IMO CHARTER OF EQUITY, CHARITY SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME(sic)
Desperation Makes The Desperate Forget History
I read Sunny Ndukwu’s struggles to elevate personal desperation to a community protest, and I could not help but pity the deliberate amnesia that now passes for political analysis in Imo East.
In doing this, he chose to remember to forget that Ngor Okpala is not a federal constituency bloc but a local government area. For accurate record purposes, it is important to remind him that Ngor Okpala belongs to the Aboh-Mbaise/Ngor Okpala Federal Constituency. Again, Ndukwu chose to forget that Ngor Okpala as part of that federal constituency has produced Sen. Chris Anyanwu for two consecutive terms as a Senator with support from Owerri North as well as other local government areas in the zone. Also, he deliberately ignored Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha from Aboh-Mbaise/Ngor Okpala federal constituency who was Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, the sixth most powerful person in the federation. How Sunny managed to forget all these known facts of history can only be imagined.
But let us go further, because history is stubborn.
If we are to talk about marginalization, equity and who has eaten what since 1999, then let us put the full table on the ground for Nde Owerri to see.
Has Ngor Okpala truly been abandoned? Or has Ngor Okpala been served through its federal constituency brotherhood, through governorship, through deputy speakership, through ministerial and senatorial opportunities that other LGAs in the zone can only dream of? The answer is YES.
Singling out Owerri North therefore for blackmail is wrong, wicked and politically dishonest.
For the record, Owerri North does not control any of the political structures in the state. Owerri North is not the National or State Chairman of any major party. Owerri North does not hold the governorship. How then does a local government that holds no lever of party power marginalize other local governments in the zone? Let Sunny answer that one question without hiding behind the slogan of “Charter of Equity.”
More importantly, Sunny refused to acknowledge the time in office of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as Governor of the state. A son of Mbaise, a brother from the same federal constituency as Ngor Okpala, sat as Governor of Imo State. Did Owerri North cry marginalization then? Did Owerri North write epistles about “charity should begin at home”? No. Owerri North supported, voted, and cooperated, because we understand that leadership should not be earned by emotional blackmail.
Owerri North does not gloat about her current position nor should it be considered as an act of domination. The wind of politics blows every season as it chooses. Today it favours one, tomorrow it favours another. That is democracy, not domination.
What Sunny calls “power rotation” in this circumstance is nothing but deliberate emotional manipulation. It is a convenient slogan that is remembered only when it favours the speaker, and forgotten when the same speaker’s brother is in power.
Probably, his keyboard refused to type the historical facts about the spread of the senatorial seats across the federal constituencies that make up the zone. An honest view will reveal that each of the federal constituencies has produced a Senator with some producing governors also, like Ikeduru/Mbaitoli(Gov. Evans Enwerem) and Aboh-Mbaise/Ngor Okpala (Gov. Emeka Ihedioha). Sunny Ndukwu should be reminded of this again since he pretends not to know.
The truth that Sunny is running away from is simple: The Senate seat of Imo East is not the property of any LGA. It is the property of the people of Imo East, all nine LGAs. Any qualified son or daughter of the zone, from Mbaitoli to Ikeduru, from Owerri Municipal to Owerri West, from Aboh-Mbaise to Ahiazu, from Ezinihitte to Owerri North and Ngor Okpala, has the democratic right to contest. To micro-zone it by fiat, to threaten other LGAs with “revolution in the air,” is not equity. It is intimidation dressed as advocacy. The reality remains that other federal constituencies are fielding candidates for the position so where lies Ndukwu’s threnody in singling out Owerri North for blackmail?
And let us be honest about the real motive. Sunny Ndukwu’s cry is not about Ngor Okpala. This is about one man’s desperation to be relevant in 2027. When personal ambition fails to attract followers, some people quickly sew a community garment for it and call it “the people’s struggle.” Nde Ngor Okpala are wiser than that. They know their true leaders. They know those who stood with them in good times and bad, not those who appear in election season with a pen and a grievance.
If Sunny truly wants a roundtable, let us have it. Let us bring the full record since 1999:
Who has been Senator, House of Reps member, Minister, Governor, Deputy Governor, Speaker, Party Chairman, from each LGA? Let us lay it bare. Let Owerri North also tell its own story of sacrifice, of voting for others, of waiting patiently, of supporting Mbaise sons for governor and senator without blackmail. Then, and only then, will we know who has truly been marginalized.
Until then, Owerri North will not allow itself to be blackmailed. Owerri North will not surrender its democratic right because one writer has discovered the word “rotation” on the eve of an election. Owerri North will not sacrifice the ambition of its qualified son who has openly demonstrated that Owerri zone is his pride by giving the entire zone dividends of democracy even when he has not occupied a public office on the altar of another man’s desperation.
We cannot be championing the Charter of Equity in the state while some people want to use it as a weapon to divide our house in Owerri zone. Equity is not “give it to me because it is my turn.” Equity is “let the best emerge within the area it operates, let every LGA compete freely, let the people decide.” Sadly for Sunny, the stark reality has confronted him that the man who declared his possession of more than enough money to buy the zone over has suddenly realized that yes, money is good but for Owerri zone, it is not about money but about the candidate who has always been there for them before the election season.
If we forget history, desperation will rewrite it for us. And desperation, as Sunny has shown, makes the desperate forgive history.
