PDP has reached consensus on Chime’s successor -Nnamani

  
The controversy surrounding the 2015 governorship election in Enugu State appears to have been settled following a reconciliatory meeting held among Peoples Democratic Party stakeholders with a consensus that power should shift to Enugu North Senatorial zone.

Among those who reached the consus include Governor Sullivan Chime and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

A former Senate President and indigene of Enugu State, Ken Nnamani, stated this in an interview with journalists at the National Judicial Institute, venue of the ongoing National Conference.

He

said, “Enugu State does not seem to have any succession problem because we have

a conventional understanding that when Enugu East completed its eight years, it

went to Enugu West and after Enugu West, it is only proper that governorship

power should go to Enugu North. It is not written anywhere but it is

conventional.

“Why do we do this? We localised the competition. For Enugu

North Senatorial District, the problem of who becomes governor is localised

there and therefore it costs down the cost of having to campaign, run around and

all those things. Can you see the wisdom behind that? I think we are observing

it and we seem to have no problem.”

When reminded that PDP is polarised

between Ekweremadu and the Governor because of agitation on who takes what, he

said discussions have been going on concerning the power sharing formular ahead

of the 2015 general elections.

“I don’t like to discuss individuals, but

I can feel you that there is no polarisation in Enugu State because I have

access to Ekweremadu, I have access to the Governor and we are talking. We have

had our first meeting and we will still have meetings as time goes on. We don’t

have succession problem  in Enugu State”, Nnamani stated.

He also

dismissed allegation of threats on the lives of those who want to contest

against the wish of Governor Sullivan Chime.

“I am not aware of any

threat at all, the days of threats, to me, are gone. We don’t have such things

now. I am not aware of any threats at all”, he stressed.

Ahead of the

2015 governorship election,

Geopolitical tensions were said to be

developing following a recent pronouncement by Governor Sullivan Chime that his

successor would come from Enugu North, specifically Nsukka zone.

THE

PUNCH recalls that since the creation of the state in 1991 from the old Anambra

State, Enugu State has had eight governors.

Out of this number, five,

namely, Herbert Eze, Temi Ejoor, Mike Torey, Sule Ahman, and Adewunmi Agbaje,

were Military Administrators.

The remaining three – Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo,

Chimaroke Nnamani, and currently, Chime, were democratically

elected.

Enugu North Senatorial district, dominated by the people of

Nsukka Cultural zone, produced the first civilian governor of the state, Nwodo,

in 1992.

Although, Nwodo did not serve out his four-year term following

the truncation of that process in 1993 by the regime of ex-President Ibrahim

Badamasi Babangida.

Enugu-East zone, dominated by Nkanu people, produced

the second elected governor (Chimaroke Nnamani) in 1999.

In 2007, the

position moved to the third leg of the tripod, Enugu-West zone, with Chime

emerging governor in what appeared like a rotational arrangement, even though,

nobody has been able to produce a document wherein such arrangement was

reached.

With the next general election around the corner, many in the

Nsukka zone are beginning to revisit the question of their unfinished tenure

that had been abridged by the military.

They feel their person should be

the next governor of the state for the sake of equity, justice and fair play and

premised their argument on several factors.

Apart from the fact that

Enugu North is the only zone that was yet to hold the governorship position for

at least four years, the zone is also said to be claiming that it has over 40

per cent of the voting population in the state, going by the last national

census figures.

They have equally noted that Nsukka zone is the only area

among the present three zones that has remained intact since the old Anambra

State.

The other two, which used to accommodate parts of Ebonyi State,

have been split into four zones, with two of the zones located in the present

Enugu and Ebonyi states.