By MATTHEW KALU

A quarrel has broken out in the Ukwa la Ngwa Council of Elders over endorsement of a preferred governorship candidate the Council should present to the Old Aba Division for the 2023 general elections.

The Council is current embroiled in a war of words, particularly between its Chairman, Dr Max Nduaguibe, and another prominent member and a former Deputy Governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Eric Acho Nwakanma, emanated from a statement by Nduaguibe to the effect that the Council has not endorsed any governorship candidate.

The Ukwa la Ngwa Elders Council had early this year taken on the self-imposed task of selecting a consensus governorship candidate from Umunneato axis comprising Isiala Ngwa North, Isiala Ngwa South and Osisioma local government areas of Abia Central senatorial zone for the Old Aba Division to support for the 2023 general elections.

They started the campaign that for equity sake, since the old Bende Division comprising Abia North and part of Abia Central senatorial zones have done 16 years of governorship of the state since 1999, it was the turn of the Ukwa la Ngwa Old Aba zone) to produce the next governor in 2023, contrary to the popularly held views that the governorship position should go rotate back to Abia North where it started in 1999.

In order to ensure that the governorship position does not elude the Ukwa la Ngwa in 2023, the Elders Council said it would screen the plethora of Ukwa la Ngwa governorship aspirants then and choose a candidate the Ukwa la Ngwa bloc should throw their weight behind. But after the party primaries, three governorship candidates from the Umunneato axis emerged, including Prof. Uche Ikonne of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Engr. Enyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Bishop Emeka Nwankpa of Accord Party (AP).

The Elders Council, however, on August 9, 2023, invited Prof Ikonne and Engr. Nwafor to appear before Eminent Persons of the Council.

The outcome of the screening, with two different accounts and which is the bone of contention, has split the group down the middle.

Dr Nduaguibe, in his account said that Prof Ikonne told the panel that he was not prepared to be governor until he was drafted into the race, while Nwafor proved that he was prepared to be governor and dazed the Eminent Personalities with his performance.

But Nwakanma swiftly countered Dr Nduaguibe’s narrative, saying it was a product of bias, insisting that Ikonne performed creditably during the screening.

A statement by Dr Aguibe partly reads: “We have never endorsed any candidate as far as Abia Gubernatorial Election is concerned. Even if we were tempted to endorse any candidate, it would definitely not have been a candidate who on the 9th of August, 2022, confessed publicly to the Committee of Eminent Personalities of UKWA LA NGWA COUNCIL OF ELDERS who interviewed them, that he had no plans to be Governor, did not seek to be Governor until he was asked to run for Governorship.

“The Committee of Eminent Personalities of the Ukwa La Ngwa Council of Elders met on the said 9th of August, 2022, with Engr. Enyinnaya Chima Nwafor of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Prof. Uche Eleazer Ikonne of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) out of the three Ngwa Candidates at the palace of Archbishop Isaac P. Nwaobia, the Anglican Archbishop of Aba Province

“At least, 80 per cent of these Eminent Personalities, including Eric Acho Nwakanma, praised the outstanding presentation made by Engr. Nwafor to the extent that if we had had a vote on that day, the confession of Prof. Ikonne about his (un)preparedness to be Governor would have marred whatever chances he would have had, if we were to put him side by side with the brilliant performance of Engr. Nwafor. That I, on my own, deliberately avoided us putting it into vote until our next meeting.

“Engr. Nwafor, in the estimation of the majority of members of the Committee of Eminent Personalities, was coherent, showed class, exuded preparedness and demonstrated absolute understanding of how a Governor could, within the shortest possible time, impact positively on the lives of the citizens to the extent that Eric Acho Nwakanma publicly confessed same.

“Ordinarily, if the Council had any plans of endorsing a Candidate, it would obviously have been Engr. Nwafor.”

“Let the general public be informed that UKWA LA NGWA COUNCIL OF ELDERS

have not endorsed and have no plans of endorsing any Abia Guber Candidate. Our impression of the Candidates who appeared before the Committee is already known,” Aguibe further stressed.

But in a swift counter, Nwakanma fired back at Nduaguibe, saying he was allegedly driven by bias and compromise, querying why Nduaguibe failed to call for a meeting of the Council to do the screening but selected his cronies for the meeting.

Part of the former Deputy Governor’s statement entitled “Max Nduaguibe is Disoriented and Confused,” read:

“I have read with dismay, disappointment and a sense of déjà vu, a public statement signed by Dr. Max Nduaguibe, Chairman of Ukwa La Ngwa Council of Elders, claiming that the Ukwa La Ngwa Elders have not endorsed any candidate for the 2023 gubernatorial elections in Abia.

“There is no doubt that before now, Dr. Nduaguibe had shown a preference for one of the gubernatorial candidates in the state, and had on various occasions voiced partiality and showed favouritism towards the candidature of Engineer Enyinnaya Nwafor.

“Without prejudice to his inalienable rights to harbour in his heart some fondness for Engineer Nwafor, Dr Nduaguibe should have maintained, for all intents and purposes, a neutral position in as much he presides over the affairs of the multi-dimensional Council until such a time the whole Council would have agreed on which candidate to support; if need be….

“Dr Nduaguibe’s prejudice towards other candidates and his arcane intention to push for an endorsement of his preferred candidate become more evident when you look at the persons whom he slyly and underhandedly selected to attend the meeting of August 9, 2022 at the home of the respected Archbishop Isaac P. Nwaobia.

“Rather than call for a regular meeting of the Ukwa La Ngwa Elders Council’s Committee of Eminent Persons, Nduguaibe sneakily chose members of the Council who are sympathetic to his views. This he did with the ultimate design of endorsing Engineer Nwafor at that meeting. However, his plan did not fall through as the other candidate, Professor Uche Ikonne, put up a remarkable showing that revealed his overwhelming capacity to serve as governor.

“Dr Nduguaibe’s statement clearly shows that he is apparently disoriented and confused or may have in his own words, been influenced by ‘financial or political gain’ and thus pressured to justify whatever gratification he may have received in the ploy to push through an endorsement for his preferred candidate.

“Dr Nduaguibe has used my person and goodwill to try to come back to lime-light. Before now, he had been totally unsupportive of the government of Okezie Ikpeazu. However, I rehabilitated his image and he came under my cover, but fortunately, he cannot hide his in-built deficiencies for long. He told a blatant lie when he said I had acknowledged that Enyinnaya Nwafor is a better candidate at the August 9 meeting. Other than a financial inducement, the only other reason I can see for telling such lies is senility.”

“Furthermore, Dr Nduaguibe declaration is totally uncalled for because in the public domain there has not been any report or publication that specifically states that the Elders Council has endorsed any candidate. Therefore his statement is mischievous, premature, and deliberately designed to de-market the sterling candidacy of Professor Ikonne who has shown an incredible capacity to lead..

Why is Nduaguibe afraid of calling a meeting? Why has he unilaterally declared that Engineer Nwafor is a better candidate than Ikonne? As Chairman of a collective of eminent Abians, one would expect that he would at least hold off expressing his personal opinion and be neutral until such a time as a formal vote or endorsement of a preferred candidate would happen, if at all, and that would be at a meeting of all Council members,” he said.

Observers are of the opinion that, unless well-meaning Ukwa la Ngwa sons and daughters step in to mediate in the brewing face-off in the Elders’ Council, all their efforts to get the Ukwa la Ngwa bloc to support one governorship candidate so that the bloc may not lose the coveted seat to Old Bende in 2023, may end in fiasco.