Group urges political parties to field Abia North indigenes for governorship

The Abia Civil Society Network on Equity and Justice (ACSNEJ) has urged political parties to run only Abia North Senatorial District residents for governor in the 2023 election.

The group argued that the move would ensure that politicians continue to rotate power among the state’s three senatorial zones, as they had done since 1999, ahead of the governorship election in 2023.

It made the decision following a meeting in Umuahia, the state capital, convened by Comrades Diaman Ogudike, Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, Darlington Onuoha Kalu, Goodluck Ibem, and Nnamdi Elekwachi. They stated that it would amount to injustice if the rotation of the governorship position was jettisoned in 2023 after each of the Senatorial zones had taken their turns and that the second round of rotation should go back to Abia North in 2023.

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Specifically, the group urged Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to ensure that the state governorship returns to Abia North in 2023 to begin the second round of rotation and reminded him (Ikpeazu) that it was on the basis of rotation that he came into office.

ACSNEJ also argued that returning power to Abia North in 2023 after it had rotated among the three Senatorial zones beginning with the North, Central and South was in compliance with the Abia Charter of Equity.

The group recalled that power rotation was the idea of the founding fathers of Abia State in their quest for its creation to give every section an equal sense of belonging and right to partake in the governance by producing the governor in turns.

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But speaking on behalf of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), Goodluck Ibem, faulted proponents of rotation on Old Aba and Old Bende provinces basis instead of the three senatorial zones, describing it as mischievous since the provinces no longer existed.

Ibem said the proponents of old provinces want to silence the Ukwa people politically and by so doing deprive them of the opportunity of electing their kin as the governor in 2023.

Meanwhile, the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) has stated that despite their determination to conduct scientific research, they have been hampered by a lack of funds.

They therefore, called on governments and local and foreign corporate bodies to address the scenario and provide scholarships to vulnerable women and indigent girls who are desirous of education.

Coordinator of the Umudike Branch in Abia State, Dr. Mabel Ifeoma Onwuka, who spoke at an event to mark the 2022 International Day for Women and Girls in Science in Umuahia, said that the OWSD was mentoring and encouraging vulnerable girls to compete with their male counterparts and excel in the study of sciences.

Speaking, Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Transport, Mrs. Clara Ijeoma Okere, commended OWSD for reaching out to the girl child, who she described as the most vulnerable in society despite that they are the future of the country.

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While pledging continuous partnership with the group to champion the rights of the girl child in the society, Principal of the Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Umuahia, Mrs. Idika Kalu Ngozi, commended OWSD for championing the course of women and the girl child stressing that training a girl child was crucial to nation building.