Enugu APC cautions politicians against heating up polity over rotation ahead of 2023

The Enugu State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has cautioned politicians in the state, particularly those from Enugu North extraction (Nsukka Cultural Zone), against heating up the politics ahead of 2023.

Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party in the state, Dr. Ben Nwoye, stated that it was purely a breach of the Electoral Law for political leaders to commence 2023 political campaign at this time “when the constitutional democracy recommends four years for a tenure,” adding that it was a distraction of the incumbent administration of the state for politicians to begin discussions on 2023, two clear years to the exercise.

Nwoye, who was reacting to a statement credited to Senator Chuka Utazi, representing Enugu North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, and some Leaders of Thought from Nsukka Cultural Zone, who organised a political event to discuss power rotation in the state in 2023.

Utazi, had in a video that had gone viral during the event, said that Nsukka zone where the incumbent Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, hails from would retain power for another eight years beginning from 2023.

He said that the Nsukka people had not got all they were expected to get in the years in which Ugwuanyi had ruled the state, a statement that is eliciting reactions in the state.

BUT reacting to the development, Nwoye said: “A day or two days ago, we saw what was going on in Enugu political realm. Some leaders of thought were organising mini-rallies and symposium discussing 2023 elections and which geopolitical zone is entitled to be at the helm of affairs in the state.

“As the APC chairman in the state, I think it is wise to state categorically that governance stops where politics begins. We have responsibilities as politicians and as leaders to understand that when someone is elected, he should be allowed a space to run his government.”

“Those who have ambitions no matter how big or small, have to learn how to exercise patience, adding that it will be a breach of the Electoral Law for people to lunch a political campaign under any guise, be it a socio-cultural group or whatever, because our system is a product of law.”

He added that the ongoing debate of which zone should produce the next governor of the state was needless because nobody in the history of Enugu politics had ever been prevented from contesting a position he or she was qualified to contest because they come from one zone or the other.

He stressed that all the governors that had occupied the number one seat in the state got into office because they had the capacity, vision and mission to accomplish, and did not become governors because some group of stakeholders or kingmakers endorsed them.