Archbishop Chukwuma under attack for opposing governorship zoning in Enugu

The Nsukka Platform in Asaba, Delta State, has called on the Primate
of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), the Most Rev. Ncholas
Okoh, to caution the Archbishop of Enugu, the Most Rev. Emmanuel
Chukwuma, over his utterances on the politics of Enugu State.

The platform made the call at a press conference it called in Asaba to
respond to Chukwuma's recent condemnation of the decision of the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party to zone the governorship of Enugu
State to Nsukka.

The Nsukka Platform is an organisation of professionals from the
Nsukka cultural zone in Enugu State. The text of the press conference
that was read by the Chairman of the platform, Dr. Pius Ike, said it
was unexpected of a religious priest of the stature of Chukwuma to
dabble into direct political issues of the people of Enugu State.

"We feel that as a priest of God he should at all times weigh his
actions and utterances, especially on politics of the state, against
the background of the fact that his flocks have diverse political
interests and views.

"We therefore call on the Primate of the Church of Nigeria to call
Chukwuma to order in the way he dabbles into political matters in
Enugu State," the platform said.

Chukwuma had said that zoning the governorship of the state could kill
democracy, and that the decision to zone the post to Nsukka was
already causing confusion in the polity.

But Nsukka Platform said, "We want to remind him that zoning or power
rotation or power shift cannot be said to undemocratic or strange in
any democratic setup. In fact, it is an essential ingredient of
democracy as long as it evolves from a group, party, association or
state and supported by the majority in such an entity to ensure
fairness, progress and peace."

It said it was only equitable that the governorship of Enugu State be
zoned to Nsukka (Enugu North) considering that the other two zones,
Enugu East and Enugu West have had two full tenures at the
governorship.

"We do no think that Enugu State people need the services of the
archbishop to know what is good for them. The zoning of the
governorship position to Nsukka Zone this time around epitomises
equity and fairness in the state," Nsukka Platform said.

While insisting that Nsukka had competent people that to give good
governance to Enugu State, the platform urged Chukwuma to go to his
home state, Delta to urge them to jettison the zoning arrangement in
the election of their next governor.