By Eze Nwamadi, Ogbonna Asadu and Ezema Igwenunu.

The bible is careful to place the past in proper perspectives when in the book of 2Corinthians 5:17, it is written, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Even our Lord Jesus Christ was mindful of returning the old to the past when in Matthew 9:17 He said, "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." The same book of life holds that no man putting his hand on the plow and looking back is fit for the purpose. Lot's wife was warned not to look back. She did, and turned into a pillar of salt.

There is actually nothing wrong with recounting history. History, though often times the story of the powerful, is a record of important past events. We all have our history and where we came from. As a matter of fact, human settlement is a story of migration. We live in the now; not in the past, for life is in a state of constant flux. So, if Chief Nnia Nwodo had told the story of the old Nsukka zone and left it there without trying to pour old wine into a new wineskin, his ostensibly divisive speech at Onyioho would have accentuated his characteristic oratorical theatrics with which he often delivers his speeches. But that speech was empty. It was an empty nut, bereft of any kennel, which he struggled all through to crack.

Chief Nnia Nwodo himself is a lawyer and he knows the constitutional implication of his speech, a speech which negates the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which gerrymandered Isi-Uzo to Enugu East Senatorial Zone in 1996. As a matter of fact, the said Nsukka zone existed in the past, and so has no bearing on the present structure of Enugu State. So, Chief Nwodo merely digged the fossils as dead as dodo. He looked back as would Lot's wife and turned the governorship bid of Chijioke Edeoga, his godson he had wanted to foist on the state, into a pillar of salt, as Edeoga danced funerals on his very dead ambition, all at Oyioho in Igbo-Etiti Local Government of Enugu State.Nnia Nwodo told the gathering that Isi-Uzo was not in Enugu East Senatorial Zone but in Nsukka. And I pause to ask, who is Nnia Nwodo to determine for Isi-Uzo its place in the structure of Enugu State? Who says such a thing and it comes to pass when the constitution has not commanded it? 

Isi-Uzo is in Enugu East Senatorial Zone, and Chijioke Edeoga has represented Enugu East/Isi-Uzo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003. This very constituency is in Enugu East Senatorial Zone. What then has changed that Isi-Uzo is no longer in Enugu East Senatorial District simply because Nnia Nwodo wants to smuggle Chijioke Edeoga into Lion Building through the back door? It follows that any time Chijioke wants to score a goal, the goalpost would be shifted for him. He would take Isi-Uzo to Enugu East Senatorial Zone when it pleases him, and then take Isi-Uzo to the phantom past at his whims, aided and abetted by his godfather for whom he would play a surrogate governor. Who is deceiving who?

Now that we are in the era of the past, let us go back to the past whole and entire. Let us theorize with the past as Nnia Nwodo is wont. We dare say that Nnia Nwodo himself is not from Nsukka. Nnia's ancestry is traceable to Aroh in Abia State. His forbears migrated to the present Ukehe which actually is Ojobo Ogene in Udi North. We know the story of how Ukehe which till date takes ozo title from Ojobo Ogene came to become Nsukka. The story of the admission of Ukehe into Nsukka is one of usurpation or, if you like, colonization. The Nwodo's practically took every position meant for Nsukka, ranging from Minister of Local Governments(Igwe John Nwodo, Nnia's father), Minister of Aviation( Nnia Nwodo), Political Adviser to the President(Nnia Nwodo), Minister of Information(Nnia Nwodo), Governor of Old Enugu State (Okwesilieze Nwodo), National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (Okwesilieze Nwodo) National Chairman of the PDP (Okwesilieze Nwodo), President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo (Nnia Nwodo). Let Nsukka look back and tell this story of the stranger so few dominating it. Nsukka! Eleeooo! Let the owl visit the corner of the market to hear the hooting of its underling. Incidentally, it is the same subtle attempt at usurping the turn of Nsukka that Nnia is advancing with every political subtlity. Already, Chijioke has, contrary to the zoning tradition, chosen a running mate from Enugu West (Oji River) instead of Enugu North Senatorial Zone, Nsukka. By implication, if he became governor, Enugu North(Nsukka)would hold no tangible position since that meant for it had been ceded to another zone.

Still on Nnia's theory of the past, Chijioke Edeoga's ancestors migrated to Eha-Amufu from Mgbidi in Imo State. His Mgbuji community name is a dialectical adaptation of Mgbidi. Edeoga himself had confirmed this in writing. So, if the past must prevail, Edeoga has no business running for governorship in Enugu State. He should do so in Imo State and wait to slug it out with Hope Uzodinma.

But such past as Nnia Nwodo relived is a monster. As stated above, human settlement is a function of migration. In the US for instance, if you have lived in a place for 10 years, you automatically become a citizen of the place. Culture,if it plays a role in political gerrymandering of structures, is not history. Culture is who we are now. We would neither refer Nnia Nwodo to Aroh nor Chijioke Edeoga to Mgbidi. We would rather they are contained within the present set up in Enugu State as constitutionally guaranteed, only to the extent that Nnia Nwodo would not use the past to intimidate the people of Isi-Uzo and deny them identity in Enugu State; only to the extent that Nnia Nwodo would not deceive the people of Enugu North Senatorial Zone, decoying them to the woods with such old wives' fable as he told at Onyioho -that Chijioke Edeoga who is from Isi-Uzo in Enugu East Senatorial Zone is from Enugu North Senatorial District. Otherwise, we would ask Nnia Nwodo to return to Aroh and Chijioke Edeoga to Mgbidi.

The time for Nsukka people to realize that the need for a clean mouth is what made the hippopotamus open its mouth wide for the river bird to perk has come. No more will Nsukka buy into primordial sentiments hawked by strangers with deceitful intent to usurp positions meant for it either at the federal or state level. Isi-Uzo is unarguably Enugu East Senatorial Zone. Chijioke Edeoga is not from Nsukka, and let no man be deceived. Nsukka must say no to Nnia's political sophistry whose every intent is selfish subversion of a people disdainfully deemed timid and simplistic. Enough is enough!