Since the current political era, no member of the House of Assembly from Nnewi North LGA has been able to rise to other elective positions or return to the House of Assembly to date. No matter the high quality of one’s representation or preparedness, the House of Assembly tends to put a seal on one’s political career. This, in part, is because of the zoning arrangement in which the four communities in Nnewi rotate the House of Assembly seat among themselves.
From Umudim to Nnewichi, then Uruagu, and Otolo, which is expected to produce the next House member. But in truth, this has not served the long-term interests of Nnewi in the political arena, as the town continues to send fresh people who will always learn on the job. These fresh representatives are faced with diverse challenges and are conditioned to deal with them, while also trying to uphold their stewardship with the electorate, who are sure not to return them for a second term, no matter what they do. The first is that there is no real motivation for quality representation if the mandate is sure not to be returned. A member who wins the State Assembly seat for Nnewi North already knows that he has just four years. In the end, this never works out well. The fact is that it is the individual who has been trained, exposed, and deployed who makes the best impact in his community, and this is simply based on the age-old understanding that one cannot give what he does not have.
In 2007, Barr. Benchuks Nwosu, from Nnewichi, after a meritorious service as a member of Anambra State Assembly who represented Nnewi North constituency, he vied for the House of Representatives seat of Nnewi North, Nnewi South and Ekwusigo Federal Constituency on the platform of the Action Congress – AC, but suffered from the unfortunate rigging machinery the PDP, his former party, deployed to take over the entire country during that 2007 General Election. Unsatisfied, he challenged the election and won his case at the tribunal. But when the tribunal gave a verdict for a rerun, the PDP still had its way, and his bid for the House of Representatives came to an end for that election cycle. This was notwithstanding that Benchuks Nwosu was easily an iconic and noble lawmaker based on his contributions to the 3rd Assembly of Anambra State and also based on his role in bringing political stability to Anambra State when the then Governor, Peter Obi, was impeached. Then in 2011, he vied again for the House of Representatives, yet again, he lost. With this experience, the simple fact is that any House of Assembly member who speaks for Nnewi North constituency is caught between pushing the strong or impossible walls of a second-term bid or the difficult gamble of the House of Representatives contest. None of these options is easy. This is the struggle all former House of Assembly members from Nnewi have been trying to resolve, but none have been able to pull through.
In 2011, J C Okeke from Uruagu, who took over from Barr. Benchuks Nwosu got the ticket of his party, the PDP, to contest again for the House of Assembly. However, he didn’t make it. Engr. Chukwudi Orizu from Otolo won the election. He served as Deputy Speaker for four years and would have stood a chance to become Speaker if he returned in the next election cycle. By 2015, efforts to have him return met a brick wall, and he quietly left and was replaced by Hon. Amala Anazodo, from Umudim, in 2015. Hon. Anazodo, who was the second APGA candidate to win the House of Assembly seat in Nnewi, was able to have the clause on rotation changed by the Nzukora leadership. But almost immediately, the leadership reversed itself. After careful consideration, Anazodo quietly left the contest after he had purchased the APGA nomination for a second term. Then, in 2019, Hon. Nonso Okafor from Nnewichi was elected on the APGA platform, and before the 2021 election, he joined the APC, where he also went on to contest the House of Representatives seat on the party’s platform in the 2023 General Election, just as Hon. Benchuks did in 2007, when he left the Anambra Assembly. In 2023, Hon. Augustine Ike from Uruagu was elected on the platform of the YPP, and in the build-up to the 2025 Anambra State Governorship election, he has formally left the YPP for the APC after hobnobbing with APGA for a while.
The simple fact is that decamping to the APC by Hon. Augustine is just one of the few options available to him to advance his political career in the absence of a viable or easy option for him as a young politician. The option of swimming against the tide in Nnewi for a second term is bound to fail. So also the option of contesting for the House of Representatives, which, in any case, might still require a new platform.
In effect, for now, there is nothing else a one-term House of Assembly member representing Nnewi North constituency can do but try to run against the zoning and fail. Or try to run for the House of Representatives at a huge risk and amidst uncertainties, or just change party and see what available options to explore. Hon. Augustine has only picked one of the available options he has to advance himself.
♦ Ebuka Onyekwelu, journalist and trained political scientist, is a writer and columnist with the West African Pilot News
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