Politics
2023: Ebonyi Stakeholders Harp On Sustaining Zoning
Stakeholders in Ebonyi have called for the sustenance of zoning arrangement in the distribution of key elective offices in the state for the 2023 general elections .
The stakeholders who spoke toThe Tide source yesterday in Abakaliki in separate interviews, described zoning formula adopted by the state as ‘strategic and perfect’ for advancement of democracy.
According to them, the initiative has reduced acrimony, tension and bitter political struggle for succession.
They noted that sustaining the existing arrangement in 2023 and beyond would further cement the peace, unity and enhance existing bond among the different communities and cultures in the state.
One time Commissioner for Information and State Orientation in Ebonyi, Chief Abia Onyike, said that zoning should be sustained and declared his total support for the arrangement.
He said that zoning had created equal political opportunity and sense of belonging to everyone in the state irrespective of the political or cultural affiliation.
He faulted insinuations from some quarters that zoning arrangement had led to the emergence of incompetent and never-do-well leaders, saying that every zone in the state was well endowed with leaders that could steer the ship of the state.
“I completely support the zoning system adopted in the state’s `charter of equity’ because the arrangement reduces political acrimony, political tension and bitter struggle for power succession.
“It is not true that zoning breeds incompetent leaders rather what hinders visionary leaders from vying for political position is fund and selection method in most political parties.
“In Ebonyi, zoning started from the Ebonyi North senatorial district and moved to the Ebonyi Central senatorial district before berthing at the Ebonyi South senatorial zone.
“Some pundits are advocating that since the three zones have had their shots at the governorship, that it can either begin from the Ebonyi Central district in 2023 or return to Ebonyi North where it started,” Onyike said.
He warned that any attempt to disrupt the existing zoning arrangement would not be to the best interest of the state and its people.
Onyike urged political, religious and traditional leaders to work for the sustenance of zoning principle in Ebonyi .
Similarly, former Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport, Dr Paul Okorie, called for sustaining zoning formula, adding that the system had brought orderliness in power succession in the state.
He also faulted the claim by some people that zoning did not allow for emergence of credible and qualitative leadership, stressing that every zone in the state was richly endowed with men of stature and integrity to lead the state.
“There is no zone in the state that you go and you don’t get capable and competent persons to govern the state, be it in Ebonyi North, Ebonyi Central or Ebonyi South; there is no place you don’t have competent people.
“I am completely in favour of zoning because it has reduced rancour and acrimony in power succession.
“Ebonyi North zone started in 1999 and quietly it was handed over to Ebonyi Central in 2007 and Ebonyi South took over in 2015.
“Naturally and logically, power should move back to the North Zone for another cycle and this is for the interest of the state,” Okorie said.
Okorie, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and also one time Commissioner for Environment noted that one of the beauties of zoning is that it deepens unity and eliminate political marginalisation.
“I believe that power should go to the North where it started and rotate in that order, anybody who is from another zone coming out to contest in 2023 for governorship can only come to do exercise,” he added.
Mr James Aleke, a lawyer urged leaders of the state not to tamper with the existing zoning principle to ensure political stability, equity and justice.
“Power naturally should move back to Ebonyi North in line with the zoning order and any attempt to distort the arrangement will truncate the unity of the state,” Aleke said .
He, however, appealed to Izzi speaking people of Ebonyi to unite and put away their political differences in order to take power in 2023.
Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday brushed aside the order of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which ordered him to stay proceedings in a suit that sought deregistration of the African Democratic Party (ADC), Accord Party and three others.
The Court of Appeal in a unanimous decision of a panel of three Justices had on May 22, 2026 directed the Federal High Court Judge not to proceed with the suit until an appeal pending before them and filed by Accord Party is resolved.
In a Certified True Copy Enrol Order of the Superior Court, Justices Mohammed Danjuma, Adebukola Banjoko and Oyejoju Oyewumi asked the lower Court Judge to stay proceedings until all issues on the appeal filed by the Accord Party were resolved
Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State had, through the Accord Party, applied to justice Lifu to join him as a defendant in the deregistration legal battle instituted by a group of former legislators.
The contention of the Osun State governor was that he had a stake in the Accord Party, being the platform he was seeking re-election in the August 15 gubernatorial poll in the state.
In his ruling, Justice Lifu on April 27 ruled against the Osun State governor, rejecting his request to be joined in the suit to defend his own position and interest.
Not satisfied with the Federal High Court decision, the Osun State governor, through his lawyer, Musibau Adetunbi (SAN), moved to the Court of Appeal in Abuja where he challenged the Justice Lifu decision to refuse to allow him join the suit.
After listening to the argument canvassed, especially that he has interest to protect as Accord Party gubernatorial candidate for Osun State governorship election, the three Justices of the Court of Appeal, unanimously directed Justice Lifu to allow them look into the grievances of the governor.
In specific terms, the Court of Appeal Justices directed Justice Lifu not to proceed further with the matter and fixed October 27 to determine the interlocutory appeal of the appellant.
However, when the certified enroll order and notice of appeal were served on Justice Peter Lifu by Mr Adetunbi (SAN), the judge rejected it on the ground that it was a ploy to arrest his judgment in the matter.
Although the judge had adjourned his judgment delivery in the matter indefinitely, he finally made a dramatic turn around on Monday and proceeded to deliver the judgment that has now proscribed the five political parties.
Actor turned politician, Mr Kenneth Okonkwo, has rejected the choice of former Rivers State Governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, as the running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
In a statement on Monday, Mallam Bolaji Abdulllahi, the National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, announced the party’s choice of Mr Amaechi.
However in a statement, Mr Okonkwo said that the choice of Mr Amaechi from the South South strengthens the continued marginalization of people from the South East.
According to the former spokesperson of the Labour Party, any arrangement that would not factor a person from the South East either as president or vice president in the party is anti-Igbo.
He contended that Chief Raph Nwosu, who founded the ADC in 2005 and willingly surrendered it’s leadership to Senator David Mark did not do so to entrench Igbo marginalization in the party.
The former actor said: “I heard from the social media that ADC has picked its vice presidential candidate from the South-South. If this is true, it is unfortunate, as this will continue the crude marginalisation of the South-East.
“This geo-political zone has neither produced a president or vice president since 1999. To deny the South-East the opportunity to produce the president or vice president in the ADC in 2027, will amount to perpetuating the marginalisation.
“The ADC was founded by Ralphs Nwosu from the South-East in 2005. He made the sacrifice to give up the party in 2025 for the coalition to usher in a better Nigeria. He couldn’t have made that sacrifice to marginalise his own people.
“I did not join the coalition to assist in marginalisation of my own people further. I am of the opinion that if we made a sacrifice to give up the national chairman and the president, it will amount to unpardonable injustice to deny us the vice president in 2027.
“I joined politics to fight for a better Nigeria where no region, geo-political zone, or person will be marginalised.
“The only favour I asked Atiku Abubakar, who openly declared that he is the pathway to the presidency of the South-East, is to show it by choosing someone from the South-East to be his vice.
“If it is confirmed that he has chosen a candidate from the South-South, I wish him well. I am not favourably disposed to campaigning for any presidential ticket that does not have a person of South-East origin as president or vice in 2027”
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, on Monday said that the numerous projects being executed by President Bola Tinubu across the states in the southeast will give him upper hand over other presidential candidates during next year’s general elections.
Prof. Yilwatda stated this at the Abakaliki Township Stadium during a mega rally organized by the Ebonyi State government and Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, during which President Tinubu and other APC candidates for the 2027 general elections were adopted.
According to the APC National Chairman, no President had done for the southeast region what President Tinubu has done for them and expressed the confidence that the president would not only win in Ebonyi State but in the entire South East.
Prof. Yilwatda also used the occasion to address growing insinuations in some quarters that Ebonyi State had been conceded to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Dismissing the claim, Prof. Yilwatda said the state would not allow the PDP to win any position in the forthcoming general election.
“We will return President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Francis Nwifuru as Governor of Ebonyi State in 2027.
“We want to return all APC senators, members of the House of Representatives and House of Assembly candidates in 2027.
“Nobody has conceded Ebonyi to the PDP. Therefore, there is no vacancy in Ebonyi State. Ebonyi PDP has no place, and there is no vacancy at all in the Government House come 2027,” the APC National Chairman declared.
He commended the people of the state for their support for President Tinubu and urged them to re-elect him in the next presidential election in appreciation of what he has done for the state and the entire South-East through infrastructural transformation and human capital development.
Governor Francis Nwifuru, who also spoke at the event, said the state had no other presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections apart from President Tinubu.
He declared that Ebonyi remained a stronghold of the APC and vowed that the party would deliver the President in the state.
Gov. Nwifuru said President Tinubu had shown exceptional commitment to the state and deserved total support for appointing Senator Umahi as Minister of Works, a role he said Senator Umahi had performed creditably.
“Ebonyi has no other presidential candidate apart from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and we will return him in the presidential election.
“We are standing here today to tell the whole world, especially those using the President’s name to orchestrate division and confusion in this great state, that we have only one party, and that is the APC.
“This statement became necessary because some people are going around claiming they have discussed with Mr President and that he has handed Ebonyi over to the PDP. They are also saying that Chief Nyesom Wike is their leader and that Wike said the President has given Ebonyi to him.
“Ebonyi is not for sale. We are restraining ourselves because the people are with us. Nobody should push us because we have what it takes to confront anyone trying to destabilise us.
“We want to tell Mr President that he has earned our votes. He gave us what we had never had in Eastern Nigeria — the office of the Minister of Works. And this Minister of Works is not sitting idle; he is working,” he stated.
Senator Umahi, in his remarks, said President Tinubu had done what no other President had done for Ebonyi State and the entire South-East by executing numerous projects across the state and the region.
“Ebonyi State is a one-party state under Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru. We are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done a lot, not just for Ebonyi State but for the entire South-East and other geopolitical zones,” he said.