2027 Abia-South Senatorial District Election, Fundamental Facts The Ngwa Need Not Ignore.
Tuesday (Orie) 10-03-2026
Though the nomenclature, Ukwa/Ngwa, Ukwa Na Ngwa, or Ukwa La Ngwa, is political and not historically rooted, it is a prevailing reality in Abia-South Senatorial District of Abia State.
As the name implies, Abia-South Senatorial District of Abia State, the home of Ukwa/Ngwa, is made up of two distinct blocs, the Ukwa, and the Ngwa.
Six Local Government Council Areas make up Abia-South Senatorial District. The Ukwa bloc has two Local Government Council Areas; Ukwa-East, and Ukwa-West. The Ngwa bloc has four Local Government Council Areas; Aba-North, Aba-South, Obingwa, and Ugwunagbo.
In terms of Federal Constituencies, there are three of such; Ukwa-East and Ukwa-West Federal Constituency, Aba-North and Aba-South Federal Constituency, and Obingwa, Osisioma-Ngwa and Ugwunagbo Federal Constituency.
Senatorially-speaking, Osisioma-Ngwa Local Government Council Area is not part of Abia-South Senatorial District, as it is, rather, in Abia-Central Senatorial District.
Politics, like any other human engagement, should be driven by a sense of equity, justice and fairness. Knowing that the Ngwa bloc in Abia-South Senatorial District is, by far, more populated than the Ukwa bloc, equity will, simply, dictate that if the Ukwa bloc gets elected into the Senate for consecutive eight years, the Ngwa bloc would do a consecutive sixteen years, shared equally between Obingwa and Ugwunagbo, and Aba-North and Aba-South Federal Constituencies.
Equitably, after sixteen years of the senatorial seat being in the Ngwa bloc, the seat should return to Ukwa Federal Constituency. If, like it was in 1999 when Chief Orji Uzor Kalu successfully insisted that Ukwa would produce a Senator for Abia-South Senatorial District, on return, the Senatorial District seat rotates to Ukwa-West Local Government Council Area. By this understanding, each time the Senatorial District seat returns to a Federal Constituency, it goes to the Local Government Council Area that did not get the slot previously.
Between 1999 and 2027, is a long interval of 28 years! Senator Adolphus Wabara from Ukwa-East was elected into the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1999 and he spent eight years, ending in 2007. Senator Enyinnah Harcourt Abaribe from Obingwa was elected into the Senate in 2007. His eight years should have ended in 2015, and someone from either Aba-North or Aba-South should have been elected into the Senate in 2015, and the person should have ended his or her tenure in 2023. In that sequence, the Senatorial seat should have gone back to Ukwa bloc, and, specifically, Ukwa-West, to commence another round of rotation.
Inequitably, unjustly and unfortunately, Abia-South Senatorial District seat has adamantly, with unprecedented level of inconsideration, been occupied and monopolised by Senator Enyinnah Harcourt Abaribe, from Obingwa of the Ngwa bloc since 2007. By May next year, 2027, he will have monopolised the seat for 20 years!
By such inconsiderate disposition and monopoly, the Ngwa bloc has inexplicably exceeded their expected range of rotation of sixteen years before it returns to the Ukwa bloc, by four years, 2019-2023.
This show of gross insensitivity and inconsideration can never give room for a harmonious bilateral relationship. If the mindset the Ngwa bloc has, in their relationship with the Ukwa bloc, is that they can keep the Ukwa bloc perpetually marginalized because it is a minority group, it could serve them well today but who knows what tomorrow would look like? No human condition has ever been permanent! It is only change that is permanent.
In a situation where the Ukwa bloc gets convinced that nothing good can come out of her proximal relationship with the Ngwa bloc and, so, makes up her mind to align perpetually with the Old Bende of Abia State, that could create some political dislocations for the Ngwa bloc.
If the Ukwa bloc draws the conclusion that no Ngwa Man will ever use whatever position he attains to look in the direction of Ukwa, and that the Senatorial seat jointly owned by the Ukwa bloc and the Ngwa bloc has been so unjustly heartlessly dominated by the Ngwa bloc, for no fault of hers, what on earth would make the Ukwa bloc ever get lured into the snare of supporting the creation of Aba State, having already been convinced that such would be a political suicide? The Ukwa bloc would prefer to remain in Abia State, believing that succour could come to her from the Old Bende geo-political zone of the State.
It has to be recalled that elections in Nigeria under the Macpherson’s Constitution of 1951, and Littleton’s Constitution of 1954 witnessed the peoples of Ukwa, then Asa and Ndoki, excessively marginalized and suppressed by the Ngwa bloc in Aba Division.
It was their experience of marginalization that compelled Ukwa Leaders, led by Chiefs O. C. Ememe, J. E. Adiele, and W. W. Obinya, all of blessed memory, to write a petition to the Commission of Enquiry On the Fears of the Minorities of Eastern Region, chaired by Sir Henry Willink in 1957. The outcome of their petition was the creation of Aba-South Federal Constituency in 1958, which is today Ukwa-East and Ukwa-West Federal Constituency, and two Regional House of Assembly seats, Aba-South-East, and Aba-South-West in 1963, which are currently Ukwa-East, and Ukwa-West State Constituencies, respectively.
Today, the Ukwa bloc no longer has a Sir Henry Willink’s Commission of Enquiry to run to. They can only run to the Old Bende.
Again, people force history to be repeated. The Minorities of Eastern Region of Nigeria felt badly marginalized by the Majority Igbo. After the counter coup of July 29, 1966, the North was said to have used ‘araba’ as her singsong, meaning to break away from the Nigerian State. It was said that the Minorities of Eastern Region of Nigeria, led by His Lordship, Hon Justice Graham Douglas, an unjustly displaced Chief Judge of Eastern Region, were the ones that urged the Federal Government of Nigeria, under General Yakubu Gowon, to create separate States for the Minorities in the East, and also prosecute the war for national unity. Even though British Government had also advised Nigeria not to allow the East secede, the bold step taken by the marginalized Minorities in the East was very instrumental.
Equity Global Reporters Ltd would wish to call on the Ngwa bloc in Abia-South Senatorial District of Abia State to allow equity, justice and fairness to reign by allowing an Ukwa Man, specifically an Ukwa man from Ukwa-West, to take their turn in the 11th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2027.
If that gesture of equity is shown to the Ukwa bloc, it would be very helpful to the Ngwa bloc. Already, the Ukwa bloc is lying flat on the ground and, so, is not afraid of any fall. But this is not so with the Ngwa bloc. She really needs the support of the Ukwa bloc. It will be necessary to change, in practical terms, the deep perception among the Ukwa that Ngwa people hold a very demeaning perception about the Ukwa Man, and are only freely disposed to marginalising them in all fronts. The perception could change through a rethink by the Majority Ngwa. 2027 Abia-South Senatorial District Election could serve as the elixir.
Sir Don Ubani is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State, Publisher of Equity Global Reporters Ltd, and a Man that has, at different times, given quantifiable overt support to Ngwa cause.
