VOTE : THE CANDIDATES’ JEERS, CHEERS AND THE COOKIES THAT CRUMBLE IN ANAMBRA 2017
The Oasis Reporters
September 27, 2017
As they say in politics, a day has very many long hours. It is France that best sings that song.
Once upon a time, there were traditional parties in France who ran the show for endless years. Then Emmanuel Macron came and the legacy parties became toast.
Overnight.
France sang a swansong that was new with a happy ending.
Anambra state has an election timetable which is different from the rest of the country because it once had powerful godfathers with the people looking on helplessly. But God helped Anambra, then delivered it from their clutches.
It seems rather too early to rate the standing of the candidates, but then, the election is on the 18th of November, 2017 just about one month, three weeks and a day away from today, the 27th of September, 2017.
The Oasis Reporters sought to hear from it’s team of volunteer correspondents in the three senatorial districts to give the reading public the analyses of what is on the election ground.
The report is not the Bible of predictions or the Oracle of what will happen on the final day, but it is worth looking at, for whatever it is worth.
The frontliners today seem to be Ositadimma Chidoka of the UPP, Oseloka Obaze of the PDP, Tony Nwoye of the APC, Willie Obiano of APGA (who is the incumbent governor) and Angus Chuma Ojukwu of MPPP.
The pick of five is without prejudice to the rest candidates who may be planning to rev their electoral engines in October.
But for now, let’s roll with this five.
PRINCE CHUMA ANGUS OJUKWU
First on our list is the MEGA Progressive Peoples Party, MPPP, governorship candidate for the November 18, 2017 gubernatorial election in Anambra State, Prince Chuma Ojukwu.
He is the first son of the immediate past traditional ruler of Awka-Etiti, late Igwe Joachin Ojukwu.
And why is he in the race?
Prince Ojukwu has boasted that the incumbent governor of Anambra State, and All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, candidate in the election, Chief Willie Obiano, his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and All Progressives Congress, APC, counterparts, Mr. Oseloka Obaze and Dr. Tony Nwoye will receive the shock of their lives from him on November 18, when he will be declared the governor of the state.
To him, the trio of Dr. Nwoye, Chief Obiano and Mr. Obaze, have nothing to offer the people of the state whom they are still serving or have one time or the other served in the past as to get their mandate to continue to serve the state.
Prince Ojukwu is from Anambra north senatorial district, like Dr. Tony Nwoye, Oseloka Obaze and Gov. Willie Obiano. The district has the least number of wards in Anambra State, with 109 of them.
In an interview with Vanguard newspapers, Angus Chuma Ojukwu, said that Governor Willie Obiano, the APGA candidate will not win the November 18 gubernatorial election because of the main enemies he created in the last three years.
Prince Ojukwu, a former Assistant National Secretary, and South East Zonal Secretary of APGA said that Governor Obiano created a lot of enemies for himself that are fighting his re-election for a second term in office.
His intention to contest is to personally make sure that Governor Obiano did not get a single vote from his town, Awka-Etiti.
He said, “The second tenure of Governor Obiano is very impossible, just look at those fighting him and ask yourself what went wrong. Mr. Peter Obi made him governor, but today they are not in good terms, Mr. Oseloka Obaze was his SSG and later resigned, claiming that the government was inept”.
“Dr. Elo Aforka was a special adviser attached to the deputy governor’s office; he resigned claiming he saw things he did not like and even declared intention sometime early in the year to contest for the governorship of the state.
“Chief Martin Agbaso was the Chairman 2013 APGA Election Committee that conducted the primaries which brought in Obiano into office, today he a factional national chairman of APGA that is fighting Obiano.
“My brother from Awka-Etiti, Chief Joe Martin Uzodike was the Director – General, Obiano Campaign Organization and Special Adviser on Political matters to Governor Obiano; he resigned claiming that he was told by his government to attack his predecessor, Mr. Obi. Today he is heading a campaign group that wants Obiano out of office.
“Senator Alphonsus Igbeke once worked for Obiano, as a matter of fact was seen as godfather to the Governor before he assumed office as Governor of the state, and was between 2014 and 2015 the Ambassador Extraordinary to the Governor, today he does not go near the Government House or seen in any of the Governor’s activities in the state.”
Obviously, Prince Ojukwu is running to scuttle the second term ambition of Governor Willie Obiano. Every other thing is secondary.
And by the time all the candidates split the votes of the Anambra north district, each will go home with very little.
GOV. WILLIE OBIANO
Obiano is embattled on all sides as it so seems. His palpable errors have caught up with him, despite the insistence of some stakeholders that he should be allowed to do a second term, a feat achieved only by former Governor Peter Obi, whose successful tenure was glaringly sterling.
But in a statement by Prince Ojukwu personally signed by him titled “November 18: Obiano campaigners are finding it difficult” Prince Ojukwu said: “the biggest problem facing members of APGA who are ready and willing to campaign for Obiano in their various towns and villages is what to say about the governor’s first four years in office and how to say it. “Most of them are afraid to go to the villages to campaign, because they believe there are no projects in those villages to campaign with.
What will a ‘vote Obiano for second term campaigner’ tell the Ihiala people, Ayamelum and Orumba North, people who have vowed to speak with their Personal Voters Card, PVC, to make matters worse for the Governor?
One of his aides told the people of Umunachi that they do not need roads.
In Ogbunike, the youths are angry and waiting for November 18, 2017 election to make their statement. “Agreed that the governor has provided security and built flyover, but for those who want to campaign with flyover, can you tell a villager from Umunze, Awgbu, Amaokpala, Utuh, Ukpor, Uga, Umuchu, Nkerehi, Okija to vote for Obiano because he built flyover at Awka?
They will definitely ask you of what importance is that to them”.
DR TONY NWOYE
Tony Nwoye was amongst the twelve aspirants cleared to contest the primary election in the APC.
Of the 12, Senator Uba and Dr. Nwoye, a medical doctor cum businessman and politician were said to be major contenders to the displeasure of some concerned stakeholders.
Some stakeholders according to sources are especially peeved that Senator Uba who joined the party about seven months ago from the PDP was said to have pulled resources and men to put himself as a major contender.
Nwoye’s support is coming from the youths who see him as one of their own, having been a national president of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS about 13 years ago.
They say he is committed to the welfare of the people especially the youths, women, elderly poor.
His drawback seem to be membership of the APC that he decamped to from the PDP. The APC party is not well perceived in Anambra State. In the face of the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB’s agitation in the south east and it’s brutal suppression by the military, they finger it as Buhari’s party. That to them is bad enough. Worse still is handing the flagship state in the South East region to a party they believe is controlled by perceived Islamists. Perception is the issue here.
Besides, people remember that his one time best pallies in the PDP was the Uba household that is tainted with bringing the state to a sorry pass under Ngige.
That apart, he was Andy Uba’s protegee who used him to devastating effect as a sidekick in the PDP.
Human Rights Watch does not have many complimentary things to say about him when they mention the effects of cultism in academic institutions and life outside school.
His now estranged godfather, Senator Andy Uba pointedly accused him of using “students” to rig him out of the APC primaries and has refused to speak with him ever since.
Some pundits say that mention of the word, “students” might mean something else that is strongly ungentlemanly, in a state that is struggling to outlive the bitter taste thuggery gladiators gave to it under former governor Ngige.
CHIEF OSITA CHIDOKA
The one time Road Safety Corp Marshall and later Aviation Minister, Chief Osita Chidoka is running on the ticket of one of the smaller and newer parties, the United Progressives Party, UPP. The contest for it’s gubernatorial ticket was described as “boisterous between Osita Chidoka, and a former member of the House of Representatives, Chudi Ofodile”, with the latter withdrawing to make it a solo run.
Osita Chidoka is from the Central senatorial district who has so far mounted a decent campaign like the youthful President Emmanuel Macron of France.
Chidoka is winning endorsements here and there from the clergy, traditional rulers, stakeholders and may seem to have the secret backing from diverse interest groups across parties who do not want to openly show their hands just yet.
His totem is the face of the Tiger, what Anambra people call “Agu ba ta”, or loosely translated from the Igbo language would mean the entry of the tiger into the forest puts mgbada ( antelope) to flight.
Surprisingly, many young Anambra girls are spotting his Tiger brand on their dp in the social media across the nation.
They say Osita Chidoka has mass appeal, he is humble and very cerebral, compared to the other candidates.
Besides he has no untoward record having given unblemished service as Chief Corp Marshall, such that President Jonathan quietly promoted him into his cabinet as Aviation Minister.
In this portfolio, he gave a sterling service to complete what Princess Stella Oduah did in ensuring that Ndigbo have an International airport, like the South west and the North to bring Igbo businesses and wealth closer home.
It brought him love and admiration.
That he got to the Federal government level seem to have the push of Peter Obi who gave the endorsement to Jonathan in the first place.
With the army of Anambra north candidates not giving room to each other in the contest, the beneficiary may be the colorful Chidoka because they want Willie Obiano to retire back home with a lacklustre single term under performing trophy as achievement. If Central zone wins the governorhip crown, it gives them room to run again in 2021.
Should Obiano return after his disappointing first tenure, the Anambra south zone would make a more powerful presentation and no one can stop them.
OSELOKA OBAZE
The PDP, has no less intrigues. A spate of crises had rocked the party at the national and state levels and the business really turned rumbustious with all the army of powerful contestants. At the end of it all, the smiles were gone, anger had set in and the gloves had gone off. .
When the party finally settled for Mr. Oseloka Obaze, generally seen as the protégée of the immediate past governor of the state, Mr. Peter Obi, who he is said to be preparing to use in taking his pound of flesh from his handpicked successor, Willie Obiano.
Others like Chief Ifeanyi Ubah; Senator Stella Oduah, Mr. John Emeka as well as former beauty queen turned lawmaker, Ms. Lynda Ikpeazu were miffed.
The billionaire Oil magnate, Ifeanyi Uba from Anambra south got angry enough to go to court, insisting that rules were breached to give Obaze an edge.
For his pains, the party suspended him. Some commentators say it was not a very smart thing to do and that he may turn out to spite the party.
That fall out won’t benefit Obaze, who many Anambrarians see as an unknown quantity despite having served Obiano as Secretary to the State Government.
Some allege that Senator Stella Oduah who is from Ogbaru just like Obaze could play a spoiler role for Obaze and Obi as she would help to divide the votes from the area to the advantage of Chidoka, her able successor as Aviation Minister, because she has been passed over and slighted by Gov. Peter Obi allegedly over her gender.
“Anambra is not ready for a woman governor,” a stakeholder told Sunday Vanguard.
After all, just as Peter Obi served in a distinguished capacity as governor , she too did the unusual for Ndigbo as Aviation Minister. So why the discrimination?
As events continue to unfold in Anambra State, The Oasis Reporters shall continue to fill it’s readers in with the feelings and directions to the election day and inauguration for Anambra 2017.
Stay With Us.
Greg Abolo
