Anambra 2013: Parties come alive to replace Obi

Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi

As the campaigns for 2013 governorship election begin to take shape, EMMANUEL OBE, captures the mood among contending political parties and candidates jostling to replace Governor Peter Obi

Things are beginning to look up in the political firmament of Anambra State as political parties and candidates get set to present themselves for the governorship election tentatively slated for either November or December.

Events in the state in the past week have indicated that it is not going to be an easy ride for any of the parties or candidates. Before now, the arena was calm and quiet.

 The three leading political parties in the state — All Progressives Grand Alliance, Action Congress of Nigeria and the Peoples Democratic Party — also witnessed developments that have left pundits guessing.

Positive signals seem to be coming more from the Peoples Democratic Party, which literarily went into coma due to a vicious factional wrangling which gripped it after it lost the governorship seat to APGA 10 years ago.

In a well-attended rally at Emmaus House, Awka, the major factions of the PDP came together under the chairmanship of Mr. Kenneth Emeakayi, and constituted a harmonisation committee, made up of representatives of the major factions, as directed by the National Working Committee of the party.

The party has since gone to the wards to conduct a fresh registration of its members. Given the huge following the party enjoys in the state as well as the clout of its leaders, PDP could spring a surprise if the current momentum is maintained.

The big names have started stepping out. Nicholas Ukachukwu, a veteran of the governorship race since 2003, and a candidate with a deep pocket, has opened a high-profile campaign office along the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway. Senator Andy Uba, who, in the guise of constituency visits, has been subtly campaigning, is also among the contenders. President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Assistant on Technical Matters, Chief Akachukwu Nwankpu, who oversees the SURE-P scheme, has also been campaigning for the governorship seat. Dr. Obinna Uzoh, who has inaugurated a charity foundation, is among the party’s aspirants. The list that also has Dr. Alex Obiogbolu, Senator Emma Anosike and a lot of others is growing with each passing day.

Something fresh is also coming out of the Action Congress of Nigeria which is neck deep in a proposed merger with some opposition parties. The prime mover of the party in Anambra State, Senator Chris Ngige, who had during the Christmas season, given an indication that he would use the Easter break to make pronouncements about his political plans went taciturn during the season.

Instead of the news about Ngige’s declaration for the governorship, the posters and billboards coming out in the name of ACN are those of Mr. Godwin Ezeemo, the publisher and Philanthropist, who recently built and handed a brand new NUJ Press Centre to the Anambra State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.

In the past, Ngige had served as the party’s sole governorship candidate.

If Ezeemo is stepping out, chances are that he has the backing of Ngige, who might have decided to hold on to his seat in the Senate, and not bother about the money guzzling race for Government House.

However, the main focus is on the All Progressives Grand Alliance, which before now appeared to be well favoured to carry the day in any election before it was thrown off balance by a self-inflicted crisis that is widening its divisions.

With the crisis that exist in the PDP and the total control of the ACN by Ngige, the next party that could provide candidates with a solid platform is APGA. The case for APGA is strong because the incumbent, Peter Obi, having served his two terms in office, is no longer eligible to contest and would therefore pose little problem to candidates seeking a fresh mandate.

The popular choice of APGA could be seen from the manner many aspirants have been jostling to catch the attention of the governor, who however made it clear that his choice of a successor would come from the less privileged senatorial zone, Anambra North, that has not produced a governor since the state was created in 1991.

The nestling around Obi was largely informed by the fact that he had yet to name a successor, thereby leaving the contest open. Many political observers in the state believe that Obi’s quarrel with Umeh was due to Umeh’s frolicking with multi-billionaire petroleum products marketer, Ifeanyi Ubah, who though hails from Anambra South, has insisted on running for the governorship against Obi’s declared position.

The quarrel between Obi and Umeh, who had all along forged a united front, has taken a huge toll on the party, which, only a few months ago, appeared to be the strongest party in the state. The refusal of any of the parties to back down has not helped matters.

Parading the powers and money that go with his office, Obi had borne the burden of ensuring that Umeh was kicked out of APGA, at a time when his brother governor from Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, had boxed himself into a critical situation by declaring for the yet to be registered All Progressives Congress, without as much as carrying his party men along.

The removal of Umeh by an Enugu High Court however provided the needed fillip for Obi and his faction of the APGA, who proceeded to take over the national leadership of the party.

They were already feeling home and dry when the Court of Appeal, Enugu, came out like a bolt from the blue, declaring that Umeh should continue to hold onto his office until his appeal is tried and dismissed. That appeal court ruling technically put paid to all the efforts that culminated in the election of a NWC of APGA led by Chief Maxi Okwu, and placed Obi’s faction in jeopardy.

From the look of things, both factions of APGA might just spend the rest of the party’s election year slugging it out in court to the detriment of their chances at the poll.

With virtually every other APGA national officer having crossed over to the Obi faction, leaving behind Umeh and his national secretary, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi, on the other side, it appears that APGA’s political travail just begins in Anambra State.

 But Umeh can fall back on the support of the Anambra State Executive Committee led by Chief Mike Kwentoh, who was purportedly removed from office by the Obi faction two days before the national convention that produced Okwu as national chairman. Another loyalist of Umeh is Mrs. Uche Ekwunife, the leader of the APGA caucus in the House of Representatives.

Ekwunife parted ways with Obi when her governorship ambition clashed with Obi’s insistence that APGA would entertain only aspirants from Anambra North Senatorial Zone. Ekwunife, who like Obi, comes from Anambra Central Senatorial Zone, says inasmuch as she is not opposed to  zoning as a formula for picking candidates for the party, the issue has not been previously discussed. Even at that, she says if zoning is going to be adopted; it should start alphabetically, with Anambra Central, her senatorial zone,  taking the first slot.

The crisis seems to have touched raw nerves in the South East where the Igbo-speaking people, irrespective of party affiliation, consider the party as their own, which they can always fall back on when they cannot find accommodation in other national parties.

But Dr. Okey Umeano, the Anambra State Chairman and governorship aspirant of the United Peoples Party, says there is no need to cry over the crisis in APGA as UPP has come to give the people of the South East a voice. UPP was founded by Chief Chekwas Okorie, the founding chairman of APGA. Umeano, a former member of the House of Representatives, was the founding chairman of APGA in Anambra State.

It would seem that the smaller parties would as usual be waiting in the wings to profit from the fallouts of the rough games that will play out in the big parties. The  PPN, ADC, Labour Party and ANPP have also been renovating their secretariats preparatory to the elections.

 In the meantime, the Obi camp appears yet undecided on who to back for the governorship. Several of his aides are jostling for the position including the current Secretary  to the State Government, Mr. Oseloka Obaze; his brother, Dubem, who is the immediate past Commissioner for Local Government; and the immediate past Secretary to the State Government, Chief Paul Odenigbo. Callistus Ilozumba, who has served as the Commissioner for Works in the last seven years, has been going round churches requesting the people to pray for a governor that will build on the records of Governor Obi.