BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
With the Anambra governorship election just 104 days to go, a lot of mixed fortunes are hitting the big political parties as unfolding events are showing that two major political parties – the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance and the Peoples Democratic Party – are basically unsettled to contest for the exalted position come November 6.
Prior to the release of the list of cleared candidates to contest in the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission a few weeks ago, the duo had been enmeshed in intra-party squabbles hinging on the choice of the “authentic” candidate as the parties’ flag bearers following their factionalisation that paved the way for two different primary elections conducted by the two parties in question.
As the ruling party, APGA was considered by many political watchers and analysts as the party to beat by the others in the race, owing to its stronghold.
The party in its make-belief that it was expecting nothing less than retaining the seat it had occupied in the last 16 years, opted for a very popular, people’s choice candidate in the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Chukwuma Soludo.
Outgoing Governor, Willie Obiano, threw his incumbency weight behind him. Anambrarians began the celebration of becoming blessed with a man who can fix the numerous problems of the state even before his emergence as the party’s candidate. His name, past achievements and character became a song on the lips of Anambrarians portraying their total acceptance of his candidature.
However, while the voting and non-voting classes of Anambra people were jubilating, some party members of APGA were not happy with the situation and, therefore, not ready to abide by the decisions from the Chief Victor Oye-led executive that endorsed Soludo’s candidature.
These members formed a faction and held a parallel primary election same day and gave their own APGA governorship ticket for the forthcoming election to Michael Umeoji, who was eventually cleared by INEC. The decision of INEC which threw APGA and its supporters into confusion was based on Court Orders as the electoral umpires claimed.
On releasing the list of eligible candidates, the INEC in a statement signed by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said its officials met and among other things considered the list/personal particulars of candidates nominated by the various political parties for the Anambra State Governorship election scheduled to hold on 6th November 2021.
The Commission also disclosed how it considered and took cognizance of the Judgments/Court Orders served on it in relation to the primaries of the political parties and other processes leading to the election.
With the provisions of section 31(3) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) the personal particulars of the candidates were published in the Commissions Notice Board in Awka, Anambra State, while the names of the candidates, their gender, party, age, qualification and the Commission’s decision/remarks were attached.
This development was unacceptable to the concerned parties, their supporters and to a large extent the Anambra people who saw it as major step to truncate their desire for a better Anambra State.
Ejimofor Opara, a Sociologist, political commentator and critic told The Point in a telephone chat that the people of Anambra State had been shortchanged with what happened.
He said Anambrarians had been thanking God for making Soludo available from the day he presented himself as an aspirant to the day he emerged as the APGA candidate.
“The news of Professor Soludo’s name missing on the list of cleared candidates for the election by INEC remains unacceptable to us in Anambra State. People went for thanksgiving services in various churches after his emergence as APGA’s candidate, so we will not accept that list as authentic,” he said.
However, the Victor Oye-led executive was apt in reacting to the news by claiming that INEC knew that the Jigawa Court judgment could not stand beyond that week the list was released because the party had appealed the judgment, which he described as a temporary setback.
But has that been the case? The answer had yet to come as of the time of writing this report. Recently, the Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo Youth Movement of Anambra State gave their support to Chukwuma Umeoji from the Jude Okeke-led faction who was used to replace Soludo as the rightful candidate of the party.
Leader of the youth movement, Uche Nnadi, said the development had given hope to the state, the South East and indeed Nigeria because, according to him, the Jigawa judgment was a landmark judgment delivered in compliance with jurisdiction demands on issues concerning intra-party issues.
But the support of the youth group for Umeoji seems not to disturb the camp of the former CBN Governor. Just last week, a member of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Emeka Oforka, declared that APGA would emerge victorious in the November 6 polls.
The lawmaker described what was happening as a distraction that had been adequately taken care of and encouraged party loyalists. He appealed to the aggrieved members to sheath their swords and come together to overwhelmingly support Soludo, who he said remained the authentic candidate of APGA for the forthcoming election.
The ruling APGA is not the only affected party in the forthcoming Anambra State governorship election with serious intra-party squabbles capable of denying it victory at the polls. The PDP has its hands full with party crises. While the name of Soludo was replaced with Umeoji, the PDP column was left open without a candidate’s name.
This act by INEC that cited Court Orders as reason has left the two factions of the PDP in the state fighting to outwit the other in order to have its candidate recognized as the authentic candidate for the November 6 governorship election.
Sen. Ugochukwu Uba who emerged winner in the parallel primary election conducted by a faction of the party went to Court to demand for his mandate as the authentic candidate against the much celebrated choice of a business magnate, Valentine Ozigbo, and the Court granted his prayers, mandating INEC to recognize him.
But the faction that produced Ozigbo as the candidate would not bulge as the national body has stepped into the matter, accusing Justice O. A Nwabunike of the state high court of plots to distract and derail the party in its bid to reclaim the government house it lost more than 16 years ago by refusing to make available the case file and copies of his judgment to the party and its candidate, Ozigbo, to appeal.
The party went further to report the Judge to the National Judicial Council, demanding that he be called to order.
When contacted on Friday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the national body had taken over the legal matter.
“The national body has taken over the legal matter and INEC knows that Ozigbo is PDP’s candidate and that some people went to court against the party and the party is in court to assert that Ozigbo is our candidate,” he said.
Whereas the APGA and PDP are grappling with the attendant crises capable of destroying their chances, the duo of APC and the Young Progressives Party and their candidates, Andy Ubah and Ifeanyi Ubah, respectively, seem to be cruising home uninterrupted.
For APC and Ubah, the crises that came up after the primary election was effectively handled such that it did not snowball into a major one capable of thwarting the party’s focus of occupying the Anambra State government house for the first time.
Though there were issues wherein some aspirants claimed there was no election, threatened fire and brimstone, flexed muscles, yet at the end the party through its internal reconciliatory mechanism, sorted it out and are likely going to the polls a united force.
For YPP and its candidate, there has never been any issue. Ubah, currently representing Anambra South Senatorial District on the party’s platform, had since emerged the party’s flagbearer for the November 6 governorship election.
His emergence has not raised any form of dust. He is at peace with the party members and executives; however, his candidature is facing a strong opposition not from his party but from what he described as masked accusers “out to destroy his political growth with the unfounded allegation of playing a role in luring and abducting the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu back to the country.”
As the two big parties frantically battle to sort out the political mess they have found themselves in at this most inconvenient time, they surely know that Anambra 2021, for them, is race against time.
