Hon. Ray Emeana is a former lawmaker, who represented Owerri North constituency in the Imo State House of Assembly. He was also the state Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before he defected with almost all the members of the state exco to the APC. In this interview with Sunday Sun, he spoke about the victory of Governor Hope Uzodimma and what led to his victory in the last off-cycle governorship election, assuring that the governor would relinquish power to Owerri zone in 2027 in the spirit of the Imo Charter of Equity. Excerpt:

Why has Owerri zone not produced a governor for a very long time?

After the battle for the creation of Owerri to become the state capital, it was a very big battle, it was almost going to Umuahia, but the first concession the Owerri people did was to allow Obowo to produce the governor. Obowo used to be part of Umuahia Province, so they said to accommodate it, let it go to that side, Obowo, and that was how Sam Mbakwe became the governor of Imo State. When we came back after the military took over, Evan Enwerem became the governor and he was there barely for 18 months, before the military struck and when they left in 1999, there was need to ask who continues? If you remember in 1999, it was the late Echeruo, ID Nwoga and the other prominent Imo people who met, the prominent people then were in the ANPP and the other people were in CNC under Mbakwe and later ANPP which metamorphosed into other parties, APC and PDP, and when that happened, the late Humphrey Anumudu won the election then by the total number of votes cast.

Was that the reason for the Imo Charter of Equity?

As I was saying, these prominent leaders of Owerri then met and said in the spirit of sharing and zoning, they said if Enwerem has gone that even if he was there for two or three months he has gone for Owerri zone. Anumudu won but they gave it to Achike Udenwa who served for eight years and they said it should go to Orlu zone, Mbakwe having taken four years plus and Udenwa eight years, it was truncated by Ikedi Ohakim for four years. Rochas Okorocha took it for another eight years, it was natural it should come back to Owerri zone, Imo people now supported that Charter of Equity, they supported Emeka Ihedioha to become the governor from Owerri zone, it was a massive movement, but it came back to Orlu.

So all along, it was the desires of the elders to support Uzodimma so that when he wins, power will shift to Owerri zone?

You should rather ask why I’m giving all these lenghty analysis. For me, the level of insecurity in Imo is the truncation of Ihedioha’s administration, people were angry and that was the beginning of insecurity challenges, some people now met, the Elders Council, they came together to reduce these level of bitterness, acrimony that happens every four year and the amount of money spent every year, where Prince Lemmy Akakem played a very prominent role, he viewed that If Owerri zone fights this battle and lose again, it will take time, so he sees it that the only way out is to negotiate and power is negotiated. You only take power by force or negotiation, under this circumstances, giving the number of local governments from Orlu and Orlu always working with Okigwe zone because they’re more closer than Owerri zone, it will now become very difficult for an Owerri man to emerge. Mind you, Enwerem was governor whatever the reasons, whether physical or spiritual, he lasted for only 18 months, when Ihedioha was elected, he lasted only for seven months, what are the forces at play, why is it that when an Owerri man becomes governor, something always happens, this is another way of looking at it, so to cure this embarrassing situation, the Elders Council in their wisdom entered into arrangement and said let’s negotiate power, people were agitating that it should come to Owerri zone, but let me cast your mind back, for some of us who were in PDP then, we were routing for Atiku to win because he has promised to handover to an Igbo man, we knew when he wins and serve for eight years power will come back to the South with a sitting president who he has brought into that arrangement, it would be easier for an Igbo man to become president, that was our line of thought. We also reasoned that if for any reason Tinubu wins that election he will stay eight years and after that power will go back to the North, it will take another 16 year for an Igbo man to be president. Igbo people we know how to make a lot of trouble, we routed for Peter Obi, it was grand design by the then cabal to reduce the chances of Atiku and today Tinubu is the president, you can’t stop him from serving eight years and after him, you cannot claim that an Igbo man has not gone, it will go back to the North . This is the thought of the wisdom of the Elders Council who said it is better that we concede four years left for Hope Uzodimma than to concede another 16 years. If Athan Achonu had won, he would have stayed for eight years and if he stays for eight years, you never know what happens from there, they might come with logic that after all Orlu stayed for 20 years, even if the man at the helms of affair agrees, his brothers and sisters may not, that was why the elders said allow Hope to complete his eight years even though we know it’s legitimate of us to contest so that it will come to Owerri zone ,the governor has bought into it and has been preaching it and that encouraged a lot of people in this election. For many years, it was only in 2019 that Owerri zone won the election complete and that has repeated itself, that shows you the level of determination an Owerri man wants to become governor. When it was Ihedioha, the whole Owerri zone voted for him massively, this time around you may say whatever you want to say, I know how I suffered to win my booth, I know that we did not write any result, if you look at the results from Owerri zone, you know whether it was written or vote counted, because Owerri people have now embraced that Charter of Equity, you can’t say you win election today without winning Owerri federal constituency .

How are you sure the governor is going to keep to his promise?

We thank God today his first public statement reiterated his promise to handover to Owerri zone, we should also work hard to put our houses in order, he has also advised us to put our houses in order because if you do not put your houses in order, the wind may blow it out. This is the challenge we have now, and you know Owerri people, when the time comes now, we may have up to 50 aspirants, but we have started putting machineries in place to advise our people. (Sunday Sun)

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