Isiala-Ngwa-Lokan. 


Excerpts:



ABIA CENTRE AND ZONING: A SWEET STORY IN DENIAL

by Jaja Martin


It is tie again when people are brainwashedj is injustice everywhere”. We must resist every attempt at setting a dangerous standard that would hurt and hunt our district in many years to come. We must understand the danger of keeping power for too long in one side of power divides.


Sam Onuigbo, APC Senatorial candidate


If one must be deceived, the whole people should not be deceived. The good people of Isiala Ngwa North should understand that Senate and Governorship positions are mutually exclusive. One does not stop the other. Even if the entire people of Abia State have decided (this is only an assumption) that the next Governor will come from Isiala Ngwa North, that should be a state-wide arrangement best described as a privilege, and not anything to do with a curse. A privilege done to anyone should not come with denial of one’s due turn and right at anything. Eternal truth was established when Voltaire declared that “those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”


Chuku Wachuku, YPP Senatorial candidate


The precedence is already set to buttress this fact. When Obingwa Local Government Area was privileged to produce Governor Ikpeazu, they were not denied the chance to produce the Senator of Abia South Senatorial District. Today, two brothers from almost the same village are holding both Governor and Senate positions. Why were the other Local Governments of Abia South not considered for the Senate position? The same scenario played out in Ikwuano/Umuahia bloc of Abia Central in 2019. In every state, only three statutory positions are shared between the three Senatorial Districts. Those positions are Governor, Deputy Governor and Speaker of the State Assembly. After the 2019 elections were contested and won, the Speakership of Abia State House of Assembly was zoned to Abia Centre.

Emeka Atuma, APC Senatorial candidate


Already Ikwuano/Umuahia, by rotation and turn, produced the Senator of the District in the person of Distinguished Senator T.A.Orji from Umuahia North. The Speaker that emerged also came from Umuahia North in the person of Rt. Hon. Chinedu Enyinnaya  Orji, the first son of Senator T.A.Orji. In this case we have father and son, not just only persons from the same political bloc in Abia Centre. Why did we not think of Umunneato bloc for the Speakership position since the Senator was from Ikwuano/Umuahia axis?


Darlington Nwokocha, Labour Party Senatorial candidate


When Obingwa and Umuahia North had their double foetal pregnancies, they all had unmitigated safe delivery just like a man who joyously harnessed his oil palm with multiple ripe fruits. Injustice and denial, and a very regrettable one, is starring on the face of the good people of Isiala Ngwa North. The worst situation is that the promise to make a governor of Isiala Ngwa North extraction is arguably not backed up by sterling performance to curry the support of Abia masses during the forth-coming elections. If the feelers that Abia masses have vowed to vote against any governorship candidate sponsored by the ruling party in the state due to what they perceive as unprecedented woeful performance which has brought all sectors of the state economy to their kneels and lowest ebb, then, Isiala Ngwa North could be christened AARON in a new baptism of planned denial. This is if they fail to have a firm grip of the Senate slot, which by all standards, is theirs to fill.


Austin Akobundu, PDP Senatorial candidate


Frederick Douglass would say and I quote, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe,” end of quote.


Jaja Martins

A public Affairs Analyst

9th September, 2022.