A social thinker popularly known as Voltaire once opined, “those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities”.
Martin Luther King Jr. decried that Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Charles Bukowski cried, “I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them”. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn buttressed everything I wanted to highlight here when he thundered, “In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations”.
I am not supposed to be talking about zoning system. Not because I am not qualified by the constitution of our land to air my mind. Not because anybody anywhere can disenfranchise me of my right to free speech nor the dignity of my human person, if I express my view on the zoning debacle.
But I deliberately for long, chose to listen more, think more, digest views more, weigh merits and demerits of zoning in Enugu, consult the elderly and more experienced persons, consult high profile political thinkers in the state, consider my interest as a youth from Enugu West and those of my fellow youths from western part of Enugu, too, before coming out for this. After this thorough and rigorous conjugation and re-congugation of data collected, I have come to understand that support for the continuity of zoning system in Enugu state is a support for fairness, equity, peace and justice which is a civic responsibility of every well-meaning Enugu resident.
Some of the major feedback gotten from opponents of zoning system infers that other offices like those of the chairmen of LGAs are not zoned, therefore there is equally not enough need to zone governorship position. But my take is that, I have not equally heard that other offices in Enugu were not at one point or another zoned, aside, the state Executive offices such as that of the Governor and other state executives, House of Assembly executive members, and historically it has favored even the key persons who are against it now.
Since it will appear my inalienable right, I would like to mention those which zoning in the Local government area has favoured. These are persons I respect so much from my primary through my undergraduate days in the university. Even, before some of these went to the Senate, they have become LGA council chairmen via zoning arrangements. So, why turn around now against the same system that benefited them? Humans and the quest for power!
Truth be told, since even if by divine arrangement, Enugu East was the first to have a go at the seat of government in the Lion building, another governor was able to emerge from Enugu West and Enugu North is currently completing the cycle or so it seems, it is only wise and would reflect the course of natural cycle of clockwise rather anti-clockwise and a further step to stem political chaos to continue with a system that have saved Ndi Enugu a lot of political brouhaha.
Can we pore over those states where zoning isn’t practiced and observe for ourselves the level of electoral crisis and violence in them?. I would like to submit that, the three senatorial zones having enjoyed their respective turns by the end of 2023, it will be in the interest of justice, fairness, equity and rationality if power is allowed to return to Enugu East senatorial zone. This opinion is not important yet pertinent —it is only natural that power returns to the East of Enugu. For those whose sensibilities and personal interests are at stake here, kindly do not take my opinion personally. .
Therefore, permit me to repeat that the decision of the stakeholders of Udi LGA across party lines, few days ago, precisely on the 12th of May 2021, is not just a show of solidarity and support to a Governor who has delivered on his promise to Ndi Enugu, Rt Hon. Ifeanyichukwu Lawrence Nwa Ugwuanyi, it is a stand with justice, fairness and equitable distribution of power in the state. It is also a stand that will forestall and foster peace the more in the state.
Many thanks to the stakeholders of Udi LGA led by Hon Ifeanyi Paschal Agu (Nwachinaemelu) for coming through with the bitter truth. God bless Odoziobodo Gburus, the Executive Governor of Enugu state whose all-round good governance has brought smiles on the beautiful face of us all, with whom we all have thrown our unalloyed and forever irrevocable loyalty to. Truly, Enugu State is in the hands of God. William Faulkner would advise, “Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for cash: your picture in the paper nor money in the bank either. Just refuse to bear them”.
Bibian Anekwe News…added…The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.
Written by
Izuchukwu Ochenwari Udenwaeze
Media Team Member: Enugu di n’akachukwu movement
