By Onyemaechi Duruibe
There is something different happening in Okigwe Zone.
It is not merely another politician moving from one community to another, shaking hands, receiving kola nuts, exchanging pleasantries and making the familiar promises that accompany every election season. Neither is it simply the expansion of a campaign structure ahead of the 2027 senatorial election.
Across the six local government areas of Okigwe Zone, a political conversation appears to be taking shape; one in which the traditional power of party structures, godfathers and political machinery is increasingly being tested against something more difficult to manufacture: the credibility of a candidate.
At the centre of that conversation is Attorney Charles Onyirimba, the Action Democratic Party, ADP, candidate for the Senate in Okigwe Zone.
His campaign’s extensive consultations, from meetings with party LGA and ward coordinators to engagements with youth groups, patriots, political associations, traditional and community stakeholders, have gradually assumed the character of a political movement searching for an answer to an old question: why has Okigwe Zone continued to struggle for development despite repeatedly producing representatives at the National Assembly?
The question is uncomfortable because it moves the debate beyond political parties.
It asks whether the problem has always been the party, or whether the deeper problem has been the quality and independence of those sent to represent the people.
That distinction appears to be resonating.
From Isiala Mbano to Ehime Mbano, Ihitte-Uboma and Obowo, Onyirimba’s consultations have produced scenes that campaign politics in the zone has not always witnessed: political actors crossing party lines, community groups publicly identifying with a candidate, former structures gravitating towards his campaign and individuals who ordinarily would have been expected to defend their respective party establishments openly discussing the need for a different kind of representation.
The story is not expected to be any different when the moving train zooms into Okigwe and Onuimo LGAs in the coming days.
Even before the current campaign entered its present intensity, reports of Onyirimba’s grassroots mobilisation had already described the attraction as extending beyond conventional party membership. His emergence was being interpreted by supporters as an opportunity to break from what they regard as years of ineffective representation.
The significance is not simply that people are moving towards Onyirimba. It is why they say they are moving.
The meetings with LGA and ward coordinators have provided one layer of the mobilisation.
The encounters with groups such as the Patriots, youth vanguards and other community-based formations have added another. Then came the physical presence across the LGAs, consultations in communities, meetings with stakeholders, visits to the candidate’s country home and engagements with political actors outside his immediate party structure.
These are not isolated events. Together, they are beginning to tell a story.
In Isiala Mbano, for instance, the campaign has encountered traders, transport workers, political leaders and community stakeholders.
At Amaraku, traders did not merely welcome the campaign; they asked for a wider engagement and delivered a warning that says much about the emerging mood: votes must be protected.
That statement is larger than it appears.
It reflects a growing consciousness among voters that the electoral process does not end with persuasion. A people may choose a candidate, only for the choice to be manipulated, compromised or neutralised through money, intimidation, inducement or political machinery.
It has happened before but the people are more resolute than ever that it must not happen again.
The same Isiala Mbano axis subsequently produced separate political engagements, including visits by Obowo ADC ward leaders and other political actors to Onyirimba at his Umuduruegwelle residence.
The significance lies in the separation of these engagements. They were not simply one large rally manufactured for photographs. Different political interests came independently, carrying their own calculations and constituencies.
At Amarakunna, the Akwa Ugo Dance Troupe provided the cultural welcome; traditional prayers and community hospitality framed the encounter. But beneath the colour and ceremony was a more serious political message: communities increasingly want to know what kind of person is asking for their mandate and what he intends to do with it.
The campaign’s movement through Ehime Mbano has been particularly significant because it is Onyirimba’s home ground in Dikenneato.
Yet even there, the emphasis has not been allowed to remain merely sentimental.
The argument being presented is competence. The message is that familiarity with the territory is not enough.
Birthplace is not enough. Wealth is not enough. Party ticket is not enough. A senatorial seat, the campaign insists, is not a trophy. It is a legislative responsibility.
That argument acquires greater force when placed beside the unusual breadth of Onyirimba’s professional and public-service background. He is not being presented simply as a politician seeking another investment. In fact, he describes himself not as one but a missionary on a rescue mission in Okigwe Zone.
He is a lawyer trained in the United States, a political figure, community leader and diplomat whose public profile has extended beyond Nigeria.
His supporters point to his legal training, political experience, international exposure and years of community engagement as evidence of a candidate whose preparation fits the institution he seeks to enter.
This is where the campaign’s central argument becomes sharper.
For years, voters have sent businessmen, political loyalists and men with considerable financial resources to the National Assembly. But the Senate is not a marketplace. It is not primarily a contracting office. It is a legislative chamber.
A senator must understand legislation, constitutional processes, oversight, public policy, budgeting, diplomacy and the complicated relationship between the executive and legislature.
That is precisely why Chief Magnus Orjiako, Onyirimba’s Director of Security and Police Affairs, made a pointed argument while speaking about the campaign: the zone needs someone who understands lawmaking and legislative processes. He described Onyirimba in terms of capacity, competence, experience and charisma, insisting that the choice of a senator should be informed by what the person can actually do in the legislative chamber.
That message has become one of the most powerful undercurrents of the campaign.
The argument is not that businessmen are incapable of being senators. It is that the qualification for a legislative position should be legislative competence, not merely business success, political connections or proximity to a godfather.
And therein lies the deeper revolt.
For too long, according to the argument gaining currency among the campaign’s supporters, politics in Okigwe Zone has been organised around structures rather than citizens; around party loyalty rather than legislative performance; around godfatherism rather than accountability.
The consequence, they contend, has been a zone that repeatedly sends representatives to Abuja but continues to complain about roads, healthcare, schools, security, employment, economic opportunity and general underdevelop-ment.
The people are asking a brutally simple question:
What exactly has the political system produced for them?
The question explains why the campaign’s open endorsements from individuals and groups outside the ADP fold are politically significant.
A party structure can be transferred.
A political appointment can be negotiated. A campaign office can be opened. But when people begin abandoning established political calculations because they believe a particular candidate represents their interests, the phenomenon becomes harder to dismiss as ordinary electioneering.
This is also why the reported movement of elements from other political structures towards Onyirimba’s camp is attracting attention. It suggests that the contest may gradually be shifting from a conventional party-versus-party election to a personality-versus-establishment contest.
In that emerging equation, the ADP ticket becomes the vehicle, but Onyirimba himself becomes the proposition.
That proposition is essentially this: Do not vote for a party merely because it has a structure. Vote for the person who can represent you.
The sentiment was visible again in Obowo.
When the Transformation Agenda Group office opened there on Friday, hundreds reportedly thronged the venue, overflowing the hall and the additional canopy erected outside. It was not the neat, controlled appearance of a meeting whose attendance had been restricted to political office-holders.
It had the untidiness of genuine public curiosity and mobilisation.
And the speech from Director-General Mrs Favour Nwelue went straight to the grievance.
Her argument was that while other zones of Imo State, Orlu and Owerri, have continued to develop, Okigwe has remained behind, with poor representation and godfather-driven politics identified as part of the problem.
That is the political indictment around which the Onyirimba campaign is building its case. It is also the reason the campaign has deliberately described itself as a Transformation Agenda rather than merely an election campaign.
The difference matters. A campaign asks people to vote. A political transformation asks them to change the way they choose. The distinction is at the heart of the consultations.
In Ihitte-Uboma, the message has been carried into another part of the zone. In Ehime Mbano, it has been reinforced by the candidate’s personal history and longstanding relationships. In Isiala Mbano, political and community groups have tested the candidate’s appeal beyond his immediate base. In Obowo, the size and energy of the gathering have provided another indication that the message is travelling.
And around all these encounters is the growing presence of youth.
That may prove decisive.
Young voters have inherited the consequences of decisions made by older political generations.
They have watched roads deteriorate, businesses struggle, opportunities disappear and political promises recur in almost identical language every four years.
They are, therefore, less impressed by the mere possession of a party structure. They want results.
The Patriots, youth vanguards and other independent groups, Ndi Ezi Enyi, participating in the emerging movement represent this impatience with politics as usual. Their involvement suggests that the campaign is beginning to occupy a space beyond conventional party mobilisation. It is a space where people are asking whether competence can finally defeat machinery.
That is why the phrase “credible candidate” has become so central to the Onyirimba narrative.
Credibility, in this context, means more than popularity. It means having the intellectual preparation to understand the Senate, the professional background to engage legislation, the experience to navigate institutions, the independence to resist undue influence and the courage to confront interests that have become comfortable with the status quo.
The campaign is, therefore, asking Ndi Okigwe to make a different kind of political calculation. Not: Which party is strongest? But: Who is strongest for Okigwe? Not: Which godfather can deliver the ticket? But: Which candidate can deliver for the people? Not: Who has the biggest political structure? But: Who has the capacity to turn representation into results? That is a potentially transformative shift.
It also explains why the growing rejection of party structures should not be misunderstood as rejection of political organisation itself. The people still need structures. Elections require organisation. Polling units, ward coordinators, agents and volunteers remain indispensable.
The emerging argument is subtler: structures should serve the candidate and, ultimately, the people, not replace them.
A structure should not be able to impose an unsuitable candidate simply because it controls delegates. A godfather should not determine representation simply because he controls the machinery. A political party should not become more important than the constituency it seeks to govern.
This is where Onyirimba’s pedigree becomes central to the argument. His supporters see a rare alignment between professional training and legislative responsibility: a lawyer seeking a legislative office; a man with international exposure seeking to represent a constituency that believes it has been politically underrepresented; a candidate whose campaign is deliberately presenting competence as the primary currency.
The campaign has also been building an increasingly sophisticated operational structure, with Mrs Favour Nwelue, a woman, a bold choice in a male-dominated environment, as Director-General and a broad campaign council drawing from different professional and political backgrounds.
But, perhaps, the most revealing scene is not a rally. It is the conversation after the speeches. It is the trader asking whether his vote will be protected. It is the youth asking what will change. It is the political operative crossing party lines because he believes the old arrangement has failed.
It is the community leader asking whether the next senator will remember the people after the election. It is the supporter insisting that the Senate should not be a place where representatives spend their time chasing contracts and pacifying political patrons while constituents struggle. And it is the campaign team moving from one LGA to another, not merely asking for votes but attempting to persuade people that they have a right to demand more from representation.
That may ultimately become the defining issue of Okigwe Zone 2027. Not one political machine versus another. But the people versus a political culture they increasingly believe has failed them.
If that sentiment continues to deepen, Attorney Charles Onyirimba’s campaign will have achieved something much bigger than building a formidable senatorial structure.
It will have changed the question.
And once voters begin asking not “Who can win?” but “Who can represent us best?”, the old political mathematics begins to break down.
For a zone tired of underdevelopment, tired of political promises and tired of watching representation become an avenue for private accumulation, that may be the real battle of 2027.
The battle is no longer simply for a Senate seat. It is for the meaning of representation itself. And Onyirimba’s campaign is betting that Okigwe Zone is finally ready to choose a senator, not another businessman in search of contracts, not another political loyalist in search of favour, and not another captive of a godfather, but a legislator capable of standing in the Red Chamber and speaking for the people who sent him there.
*Onyemaechi Duruibe, a public commentator, wrote from Port Harcourt