Equity And Aguata Federal Constituency Seat: A Case For Chukwuma Umeoji’s Election

By Aloy Uzoekwe.

We have come full circle once again. The mill has completed its full quadrennial course and is back at the starting point one more time. Every four years we perform the same rites, act on sentiments and not reason or what is mutually beneficial to all involved. We act without bothering the consequences or injuries to the society at large and then scuttle back to our respective nests to wait another four years to repeat the cycle.

I refer to the general election which is some days away. For the people of Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State, this particular election serves as the 1st real test of the long standing brotherly arrangement between the North and South State Constituencies in the Local Government Area as it concerns the Federal Constituency seat of the Local Government Area. It is about which among the North and South State constituencies of the Local Government Area should produce the next Representative to represent the Local Government at the next National Assembly.

This is in keeping to the spirit and letters of the rotation formula worked out by the political fathers of the Local Government Area in days gone by.

The Aguata Federal Constituency is made up of two State’s Constituencies; the Aguata North and The Aguata South State Constituencies. The Federal Constituency seat had always been rotated between the two State’s Constituencies. This has been the practice for time immemorial that it is almost a political tradition. But this equitable practice is on the verge of being truncated on the altar of selfish interest, insatiable greed and unchecked political might. This appears so because the Aguata South seems bent on making the seat of the Aguata Federal Constituency their sole right.

Of all the registered political parties in the country, only three among the crowd have the force and pull among the Aguata electorate to achieve political victory. They are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the All Progressives Congress (APC). A scrutiny of the candidates the three political parties are fielding for the Aguata Federal Constituency seat shows that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are both fielding candidates from the Aguata South State Constituency viz – Hon Eucharia Azodo (PDP, Aguata South) and Hon Nze Chidi Duru (APC, Aguata South), while the APGA has Hon Chief Chukwuma Umeoji (Aguata North) as its candidate. It depicts that it is only the APGA candidacy that tends to respect the zoning formula of the Local Government Area. This is worrisome and antithetical to the dreams of the political fathers of the Local Government Area who introduced the rotation principle, since the First Republic, as a way of enthroning equity, engendering sense of belonging and expunging acrimony among brothers. I will explain.

Since the advent of the present democratic dispensation in 1999, a period of twenty years, the Aguata South State Constituency has taken a total of sixteen years (four terms) and still counting of the Federal House of Representatives slot of the Local Government Area, while the North has taken only four years (one term) viz; 1999 to 2003 – Hon Nze Chidi Duru (Aguata South), 2003 to 2007 – Hon Nze Chidi Duru (Aguata South), 2007 to 2011 – Hon Chukwuma Umeoji (Aguata North), 2011 to 2015 – Hon Eucharia Azodo (Aguata South), 2015 to 2019 – Hon Eucharia Azodo (Aguata South). (The 2007 to 2011 period seems like an irritating interruption to a process). With the empirical facts surrounding the Aguata Federal Constituency representation since 1999 to date, it is right for one to emphasise without equivocation that in the spirit of equity and mutualism the Aguata North deserves to take the Federal Constituency seat of the Local Government Area in the forth coming election.

It is not only fair and beneficial to all, it is justiceable. One holds this view without prejudice to the aspirations of any person or political party, rather it is suggested as an act which can ensure greater brotherliness among the constituent parts of the Local Government Area. It equally follows the trend in the Nation’s politics where power or positions are rotated among the constituent parts of an entity both at the Federal and State levels. We can do well to remember the Igbo admonition – “e wee ewelukwa n’ese okwu” (repeated grabbing of shares breeds friction). The Aguata South Constituency has taken enough of its fair shares in the allotment of political positions as it concerns the Federal Constituency seat of the Local Government Area. It is only fair it supports the candidacy of an Aguata North individual to the position.

As it is only the candidacy of Hon Chief Chukwuma Umeoji which abides by the noble rotation formula of the Local Government Area, and as it is held that he who demands equity must do so with clean hands, electing Hon Chukwuma Umeoji as the next Representative of the Aguata Federal Constituency to the House of Representatives is the most honorable path to follow. His election will ensure equity, enthrone nobility and engender fairness in future political ventures in the Local Government Area.

• Hon Aloy Uzoekwe writes from Isuofia, Aguata LGA, Anambra State. He can be reached via: 08038503174 or uzoekweao@yahoo.com; uroyz@gmail.com