By Oguwike Nwachuku
Executive Editor
Former Federal House member representing Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency, Chief Independent Ogunewe, has criticised those making a case for zoning in Imo State, saying there is nothing like that in the state.
He told TheNiche that there was also nothing like Imo Equity Charter as being propounded by politicians in the state, on the grounds that it was not all politicians in the state allegedly drew up “the so-called arrangement.”
Ogunewe, a two-term House of Representatives member from Ezinihitte Local Government Area of Mbaise in Owerri Senatorial zone, explained that zoning was a lazy way of getting political power and should not be encouraged by those schooled in the act of power struggle.
Ogunewe, who was a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) but now a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), insisted that real power struggle “does not respond to zoning.”
He said that in Imo State there were politicians, religious people, traditional rulers, market women and men, development unions, among other groups that were always consulted when a critical matter concerning the citizens were to be discussed before decisions were taken.
“But in the case of the so-called zoning arrangement and much talked about Imo Equity Charter were all these people there? So, what is Imo Equity Charter? Who ratified it? Who and who were there when it was tabled and discussed? Who are the people that spoke in respect of the issue?
“To me it is simply an arrangement which the members of the PDP then saw as the best way to share offices in their party, and so, I do not see how that translates to an idea that should be binding on every other party operating in Imo State? The truth is that it is an arrant nonsense, and I am against it and what it stands for.”
Ogunewe said that in the struggle for power those interested should rather resort to mobilising people and resources for support instead of relying on the idea of zoning where power will be handed over to them without struggle.
“It is not because I am now in APC, but if the party decides to adopt zoning as its own convenient way of sharing offices why should that be the rule for every other political party? But beyond that, I think it is a lousy way of getting competent people to occupy serious offices as the office of the governor,” Ogunewe told the TheNiche.