In a recent interview with a group of selected journalists inLagos, the Former Deputy Senate President, Prof Ike Ekweremadu has said there is no zoning arrangement in Enugu State.

Making his points clear, he said “I have had enough of the Senate and people started coming to persuade me for the governorship. There were two things I needed to do. One was to pray over the matter and the next was to have a conversation with my friend, Governor Ugwuanyi. I told him after the meeting that he should not give me an instant answer and that he should consult and pray over it which I believe he is still doing.

“But I have maintained my personal relationship with him because I try to keep my political relationship with people different from my personal relationship with them. So, that is why people are surprised when they see me with somebody and they say oh, they thought you are quarreling with this person, why are you still relating with him with both of you hugging each other.

“These things are not personal; politics is different. I believe that after politics, there is life. So, I have met with my governor and consulted a lot of people and asked for their support. It is very important to me. I made it much easier and I told him to go and think about it so that we later have another conversation around it. Now, the other issue people try to dramatise is zoning in Enugu State and it became a national issue as if Enugu is the only state in Nigeria. It is not the way people look at it.

“The truth of the matter is that we have three senatorial districts like every other state. If you come to Enugu, you have Enugu East, Enugu North and Enugu West. Enugu North where the present governor comes from had produced two governors in the persons of Okwesilieze Nwodo from Igbo Etiti and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi from Udenu. The other zone is the Enugu East which is now saying it is its turn.

“But unfortunately, they have produced three governors –CC Onoh from Enugu North local government, Jim Nwobodo from Enugu South local government and Chimaroke Nnamani from Nkanu West local government. Then the third zone is Enugu West where I come from. The only governor the zone has produced is Sullivan Chime. Remember, some people select their governors from the cultural groups in a state. In Enugu, we have four cultural groups.

“We have the Nsukka speaking people of Enugu State which as I said have produced two governors. We have the Nkanu people of Enugu State. They have produced, if you like, two governors. Let me say that CC Onoh is an Udi speaking person. So, Udi has produced two which are Onoh and Sullivan. Then there is the fourth one which is Awgu and it has never produced a governor. Awgu is one of the cultural zones. It is just like if you go to a place like Benue and you have the Idoma and Tiv.

“It is the same in Kogi and all of that. If you go to Abia, you have the Ngwa speaking people, Ikwuano and all of that. In Enugu, that is the situation. Awgu people have never produced a governor. I have been a Senator for a long time; this is my fourth time. So, I have been Deputy Senate president. I do not see myself representing Enugu West; I see myself as a Senator representing Enugu State. I am not looking down at my colleagues but because I was privileged to be the Deputy Senate president, I don’t want to see myself as just Enugu Senator. So, I extended what I have been doing to the rest of the zones and even beyond.

“As I speak with you today, I am the only senator from Enugu who can now say I have touched the lives of people from every senatorial zone. My colleagues from those zones, I don’t know the reasons but they concentrated in their own zones. I have done roads, water and electricity projects in the other zones and they know it. The governor knows. The water project that we started in Enugu, I have extended it to Enugu North because they have water underground; so it is easy to get water there but the other senatorial zones just like my own part of Enugu State, do not have water underground because of the coal formation.

“So because of that, I didn’t bother myself to say I want to be governor of Enugu State because I am from Awgu. That is the truth. I think what the Enugu people now want is a man who would provide water, jobs, electricity, healthcare and somebody who would develop the place. I am talking about a governor for everybody, making sure that every part of Enugu State is taken care of. Because of my attitude in the direction of making sure that I reach out to everybody, what they call me in Enugu is ‘enye ndi ebea, enye ndi ebea’(when you give to people here, you give to people there).I don’t have boundaries. So, that is the people’s perception of me.

“That is why they believe that even as a governor, I can be able to govern for everyone. It is not a matter of concentrating the appointments to one part of the state. I will never do anything like that. I have five local governments that I am representing. I made sure that each of them gets equal attention. So, that has marked me out as somebody who is not given to sectional politics. People believe that I can be governor for everybody.

“Again, I have gathered so much experience and contacts which I have used to help my people. The government resources are getting lean, so we need people who can think out of the box. We need people who have sufficient contacts to attract the private sectors. If you do not have credibility and people cannot trust you, nobody is going to put money in your state or country. So, you need to first of all build that trust and confidence which I have built over the years.

“So, even now that I am just trying to run, I am getting calls all over the world; these are people who said that if you succeed, we will be there for you and we would bring investors. I spoke with the Nigerian Ambassador to Portugal just two days ago, you can ask him, he said if I become governor, they will bring investors for me. Just that kind of thing; those are the kind of calls I am getting the world over. That is also why people believe that I would make a difference.

“This is a challenging time and we need somebody who has an extraordinary experience that can be able to manage not just the resources but the human beings in the enclave called Enugu State. That is my story”, he concluded.