Anambra Guber: Stakeholders Call For Zoning To Southern District As PDP Kicks

Following the release of the timetable for the Anambra State governorship election, stakeholders from the southern senatorial district of the state have called for the ceding of the slot to the southern zone of the state. According them, although there is no written agreement to that effect, it has been a concept adopted, which produced governors Peter Obi and Willie Obiano, hence it should be the turn of the southern zone.

A political analyst from the southern zone, Chief Osigwe Okeke, said, “We need zoning for peace. Governors Obiano and Obi represented their respective zones, and we supported them based on that equation. It behooves the political parties to grant our request for equity. We have the strength to outwit anybody in the forthcoming election, but we need sustained peace. During the last election which Obiano won, he told us to support him based on the agreed zoning arrangement.”

A governorship hopeful in the state, Nze Kanayo Chukwumezie, told our correspondent in Awka that the agreement had been standing, and had helped in dousing political tension in the state over the years.

In his words, “Going by antecedents of the past sixteen years and more, it is the turn of Anambra south senatorial zone to produce the next governor. This is like a gentleman’s agreement.”

However, the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Mr Ndubuisi Nwobu, told newsmen that zoning ‘negates the constitutional rights of aspirants for the governorship seat of the state’.

According to him, “At no time has the state leadership of the party deliberated on zoning in Anambra State. It is clear that it is the mandate of the party to determine if there is zoning or not.

“We have members of our Board of Trustees. It is not a decision few people in the state will just meet and agree on, without the others. It will be completely out of place for us to say we have zoned the governorship. In every political party, there is a pressure group, and you cannot stop people from such agitations. The people who met have no one on the state leadership. If there will be zoning, the party will take that decision, not for people to come and say so after a meeting without the party making an input. They said for themselves, and it is the constitutional right of the people to contest, so you cannot use zoning to shut some people out of their legitimate rights.”
Nze Chukwumezie, who is also the vice president general of Anambra State Town/Peoples Association, Abuja, said refusal to observe zoning arrangements in the state would be a mockery of the quest of Ndigbo for the zoning of the president to southeast on the basis of equity and fair play.

He said, “Those preaching against or denying it, but laying claims to the southeast president in Nigeria are like one saying one thing in private and another in public. Only chameleons will do such. So we all assume that it is our turn to produce the next governor.”

He advised stakeholders of Anambra south senatorial zone to look for credible candidates who ‘will have the interest of the state at heart for the exalted position’.

According to him, “We should please try to present our best candidates that we are 100% sure will outperform even Peter Obi that from my research has been reputed as our best governor so far. Let us create the record that it was when Anambra south took their chance that things improved drastically, and the state was put on the road for rapid industrialization and development. Let us please support our best in all political parties so that we give Anambra State the best government ever come 2022.”

THE WHISTLER reports that the likes of Professor Charles Soludo, Chief Apostle Okoli, Dame Iyom Ekwunife, Chief Godwin Maduka, and Senator Ifeanyi Uba are among the aspirants from Anambra south senatorial zone.

INEC has scheduled Anambra governorship elections for November 6, 2021.