With due respect to Okenze George Nkwoji, his latest sermon asking Owerri Zone to “wait till 2031” is not only misleading but smacks of intellectual dishonesty wrapped in pseudo-equity rhetoric. The argument collapses under the weight of its own contradictions — a feeble attempt to sanctify political surrender as prudence.
No one gives power away by waiting. Power is taken, negotiated, and demanded — never begged for. Owerri Zone has waited long enough.
Since 1999, Orlu Zone has governed Imo State for over 20 years. Okigwe Zone has ruled for eight full years — four under the late Dee Sam Mbakwe and four under Dr. Ikedi Ohakim.
Owerri Zone, on the other hand, has governed for a mere 29 months — 22 months under Evan Enwerem and seven months under Emeka Ihedioha. Both administrations were abruptly interrupted — one by the military, the other by a controversial judicial intervention. And yet, Nkwoji dares to prescribe another four years of waiting? That’s not equity — it’s political self-enslavement.
Nkwoji’s claim that Owerri Zone has “leaders but no leadership” is the same tired narrative that power brokers from Orlu and Okigwe have used for decades to justify marginalization against the zone. If disunity is now a crime punishable by political exclusion, then every geo political zone in Nigeria should be in prison.
Was Orlu united before 1999? Was Okigwe a perfect bloc before Ohakim’s emergence? Political unity is never pre-existing — it is forged through aspiration, struggle, and purpose.
Even worse is Nkwoji’s bizarre proposal that Governor Hope Uzodimma should use “executive fiat” and “a little autocracy” to decide his successor. Really? So, democracy should now take lessons from dictatorship? How does one invoke “the doctrine of necessity” to stifle democratic participation in a civilian government?
The irony is almost comical. It’s the kind of thinking that turns governors into emperors and citizens into spectators.Nkwoji’s obsession with correcting a so-called “2011 injustice” against Okigwe Zone is also misplaced. That injustice, if any, was committed by the political system, not by Owerri Zone as a collective.
The electorate chose Rochas Okorocha over Ikedi Ohakim in 2011 — it was democracy in action, not a conspiracy hatched in the corridors of Owerri. Revising history to guilt-trip a zone into political submission is both dishonest and insulting.Let’s not forget that Okigwe has already had its fair share — eight full years in total. Owerri Zone, despite being home to the state capital and the engine room of Imo’s political and economic life, has had less than 30 months of governance in over four decades of the state’s existence.
If there’s any genuine injustice crying out for correction, it is that — not the mythical “abridged tenure” of 2011.And then there’s the tragic comedy of suggesting that Ikedi Ohakim should return as a one-term “shortcut” to Owerri’s turn. That is not political strategy; it’s recycled nostalgia disguised as wisdom.
The same Ohakim who was voted out 14 years ago has somehow become the new Moses to lead Imo into the promised land? If that’s the “shortest route,” then the road must be closed.
Nkwoji’s argument that “every community in Owerri wants to produce a governor” is not an indictment — it is a sign of political vibrancy. Ambition is not disunity. It is the engine of democracy. The multiplicity of aspirations in Owerri Zone is proof that leadership capital exists in abundance — not evidence of confusion. Only those threatened by competition fear multiple contenders.
And what exactly is this talk about Owerri “waiting for four years”? Four years in Nigerian politics is not a pause — it’s an abyss. Political opportunities don’t knock twice; they vanish when zones start believing in fairy tales of deferred equity.Owerri Zone does not need permission from anyone to aspire.
The constitution is clear — every qualified citizen has a right to contest. Equity cannot be built on selective amnesia or emotional blackmail. True equity demands justice for all — not recycled arguments designed to perpetuate imbalance.
The truth is simple: Owerri Zone is ready. Ready intellectually, politically, and morally. It has the men, the women, the brains, and the structure. What it needs is resolve — not lectures from self-appointed custodians of “equity” who romanticize yesterday’s failures.
Nkwoji’s so-called advice is nothing more than satanic verses and a campaign to perpetuate exclusion under the guise of justice.
But history has a cruel sense of humor — it rarely rewards those who mistake silence for strategy. For Owerri Zone, 2027 is not a date to postpone. It is a date with destiny.
Ejimkonye writes from Lagos
