The crisis rocking the Enugu State chapter of the All Progressives Congress[APC], appears to have taken another dimension as a group of elders of the party has submitted another list of ministerial nominees to President- Elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, with the party’s spokesman in the South-East zone, Mr Osita Okechukwu, leading the pack.
The party had been engulfed in crisis in the state, following the insistence from the people of Enugu-North [Nsukka] zone that the ministerial appointment must be given to one of their own, at the detriment of those from the other two zones-Enugu-East and Enugu-West.
The crisis became public knowledge when it was widely reported in the media, that the party’s National Vice-Chairman [South-East ], Chief Emma Eneukwu, slapped the APC governorship candidate in the April 11 guber poll in the state, Chief Okey Ezea.
The browl was said to have happened during a zonal meeting held at the Imo Governor’s lodge in Abuja, with a lot of the party’s big wigs present. Ezea who has ran for the state’s top position for several times and failed, was said to have insisted that the Nsukka zone must produce the minister in Buhari’s administration.
Those opposed to his view, who included Enekwu, were however, of the opinion that since the zone produced the Governor-Elect [Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi], the ministerial position should go to either the East or Western zone of the state. While Ezea hails from Enugu-North [Nsukka], Eneukwu is from Udi in Enugu –West. Both of them are said to be interested in the ministerial slot of the state.
Ezea’s argument is said to be based on past trends where the zone that produced governor also went ahead to produce the minister. He was said to have sited instance of the current trend where Enugu- West that produced Governor Sulivan Chime, also has the Minister of Power, in the person of Professor Chinedu Nebo.
But his traducers insist that such system is not equitable in a stste that has three distinct zones. But the people of Nsukka, irrespective of political party affiliation, are said to be united in demanding for the ministerial appointment. They expressed their view in this regard, through a statement issued by a group, Nsukka Peoples Assembly and signed by one Professor Ocho who is said to be a Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] card carrying member.
In the statement, the group listed three names–Okey Ezea, J. O. G. Okoloagu and Maj. Gen. Chris Eze, all from the zone, as their nominees for ministerial appointment. A source disclosed to The NICHE that it was this statement and the fact that the three nominees oin it are all from Nsukka, that infuriated Eneukwu.
But Eneukwu is not alone in the condemnation of the move by the people of Nsukka to appropriate the political appointments coming to Enugu State. Another group led by Second Republic National Youth Leader of the defunct Nigerian Peoples Party[NPP] and former South-East zonal National Chairman of equally defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party[ANPP], Chief Anike Nwoga, has moved against this desire of Nsukka block.
Nwoga who hails from Enugu-East, told The NICHE in a telephone interview, that his group which is mainly made up of leading members of the APC in the state, has submitted another list containing three names drawn from the three zones in the state, to the President- Elect.
According to him, three names include those of Osita Okechukwu [Enugu-West], Onyemuche Nnamani [Enugu-East] and Maj. Gen Chris Eze [Enugu-North]. He insisted that the fresh list is a clear departure from what he called “the parochial posture” of those who submitted the earlier list.
“As you can see, the list we submitted dose not only contain names of persons from the three zones, it is also more importantly, names of core members of the APC. This is a clear departure from the parochial posture of those who drew the list that sparked off this problem”, he said.
Nwoga added that “the painful thing is not just that the first list contained names of three persons all from Nsukka Zone alone, but those who prepared the list are not bonafide members of the APC in the state. The man who signed the statement from the Nsukka Peoples Assembly, Professor Ocho, is a card carrying member of the PDP. Why should PDP chieftains who waged a vicious war against those of us in the APC and went ahead to rig the last elections in favour of their party, turn around now to decide who should get what in an APC government?”, he queried.
He made it clear that the President -elect has been advised by his group to choose people who believe in his ideals rather than those who see governance as food is ready.” We are sad that these characters masquerading as APC faithful, were the same people who vowed in the recent past that Gen. Buhari must be stopped, at all cost, from even contesting the Presidential election. We have therefore advised that since he knows those who believe in his ideals, those are the people he should choose to work with him, for the good of Nigeria. He must make the mistake of selecting people who are only looking for what to eat” , he said.
He said that the list his group submitted contained names of core Buhari men in the state. “Everybody knows the passion somebody like Osita Okechukwu has for Buhari. This is why we put his name as number one on our list. He is the most deserving of ministerial position in this state today”, he said.
Efforts to get both Okechukwu and Eneukwu to react to the new development did not yield fruit as their phones rang engaged all through.