Enugu’s political nemesis is candidates’ imposivtion –Onwuegbu

Chief Anayo Onwuegbu’s over time has not waivered in his desire to be the governor of Enugu State, and that dream and aspiration he has held onto dearly and faithfully in the past 12 years.

As the elections come next year, he has started fanning the embers of the quest to be the next governor of the state. But he has a grouse with the state and its politics which he said has become that entrenched in the tradition of candidates’ imposition.
Why have you remained resolute to be governor of Enugu State these years?
What informed my decision is the fact that Enugu State has been under the rulership of the PDP since the present democracy came into being. We had Governor Chimaroke Nnamani who was there for eight years and now the outgoing Governor Sullivan Chime. They are both PDP and we played active role in supporting the party in winning the election. However, the actual dream of the founders of the PDP cannot be said to have been actualized in Enugu State. If you look at the cardinal points and programmes of the party from inception which has to do with provision of employment for the people, provision of infrastructure which will invariably transform the economy and generate employment opportunities in Enugu State, that is completely lacking and because it is lacking, we cannot say we have actually delivered the dividends of democracy as packaged by the programmes of PDP in the state. If that is the case, I feel we owe the people and our party the duty of stepping forward and provide leadership and deliver to the people.

Do you have the political structure to see your ambition to fruition?
In 1999 I played behind the scene. In 2003, I did not play behind the scene; I contested for the ticket of the party and I set up the structure, but for the policy of the then Obasanjo’s administration that insisted on granting automatic ticket to all PDP governors that were going for second term, the then Nnamani wouldn’t have had a second term. I had the singular privilege and my ambition was responsible for the sharp division of the Enugu State House of Assembly in 2002, which produced a group of 16 that were loyal to me. It is on record. Imagine from then to 2010 when I vigorously went to the state for the ticket. The same scenario also played out. A situation where our party set up a panel to conduct the primaries; the panel arrived Enugu and conducted the primaries and left for Abuja. A caucus met and said no this primary cannot be and quickly packaged another ad-hoc primary which you all know legally was wrong. We challenged it in the court of law but along the line, we are all PDP, we always have a way of resolving issues as a family. I had a nomination in 2011 but as a member of the big family, we had to let it be.

What then will you identify as the major governance issue in Enugu State since 1999?
The governance issue we have in Enugu is that whereas in 1999, Chief Jim Nwobodo played a major role in installing Chimaroke Nnamani, in 2003, Chimaroke rode on his own strength as a sitting governor irrespective of whether he had done well or not. The people of Enugu State are getting demoralized. We need to reassure them and carry the populace along by stepping forward and make sure that a candidate of their choice is selected and elected by the party congress and not an imposed candidate. Imposition has so demoralized the electorate so much so that they are watching to see what happens. There is a limit to which you can enforce such a thing on the people. In 2011, they had thought we had gotten it until at the last minute the court, through a ruling, said we don’t have powers to reject a candidate nominated by a political party even though we can say we had a valid nomination. That was how Chime remained as the governor. It is imposition that is the fundamental problem of governance in Enugu State. When you put an unwilling horse to go to a stream, it hardly drinks.
Does zoning have anything to do with the issue or put in another way, what are your thoughts on zoning?
Well, we have not had zoning in Enugu State. I wouldn’t say zoning is a wrong principle; you can only talk of zoning as a good principle. Imagine a democracy like Nigeria where ethnicity plays a major role; that is the only principle you can use to justify zoning. Therefore, people see zoning as a way of reassuring other parts that they can also have a shot at power. Back home in Enugu State, there had never been any zoning.
In 2003, it was keenly contested by over 12 people, including my humble self. From Nkanu then was Chimaroke; from the greater Awgu was myself, Chief Alex Obiechina and two others. From Nsukka, you have Okechuwu Itanyi who was the deputy governor. All of us struggled for the ticket of PDP. There was no zoning. Then 2007 again, the scenario repeated itself. In 2010/11, it was the same issue.

So what do you make of the agitation that Enugu north should produce the next governor?
The concept is hinged on the fact that some time ago, it was strongly rumoured that the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu was interested in becoming the governor of the state and his love-lust relationship with the sitting governor
is a well known fact. To put a stop to that ambition, the governor started announcing that he had zoned the ticket of the party to Nsukka zone. It is a deliberate effort to steer up a sectional consciousness to be used against an envisaged enemy. I stand to be corrected. Let him tell us in any gathering in Enugu state that says we are going to start zoning. He was not a beneficiary of any zoning arrangement; he was handpicked by former governor Chimaroke.
Are you not afraid that religious bodies will play a defining role that will stall your aspiration?
I don’t like discussing my personal relationship on matters of religion because anything that has to do with religion is spiritual. If anybody is going to benefit from the religious group, I will be the one. My commitment to God and my duties to serve my creator is obviously channeled towards my personal relationship with various churches. I am a sworn Anglican by faith and practice, but it is on record that my spiritual warriors are more from the Catholics, because when you have an institution like a monastary, always praying for you on daily basis because of your personal relationship with them, I think you cannot get a greater praying warrior than such an institution. It is on record that as at today, though not a Catholic, I share very strong ties with the Catholic society. I had the privilege of once being asked to carry the chalice in a Catholic church being presided over by two Catholic bishops and when I walked up to the altar I reminded the bishop that you are asking me and my wife to carry the chalice up even when you know you won’t allow me to partake in the communion. It was an honour to me simply because God used me to set up the Visitation Monastry on that occasion. If by special grace of God, I have been in a position to train reverend fathers, through my scholarship scheme, I will be in a position to say that God has somehow used me to build one or two churches here and there. If God in His infinite mercy has used me to bless some religious organisations here and there, I don’t need to go to them to ask them to support me when I am running for governorship. By the way, whom am I running the race for? Is it not the people?
Some people have been lined up to succeed the outgoing governor. Do you stand any chance against these people?
On the day I made my intention public, I addressed a press conference in Enugu and this question came up. Let me put it the way I was asked: How do you think you can succeed against an endorsed candidate by the governor? I reminded the people that the PDP constitution is very clear. It has created a body called the state congress whose sole responsibility is the election and selection of gubernatorial candidate. The membership of that body is duly spelt out. Three delegates in every Ward. In Enugu State with 261 wards, it is 261 multiplied by three. That gives you about 783 members. The other members of the state congress are the people who you now call the state executive, the state caucus, elected members in the National Assembly. All put together, you have 921 members that make up the state congress. Now, the governor can only do his endorsement through the state caucus, which is not more than 34 members. These 34 members are only a minute fraction of the 921 members that make up the state congress. Therefore, my reaction is simple. It is a game of choice. Those people can only cast their votes. The state congress is going to meet with 921 members and when they do meet and because it is a game of number, they will actually do their voting according to their conscience and when that happens, I am looking forward to receiving more than 461 votes out of the 921 and that will give me the ticket.
Your confidence is good, but congress members will want to know what you are bringing to the table. So what do you have for them in order to earn their votes 
I am not sure you have read my declaration statement. What we are saying here is that  I want to be governor of Enugu State and I am saying here are my programmes. I am not approaching the delegates just as I am talking to you. No! We are saying today, here is the programme I have for Enugu and we are saying, who has a better programme than me. So, I am not contesting the governorship because I have been paying school fees for people, those are humanitarian gestures between me and God. But what we are talking here is that I have a programme, go through and see if it will not be better for the people of Enugu. That is the issue. I am running a race not because I have this religious group with me; that is not what I am talking about. We are talking of a packaged programme that is focused on development of Enugu. It intends to make use of the people to implement the policies and programmes. The major disadvantage of imposition is that it ends up producing governors that are unprepared; and have no programme. It is funny and ridiculous.  It tends to ridicule the image of a state. We have a record of what the income of Enugu State is; we are aware that in Enugu State, there is no functional factory and we started asking what has gone wrong. I made it clear in my speech that I won’t be running if things are in place.
What we often hear is increase in school fees for this school and that school. That is not how to run a state. I am coming with a programme that has been packaged, edited and vetted by the civil society themselves....post by expdonaloaded