On 10th September 2011, Association of Autonomous Communities In Oji-River LGA met and decided to improve and perfect an earlier rotation agreement authored by PDP in 2009. This body comprises of the Traditional Rulers and Executives of the various communities and Town Unions in the LGA.
Out of 44, there were only 1 missed signature,ie Traditional Ruler of Enugu Agu Achi did not sign. However there was no single descenting voice,till date.
HRH Igwe GTS Ibeneme, a veteran politician and political historian from Oji River and HRH Igwe M Mberedeogu a foremost traditionalist and cultural historian who happened to be the chairman of the council of Igwes spent the entire night to put to paper all resolutions from that meeting, and the assembly met again and adopted the document word for word ,amidst cheers.
However, on 21st August 2017, when the same body who produced the said agreement summoned the political class to arbitrate or parley for them over a seeming dispute over the said rotation agreement, the most important tool for the meeting, the document in view, was conspicuously absent. A major over sight.
We ended up guessing what we had exactly agreed upon, not by oral traditions ,but put down in black and white just few years earlier.
The stage was easily set however when one of the parties that authored the document posited that they had indeed agreed a rotation arrangement which would currently imply that it is the turn of Zone C to produce a chairman, and that since that much was not in contention, the job was now to determine where in the Zone should produce the chairman, that the zone should be allowed to do so and that no community should be excluded from the exercise, however that lobbying among the communities should be allowed. In any case if consensus was not reached,then the aspirants should stand for election. A section of the crowd shouted no against election, pray who is afraid of election in a democracy?
To my greatest surprise, suddenly the chairman of the meeting ruled that the 2011 meeting had agreed to zone the chairmanship to Ugwuoba. It shocked not a small section of the crowd ,who began to disperse immediately,I was only too sure that the matter has missed another opportunity to be laid to rest. Too bad.
As a background, Oji River is an artificial creation by government edits. Prior to 1976 when Oji River LGA was created ,the only place known as Oji River was the current Oji Urban. It was the least populous local government area to be created in the country as the population was way below the 150,000 allowable. So it was inevitable to scout for several different communities that would come together to form the new proposed LGA. Achi now Zone A came from Awgu Division, Awlaw from Isi Ochi, Akpugoeze from Old Aguata, Ugwuoba from Old Awka etc. Oji Urban has Aboriginals being the offsprings of the oldest settlers like Uzondu,Utazi Ugwa etc. Note that in the current Zone C,the oldest extant autonomous community is the Oji Urban which has existed long before the creation of the newer ones considered in the said document.
In Agbalaenyi,there are people whose fore bearers had settled there for over a century and have no other place as home,like the Ezenwukwa ,the Nwigbo,the Agunwiche,The Ezeano,The Okechukwu, The Obi etc.
From the above narrative it is clear that no one can actually claim to be more indigenous than the other ,we all came from somewhere.
However, naturally the people living within the proposed LGA headquarters formed the core foot soldiers to set the site. The likes of Late Nze Okefi ,GTS Ibeneme,Late Robert Onyeagba and a host of other settlers filled this gap. Recall that in 1988/89 Emma Central of Agbalenyi had contested for the chairmanship against Jay Jay Onuaguluchi, even though he lost in that election, it was a land mark to show that indeed we are all stakeholders in Oji River.
Back to the main issue,the agreement of 10/09/2011, the absence of or the suppression of the evidence in chief ,the agreement paper on the meeting of 21/08/2017 made sure that the spirit and letters of that well thought out document was lost:
1. There are 3 zones in Oji River; A, B,C and the rotation is A to B,B to C etc
2. Zone C is made up of Ugwuoba urban, Okpuno Agu Ude,Agulu,Umu Ogbu Agu, Oji River Urban and Agbalaenyi.
Indeed the rotation in Zone C should have been among these communities and not Wards as was done in the meeting of 21/08/17.
3. Some general conditions where envisaged and solutions proffered .
Eg, in the section which was captioned MODE OF ROTATION, because Zone A had the sitting chairman and the agreement proposed 2 tenors of 4 years, it specifically said “… provided that Zone A will serve for 2 years to complete its own 2 terms (4years) tenure”.
This implies that the rotation applied in retrospect to the slot of Zone A.
4. At no time did the agreement Zone anything to a specific community, in fact there is no place called Ugwuoba in the agreement, rather you have Ugwuoba Urban, Okpuno Agu Ude ,Agulu,Umu Ogbu Agu etc,hence it was actually these specifically enumerated communities that would have been considered in the rotation, just like it could not have Zoned it to say Achi but maybe Egwu Achi or Elugwu LA Mkpokolo as the case may be. Recall that it was The Association of Autonomous Communities that met and signed this agreement, as at today no community in Oji River is Ugwuoba.
5. The section of the agreement captioned GENERAL CONDITION OF ROTATION not only casts a serious moral burden on the meeting of 21/08/17 but practically makes it null and void . Please read like a nursery pupil the following:
2. “FOR EACH OF THE ZONED OFFICES IN A ZONE,THE ZONES SHALL BE ALLOWED TO DETERMINE THE CANDIDATE”.
3. ” EACH ZONE SHALL APPLY ROTATION DOWN THE LINE TO ENSURE PEACE AND HARMONY “.
In number 2 above,note that against the prescription of the document, the Association which authored it went against its own rule to arbitrate and in fact decide rather too quickly and too soon in a matter it had said should be allowed for the Zone to at least try to decide for themselves. Zone C was never asked to,never met to determine where to zone the office,the association discarded its own rule and went ahead to Zone the position to not just non existent Ugwuoba, but also Ward 111 that was not part of the sharing parties. Do you smell ulterior motive ? I do! It would now make it clear to you why the only jubilant party in that meeting were the direct beneficiary,ward 111.
The highest injustice was however done against the spirit behind number 3 above which dealt with equity, fairness, and natural justice.
One thing that those who are bent on zoning to Ugwuoba and not Zone C the chairmanship slot at this time can never be able to explain is the reason or rationale behind it. In all the jurisprudence I have studied as a scholar, the law protects the weak first and fore most, is Ugwuoba the weak in Zone C? Is it weaker than Oji Urban, Agbalaenyi and Ugwuoba Urban? Why are the group ” protecting” Ugwuoba so passionate about this charity work? Do you see the hand of Esaw?
That section states that ” Each zone shall apply rotation down the line…” ,since the creation of the local government, the Zone C has had 2 local government chairmen both of them from Ugwuoba, 1 federal house member and from Ugwuoba, 2 house of assembly, also from Ugwuoba, 3 vice chairmen all from Ugwuoba, 3 Development area chairmen also all from Ugwuoba. In fact there has been total of 28 government positions to the zone out of which 24/28 has gone to Ugwuoba while the other 3 communities in the Urban shared 4. So please good people ” protecting” the interest of ” weakly ” Ugwuoba, do you hate Oji Urban,Ugwuoba Urban and Agbalaenyi so much or you just love Ugwuoba too much or is it the proverbial hand of Esaw?
The number 3 above concluded with “…to ensure peace and harmony”. The deaf ,blind,cripple, leprous patients and most residents of Ugwuoba Urban, Oji Urban and Agbalaenyi have been demonstrating since,singing ” Oji River nye anyi oke Anyi”,so much for peace and harmony.
You must agree with me that any one who proposes to zone the chairmanship slot of Zone C to Ugwuoba at this point, be it by begging, by lobbying, by agreement or by what ever label do not intend to ” ensure peace” not to even mention harmony.
This is even more ridiculous considering that the said document had claimed on its first page that the AIMS AND OBJECTIVE was for “the interest of peace and stability in Oji-River LGA” and to “…ensure that every zone/body is carried along”.
Kindly carry Oji-River Urban along or discard the document and do your thing.
Injury to one is injury to all.
There is still the option of ” let’s go to the field” and settle this like men.
Mcginger Ibeneme MBBS
Social Justice Advocate
