Okonkwo Samuel
Engr Emeka Okeke
Okpuno Nnewichi
Governance is essentially designed to organize and deliver services to the people with the aim of advancing collective security, welfare, infrastructural development, and progress. On the other hand, power is derived from the people and entrusted on individual members of the community believed to be imbued with requisite personal conduct and training to drive and satisfy the common goal of the people.
But just like other human endeavors, there are existential tendencies to overturn the clear principles of governance and power to benefit few persons who feel privileged, wherein their whims and caprices are imposed on the people in furtherance of their selfish and personal ambitions rather than the collective interests of the people.
These individuals collude to deceive the masses with subtle and covert insignia laced with enchanting narratives while plotting to seize power strictly for personal aggrandizement without any deep consideration for the interests of their people who they instead view as pons in their warped power equation.
NNEWI POWER ROTATION AGREEMENT;
The Nnewi power rotation agreement of 1997 was established to engender peaceful transition and sharing of elective political positions among the four quarters of Nnewi-North, which include Otolo, Uruagu, Umudim and Nnewichi. The position is currently occupied by Umudim, after which Nnewichi will take its turn before Otolo and Uruagu.
The apex town union government of Nnewi-North, Nzuko-Ora, has affirmed that Umudim will complete its 4-year tenure in the coming dispensation followed by Nnewichi among others. On its part, Otolo and Uruagu have given written commitments in adherence to the 4-year tenure.
TENURE CONSIDERATIONS:
Governance is about service to the people. It incorporates policies, programs, and projects that are designed to impact the people within a given period of time. So, tenure considerations are made to fit the minimal time frame required for entrenchment of this objectives, especially where innovative development activities have been conceptualized, for which the electoral act stipulates four or eight year tenure for effective delivery. The Anambra State local government electoral laws, which out of its operational convenience opted for the election cycle of two years, did not restrict any elected official to a single two-year tenure.
It is therefore understandable that the Nnewi power rotation agreement of 1997 was anchored on the premise of four-year tenure in order to ensure full and unhindered impact of innovative developmental policies, programs and projects on the masses for every cycle of governance.
PERSONAL AGENDA BY INDIVIDUALS MASQUERADING UNDER THE PLATFORM OF COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
Despite the clarity of the above arrangement and obvious benefits to the masses, some individuals from Nnewichi continue to gallivant in an attempt to rope the good people of Nnewichi into an unnecessary conflict with other quarters of Nnewi. While the intents of these perennial power merchants are curious, they pose as community leaders, canvassing narratives that appear to favour the people of Nnewichi whereas they are in pursuit of inordinate personal ambitions, to wield immediate power and influence, in control of the local government, to the detriment of the collective empowerment, development and progress of the masses from Nnewichi and other quarters of Nnewi.
They do not have any blueprint of development but that of quick power grab for purposes that are at variance with the interests of the masses.
QUESTIONS THAT BEG FOR ANSWERS;
1. Will the masses of Nnewichi benefit more from a four-year tenure or two-year tenure?
2. Is it better for Nnewichi to take its slot now, 2026, and stay for only two years, 2028 or to wait for two years and take its slot in 2028 and stay for four years, 2032?
3. Is two years too long a time to transition to a better governance tenure that will satisfy the yearnings of the masses?
4. Who is that individual who is ready to instigate chaos in Nnewichi as a means of pursuing his selfish objectives?
5. How can any right thinking person infer that two years is better than four years?
To be modest, two classes of people have been exposed in this gang-up against the people. The desperate contenders who serve as fronts to external power brokers, fruiting from pains of failing to singlehandedly draft their crony as chairman when it was the turn of their quarter. They now seek the backdoor to re-assert themselves as godfathers.
The other classes are those in opposition to the marvelous performance of the government of Professor Chukwuma Soludo and the Nnewi-North local government leadership. They are known to have membership and footprints in opposition parties in the state and after failing to truncate Soludo’s second term have now converged under a mischievous agenda aimed at derailing the smooth running of the local government system.
So, our people, the good people of Nnewichi, should open their eyes and avoid the traps that have been set by these power mongers. We should focus on what is best for the majority of the people and not a greedy few whose real intention is to feed on the patrimony of Nnewichi while pretending to fight in the interest of the quarter. The masses of Nnewichi should take their destiny in their own hands, extract collective benefits, contribute, and make their mark in sustenance of peace, development, and progress in Nnewi.
NDI NNEWICHI, WEAR YOUR THINKING CAP!!!
