There is a troubling silence creeping through Owerri Zone of the All Progressives Congress as Imo State inches toward the 2027 governorship election. It is not the silence of strategy. It is the silence of hesitation, self doubt and political fear. In Imo politics silence is rarely neutral. It either signals a deal being stitched or a retreat already underway. What we are witnessing looks suspiciously like the latter.
This should not be the case because 2027 is not just another election cycle. It is a historical test. It is the year Owerri Zone either breaks a longstanding jinx or formalises its role as a perpetual spectator in its own political house. The long debate over equity has shifted from emotional plea to existential urgency. Orlu has ruled for two full decades. Okigwe returned once. Owerri is still outside the door clutching the Charter of Equity like a church programme that no one inside the cathedral is reading.
The irony is vicious because Owerri Zone is not short of talent or human capital. The zone has administrators, technocrats, seasoned politicians, legal minds, public intellectuals and policy thinkers.
Nigeria has only ever had one female governor and even she never entered office through electoral victory. Dame Virgy Etiaba of Anambra took the reins only after the impeachment of Peter Obi and relinquished them when the courts restored him. That was a caretaker emergency. Imo now stands at the edge of making the first woman who wins her mandate in full daylight.
This prospect is not emerging out of wishful thinking but from shifts in the architecture of power. Governor Hope Uzodimma already disrupted the old pattern by selecting a woman as his deputy for his second term. In a conservative political culture deputy is often an audition for future power. Around that single decision a quiet conversation started: is Imo the state that will finally break the glass ceiling properly?
Overlay that with the Charter of Equity and the plot thickens. Uzodimma has stated publicly that after Orlu it should be the turn of Owerri. Orlu elders have echoed the same sentiment. Owerri is still outside the door clutching the Charter of Equity like a church programme that no one inside the cathedral is reading. Owerri politicians have held that promise like a title deed. But a title deed is only useful if you actually move into the property. Rights that are not enforced decay into folklore.
Here lies the strategic brilliance of a female candidacy from Owerri. It solves three problems at once. It honours equity. It refreshes the political space. And it cements a legacy. Any political strategist worth their salt understands that politics is not driven only by money and power but also by story. A female governorship project from Owerri gives the ruling party a story that money cannot buy: after twenty years of build up and bitter quarrels Imo finally breaks the impasse and does it with a double correction region and gender together.
What makes this moment fascinating is how little Owerri zone APC is doing with the opportunity. The zone behaves like someone who has been promised an inheritance but is too timid to ask where the lawyer is. Men in the ruling party are hiding under phrases like consultation and testing the waters. They claim proximity to power but fear to declare ambition. They are waiting for body language nods whispers and greenlights. This is not strategy. It is paralysis disguised as loyalty.
So the question is no longer whether Imo is ready for a female governor. Imo has been ready for years.
This is food for thought that should keep both the old warhorses and the new gladiators awake at night.
By Hon. Chimazuru Nnadi-Oforgu
Duruebube Uzii na Abosi
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
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