The just-concluded general elections across the country showed how opposition political gladiators tried to wrest power from the ruling parties in their respective states, the Anambra State episode was not different, writes Cajetan Mmuta
The last general elections, no doubt, would go down in history as one that produced both winners and losers in all the categories of the elections. While winners are relishing their victories at the polls, losers are whining, blaming their losses on one factor or the other.
Going by the staccato of irreconcilable cries and lamentations that greeted the almost one-month exercise from the camp of losers, it was clear they were displeased with the outcome of the elections at various levels, hence the series of protests in major cities.
However, the battle has shifted to the courts and those alleging rape through the ballot boxes are looking up to the judiciary as their last resort.
In Anambra State, the contest did not leave anyone in doubt about the power play that characterised the February 25, 2023, presidential and National Assembly elections. For some, the exercise was a victory for Anambra as no soul was lost and the process was peaceful as people showed class in their quest to choose their leaders at all levels.
To Governor Charles Soludo, it was a narrow escape as the Peter Obi-led Labour Party (LP) and the ‘Obidients’ movement apostles took the battle to his doorsteps, almost overrunning the state. Interestingly, the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state lost woefully to the hurricane LP in both Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The LP won two senate seats in Anambra North and Anambra Central with Tony Nwoye and Senator Victor Umeh as winners respectively. In Anambra South, the incumbent Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, showed his popularity and acceptability at the grassroots as he defeated the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the polls to retain his seat.
In the race for the eleven federal constituencies in the state (House of Representatives), the LP held sway in Awka North/South, Njikoka/Anaocha/Dunukofia, Idemili North/South, Onitsha North/South, and Anambra East/West, while the APGA won in Soludo’s Aguata federal constituency, Oyi/Ayamelum, Ihiala, and Nnewi North/Ekwusigo as Senator Ifeanyi Ubah’s YPP won Orumba North/South.
The election in Ogbaru has been dogged by controversy and would be a subject of rerun due to the apparent late arrival of materials and INEC staff during the exercise.
Already, forces at the Agu Awka Government House are not letting anything chance to put that of Ogbaru in Governor Soludo’s kitty just as stakeholders in Ogbaru and the ‘Obidients’ are watching the plot with keen interest.
However, at the rescheduled March 18, state House of Assembly election, it was a pyrrhic victory for the ruling APGA in the state as it only clinched 16 seats out of the 30 member seats in the house. The LP secured eight seats, while the PDP and YPP got three each. The current Assembly is dominated by 22 APGA, six APC, and two PDP lawmakers respectively.
For Governor Soludo and other parties, the March 18 election was a decider on who ‘owns’ the state. It was no wonder, therefore, that the governor had to make the deft move to save his face and his government’s image.
Interestingly, it was all thanks to the INEC for rescheduling the Assembly race, which saved the administration from an impending impeachment allegedly wished by the LP if it had succeeded at the state House of Assembly, but Soludo did not pull through without some scratches in the form of criticisms and attacks over allegations of side-lining those communities that failed to vote for the APGA government in its development agenda.
Also, the N3.5bn vote-buying allegation by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), put on the doorstep of Soludo’s administration almost worked against it at the polls.
However, a release signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Chtitian Aburime, denied the allegations saying they were not only baseless but unfounded, urging the public to disregard them.
Abutime said, “The satanic report alleging that Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led administration spent a whooping N3.5bn to execute the State House of Assembly election is not only untrue but highly despicable and illogical.
“The allegation is further baseless against the background that it is coming at a time of acute shortage of cash due to the Federal Government Naira Redesign Policy which sadly exposes the devilish intentions of the writer(s).”
It added, “Governor Soludo does not need to buy votes to win the election. He is a democrat who enjoys the overwhelming support of the good people of Anambra State. The bogus claims by the author (s) are figments of their imagination and should be disregarded by Ndi Anambra and the public.”
Soludo, no doubt, envisaged the LP’s hurricane. Hence his timely move to roll out his machinery to embark on massive road construction across the length and breadth of the 21 LGAs and the three senatorial districts of the state.
Indeed, the set targets worked magically to save the government from doomsday. The government said, “Anambra people are advised to disregard the non-existent International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) who made the said allegations. The people behind this organisation have been known to be serial blackmailers over the years.”
A criminologist and Board chair of Intersociety, Emeka Umeagbalasi, had in a statement alleged that the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) obtained credible information about “vote-buying by the present government of Anambra State, using state public funds, has been increased from N2.5bn to N3.5bn”, that “on 9th March 2023, a whopping N20m was given to each of the 30 state ruling party (APGA) legislative candidates for March 18, 2023, House of Assembly poll for cash or material vote-buying totalling N600m” and “that on 10th March 2023, each of the state 21 LGAs’ Caretaker Committee Chairmen was given N30m for cash or material vote-buying totalling N630m.”
Umeagbalasi further alleged that on Monday, 13th March 2023, the Governor of Anambra State directed all commercial banks and residents to accept the use of old naira notes of N500 and N1000 in line with CBN’s directive.
Earlier and towards the last minutes’ campaigns, the LP presidential candidate and the former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi was quoted to have asked National Assembly members to elect candidates of his party for the concluded state House of Assembly during a meeting in Awka, to work with Soludo after the March 18th polls. The charge did not go down well with Soludo and his henchmen.
Also, Obi said Soludo remained his brother, and that he should not be afraid of any impeachment, as all that was paramount was to bring development to the state. But the Aguata-born politician and ex-CBN financial czar noted that asking the ‘Obidients’ to vote for the LP but support the latter was deceitful, inappropriate, and meant to lay landmines for the governor.
The governor in his reaction through his Chief Press Secretary, said, “That call was meant to deceive Anambra people. Obi cannot be talking about development in Anambra and be talking about asking the Anambra people to elect lawmakers from an opposition party to work with Soludo.”
Soludo had last year stoked the fire of suspicion and seeming hatred when he fired the salvo of a 4,008-word political epistle tagged: “History Beckons”, which has kept tongues wagging not only Anambra State but the entire country.
In his lengthy piece, Soludo dismissed Obi as a joker in the 2023 race, pointing out that the Agulu-born politician would only deplete the votes of former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and widen the chances of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the APC. The governor also said Obi himself knew that he could not win the 2023 presidential election.
No doubt the governor appeared haunted by the outburst against Obi’s presidency, which according to the ‘Obidients’ was not kinsman and pitching Soludo against key stakeholders of the Igbo nation.
In his reaction, while speaking to the Alumni Association of the Lagos Business School during the LBS Alumni Day, Obi said Soludo remained his brother.
“Other people will continue from there. I don’t look back. He is the governor of my state. He is my senior brother. He is even more intelligent than I am. He is a professor, and I am a trader. He knows more. So, he will be able to do this better than I’ve done. I have done my little work as a trader. Now the professor is there, he will do his own thing as a professor. The schools that I didn’t roof, you roof them. That’s how the government goes,” Obi said.
Sadly, many APGA leaders and members were uncomfortable with Soludo’s comments on Obi, his closest kinsman, hence those who matter in the party that brought him to power were out for a spoiler’s game.
