The November 8 Anambra State governorship election upon us, and the just-concluded by-elections in Anambra State in which the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidates won the two seats by a landslide point to the fact that Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, has the coast clear for re-election. It was like a mock exam or a master of ceremonies testing the microphone in preparation for the main event.
It was a landslide victory for Chief Emma Nwachukwu (Onodugo) in the Anambra South Senatorial by-election, and it was the same walkover by Barrister Mimi Ikpeazu-Azikiwe in the Onitsha North 1 House of Assembly contest. As people were wont to say in the past, all the candidates of the other parties lost deposits.
APGA candidates taking about 70% of the total valid votes was unexpected. The opposition candidates were simply lost in the shuffle despite their governorship candidates and their running mates boasting that the offseason elections would prove that their parties are the real deal in Anambra. The outcomes have shown that Napoleon Bonaparte was right, saying in politics, stupidity is not a handicap.
Politicians in Anambra keep underestimating Governor Soludo to their peril. Governor Soludo approached both by-elections as a consummate tactician and nonpareil war general. It was Mao Zedong who defined politics as war without bloodshed and war as politics with bloodshed.
The primaries conducted to choose both APGA candidates had all the compliments of internal party democracy, which yielded a supreme elite consensus. Soludo led a united party to the polls. There was no bickering whatsoever about giving any candidate preferential treatment. Both the winners and the losers worked for the resounding victories of the ruling party – APGA.
It is a well-known fact that incumbents go for re-election based on their performance. The by-elections were seen in many quarters as test cases for Soludo’s achievements in his first term as governor. Not even the most jaundiced of critics can put up any case whatsoever against Soludo having had a sterling performance. The soaring accomplishments of Governor Soludo without borrowing led to an avalanche of endorsements by all segments of Anambra. Instead of Soludo needing money to support the candidates, the three senatorial zones donated money and gave the title of Oluatuegwu, to wit, “man wey no dey fear work”, to the workaholic governor. The Anambra South Senatorial and Onitsha North I House of Assembly electorates supported Chief Nwachukwu and Barrister Ikpeazu-Azikiwe, respectively, as if their very lives depended on it. Call it people’s power at work.
There was the emotional challenge of Onitsha North I, where ADC fielded the widow of Hon Justice Azuka and got some political priests to campaign for her as if the seat were a family inheritance, with one of them declaring that whoever did not vote for her would die a violent death! In the circumstances, it means that Anambra State should prepare for a mass burial since about 70 per cent of Ndi Anambra did not listen to the death curse of the political priest who was playing God.
It is not hard to understand that the landmark transformation of Onitsha by Soludo is the reason the people voted for the APGA candidate. There was no justification for the call for the widow of the late Justice Azuka to succeed him since elective positions are not family estates and as such, nobody disinherited her. The widow ought to have been left alone to take care of her traumatised family instead of throwing her hat into the murky political ring. There are more reasonable ways of taking care of the late Hon. Justice Azuka’s widow than set an unsustainable precedent of asking the widow to complete residue of his tenure.
The Anambra South Senate Seat was yet another confirmation of Soludo as a leader who has touched lives and transformed Anambra South. The urban regeneration of Ekwulobia is a marvel that is even being celebrated beyond Anambra State. Soludo has constructed dual carriageways as per the three major roads forming the Anambra beltway, serving as connecting networks to the communities in Anambra Central and South. The nursing school being built in Isuofa is almost due for delivery.
The bonding of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Soludo through the ideology of Progressives Working Together is beginning to yield democracy dividends. It’s indeed a partnership that works. Federal forces remained neutral and professional, especially the police, and contained one or two candidates who brought thugs to contaminate the by-elections.
In view of this, the November 8 governorship election becomes a fait accompli, barring all odds. A free and fair contest, as was witnessed in the by-elections, will see Soludo winning a landslide re-election victory. As Mr Governor had said, dodgy characters that cannot boast of the requisite qualifications such as WAEC Certificate to be employed as drivers in Anambra State should never dream of being elected the governor of Nigeria’s front-running state, the home of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Dr Alex Ekwueme, Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prof. Chinua Achebe, Prof. Kenneth Dike, Margaret Ekpo, Chuba Okadigbo, Chimamanda, etc.
It is incumbent on me to conclude by delivering due congratulations to the Solution Governor now, and in lieu of his pending gubernatorial victory. Given that the other parties and their candidates stand no chance at all, they could still step down and endorse Soludo and seek Soludo’s support rather than waste more resources to register a pathetic loss. It’s cool of me to drum into their ears that answering former governorship candidates is not an achievement. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry can print posters.
All the noise made by ADC and the Labour Party has come to naught. Elections are not won on the internet or social media. The dismal performance of ADC and the Labour Party is a consequential proof that politics is local indeed.
Anambra is APGA, and APGA is Anambra. The unbreakable bond between Ndi Anambra and APGA makes the opposition look very pathetic indeed. Vote-buying cannot overturn the commitment of our people to APGA and its watershed agenda of the Solution Government to transform Anambra into a destination of choice, a place people can live, work, learn, relax and enjoy, as Governor Soludo would put it.
* Law Mefor, PhD, is Anambra State Commissioner for Information.
