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By Ejike Anyaduba
With mounting confusion in the political space, the need for reappraisal of candidates aspiring to elective positions in Nigeria has become absolutely necessary. Every election season produces aspirants of all political hues – those who have an idea what the office they seek demands and are willing to give it their best shot, and others who do not, but feel entitled to be voted for. But the beauty of participatory democracy is that the power to choose resides not with the candidates in contest, but with the people whose mandate makes the difference.
Fortunately, the people of Anambra Central Senatorial Zone who, like other Nigerians, will go to the polls January 2027, are politically sophisticated and do not yield easily to political manipulations of demagogues whose interest in representation is not more than personal aggrandizement. They are aware that a good number of those seeking their votes do not possess the skills required of the high office they seek and may be ignorant of the responsibilities thereof.
Perhaps it is this lack of competence on legislative matters that encourages some of them, when elected, to put up cameo appearances and sometimes outright disappearance from plenary when issues of national importance are debated. It can be safely speculated that these categories of lawmakers are exiguous in sponsoring bills and motions, but prodigal in sleeping during debates on the floor of the National Assembly. They are almost always eager to pollute themselves with every lawful and lawless indulgence without so much as mustering enough courage to call attention of the state to the problems plaguing their respective zones.
Because they don’t reckon with the people whose mandate they hold in trust; they are quick to sacrifice their interests once it ties with the president’s and return another election season with a promise of a tax cut to win more votes.
In spite of all these, the future of the zone is not completely bleak with the coming into the race of a candidate whose aspiration commends itself to the cause of the people with as with much compassion as with commitment. The aspiration of Princess Helen Ifeoma Mbakwe may be fresh in relation to others, but it is certainly not inferior to any by whatever standard. In fact, it is superior in compassion and commitment. It bears the love of a mother, the discipline of a lawyer, and the sophistication of a cosmopolitan woman whose exposure speaks not just to the deprivation suffered by the people, but to the awaited promise.
Her experience as a lawyer, and a widely traveled business woman, exposes her to societies that work and the need to build strong institutions through laws. Though she recognizes law and order as the basis upon which an equitable society rests, she does not pretend it solves all problems. She feels the vicarious pains of her people of Anambra Central Senatorial Zone, evident in their loss of arable land through devastating erosion. She bemoans the lack of attention to this ugly development and the threat it poses to a state as small as Anambra. The fact that Anambra is the smallest state in Nigeria after Lagos compels the need for urgent attention otherwise with the speed of devastation it will not be long before the farmlands, economic trees, houses, public buildings, markets, and roads are completely lost. It is an unvarnished truth that the state government alone cannot deal with the problem and requires support from the central government to be able to make an impact.
Princess Mbakwe whose compassion for, and commitment to, the people of Anambra Central has a verifiable record in the number of philanthropic gestures she had done is ready to give this menace the national attention it deserves. And she is ready to double down on this, using the instrumentality of the state to extricate the endangered people of the Central Senatorial Zone and indeed Anambra State. She is well aware as an “abiding political amazon with an ease of building relationships and forming alliances across political divides” that good representation does not come by standing still. Because she has less of the arrogance of the everyday politician she appreciates when to play hardball and when to soften the path to achieve a consensus.
Few, if any, will deny that she has both the mental and spiritual capacity to deal with the dead hand of the state in order to achieve results. Born and educated in the North, works and lives in the West she has a fairly better understanding of the corporate Nigeria and how best to work and achieve what has long been denied her people.
From the beautiful span of contestants, it can be said with a measure of authority that no one can hold a candle to Mbakwe in all areas of assessment. She has a rare blend of comeliness, cognition, courage, commitment and communication to deal with the rigours of legislation for effective representation. If the Zone must not to be caught on the hop, a change in representation should happen. Electing Princess Mbakwe will bring a change that will strengthen the path and give back to the people. She appreciates the enormity of the challenges and is ready to apply herself to the task.
• Anyaduba writes from Abatete, Anambra State.
