BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
It is 18 days to the crucial gubernatorial election in Anambra State billed for November 6. The campaigns have simply been unusually convoluted. It never was this way. In the past, campaigns were carnival like with venues packed full with most party faithful adorning colourful Ankara prints, especially the ones with the image of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, for the ruling party in the state, the All Progressive Grand Alliance. Branded T-shirts, colourful banners, branded cars and vehicles used to be the lots of the previous campaigns.
Today, things have gone full circle. No thanks to a spike in the level of insecurity in the state. The announcement by the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, that the Nigeria Police Force will be deploying over 34,000 personnel to the state ahead of the November 6 polls simply underscores the gravity of the security challenges ahead of the election.
According to him, three helicopters will also be deployed for surveillance during the poll in addition to animals and other equipment.
Baba further stated that the police are collaborating with sister agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure the conduct of a peaceful election in the state. The assurance from the police high command presupposes the election will hold, other things being equal.
Expectedly, the campaigns have not fared well. The candidates have had to go about selling their manifesto to the electorate in the face of grim security challenges. Findings show that candidates of the various parties simply made do with bare essentials. They have had to device means, no matter how minimal and awkward to pass their messages across. And this they have done by moving their campaigns outside the state, hoping that fortune will smile on them come November 6.
Recently, the candidate for the Young Progressives Party, Ifeanyi Ubah, led his team on a fanfare campaign on the major streets of Lagos.
His campaign was followed by several town hall campaigns and meetings by candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Val Ozigbo; Zenith Labour Party, Obiora Okonkwo; All Progressives Congress, Andy Ubah and lately, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Chukwuma Soludo, who all took their own turn of addressing Anambrarians in diaspora.
Despite the insecurity in the state which is seriously threatening the forthcoming election, APGA has managed to take its campaigns to the nooks and crannies of the state. No other political party has done that as at press time.
But of particular note is the fact that the campaigns of the ruling party have never been without tales of woes. Last week, the party’s campaign train led by the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, was attacked by gunmen with reports of many sustaining injuries and few fatalities.
The growing insecurity on daily basis in the state and alleged threat by the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra that there will be no election in the state, have been identified as the factors that have forced the parties and their candidates to export their campaigns to the cities that have nothing to do with the election other than to enable them reach their intended voters via the tube of televisions.
Speaking on a television programme, and monitored by The Point, former chairman of PDP in Anambra State, Dan Ulasi, said the happenings in the build up to the governorship election in the state are not only terrible but also condemnable.
Ulasi blamed it on some non-Igbo politicians who he refused to name. He argued that they are using their Igbo counterparts as willing tools to destabilize not only the state but the entire South East region.
He said the insecurity was imported into the state by those who want to take over the state at all cost and by force, even if it will take shedding of innocent blood.
“What is happening in my state is terrible. It is imported violence. Some politicians at the centre want to take over the state by force, not minding the shedding of innocent blood.
“We are seeing the shedding of blood on daily basis. This is not only political; there are a lot of undertones. They know that Anambra is gateway to the Igbo land, if it is captured; the entire Igbo nation is captured. That is why they have heavily moved into the state to use the election as a decoy to achieve their long planned programme,” he alleged.
The former PDP chairman narrated his ordeal in the hands of the unknown gunmen, who kidnapped him and his driver recently in the state. He said from the encounter, it was clear that mercenaries have been brought into the state to waste the lives of political opponents.
“People are scared of discussing political matters with others because you don’t know who is who “
He said the leader of the gang who is not an Igbo man threatened to kill him for saying “I cover myself with the blood of Jesus” and added that it took the confusion between him and his gang who opposed him to save his life but not without a cost as he lost all his belongings, including money and a car.
His experience was one of several. Few weeks ago, Chike Akunyili, the husband of late former minister of information and culture, Dora Akunyili, was murdered on the street of Anambra State.
Another prominent Anambra based political analyst and social commentator, Ejim Opara, told The Point in a telephone interview that the atmosphere in Anambra State is tense.
He said the combination of bad politicking and insecurity have combined to instill palpable fears in everyone as the state heads into the election.
“I tell you, there is fear everywhere in the state now. Everybody is hell scared about what the next action in the state would be. No one trusts anyone again. People are scared of discussing political matters with others because you don’t know who is who.
“As a matter of fact, virtually all the candidates and their political parties visited Lagos for what they claimed to be town hall meetings with Anambrarians in diaspora to keep them abreast of the forthcoming election and the state’s readiness to hold a peaceful election,” he said.
Opara further said every candidate that went to Lagos said the visit was to seek support of the diaspora Anambrarians both financially and morally.
“All the front line contenders to the governorship seat visited Lagos and Abuja to meet with Anambrarians in what they said was to carry Anambrarians along in their programme. Apart from the candidate of YPP, Ifeanyi Ubah, I don’t think any other candidate went on the streets of Lagos to campaign.
“But what’s the essence of campaigning in Lagos when those Anambrarians living there will not be returning home to vote? The highest they could do is to promise the candidate that they will tell their relations back home to vote for him and you and I know that such a promise cannot hold,” he asserted.
He equally expressed fears that the security situation in the state is being pushed by some politicians to create a tenser atmosphere and noted that it could be a well-planned programme for rigging the election.
“The security situation in Anambra now seems to be getting worse on daily basis. What we hear now is killing here and there, kidnappings everywhere even when some of the news are fake. All these look like a script to put fears in the people so that they will not come out to vote and even if they come out to vote they will be afraid of defending their votes.
“It’s truly a precarious situation. If there are attacks on campaign trains then what would one expect on election day? All these killings and violence are imported to the state. Anambra State has been one of the most peaceful states till of recent. Not even the presence of IPoB was able to affect its peacefulness. That is why some of us believe that the restive situation is a creation of politicians through their politicking,” he stressed.
Chairman emeritus, APC, USA, Tony Isama, equally decried the level of political violence in the state which has made it difficult to be differentiated from insecurity.
He said Anambra has never had it this bad and noted that desperation on the part of the candidates to become the next governor has led to it.
Isama, who was at the APC’s national secretariat in Abuja with some diaspora chairmen to meet with the national secretary, caretaker extraordinary convention planning committee, John Akpanudoedehe, said it was unfortunate that people could play politics in this form.
He said he was shocked with the happenings in the state leading to the November 6 election and warned the political parties and their candidates to remember that if everyone in the state is killed, they will not have anyone to govern.
“I’m shocked with the attendant violence and insecurity in my state. Anambra State is not known for violence because our people are hardworking. We do not depend on the government or individuals. We are business people and we give our all but the happenings in my state because of politics are heartbreaking. We cannot take it.
“My findings since I returned are that people are desperate but you cannot become governor by being desperate. People are saying some candidates did not allow contest during their primary elections and because their emergence has issues tied to it, they are doing everything to cow the people even before the election proper.
“Why should candidates take their campaigns to Lagos and Abuja if not for fears? Campaign in Anambra today is like a battle field because, what they call unknown gun men can appear at the scene from nowhere and the next thing is exchange of gunfire. It’s not good news,” he lamented.
