From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Nearly one year to the 2025 Anambra State governorship election, major stakeholders and political parties have already started strategizing, networking, and expectedly beating the drum of warfare to heighten tension in the state.
Across all the major registered political parties that would participate in the off-cycle governorship election, intense lobbying, preparations, and planning have graduated from secret underground networking to full-blown plots on how best to scheme out and outsmart one another.
There have been moves to genuinely reconcile aggrieved stakeholders; there have been alignments and realignments, cross-carpeting of intending aspirants from one party to the other. There have been mobilisation of funds, deterioration or deepening of the party’s leadership crisis, and overheating of the polity.
From the camp of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) where leadership crisis has assumed a cataclysmic proportion after the Supreme Court judgment that declared Edozie Njoku the substantive national chairman of the party, to the unending cold war brewing in the fold of the All Progressives Congress (APC), activities within the parties have gathered momentum.
If the crisis in APGA is not posing a threat to the chances of the ruling party seamlessly consolidating its seat at the Agu Awka Government House, it is certainly sending a negative signal on the vulnerability of a divided party susceptible to defeat at the poll.
Though the party is not immune to such crisis previously, there are strong indications already that unless the incumbent governor, Prof Charles Soludo, puts their crumbling house in order, the unexpected may happen.
Everywhere the camera pans now, the gathering cloud and ragging storm of the off-cycle Anambra governorship election could be felt. If it is not the plots by the other political parties to subjugate APGA to the point of losing the ticket in 2025, it will be the fear of Peter Obi’s wave sweeping out the traditional state party.
To many political watchers, the threat to unseat APGA may certainly and understandably come from the Labour Party (LP), with heavyweight politicians like Val Ozigbo and perhaps, George Moghalu, who is speculated to be joining the party.
Though not much is heard of the underground scheming from the LP to take over Agu Awka, however, it is doubtful whether the Peter Obi-motivated party will pose a major threat to APGA, the state’s ruling party, especially with the fresh leadership crisis rocking the party presently.
Following the refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise LP’s national convention held in Nnewi, Anambra State this year and the recent warning from aggrieved party leaders that INEC may not recognise any candidate filed by the party, APGA may heave a sigh of relief of any serious threat coming from the embattled leadership of LP.
However, from all indications, the major threat confronting APGA seems to be the usual desperation of the APC to wrest the ticket by hook or crook. For some time now, major stakeholders, comprising all the heavyweight party members, chieftains, and leaders in Anambra politics, have held several strategic meetings in and outside the state, separately or with the party’s national leadership, to put all necessary machinery in motion to outsmart and beat the other political parties to the ticket.
One such meeting to draw up plans and winning stratagies in place was the one held in Abuja last week. It was a compendium of activities, ranging from articulation and consolidation of its plans, and composition of a crack think-tank committee for fundraising to help field a formidable party candidate who can pose a serious threat to the incumbent.
It was expectedly an oceanographic gathering of who is who in Anambra APC chapter, comprising elected and appointive political crème de la crème. In attendance include the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, members of his National Working Committee (NWC) like national vice chairman, South-East, Ijiomah Arodiogbu, deputy national organising secretary, Nze Chidi Duru, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, former national officer, Paul Chukwuma, former aspirants like Emeka Etiaba, Chidozie Nwankwo (Overdose) and the full complement of the state’s party executive.
The gathering was a day to re-evaluate, reflect on the past, appraise the present, and forecast the future. It was a day to cross-fertilize ideas, raise some fundamental truths, and organise fundraising, which naturally did not fall below expectations as it ran into millions of naira.
To many pundits, such stakeholders’ engagement was not different from the usual build-up by the APC members and leaders ahead of every governorship election in the state. They have always gathered to brainstorm, but what has always been the point of disagreement was the failure of the national leadership to organise credible and transparent primary elections.
Little wonder speaker after speaker made it very clear to the Ganduje-led NWC, in their note of warnings that manipulated primaries, imposition of candidates, and unfavourable clandestine agreements between the party leaders and the returning incumbent governors have always been the greatest undoing of the party in the state.
From the conviction and body language of the APC stakeholders, APGA is very much beatable despite its vantage position as the state’s traditional party, especially if the APC major stakeholders can close ranks and sacrifice individual interests and personal ambitions.
Matching words with actions in what underscores the desperation of APC to snatch the key to the entrance gate of the Agu Awka Government House, Arodiogbu’s declaration of the election as a do-or-die affair, gave out an incline of what to expect in the fierce battle APC may have resolved to fight with APGA to win the election.
He said: “I can confirm that anybody worthy of note in Anambra politics is in attendance. However, the challenge before us will be our ability to galvanise the strength to score the needed goal. You can break a single broom but not the bunch. We have to ensure unity as our strength; we must keep divisions, individual interests, and differences aside to fight together in the next election.
“Victory is the only gift to give to our leaders in 2025 and that is the only thing that will make our national chairman, Umar Ganduje, proud and happy of the efforts he has been making to build the party in the South East.
“Initiative like this is very welcome and I believe that it is the roadmap to unity and victory of our party in Anambra State. We don’t want any story and we don’t care how it is achieved; all we want is a victory for the APC in 2025 to occupy the Agu Awka Government House. I appeal for unity in APC in Anambra State.”
The Imo-born party administrator recalled failed efforts he made previously to ensure that APC took over more South East states, explaining that; “In December 2022, then APC chairman, Mai Mala-Buni, sent me to meet with then Enugu State governor over his protracted speculation to join our party.
“He told me during our meeting at Lion Building, the Enugu Government House that he would have easily joined APC if our party had won the governorship election in Anambra. I want to appreciate the efforts the party is making to ensure that APC is stronger in Anambra state.”
Arodiogbu equally expressed happiness over clearing some hurdles for APC to coast to victory, stressing that; “It is not by coincidence that the Minister of Women Affairs is from Anambra State. She can easily mobilise the women population of Anambra to support our party.
“Thank God the lies that our brother, the presidential candidate of the LP, used to hoodwink our people have been demystified by our party and we can see our brother face to face. They know that APC holds the sting for us as a people,” he argued.
For those still in doubt of the desperation of APC to take over the State, the national chairman, Ganduje, in retrospect, narrated the historical efforts the party leaders made previously without success.
He said: “I can say that to win the governorship election in Anambra is a task that must be done. To confirm that we consider Anambra as a very serious issue will be the several attempts, we have made to take over the state. We even went to the extent of convincing a serving governor under APGA. As the governor of Kano State then and chairman of the reconciliation committee in charge of the South East geopolitical zone, I was personally involved.
“In fact, Muhammadu Buhari, Mr. President then, also made attempts for the serving governor to cross over to the APC, which could have made it easy for APC to take over the state. Even this time around, we also made some overtures to the sitting governor, but that one too has failed from the look of things. The only alternative we have now is for our home-grown politicians in Anambra State to be able to push him aside swiftly to allow the broom to enter.”
While challenging the stakeholders further, Ganduje argued that aligning with the party in power at the centre would be the surest route to liberate the South East geopolitical zone from the perpetual complaint of marginalisation.
“As I said before, the South East zone comprises five states and is controlled by four political parties with divergent desires. While APC controls two states, PDP, LP, and APGA are in charge of others. We came up with de-marginalisation because the zone has no bargaining power for the politics at the centre. What is your political investment?
“I think all of you have to be born again politically so that you become a force to reckon with in Nigeria politics. If we are talking about the president and where we can get votes to make our party produce a president, can we risk South East zone from the way it is? The answer is no. If we are looking for the vice president, we have to look for where we can also get votes to assist us in winning because we have to win first. It is the same thing with other positions.”
However, to confirm the readiness of the party’s national leadership to actualise the aspiration of winning Anambra, Ganduje promised; “On our part, we are very serious, and we want to give you every support. We assure you that once we can liberate you politically for APC, what happened in the second republic will happen in the zone.
“You are together now but when it comes to election, you will become heterogeneous and separated. You will box each other and even if you succeed in producing a candidate, some will head to court to challenge the outcome of the primary election. And before you face the real election, you would have already lost your gravity.
“But if you approach this election in unity even though you are heterogeneous, you will bond and become indivisibly homogeneous, strong, and united to fight a common cause. All we want from you is to be an inseparable compound. Make suggestions on what will make APC win the 2025 governorship election.
“Let me again emphasise the importance of unity as the most important tool for the sustenance of such stakeholders. We can only succeed if critical stakeholders are bonded together in unity, just like broom, the party’s logo. Your strength and success are inherent in your unity. The election is crucial to the party and the government in the centre because Anambra deserves to be in the mainstream of Nigerian politics. We cannot continue to allow Anambra to be on the sidelines of Nigeria politics.”
However, despite the messages of assurances, the prospective aspirants, ranging from Emeka Etiaba, Sylvester Okonkwo, Chidozie Nwankwo, to Paul Chukwuma, made special appeals to the leadership of the party at both national and state levels.
To the national leadership, they demanded a free and fair primary election and to eschew imposition of candidate, while to the state, they harped on accountability of the funds the state party chieftains donated.
“The only way we can win Anambra State is for the national leadership to conduct free and fair primary election,” Etiaba warned. “We want you to conduct a people-oriented primary and once it is done, we will fully support and campaign for whoever emerges as the candidate of our party for the election,” Sylvester Okonkwo added.
“We go to court when you want to show strength or show of force. We will not go to court if it is free and fair. Ndi Anambra must be allowed to elect their candidate.
“It has been difficult for APC to win because due processes have not been followed in the past. It was a case of APC fighting the APC and that was why we could not win the last election.”
“I want to appeal to the state leadership of our party to transparently account for the fund donated. Bringing out the money is not the issue but rendering account of the contributed funds. If we are appealed to contribute, it is incumbent on those managing the funds to ensure that we have a proper, empirically verifiable system of accountability,” Paul Chukwuma requested.
“I also urge the donors to ensure that they pledge what they can redeem. The last time we did a similar thing, many of us made pledges to donate a certain amount, but many have not redeemed them,” he further appealed.
To confirm that funding will not constitute any impediment, close to N200 million was raised within a spate of one hour with Paul Chukwuma leading the pack with a donation of N100 million, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah N50 million, Overdose N20 million, Etiaba, Sylvester, among others donating N5 million each.
Despite the appeals and assurances of conducting an acceptable primary election for the Anambra governorship election, a chieftain of the party still doubted the commitment of the national leadership.
He told Daily Sun: “I am not very sure they will do that; it is becoming very worrisome and of great concern. I won’t even bet because I will lose my money on the gamble. The previous exercise actually gave many people concerns. I don’t know why we cannot get it right because no matter how popular a political party is, the moment there is an internal disagreement, the likelihood of success will be threatened.
“If the APC had gotten our 2021 primary right, the party would have been controlling the government of Anambra state today. It is not about anybody, but I know that whoever emerges in a free and fair primary, will enjoy the structure of other aspirants. There was desperation on the part of all the aspirants to ensure that our party won that election. We did massive mobilisation but everybody lost interest the moment what happened took place, and the result was manifest in the election.
“The truth is that APC winning Anambra will be a tall order because there are myriads of challenges to confront. Such hurdles like the acceptability of our party in the zone, the Obi factor of LP, and the reception of APGA as the state-owned party by an average Anambra person, would certainly count against APC winning.
“The only option as they threatened would be to rig the election through the instrumentality of the Federal Government. But it is going to come with a huge price which the Federal Government may not manage,” the APC chieftain warned.