APGA May Lose Its Only Treasure, Anambra

Anambra is the only state where the All Progressives Grand Alliance has its flag flying in the Government House, but that era may be coming to an end, writes David-Chyddy Eleke

For close to 16 years, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has kept a vice grip on Anambra State. Anambra is APGA’s trophy state. It is the party’s status symbol for participation in politics in Nigeria. Its hold on Anambra began to slack in the twilight of former governor, Mr. Peter Obi’s eight-year tenure on the party’s platform. Obi deliberately weakened APGA because he was on his way out of the party. He turned his back on APGA and joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as presidential campaign manager to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Unexpectedly, APGA was able to whip up strong ethnic emotions that helped it to retain the governorship of Anambra. However, the party has been on a free fall since Governor Willie Obiano assumed office on March 17, 2014 as governor. Therefore, APGA has the very daunting challenge of winning Anambra State in the November 6 governorship election.

The initial election of former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, it was believed by many, gave APGA a bright chance, but it was all muddled up with the emergence of two more factions of the party, with different governorship candidates. While Soludo had emerged from a rancour free primary election held on June 23; Mr. Edozie Njoku and Hon. Chuma Umeoji emerged from other factions of the party, in primary elections held subsequently. Each faction of the party is claiming authenticity, and asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise their candidates.

This has led to multiple litigations in courts across the country, including Jigawa, Abuja, Oweri and Awka, and the INEC has also confessed its frustration about the barrage of court orders it receive almost on a daily basis, over who should be and who should not be the candidate of the party. Many believe that the chances of the APGA retaining the state with a candidate like Soludo is very high, but recently, when INEC released the list of candidates, it was a surprise to know that Hon. Chuma Umeoji was on the list, while Soludo was missing.

Anambra people and APGA members who crave for Soludo have been assured by the leader of the APGA and governor of Anambra State, Chief Obiano that Soludo will be on the ballot on November 6. Obiano who spoke to journalists after he returned from vacation in Houston, Texas in USA told party faithful not to bother about the seeming absence of Soludo’s name on the list, saying that Soludo would not only contest, but will also win resoundingly. At the time of filing this report, a Court of Appeal in Awka had already affirmed that Soludo is the authentic candidate of the party, almost coming short of reprimanding the judges of courts in other parts of the country who have assumed jurisdiction in matters beyond their reach.

As supporters of Soludo rejoice over this, it is not clear what Umeoji and his team are doing to upstage this. Many believe that Umeoji may just be in the race to spoil the game for APGA, having been disqualified from a primary election contest with Soludo, which was believed to have been orchestrated to ensure a smooth sail for the former CBN Chief. Many political analysts have suggested that instead of APGA losing out, it is better for the party to back Umeoji, to ensure the party continues to hold power in the state, but the question is – can Umeoji truly win Anambra?

Who is Umeoji? Can He Win Anambra?

THISDAY has gathered that, as much as APGA wants to win the governorship election, it is also wary of its candidate, as choosing a not-too-popular politician will give other political parties the opportunity to move in. A teeming number of APGA members believe that in popularity, acceptability, experience and clout, including ability to fund an election, Soludo is a better option. These qualities may be deficient in Umeoji.

Hon. Chuma Umeoji is a member of the House of Representatives. He represents Aguata Federal constituency and is a third term legislator. He has previously been chairman of a local government in the state before he moved over to become a lawmaker. He is also from a known family, but a chieftain of the party who spoke to THISDAY, Mr. Chris Eze said: “That (Umeoji) is not the kind of person APGA wants to present as a governor to Anambra people.

“Anambra is an ‘A’ in Nigeria, we should be able to present a governor that other governors will come to emulate. We started it with Mr. Peter Obi, who was a well-known businessman and bank executive with accomplished records. We saw what he was able to do in Anambra, and today, Obi is a reference point in the politics of the country. We moved to Obiano who is also a seasoned banker and chartered accountant, with a glowing testimony of service in high-flying companies, and today the testimony is very glaring too. We don’t want to drop our guard by choosing just anybody. Ask the same Umeoji who is working tooth and nail today to destabilise APGA the efforts APGA made in getting him to the House of Representatives. He should be grateful to the party and not fight it. The same man today cannot be said to have any business he has successfully managed before now. He is not associated with any profession; his highest achievement is being in the House of Representatives where he has even underperformed. I know he has a lot of money at his disposal because of his sister, who is said to be an executive of Zenith Bank and they are using the funds available to them to destabilize the party.

“APGA wants to field a man like Soludo, who has seen it all, a man who when he speaks, other governors will listen, not someone who has not completed a small task in the lower Chambers of the National Assembly?”

The prevailing thinking in some quarters in Anambra is that candidates of other political parties may be backing Umeoji to continue with his bid, in order to stop Soludo and APGA’s chances. This much Soludo alluded to in an interview before the primary election of the party. He said it was not a surprise to him that politicians from other political parties were interested in APGA’s affairs because they knew that his emergence would diminish the chances of their own political party winning the election. “They will prefer APGA to field a not-so-popular politician, so that it will be easy for them to win the election,” Soludo said.

The three most popular political parties in the state; APGA, APC and PDP are still embroiled in struggle for candidacy, but there are feelers that parties will field Prof. Soludo, Senator Andy Uba, and Mr. Valentine Ozigbo as the respective candidates of the three parties. This will square them up with other very popular candidates like; Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo and Dr. Godwin Maduka who are running on the lesser known political parties; Young Progressives Party (YPP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and Accord Party (AP) respectively.

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