Follow Us on Google
From Obinna Odogwu, Awka
The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr. Ejimofor Opara, has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting a free and fair election in Anambra State on November 8 this year.
Opara, in his interview, dismissed the allegation of vote buying being peddled by some of the governorship candidates, saying that Ndi Anambra voted for APGA massively because they consider the party their own. Excerpts…
How would you rate the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the just concluded Anambra State Gubernatorial Election, especially compared with its outing in 2023?
Well, I think there was a whole lot of significant improvement on the part of INEC in the conduct of the November 8 Anambra governorship election, especially the aspect of deployment of technology. By 6pm on that day of the election, over 90 per cent of the results from the polling units had already been uploaded and representing to a large extent what was collated at the polling units’ level except for a few skirmishes which, of course, their response time was also very laudable like a case of Nri Ward 1, Polling Unit 001, 2, 3, 7 and 14 where there was a very disturbing disruption of the process by some thugs suspected to be loyal to the deputy governorship candidate of the APC after which we saw on the IREV some fictitious result sheets uploaded. So, we were like ‘Ah! This election was disrupted before the counting of results; so where did they get these numbers from?’ And of course, we raised a point of concern and in line with the electoral act, the INEC officers dealt with it expeditiously. So, apart from this, I also observed that prior to the election, there was an intensified effort at voter sensitisation by INEC. I saw most of their ads; I also saw that they deployed the use of local influencers in sensitising the people as to their responsibilities before and during the polls; and also the continuous voter registration that took place before the election. It was also almost seamless. So, I must commend INEC and its new leadership for using Anambra as a test case to showcase to Nigerians that the conduct of a free, fair and credible election is possible. We are happy with INEC and we believe that going forward they should be able to do more. There is always room for improvement. They should be able to do more especially in the area of doing some due diligence before they contact ad-hoc staff and ensuring that some of their members of staff who engage in malpractices are seriously dealt with so as to deter others from doing the same. So, over all, it was a very credible process and we thank INEC and hope that there will be better days ahead.
Some of the candidates alleged that the governor bought votes and that if not for that, they would have defeated him at the poll. How would you react to that?
My brother, I have been in Anambra for about 17 years and for a better part of that 17 years, I have spent 12 to 15 years in active politics. Now, one thing that has remained constant in the politics of Anambra is the fact that APGA is a dominant force here. I tell everybody who cares to hear and for those who believe in data that if you take a poll of APGA’s membership across households in Anambra, you would realise that there is no household in Anambra today where you wouldn’t find one person who is a member of APGA. If you go to various households in Anambra today, you must find at least one person or persons who are members of APGA. So, you cannot put such a party in the same sentence with vote buying. It’s organic. The only incentive they need to remain with APGA is what the government is giving to them, which is good governance. And in the last 22 years or so that APGA has remained in power in Anambra State, it is obvious that Anambra and APGA have a pact; and that pact is for there to be constant progress in terms of the development of the state on all fronts. If you take it back to the various governors that have led Anambra under the platform of APGA, you will realise that for everyone that comes after the other, there is something significant to celebrate. From Peter Obi to Obiano and now Soludo, you realise that it has been a system of steady growth and development. Now, are you surprised that Peter Obi won his re-election bid in 2010 by about 30 per cent of the total votes cast; and in 2017, Obiano won his re-election bid with about 56 per cent and today Soludo won his re-election bid with 73 per cent which is an A. So, it tells you that APGA is a party of the people in Anambra here. I tell people that it is like a religion here. So, I would also cast your mind back to the issue of the Ukwulu woman in Dunukofia Local Government Area in 2021. It became a typical example of how people can resist vote buyers and unscrupulous politicians who want to use money to swindle or sway the will of the people. The woman stood her ground and ensured that that canvasser of a particular political party was disgraced out of the polling unit. These are the kind of members we have in APGA; people who are dyed-in-the-wool members. APGA members here are almost fanatically attached to the party. So, it is difficult for you to want to say you want to induce them or you want to buy their votes. How? You can’t. So, anybody who is talking about vote buying, it has to be the other parties who had been caught in the act in 2021. And I am sure most of them also would have been caught in the act if there had been stricter monitoring measures. What you saw on the 8th of November, 2025 was the people casting their votes for the continuation of free education, free antenatal, free delivery; for continuous, sustained security of life and property, for all round infrastructural transformation of the state. Today, you will agree with me that Anambra has turned to one huge construction site. Look at how the government of the day is dualizing major Trunk A roads; opening up rural communities; a community like Awba-Ofemmili, what will you tell a woman that is living there about Soludo and she will listen to you? These are people who the government has practically done for them what they cannot do for themselves. So, this is where we are. The people’s love for APGA is evidence-based; it’s results-oriented. It is not something you can just wish away with mere rhetoric. So, anyone alleging that there was vote buying, he who alleges would have to prove. But I can tell you that on the day of the election, I was both in the field and stayed very active in the Situation Room. And if you read the reports of some international observers who monitored the elections, you’ll particularly observe that they scored the election creditably high for obvious reasons. And let me tell you, you would realise that this particular election witnessed, albeit, I will tell you that there is this issue of voter apathy that has always played out in Anambra State but this year, we observed a 100 per cent increase in the number of voter participation relative to what happened in 2021. In 2021, out of the 2.7 million voters registered by INEC, only about 200,000 of that population participated in that process. But here, three to four years down the line, we recorded about 500,000 persons who participated in this election. And for the first time, a governorship candidate in Anambra won the polls by over 422,000 votes. Out of the 326 wards in Anambra, APGA won 319. It shows dominance; it shows force. It is not something you will buy, even with all the money in the world. So, anybody alleging that APGA bought votes is far from the reality of the situation.
Now that the election is over, what next should Ndi Anambra be expecting from the APGA-led government under Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, going forward?
Going forward, we have tested a hypothesis and it came out substantive. And what was that hypothesis? We sought to test the hypothesis that when you give people good governance, that they will reward you with their political capital; that is, their votes as against stomach infrastructure. And it came out substantively. Indeed, if you provide good governance for the people, they will reward you with their support and votes. So, what they should expect is more developmental strides for the state. In the words of the governor, he says we are going to be gear 4 and we are in an intense acceleration mode. We look forward to the commissioning of the biggest coordinated wholesale drug centre in Oba that will be about the biggest in West Africa. We are looking at the construction of the Anambra mixed use industrial city that will be a city of industrialisation and that will become the capital for industrialisation and job creation in Anambra State. We are looking forward to the 10-storey Marriott Hotel that will, together with the Solution Fun City, signpost the transition of Anambra State from a departure lounge to a destination. We look forward to new cities; what we call the Greater Niger City and the Awka 2.0. These things have been mapped out and we look forward to more action in their execution. We look forward to the sustenance of free education. We look forward to the recruitment of more qualified teachers. We look forward to the continuation of free antennal and delivery for the people. We look forward to the continuation of other human capital development initiatives like the One Youth 2 Skills program. I tell people that the current APGA government is poised to take care of Ndi Anambra from the womb to productive adulthood such that the child born today in Anambra State is born for free; would go to quality schools for free and upon graduation from secondary school, the child also has access to bursary if he decides to go to university; and where they decide not to go to university, they just want to acquire skills, there is One Youth 2 Skills program that they can pick up after which they will be empowered to begin their businesses. So, we look forward to deepening Anambra’s dominance in the MSME industry because all these youths we have empowered, over 13,000 of them we are empowering, if 25 per cent of them become successful, imagine what that will be in the MSME sector in Anambra State; imagine what that means in terms of job creation. As Anambra is becoming a destination, imagine what it’s doing to the mind of investors. So, indeed, Soludo set out on this journey to transform Anambra into a liveable and prosperous smart megacity; a state where the child born today in Anambra would have no compulsion to leave the state to any other state for greener pasture, except he wants to go there for personal reasons and not out of compulsion or the lack of opportunities here. So, we look forward to a liveable and prosperous homeland. So, I will indeed say to Ndi Anambra, prepare for the new Anambra of our collective dream.
