By Jerry Uhuo, PhD
The clamour is loud, and the yearning runs deep. Sons and daughters of Ezekuna, the great Ezza nation, have set their sights on the governorship seat of Ebonyi State in 2031, and their aspiration is one that history and equity fully support.
What remains to be settled is whether the road to that seat is as clear and certain as many assume or whether it is lined with obstacles and goldmines that only a deliberate and honest political strategy can dismantle and overcome.
Ezza Ezekuna is not a small or timid constituency. It is a large family, economically vibrant and politically alert, a people who understand the value of their numbers and the weight of their voice. Yet for years, this same family has been made to contend with political intimidation and quiet manipulation, treated as a bloc to be ignored or managed rather than a partner to be integrated and respected.
For years, dating back to the period of Engr David Nweze Umahi as governor, there has been an assumption in some quarters that the next governor from Izzi will hand over power to an Ezza son or daughter when he completes his tenure in 2031. That assumption, as faulty as it was, was predicated on the principle of rotation. And Incidentally, that governor happened to be Chief Francis Nwifuru. But after reading the governor’s playbook over the years, I have come to the conclusion that this assumption will not happen easily without a push or shove because the Ezza nation represents a political force that unsettles the kingmakers who would rather elevate candidates from communities that share proximity to Ezza than empower an Ezza man to sit at the head of the table.
History has a way of being conveniently forgotten by those who benefited most from other people’s sacrifice. While neighbouring communities sat back and doubted that a new state could ever be carved out for the old Abakaliki-Afikpo axis, it was partly the efforts of an Ezza man who stood at the front of that struggle, absorbing the risks and paying the ultimate price to free the people from the grip of an old political order.
Ebonyi State exists today because of that sacrifice.
Yet the people who benefited most from the creation of Ebonyi State have rarely been the Ezza people. Those who watched the struggle unfold from the comfort of their homes, offering neither sweat nor sacrifice, have somehow found themselves first in line whenever the dividends of statehood were shared.
The Ezzas have carried themselves with the patience of an elder, a role that both destiny and custom conferred on them. Their younger political siblings, drawn from Ekumenyi, Noyo, and Nodo, have each had their turn at producing a governor for the state. That patience was meant to be rewarded in 2031, when the natural order of succession would finally have returned to Ebonyi Central to favour the senior brother. Instead, a fresh conspiracy appears to be unfolding, one designed to push that legitimate hope further out of their reach.
Even those who prefer not to see can no longer deny what is plainly visible. The body language, the public conduct, and the political signals coming from Governor Nwifuru do not point toward a genuine plan to hand over power to an Ezza son or daughter when his tenure ends, especially if he is lucky to be re-elected in 2027.
A recent video that circulated widely online captured the governor addressing a gathering of Ezza elders, and his words deserve close attention. He told the gathering that he was the one who had discouraged Chief Peter Chibuike Orogwu, our Baby Oku, from contesting a Senate election, a claim that says more about control than about partnership.
In the same appearance, the governor praised Ezza people as good and industrious, insisting that he desires their fuller participation in the decision-making structures of Ebonyi politics. He went further to admit that under the present arrangement, Ezza people do not enjoy adequate representation in governance, and he urged them to support candidates who would guarantee that inclusion.
The implication behind that appeal was unmistakable. Voting for candidates outside the ruling party in the state, in the governor’s own logic, would cost Ezza people the needed presence in governance, a warning dressed up as advice, intended to keep loyalty locked in place through fear rather than performance.
What Governor Nwifuru did not explain to those elders was why, across three years in office, he has not appointed a single Ezza man or woman to any good national portfolio available to the state. The pattern speaks louder than the praise he offered that day.
The record bears this out.
Nominations were made to the National Assembly Service Commission, the Federal Character Commission, and the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, among other national bodies, yet not one of those slots went to an Ezza indigene. The one ambassadorial slot allotted to Ebonyi State under the current dispensation was a career posting, and its beneficiary came from Ivo, not from Ezza. If a non-career ambassadorial slot had come to the state, Ebonyi people deserve to know whose name the governor would have forwarded to the president and whether that name would have carried an Ezza identity.
Some Ezza people who hold portfolios in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government today at the federal level were made possible either through the Minister of Works such as Dr. Kenneth Ugbala who is a member of the FERMA Board or through the recognition of their roles in the ruling party by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The evidence of Governor Nwifuru’s love to Ezza people, as it stands today, does not support the affection he claims to hold for the people whose votes he is now asking for a second time.
Against this backdrop, one name stands out as the realistic gateway for Ezza aspirations in 2031, and that name is Ifeanyichukwuma Odii. Odii has already engaged senior Ezza political leaders directly, presenting them with concrete assurances that power will return to Ezza hands at the end of his own tenure. He has committed publicly to serving the constitutional term of four years, in keeping with the provisions of Nigeria’s constitution. Section 180(2) of the Constitution states plainly that a governor shall vacate office at the expiration of a period of four years. Nowhere does the Constitution guarantee any governor an automatic second term of eight years, and there is no legal obligation compelling Ebonyi State to extend that privilege to a governor whose performance has fallen well short of expectations.
Ebonyi State today needs competent leadership above every other consideration, and Ifeanyichukwuma Odii has demonstrated both the capacity to provide it and the clarity to understand exactly where Ezza sits in the political trajectory of the state. He is the candidate positioned to honour that trajectory with real power in 2031, rather than mere rhetoric at election time.
To those who still believe Governor Nwifuru intends to hand over power to an Ezza son or daughter, a simple test is on offer. Let the governor be persuaded to travel to OKPOKU Ezekuna, meet the elders and stakeholders of the Ezza nation in an open forum and make an unambiguous public declaration devoid of politics and commit to hand over to Ezza man in 2031. If the Governor could decline to attend an event like his endorsement organised and attended by the entire Ezza nation, his silence will speak for itself and confirm what the body language has already suggested.
This is a clarion call to the Ezza nation. Every Ezza son and daughter who genuinely desires that power should come to Ezza land in 2031 now has a clear and dependable path, and that path runs through Ifeanyichukwuma Odii’s ambition. To wait for another twenty-four years of political promises tied to the current arrangement where power may not come directly to Ezza nation in 2031 is but a crippled ambition and a deferred dream.
The time has come to set that daydreams aside and unite behind a credible candidate who has shown, in word and commitment, that he intends to keep faith with Ezza.
The time to act is now. Let every son and daughter of Ezekuna join hands to deliver Ebonyi State from the stranglehold of incompetent leadership and prebendalism by supporting Ifeanyichukwuma Odii.