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Power rotation should be entrenched in the Constitution – Sen. Sam Egwu

Senator Sam Egwu is a Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and represents Ebonyi North Senatorial District. He was the first executive Governor of Ebonyi and currently the Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing. In this interview with CHUKWU DAVID, Senator Egwu, among other critical national issues, speaks on power rotation and the need to entrench the principle in the Constitution, so as to end frequent rancour and centrifugal agitations in the

Nigeria is copying American democracy but they don’t practice power rotation especially in the Parliament. Don’t you think that rotation is injurious to the growth and development of the Legislature and democracy in Nigeria?

Well, we are just a developing democracy. America has been there for over 200 years. So, you can’t compare us with them; we are just trying to learn what they are doing. Ours is emerging or a young democracy. So, we are going to get there, a level where we will look at one’s contribution, one’s experience, one’s background, etc before sending him to the Senate, which is the highest lawmaking body of a nation. There is one man in the House of Representatives in the United States of America, who has been there for over 25 years. Even here in the National Assembly, there are people who have been here since 1999 because of their quality contributions and their people want them to be here; so we are getting there. But the Legislature is different from the Executive position. Representative position is a different ball game. People must know the difference between zoning for the Executive position and zoning for the Legislative position. They are two different things.

Would you want power rotation to apply to executive positions only or do you want it to apply to both executive and legislative positions?

That is why in application, it is like a convention for all the parties to say that they are zoning for executive position. Even in executive position, the Constitution made provision for tenure. You can’t do more than two terms. That can also be applied to zoning. It must go round. But in the Legislature, there is no tenure, which suggests that the issue of zoning or rotation is not very relevant in the legislative positions. Zoning or power rotation is not entrenched in the Constitution, and people can take advantage of this to negate the principle during election. Do you support that power rotation for executive positions be made constitutional by an Act of Parliament? Yes, I will suggest and support that zoning be made constitutional for the time being. Remember, constitutions are changed with time based on the situation on ground. At this time where levels to go round, I think it should be captured in the constitution. But with time, that can be reviewed.

As of today, there is no known effort to give power rotation a legal backing. How do you want this to be achieved?

It is true that it is not in the constitution yet but conventionally the principle applies. That is why at the national level the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is rotated between the North and the South. And even within the North they consider the various states and zones of the North and the same thing applies to the South. But it will be better if it is put down in black and white. It is just like the zonal structure where we have six geopolitical zones. So, in any appointment that is being made, people will look at it on the basis of states and zones, and they will be able to ask how many come from their zones. We have three zones in the North and three zones in the South. Even though zoning is not in the constitution, appointments are usually considered on this arrangement but yet it is not in the constitution. If these zonal arrangements are judiciously implemented in appointments, you will not be hearing accusations and agitations against marginalisation from different zones and sections of the country. Still talking about power rotation, when Nigeria returned to civil governance in 1999, in Ebonyi State, the governorship slot first went to the North when you were elected and you governed for eight years. After your tenure, Martins Elechi from the Central also took the slot for eight years. Then the South took it in 2015 when Engr. Dave Umahi was elected. Now, it is expected to return to the North in 2023 but some politicians from the Central are already jostling for the office. What is happening? Thank you very much, that is our position; many people in Ebonyi State have that view that we should maintain that zoning formula we started. Remember as you rightly noted, I was the first to be elected the executive Governor and I am from the North. And when I finished from the North, I insisted that it should go to the Central; and from the Central we also insisted that it should go to the South. We believe that when that rotation is maintained, it has a lot of advantages. First, people believe that it will be their own turn at the end of the day. It will also remove a lot of rancour and unnecessary expenditure. So, I feel that that position should be maintained and a lot of people feel so too. That does not take away the right of anybody from indicating interest in any elective executive office because we are operating a democracy. It is not by force. So, anybody from the Ebonyi Central or even the South can indicate interest because this is a democracy.

Suppose somebody from the Ebonyi Central contests and wins as governor, don’t you think that it will scuttle the zoning arrangement and usher in rancour among the different zones of the state?

Exactly, it will scuttle the arrangement and create rancour. Those of us who believe in this zoning know that it gives every zone opportunity to produce a governor in the state irrespective of their number, and scuttling it will rob some zones of this opportunity; that is the fear of those of us who believe in zoning. Remember the way we are structured in Ebonyi State. The zone that came from Enugu is one block, which is the Abakaliki block, which has two Senatorial zones. The area that came from Abia is the South, which is one block. If you throw it open without this zoning arrangement, it means that the Abakaliki block which came from Enugu will have it all the time because they are more in number. It means that it will always move from the North to the Central. Then, the South will not have opportunity to take the position, which is not good. By the principle of zoning or power rotation, we believe that even if you are few in number, you should have it, and that is why the South is there now. During my tenure as the first executive governor of the new Ebonyi State, there was this so much sentiment from the people of the South who came from Abia, against the North and the Central, to the extent that during the election, I lost in all the five local government areas of the South because they were insisting on Ogbonnaya Onu, who was in a different party. The Abakaliki block supported me from the PDP, and despite that I lost in all the five local governments of the South, I still won because of the combination of the two zones. That shows that even without the South, the North and the Central will continue to produce the governor of the State. But that is not good because the smaller group from the South is also part of Ebonyi State and should have that sense of belonging. We are brothers because the same deprivation they suffered in Abia was what we suffered in Enugu State. And these two groups- Enugu and Abia blocks all contributed in the struggle for the state creation.

Taking this discussion to the national level, the South East people are clamouring to produce the next President of Nigeria in 2023, are you also in support of this campaign?

Of course, I am in full support of the movement. I am from the South East and we have not produced the President of the country since her return to democracy. But we can only get it through dialogue, not through forceful agitation or violence. Agitation is good but it should be peaceful agitation. It should be through appeal to other parts of the country. We have to lobby them. We are well qualified and should be able to have it.

Do you think that leaders from the South East are doing enough to lobby their counterparts from other parts of the country, to be able to have the presidential slot in 2023 because there appears to be no presidential hopeful from the region yet?

Yes, they are trying. Don’t worry about those who will contest, they will emerge; very soon they will emerge. Some of them have been doing a lot of consultations.

There is this general notion that politicians from the South East are not usually united, and this keeps affecting them negatively in national politics. What is your take on this? Which other part of the country is in unity?

There is no zone you go to without having dissenting voices. They should not use that always against us by saying that we are not united. It is not true. Were they united in the South West when Olusegun Obasanjo became the President of the country? Were they talking in one voice when he became the President? So, they should not use that against us. I know that we are the most republican tribe in the country but that does not mean that it should be used as a weapon against us.

Some political watchers have always seen you as not speaking up on critical national issues because you are always in support of government policies whether they are anti-people or not. Could you defend this allegation with empirical cases?

It is not true. First of all, I don’t think that being critical of government always or being antagonistic to government is the best way. Some people choose to do that because they want to play to the gallery. I think we should always look at things objectively because to be in government is not an easy task. We should be able to balance issues in our judgement. And if you are in government, and you observe that there are certain things the Governor or the President is not doing well or the Minister is not doing well, at my level, instead of coming to the public to get accolade, I should be able to have personal contact and find a way of reaching the person either through a conversation or through a letter. Coming to the public in order to score political point doesn’t work.

It happened in my oversight with the Ministry of Housing that I am supervising. I saw what the Ministry did that was not right, and I didn’t hide my feelings during the oversight. I confronted the Minister. The Minister said that the houses had been built for some years but they had not been sold. So, the houses had been decaying.

If you build a house and don’t occupy it, after sometime, it will start decaying. Some of the houses which have not been completed were not in the best shape. We were wondering why houses were built for mass housing programme, and for many years, not even one house had been sold. And of course, I didn’t waste time in raising my voice. And some of those houses were not properly completed; they got dilapidated. So, I made an observation and asked why it was so. And there are many other issues like that. I am not praising myself but am saying that there are better ways to handle issues than confrontation. Coming publicly to shout over issues, to me, is playing to the gallery.

So, the allegation against me is just the opinion of some people but it is certainly not true. I remember in the Eight Senate, I sponsored a bill on the establishment of Federal College of Education in Ebonyi State, since we have had Polytechnic and University, remaining federal college of education, which naturally should come to Ebonyi North that I represent.

This project was seriously pursued, but when the Federal Government decided to approve one, instead of them to site it in my area because I lobbied and researched on it, the College of Education was taken to Isu, which is in another zone that already has two federal institutions; Federal College of Agriculture and Federal Polytechnic. This one could have come to us. So, I confronted the Governor on it. And when the petition from my constituents came about the siting of the institution, of course, I supported it and presented the petition. If it is true that I don’t oppose government as they are saying, I wouldn’t have spoken up against it.

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