Fresh facts emerge on 6th State for South East saga: “Kola” fingered for Nwodo’s conduct; Obiozor, Umahi’s connection

Fresh facts have emerged concerning why the Chief John Nnia Nwodo-led Ohanaeze Ndigbo Executive failed to forward the recommendation of their committee on creation of a sixth state from the South East zone to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018 as he had demanded.

President Buhari had stated during a New Year television interview that a delegation of Igbo leaders had visited him and demanded, among others, the creation of a sixth state for the zone.

He said he had told them to go and identify such a state and revert to him but that they never did, implying that their failure to do so was why the zone is still lagging behind other zones with only five states while four other zones have five states and the other seven.

His revelation had angered stakeholders into asking why the Nwodo led Ohanaeze failed to submit the name of the proposed state that the committee, set up for the purpose and headed by Professor Chigozie Ogbu, a former Deputy Governor of Ebonyi state, had identified.

Some have said that the reason for the failure to submit the name of the recommended state was because Chief Nwodo preferred the proposed Adada State which is from his own part of the South East zone above the Aba state that was agreed upon by majority of the members of the committee, and on that basis refused to forward the recommendation of the committee to President Buhari or the South East Governors’ Forum that had mandated Ohanaeze to constitute the Ogbu Committee.

This school of thought further justifies its position by pointing to the visible support that Chief Nwodo has since been giving to the efforts to realise the Adada state movement while the report of the Ogbu Committee gathers dust in the Ohanaeze secretariat.

Reacting to the GPNews story on the matter, however, an Igbo statesman who pleaded anonymity but insisted he was going to state the facts as they are, at the risk of washing the linen of the South East zone in the public, said that though Nwodo set up the Committee in consultation with the Governors and other stakeholders, and had his preference, which is Adada state, he and others behind the Adada State movement did not approach the matter as seriously as those behind the Aba State movement.

He said they banked on the fact that the Ohanaeze President General, being their son, would be able to swing the votes in their favor. However, the High Chief who was part of the entire process said that those behind Aba state gave it their all, including visiting members of the Committee with “kolanuts.”

According to him, though it is customary to pay visits with kolanuts, the type, quality and quantity of the “kolanuts” that the Aba State delegation allegedly visited some of the committee members with has not yet been revealed, and when Nwodo got wind of the development, he became angry and alleged that the committee had been compromised and refused to act on their report.

The Committee Chairman, whose credibility our source vouched for, and a few others were out voted, and some others abstained from the voting. But even against the background of the allegations of compromise, the Committee Chairman went ahead to endorse the document as the outcome their assignment, to the chagrin of Nwodo.

Our source said that notwithstanding Nwodo’s anger with the “kolanuts” allegedly given to some of the committee members and the eventual choice of Aba State, the proposed Adada State would still not have on a fair scale, stood a better chance of scaling through. He claimed that the proposed Equity State was better positioned to be chosen as the 6th state for the South East zone ahead of all the others, stressing that there were other state creation movements that also presented well packaged memoranda, apart from Aba, Adada, Equity and Etiti, all jostling to be penciled down.

He insisted that in every such contest one was expected to emerge, pointing out that it is possible that several others also “visited” committee members with “kolanuts.” He argued further that considering what was at stake at the material time and the fact that most of the state creation movements had made persuasive presentations for the acceptance of their memoranda, for whatever it was worth, once Aba State had been recommended, all other sentiments should have been set aside and it should have been all hands on deck to ensure its realization, especially as, according to him, Buhari had seen the need for the creation of an additional state in the South East and was willing to lead the lobby for its realization in the Northern part of the country. It was also the eve of his second term aspiration, and he then desperately needed the support of the South East.

Our source insisted, however, that all hope is not lost as the Constitution Review process is still on and efforts could still be made to secure the additional state for the South East zone. The goal, he said, can best be achieved, however, if there is unity of purpose and political will, especially on the part of the current executive of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, led by Professor George Obiozor and the South East Governors’ Forum led by Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi.

He said that the duo of Obiozor and Umahi can still rally stakeholders to achieve the sixth state for the South East zone if they immediately dust up the report of the Ogbu Committee, pacify all those, including Nwodo, who feel hurt and approach Buhari to test his sincerity on the matter. He argued that if the different state creation movements approach the National Assembly Committee on Constitution Review with their different demands as seems the case presently, energy and resources will be dissipated and at the end of the day, all could end as wasted effort.