A few days to the November 8 gubernatorial poll in Anambra State, LEO SOBECHI reports that gladiators’ plans for vote-buying, coupled with less-than-average campaigns, have heightened concerns for a free and fair electoral process.
On the surface, the incumbent Anambra State governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, appears to dominate the election environment, given the massive funds deployed to advertisements and media engagements. But the reality on the ground is that there is no clear frontrunner among the five major contenders.
If the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) wins the poll with its candidate, Soludo, it would send an emphatic message that Anambra State remains synonymous with the cockerel, the party’s symbol.
The party, through former governor and 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Mr Peter Obi, displaced the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2003 general election and has remained at the apex of the state’s politics ever since.
However, with Soludo, the third-generation APGA governor, on the ballot in search of re-election, the contest pits him against Obi’s Labour Party (LP), alongside three others: the federal ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the opposition coalition platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and the Young Progressives Party (YPP), which made a name for itself by returning a lone senator in the person of the late Senator Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah.
The gladiators in the opposition parties, including Dr George Muoghalu (LP), Nicholas Ukachukwu (APC), John Nwosu (ADC), and Dr Paul Chukwuma (YPP), have been telling the electorate that the incumbent performed so poorly that he should not be rewarded with a second term.
At virtually every campaign stop, Governor Soludo continued to tell his supporters that he lacked any serious contender, even as he spared no opportunity to discredit the APC standard-bearer, Ukachukwu.
The governor maintains that he does not demean or mention any political party, stressing that the APC flagbearer represents the lowest ebb that leadership recruitment in the state could descend to, citing the candidate’s poor academic record.
While he pummelled the APC candidate, Soludo also took a swipe at the APC deputy governorship candidate, Senator Uche Lilian Ekwunife, questioning the authenticity of her doctorate degree.
The vilification and use of foul language that have defined the electioneering for the November 8 election have done much to reflect the less-than-average campaigns by the gladiators. Citizens of the state blame the incumbent for lowering, rather than raising, the standard of competition for votes through his pursuit of endorsement by the APC leadership, especially President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whom he described as his friend for over 13 years.
However, APC stalwarts in the state accused the governor of making strenuous efforts to deceive the President, recalling how Soludo cut short a foreign trip to receive the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, during the buildup to the 2023 general election.
The Guardian learned that the squabble between APGA and APC candidates followed behind-the-scenes attempts by the incumbent to strike a deal with APC leaders to support his re-election, in exchange for APGA reciprocating by not fielding a presidential flagbearer in solidarity with President Tinubu.
While the recrimination between Soludo and Ukachukwu were ongoing, the LP presidential candidate in the 2023 poll, Obi, joined Muoghalu on a statewide campaign tour. The LP contender described Soludo’s promises to voters as a desperate attempt to purchase votes, adding that instead of campaigning on his record of achievements, as other incumbents do, the APGA candidate had been going around throwing baseless banters and making utopian promises.
“Here is a man who told Ndi Anambra that it is not broken in 2017. Now, the best way to treat a liar is to deny him attention. The question the outgoing governor has failed to answer is: where are the projects to account for the huge revenue that accrued to Anambra State in the last three and a half years?” Muoghalu stated.
The massive crowds that attended LP events caught the attention of the incumbent. Governor Soludo’s aides stumbled upon a document by the LP governorship contender, Muoghalu, in which he solicited funds and outlined a tentative budget to cover logistics for each polling unit in the state.
Although APGA campaigners characterised the LP document as a budget for vote-buying, the matter took another dimension when Governor Soludo announced a N5 million cash prize for any ward that delivers the highest number of votes for APGA.
While the governor tried to rationalise his offer as motivation for massive voter turnout, the APC released a statement accusing him of relying on vote-buying to win the election.
APC State Assistant Secretary Sam Osita Oraegbunam, said vote-buying became the fallback for the incumbent immediately after his efforts to get President Tinubu’s endorsement failed. He disclosed that the Presidency had the forthcoming election in mind when the President charged the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan, to ensure credible elections.
“Everybody has heard the President loud and clear. Above all, the INEC chairman has made it imperative that elections will no longer be won in courts. So, we are all waiting for Anambra voters to choose the next governor because Soludo knows he did not perform above average,” Oraegbunam declared.
Also, speaking after receiving the endorsement of PDP’s 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the ADC governorship candidate, John Nwosu, said he was confident of victory on Saturday, November 8, pointing out that Nigerians have recognised the coalition as the credible pathway away from the country’s current socio-economic downturn.
Nwosu said that barring incidents of vote-buying and voter apathy, the electorate would show how embittered they are about Governor Soludo’s last three years in office, stressing that insecurity and the crude method of tax collection are the key issues exposing the failures of the outgoing APGA administration.
Appearing on Arise Television’s PrimeTime programme, Nwosu argued that the poor performance of the incumbent governor had eroded the power of incumbency, noting that the appointment of Prof. Amupitan as INEC chairman had revived hopes of credible polls.
While urging Anambra voters to come out in their numbers, Nwosu maintained that only massive voter turnout and rejection of vote-buying would make Prof. Amupitan’s promise of credible elections a reality.
He remarked that his private-sector background, similar to that of the incumbent governors of Enugu and Abia States, would enable him to replicate good governance and impactful service delivery in Anambra.
His words: “ADC is sure to pull surprises in the November 8 gubernatorial poll in Anambra State. Just as the election marks the first under Prof. Amupitan, it will also be the coalition ADC’s first electoral contest since its formation.
“As you know, ADC is a coalition of parties represented mostly by PDP, from which I picked my deputy governor, Chief Ndubisi Nwobo, a former local government chairman of Awka South and ex-PDP state chairman.
“So, PDP forms the major part of the coalition, followed by Labour, where I came from. Peter Obi’s Labour Party got the position of National Organising Secretary, for which he nominated Hon. Chinedu Idigo. So, it’s a coalition of parties, and Obi is definitely part of ADC.”
Nwosu said he swore an oath in court to serve only one term if elected, to avoid disrupting the zoning arrangement in the state, noting that he would use three years to make a difference.
Responding to claims that Soludo had delivered, the ADC governorship hopeful said: “The point is that the indices are there for everyone to see, starting from insecurity. In the last three and a half years, Anambra State has lost illustrious sons and daughters to kidnappers and sundry brigandage.
“In Ihiala Local Government Area that houses Lilu and Mbosi, where my brother and friend, Dr Allen Onyema of Air Peace, hails from, people have stopped visiting home in the last three and a half years.
“When you review the IGR generated by the 36 states and the FCT last year, according to the Cable Times Index, you’ll find Lagos State on top with N1.26 trillion, followed by Rivers State with N317 billion. Looking down at the Southeast, Enugu State ranks fifth nationwide with N180.69 billion, while Anambra, regarded as the commercial nerve centre of the region, comes a distant 17th with N42.69 billion.
“What does that show? It means much of our IGR goes into private pockets because the state is not fully computerised. What I am bringing to the table is e-governance, to remove touts from the streets and allow people to pay taxes with ease, as it is done in Enugu and Delta States.”
Governor Soludo dismissed the partisan posturing of his opponents and stated that he was ready to engage in the fourth gear of his massive development drive for Anambra State. Waving aside the SHEEEMS agenda of the ADC, the governor said none of those appearing on the ballot for the November 8 poll possessed a clear or operable manifesto, adding that votes for APGA would bury the claim that he had any challenger.
