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Tag: Anambra

  • Anambra governorship election in a slow start

    Anambra governorship election in a slow start

    Late arrival of election materials and INEC officials resulted in a slow start of Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    INEC officials were yet to arrive at many polling units as at 9 a.m.

    Whereas officials of the electoral umpire were yet to arrive, security operatives, election observers and a few voters were seen in most polling units visited.

    At Nir Boys High School in Anaocha Local Government Area, site of Polling Units 001, 002 and 003 hundreds of voters were seen waiting for INEC officials to arrive.

    Mr Duke Emeka, a voter told NAN that he had been waiting at the venue for a long time.

    “We have been here for the past three hours and there is no sign of INEC officials or voting materials.

    The same scenario obtained in many other polling units in Awka when correspondents of NAN went around the state capital.

    Mr Victor Goes, an Observer from Advocate for People’s Right and Justice, told NAN that he was surprised that one hour into the election, no INEC official was at polling units in Awka.

    “We were at the local government headquarters on Friday when materials were distributed and it is bad that by now they have not arrived even at polling units in Awka.

    “This is not good for the process because starting late is an obvious danger,’’ he said.

    Mr Peter Nwobi and Nehemiah Onuorah, polling agents of the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Grand Alliance, respectively said they were surprised that INEC officials were yet to arrive at their polling unit.

  • What Happens in Anambra On Saturday? It Depends – Azu Ishiekwene

     

    Azu Ishiekwene

    Just hours before voters in Anambra State decide the next governor, a party not on the ballot is getting serious attention.

    The Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), the separatist group demanding an independent homeland, has declared there would be no election on Saturday not only to press its separatist demand, but also to demand the release of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, currently in his 17thweek in detention in Abuja for alleged treason among other charges.

    IPOB is not a political party and Kanu, its leader, is not on the ballot. But the leaders of the 18 political parties, especially the four major ones – APGA, APC, PDP and YPP – know that where they stand on Kanu may hinder or promote their chances.

    As they struggled to extract their feet from their mouths during the televised debate on Monday, you could sense that Charles Soludo (APGA), Andy Uba (APC) and Valentine Ozigbo (PDP), desperately trying to appease IPOB members and their sympathisers. They know that how far they could go may depend on what they say about IPOB.

    If they couldn’t win IPOB sympathisers over, they can’t risk making them mad. And to show how much it meant to have IPOB in his corner, for example, Ifeanyi Ubah, the Young Progressives Party (YPP) governorship candidate who couldn’t spell IPOB to save his life, rushed to court for a pass to visit Kanu in DSS custody in Abuja.

    In the last three years, the South East has been in a state of war, partly as a result of political banditry by Abuja-based politicians determined to hijack power at all costs.

    The scorched-earth politics of this group has sowed discord and raised tensions in the region. Even worse, government’s incompetent handling of the situation has stoked violence, silenced the legitimate demands of moderate groups, and pushed IPOB to a lunatic fringe.

    But will that affect Saturday? It depends.

    The decision of IPOB sympathisers in the past to abduct school children who defied its sit-at-home orders from examination centres, is an indication of the extent it would go to enforce its insanity. For its part, the Federal Government has been on a war footing, deploying more policemen and soldiers that could outnumber the ratio of registered to actual voters.

    Yet, despite the long shadow of fear and misery, there’s not much that is new about the Anambra governorship election.

    Low voter turnout is not new. Even though the state has a population of about 4.5million, the most populated in the South East, with a registered voter population of 2.5million, the highest voter turnout for any governorship election in the last 22 years has been less than 300,000.

    In 2017, Willie Obiano, was elected with 234,071 votes; and his predecessor, Peter Obi, who also spent two terms as governor polled 97,833 to win his second term.

    A board member of the election monitoring group, YIAGA Africa, Ezenwa Nwagwu, who has been in Awka, the Anambra State capital for about a week, told me on Wednesday that concerns about potential low voter turnout as a result of insecurity were largely media inventions.

    “Anambra has historically had very low voter turnout. That has nothing to do with IPOB, which is a relatively new thing,” he said. “No Anambra governor has been elected by slightly more than one-tenth of registered voters in the state. As for those who have been trumpeting insecurity, you should also ask yourself why not one of the 18 political parties in this election has said anything about it throughout their campaign. Not one.”

    Nwagwu also added that security could have been a big issue if people needed to travel long distances to vote. “From what I have seen in the last one week,” he said, “INEC has taken polling points closer to short walking distances from people’s homes. That will make it easier for them to exercise their franchise.”

    Yet, fears remain that this is not just a governorship election but a referendum on who really controls the South East: IPOB or a cohort of Abuja politicians backed by federal might?

    It’s the sort of perfect storm that plays to the advantage of those who will deploy the monopoly of force not to protect citizens or voters, but to produce an outcome they wish to see – one that reinforces their stranglehold – in spite of voters.

    The line-up of candidates does not lessen the misery of potential poor voter turnout. Two of the three leading candidates have been here before.

    Soludo, who on paper, has an edge over the others, contested in 2011 on the platform of the PDP against former Governor Peter Obi. In Soludo’s Damascus journey, which appears to be the inevitable rite of passage for many Nigerian politicians, he has switched from PDP, his former home, to APGA which he fought against 10 years ago.

    At the time, former BOT Chairman of the PDP, Tony Anenih, promised Anambra voters that if they elected Soludo, he would change his name from Anenih to Anene (Igbo name meaning let’s look up to God). Obi won, Anenih kept his name, and Soludo left to fight another day.

    He returns to the hustings with strong intellectual credentials and a work history that spans many local and international institutions, notably the Central Bank of Nigeria where he was governor, and a number of international financial institutions including the IMF and the World Bank, where he worked as consultant.

    This reputation endears him to the media but in a state famous for its brutal and predatory politics, it remains to be seen how Soludo will translate his solid away credentials to home advantage. Of course, being the outgoing governor’s anointed helps. But we have also seen in a number of states, including Ogun State in 2019, that even the begotten of the incumbent can fail sometimes.

    Will the name of Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the father of Biafra nationalism and patron saint of APGA save Soludo the way it has preserved Obiano after Peter Obi’s spectacular fallout with the party? It remains to be seen.

     

    Insiders informed me on Wednesday night that, until the last few weeks, Governor Obiano’s house was divided: the governor wanted Soludo, his wife, the lady famous for her designer vaccines and glasses, apart from her strong political views, made it clear that Chukwuma Ume Umeorji, currently representing Aguata Federal Constituency, was her preferred candidate.

    Also, ahead of Saturday’s election, Obiano had a bitter taste of federal might with the loud and conspicuous absence of all federal officials invited for the opening of the state’s airport. That has been interpreted as a warning shot.

    Does that dress rehearsal help the other candidates, especially Andy Uba, also tipped as a strong contender and Abuja favourite? More than anything else, what Uba is counting on is not Soludo’s weakness, the division in Obiano’s house or even his airport opening misery.

    Andy Uba, the 14-day Anambra governor who was removed by the court because he was illegally installed, is still counting on his huge stock of favours from Abuja earned over years of assiduously cultivating the bedrooms and corridors of power.

    That power has worked for him and his siblings. Briefly curtailed when his brother Ugochukwu Uba was called out for bribing a judge for a favourable election result in 2004, that power was in full flair when it was deployed in enabling and protecting Chris Uba who kidnapped Governor Chris Ngige for a ransom.

    That power has preserved Andy Uba through his political odyssey, transforming his family into something of a political dynasty despised for good reasons, but hardly ignored.

    I’m told that there is something about this odious power factor that fascinates the common folk in Anambra and which Andy Uba could use to energise the grassroots who might regard Soludo as an Igbo man in diaspora.

    But Abuja politicians are not a solid block. Ngige, labour minister and the highest-ranking Anambra politician in President Mohammadu Buhari’s APC government, may not have a better opportunity than now to take his revenge on the Uba clan. And he can count on his position in the pecking order of APC to find resources to execute his revenge.

    Does that mean that the PDP candidate, Valentine Ozigbo, could reap from the wreckage? It’s improbable. In the last 22 years, PDP ruled Anambra for six years, and APGA for 16.

    Although Ozigbo has strong private sector credentials, which should suit Anambra’s temperament of industry and entrepreneurship, his party’s influence in the state has waned over the year, aggressively eroded by internal strife within PDP and the desperation of the ruling party APC to capture the South East at all costs, with Imo as the staging post.

    If the main question at election time is whether people think life is better today than it was yesterday, the answer in Anambra will ordinarily be too obvious. But then, it depends. It depends not on the promises made or kept but on whether voters think they matter in holding politicians to account.

    Despite Obiano’s initial rancour with his installer and benefactor, Peter Obi, over whether it was N79billion or N9billion that was left in the treasury or whether government business under Obi was window-dressing, the state has made some progress.

    In a country where about two-thirds of the states hardly meet their recurrent obligations, progress by governors could mean regular payment of salaries. It could also, shamelessly, mean how much the governor has done for his ancestral home and community, and whether the government has, at least, maintained the record of his predecessor in areas such as school enrollment and access to healthcare.

    Anambra elections and hubris go hand in hand, but somehow, the state has managed to find its way. In spite of the odds, I hope it does so this time. Although something tells me it may not be settled at the ballot on Saturday.

    Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

  • BREAKING: IPOB cancels one week sit-at-home directive in South East, asks Anambra residents to vote on Saturday

    BREAKING: IPOB cancels one week sit-at-home directive in South East, asks Anambra residents to vote on Saturday

    The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has cancelled its one week sit-at-home order across the South-East.

    IPOB said the order was called off following consultations with elders, traditional, and religious leaders from the Southeast.

    Spokesman of IPOB, Emma Powerful, disclosed this in a statement he issued on Thursday evening.

    According to Powerful: “Following the genuine intervention of our elders, esteemed traditional Institutions /Rulers and Religious Leaders, and after a due consideration of the positive impacts of their engagement, and sequel to the fact that Our elders have spoken in our terms , the Leadership of IPOB ably lead by MAZI NNAMDI Kanu hereby and immediately CALL OFF THE ONE WEEK SIT AT HOME earlier declared to commence tomorrow, November 5 to November 10, 2021.

    “We have equally considered several appeals by our mothers who earn their living based on their daily economic activities which will obviously be affected if Biafra land is locked down for one whole week. It’s never our intention to add to the pains of our people, hence our decision to suspend the sit-at-home.

    “IPOB leadership is only interested in Our referendum and peaceful agitation for self determination, and can not by under any guise be seen to be interfering with any electoral process.”

    The separatist group urged people of the Anambra State to come out en masse and vote for candidates of their choice on Saturday.

    “The people of Anambra State should go out enmasse and peacefully exercise their franchise come 6th November 20121 and accordingly, chose a leader of their Choice and should not be intimidated by anybody, group of persons or security agents.

    “Credible intelligence available to us confirmed that the Nigeria DSS has concluded arrangement to deploy a branch of their trained terrorist group to Anambra state come 6th Day 2021, to unleash mayhem on our people and attribute the killing to peaceful IPOB members.

    “Anambrarians should vote and standby to protect their votes. No rigging of any kind will be tolerated on the Anambra State governorship election. It must be transparent, free and fair to all.

    “We wish to thank Biafrans, IPOB members worldwide, friends of Biafra and lovers of freedom for their continued support for our dogged struggle for independence,” IPOB said.

  • Anambra must not die, By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Anambra must not die, By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    “The seat at the Government House, Awka, Anambra State is not hereditary and no winner is returned to it without an election duly conducted within the time frame as stipulated by the law…it will be judicial slumber to grant an application of this nature. The election in which he was returned is an illegal exercise and the certificate of return issued to the applicant (Uba) has no backing in law…if this court grants this application, it will be setting a bad precedent and standing the law against its feet, which it has refused to do…”

    So held the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, on November 13, 2009, as per Justice Nwali Ngwuta (of the blessed memory) in unanimously dismissing the application filed by Andy Uba praying the appellate Court to declare him “Governor-in-waiting”. On November 13 2009, the whole Anambra stood still anxiously awaiting the much-dreamt verdict of the Court of Appeal. A few days to the delivery of the judgment, Andy Uba and his cohorts went agog in a champagne celebration in some parts of Awka under the false illusion that the Court of Appeal judgment was in favour of Andy Uba. But when the true verdict of the Court finally came to light on November 13 2009 many Ndi Anambra heaved a sigh of relief. Many could be seen jubilating in the streets because Anambra was not captured by the Anambra juju politicians and ruffians whom Chinua Achebe referred to at that time as political renegades.

    The aforesaid Court of Appeal judgment sealed the hope of Andy Uba in trying to capture Anambra in order to convert it into his personal fiefdom. Talking about Uba, Anambra has had a checkered political history. From the traumatic totalitarian reign of Chinwoke Mbadinuju (May 1999-May 2003) to the short reign of Dame Virginia Etiaba (3 November 2006-9 February 2007), Anambra democracy was bringing out thieves, murderers, mad men, wicked men, vultures and undisciplined rabble from their hideouts and entrusting them with the sacred duty of managing the affairs of their fellow men and women in Anambra. Or, if you like, Anambra prior to the emergence of Peter Obi had been entering “one chance”. After the Supreme Court had extended Peter Obi’s tenure as well as ordered that Governorship Election would hold in Anambra in 2010, Andy Uba came out from the blues and started claiming that, by virtue of the April 14, 2007 Governorship Election in which he emerged victorious and was sworn in as Anambra Governor (He reigned for only about three weeks), he was a “Governor-in-waiting” and therefore should be allowed to bounce back as Anambra Governor. But thank God that the aforesaid November 13 2009 Court of Appeal judgment truly consigned Andy Uba to where he belongs-the dustbin of Anambra political history. The judgment also cleared the coast for the February 6th 2010 Governorship Election which produced Peter Obi thus making him the first civilian Anambra Governor to enjoy a second term.

    Peter Obi’s second term ushered a new dawn in Anambra. It marked the glorious days of Anambra State. Under the watch of Peter Obi, Anambra State simply triumphed. It became a role model for other States of the federation. Beyond reconstruction of roads and provision of infrastructure, true human development flourished in the State. Being a sensible technocrat with no time for dirty identity politics, Obi wasted no time in returning most Anambra schools to their former missionary owners. This gesture in no distant time started yielding dividends. Anambra schools and students started to marvelously excel in WAEC, NECO, JAMB exams and other national and international educational exams and competitions. Anyway, Peter Obi’s biggest achievement as Anambra Governor, in my view, is his ability to create a new work culture and serviceable public ethics that encouraged hard work, honesty, diligence and meritocracy in Anambra public institutions. He managed to create a work culture that did not create loopholes for the flourishing of incompetence, laziness, corruption and graft.

    This is why the Anambra voters must troop out en masse on Saturday November 6, 2021 (Anambra seems to have a pact with the alphabetical number 6. Peter Obi was re-elected February 6 2010 and the forthcoming Anambra Governorship election comes up November 6 2021) to vote for a candidate who will reenact the Peter Obi prodigy in the next four years in order to keep Anambra alive. Boycotting the Saturday Election will be tantamount to giving the Abuja-assisted thieves, murderers, vultures, mad men, wicked men and undisciplined rabble rousers in Anambra the opportunity to steal the Anambra Election. There are conflicting news/reports regarding whether or not IPOB has called for an Election boycott or ordered for a sit-at-home from November 5 to 10 2010. IPOB itself has purportedly been sending out public notices/messages to the effect that it is neither calling for an Election boycott nor ordering for a sit-at-home during the Election. There is no doubt that the Abuja meddlers in the Anambra Election are bent on creating a contrived state of anarchy or helplessness in Anambra in order to rig the Anambra Election in favour of their sponsored candidate. The people of Anambra must resist this. If the people of Edo State resisted Federal-assisted election manipulation and gerrymandering and fraud during the last Edo Governorship Election, the people of Anambra must follow suit. It is an insult to our collective intelligence that a State that has produced the most outstanding contemporary literary personalities and legal icons in Nigeria will be governed by a ruffian or renegade parading “Toronto” educational qualifications.

    Nothing will be gained in boycotting the Saturday Anambra Election. Those presently killing their Anambra brothers and sisters or intimidating Anambra voters to boycott the Saturday Election on ground or feign ground of exercise of their right to self-determination should remember that participation in the political process or voting on Election Day is not incompatible with the exercise of the right to self-determination. Instead of scuttling the right to self-determination, voting for a candidate of one’s choice on Election Day could facilitate the exercise of the right to self-determination. One thing is clear: self-determination cannot be actualized under a chaotic, ruinous, and hostile atmosphere. More importantly, when brothers fight to death strangers will inherit their land. If the various Anambra combatants, enemies and perceived enemies succeed in killing themselves then the strangers hiding in Anambra bushes will come out from their hideouts and take over Anambra and occupy it. The President of the Leadership Institute, Arlington Virginia, United States Morton Blackwell used to say to us in those days, “If you cannot pay your rent then you cannot save the world”. Analogically, if Ndi Anambra cannot save their little clans, Umunna (kindred), villages and towns in Anambra State, how can they hope to save Nigeria let alone save the world? This is why Ndi Anambra must rally round today to save Anambra from the present dangers and enemies surrounding her. Anambra must not die.

  • This Anambra election will witness more voter turnout than previous ones – Abaribe

    This Anambra election will witness more voter turnout than previous ones – Abaribe

    Senate minority leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe on Tuesday said the forthcoming Anambra elections will be safe amid fears that the poll may be marred by a low turnout of voters.

    Senator Abaribe gave the assurance while speaking on monitored Channels Television programme.

    “I don’t think low voter turnout is peculiar to Anambra state,” he said. “For a long time in Nigeria, a lot of people have not bothered to vote because they have always felt that their votes do not count.

    “I was in Anambra last week and we went around, to the market, to the universities, and we met business leaders. I also spoke and I went to the radio stations, and everything I was doing was to tell people to come out and vote because it’s going to be very safe, and that people should not be afraid that there will be a lot of violence; there won’t be.

    “From everything that we’ve seen, from the interaction we’ve had, there may be an even far more turnout that you expect.

    “The skirmishes that happened earlier, what we thought was that it was designed to make people not come out to vote, for a particular end. And that end I don’t think is going to work. Because we have now been there; we’ve talked to people.”

    The election is scheduled for November 6 and will be contested by over a dozen political parties.

  • Anambra 2021: INEC ready for Nov 6 governorship election – Yakubu

    Anambra 2021: INEC ready for Nov 6 governorship election – Yakubu

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is set for a hitch free Nov. 6 Anambra governorship election.

    Prof. Mohammed Yakubu, National Chairman, INEC said this when he briefed newsmen on Tuesday in Awka at the commission’s Anambra headquarters.

    “When the commission released the time table for the conduct of election, eleven months ago, the feeling was that the time will not come.

    “The time is already here, we only have just four days left and we are go to go as a commission,” Yakubu said.

    He said that the commission was prepared to deliver free, fair and credible election.

    Yakubu noted that the only challenge before the commission was how to ensure that the newly registered voters took part in the election.

    “To ensure that the newly registered voters take part, we decided to contact them through their email and Gsm numbers to inform them of the locations to get their cards, “he said.

    Yakubu who said that the visit was to address stakeholders meeting on Wednesday said the meeting would involved the signing of peace accord by candidates featuring in the poll.

    He urged all voters to come out and participate as every arrangement has been made to ensure peaceful election.

    Mr Echeng Echeng, the State Commissioner of Police said security agencies were also prepared for the election.

    Echeng said there were enough vehicles, boats and helicopters to patrol the entire state, adding that sister agencies have equally made enough deployment.

    He said that security operatives would restrict movement of people from the mid night of Friday Nov.5, to check infiltration of bad eggs into the state.

  • Insecurity in Anambra politically motivated- Soludo

    Insecurity in Anambra politically motivated- Soludo

    The All Progressives Grand Alliance candidate for the Anambra gubernatorial election, Prof. Charles Soludo, has averred that the insecurity challenges in the state is politically motivated.

    Soludo made this known during the Anambra Gubernatorial Debate organized by Arise TV on Monday, adding that some individuals hope the situation would give them a political benefit.

    He said, “Most of the recent upsurge of insecurity in Anambra is politically motivated.

    “There are some people who think they gain political advantage by creating a sense of fear and insecurity so that they can suppress voters. When Valentine [PDP candidate] talked about intelligence gathering, that intelligence gathering is everywhere.”

    The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria also added that insecurity in Anambra State is a recent phenomenon, claiming that his opponent from the All Progressive Congress, Andy Uba might have an answer to the insecurity challenges that persist.

    He noted that while the state’s security architecture was vested in the Federal Government, the incumbent governor has risen to the challenge of securing Anambra.

    “The insecurity in Anambra is a recent phenomenon. Very recently and I think my brother on the right-hand side[Andy Uba] when he responds might be able to tell a little more about part of the reason this is happening.

    “But Anambra has remained largely, a safe haven: real estate booming, businesses booming, hospitality industry and so on and so forth.

    “And recently, it is a challenge and the Governor as the Chief security has risen to the challenge. By the way, all the security agency as you know, are within the purview of the Federal Government but we’ve got a security architecture in which the federal forces have been working in tandem with the local vigilantes,” he added.

  • Anambra governorship debate: Soludo, Uba, Ozigbo take stand on IPOB

    Anambra governorship debate: Soludo, Uba, Ozigbo take stand on IPOB

    Ahead of the November, 6 governorship election in Anambra State, major governorship candidates which include Andy Uba of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have made their stands on the issues concerning the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

    The aforesaid contenders made their stance on IPOB public during a governorship debate, which is organised by Arise News Channel, with the support of a non-governmental organisation, Enough-is-Enough Nigeria.

    Speaking on the topic, Soludo said, ” I am on record speaking, I visited Nnamdi Kanu in 2016 in Kuje prison, with prominent people to ask for his release in line with a court order.

    Summarily, he said dialogue is the best solution to the IPOB issue.

    Ozigbo said Kanu is a product of leadership failure. He also urged for dialogue and called for Kanu’s release.

    On his part, Uba said he believes in engagement. He said the agitation is as a result of joblessness.

    On IPOB again, Uba declined supporting or condemning the group. He said engagement is the right step to take. Soludo is a pan Nigerian. He, however, said the IPOB deserves to be heard; dialogue. Ozigbo said there are certain things that IPOB does that he supports. He, however, said he does not support the group’s extremisms.

  • Standing With Anambra – Chidi Amuta

    Chidi Amuta

    Some Nigerians may feel that next weekend’s governorship elections in Anambra state do not concern them. But somehow, the polls are an all -Nigerian enterprise. This will be the first isolated state governorship election in Nigeria to be held literally in a state of undeclared nationwide war. The spate of insecurity all over the country has found a peculiar colour in Anambra state. Rival gunmen of unknown origins and unclear motives are feared to be parading the entire space. IPOB has declared a sit at home regime that is designed to sabotage the election. Contestants have literally been campaigning under a canopy of mortal fear of real danger of either being kidnapped or killed.

    The federal authority has countered the threat of IPOB and other trouble makers with a stern re-assertion of its ultimate responsibility to guarantee security, law and order for this ritual of democracy to proceed unhindered. Over 35,000 police officers and a copious number of their big bosses decked in brass and medals are scheduled to protect the Anambra election process. The exact strength of the military, State Security goons and Civil Defense and other uniform wearing contingents is yet to be disclosed. From the projections, it promises to be one of the most garrisoned and regimented election in the nation’s recent history. Local and international election observers may have difficulty deciding whether indeed this was an election for civil voters or a roll call of military and police personnel in attendance. But the consolation is in the fact that the objective of this fortress corridor is to protect one of the cardinal rituals of democracy, the conduct of periodic elections to choose leaders.

    In nearly every sense, the Anambra governorship election is a national contest. Nearly all the challenges confronting present day Nigeria are fully on display. A nation wracked by widespread insecurity and spiraling violence and uncertainty will need to prove itself a viable democracy. Nigeria’s ability to contain rival armed contestants for power prevalence will be tested in Anambra next weekend. Specifically, the capacity of the federal government to overwhelm the annoying affront of the IPOB secessionists will be on trial. There is an even trickier dimension; the government will have to demonstrate a precarious capacity to guarantee the security of voters, election officials as well as the entire electoral process to ensure it is credible, free and fair. It has to do all this while ensuring that the entire electoral process remains a civil undertaking in which ordinary people can freely go out to choose their leaders free from harassment and intimidation. How to present this veneer while retaining a solid core of real security is the challenge of the moment.

    Therefore, we all in the diversity of our interests in the Nigerian undertaking have a stake in the Anambra elections. Those who insist that the existing state structure holds the promise of Nigeria’s future will be waiting to see how Anambra state holds out in stability after this election. Those like me who are unrepentant federalists are anxious to see how the federal behemoth defends its mandate over a vital part of the federation as a responsible and stout guarantor of national sovereignty. The diehard democrats in our midst will be waiting to see how the power of democracy prevails over the fears of mob fear and the stampede of garrison jackboots. Those who however believe in the rising power of regions and micro nationalities and self determination as a credible challenge to the overbearing will of the federal behemoth will obviously be interested in seeing how the braggadocio of IPOB fares in this psychological operation against the federal hegemon.

    These contending high national ideals cannot however conceal the real local issues at stake in Anambra. The truism that all politics is first local will be tested in Anambra. There are strong local forces and peculiar tendencies at play which will condition the outcomes in the election and beyond. Since the return of democracy in 1999, the contest for the governorship of the state has been a series of pitched battles among unruly factions of desperate political hustlers. It has been a tale of high drama, crude machinations and the deployment of violence, even dark juju and cultic mindlessness. People have not yet forgotten the drama of the ‘civilian coup’ against former governor Chris Ngige who was temporarily overthrown by rival forces and held in detention for hours. Not to be easily forgotten is the tale of how Mr. Ngige was forcefully compelled to take an oath of allegiance before his sponsors in the unnerving presence of the famed Okija shrine.

    Thereafter, political struggle in Anambra have progressed to more dastardly terrains. Rival political gangsters are known to engage the services of lethal thugs to intimidate and even kidnap their rivals. In the course of the current season, Mr. Charles Soludo, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was attacked by gunmen who killed his police security guards while he luckily escaped by the skin of his teeth. Other politically motivated attacks and assassinations have taken place just as major political actors have been found with frightening tranches of arms and ammunition. The sum of it all is that in the current Anambra scene, we are dealing with a highly dangerous political space in a state that should be one of our most enlightened and peaceful.

    The cause is inherent in the nature of current Anambra society. Nowhere else in Nigeria are we likely to find big money in the hands of such a large number of relatively young citizens. Recent surveys by valuation agencies suggest that the total value of real estate in terms of palatial private country homes, factories, hotels, resorts, hospitals and community buildings in Anambra state is perhaps only next to Lagos and Abuja.

    The cash component of that huge quantum of wealth is now threatening to procure state power with nearly as much vicious ferocity as some of the unprintable sources of the money itself. Anambra people are among the most hard working, creative, enterprising and wealthiest Nigerians you can find today. They are unstoppable engineers of wealth both at home and in the diaspora. A large portion of Nigeria’s diaspora home annual remittance of $35 billion is coming from Anambra indigenes in the diaspora especially those in private business all over the world. Try a random sampling of Nigerians living in Houston Texas and measure the percentage of Anambra people among Nigeria’s demographics of over over 150,000 in the Houston area alone. Most of them own and run multi million dollar businesses in all fields.

    A combination of a long tradition of entrepreneurship and aggressive sense of business conquest and achievement motivation has made the acquisition of humongous wealth a religion among these people. The strange combination of such aggressive entrepreneurship in a state dominated by a Roman Catholic ethos is a curious and interesting part of the Anambra phenomenon which requires closer study. The conventional wisdom in studies of the religious basis of capitalism used to be that a protestant Puritan work ethic was the most fertile ground for the emergence of a wild entrepreneurial spirit and restless innovation.

    From my private research, I reckon that Anambra state has the highest number of billionaires per square kilometer of territory in today’s Nigeria. A great deal of this money is ironically held and controlled mostly by young citizens who are not the most enlightened or educated people. Even if he has college education, the average Anambra trader/billionaire imbibes a certain mentality that sees money as the ultimate enabler of all human actions. Nearly everything has a price tag and can be purchased. Since political power confers the ultimate power of life and death on the governor, money can be deployed to secure it. If human life stands in the way of the money man who wants power, he can hire hit men to do the needful. All is fair in this war! In this atmosphere, nearly everything can be purchased. Politics becomes first and foremost a transactional undertaking. The person who has political influence but little money can trade some of his power to secure sponsorship at election time. In some instances, elaborate Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) are signed between politicians and their big money God Fathers. Such documents specify the terms of repayment of return on investment, appointments to key government postions to be reserved for nominees of the God Father, juicy contracts to be ceded to the financier/God Father. To renege on the terms of these agreements is to invite the anger of the witness deity as well as the ire of the gangster money man which takes various forms. These range from assassination plots to instigations of unrest and other elaborate blackmail schemes. This feature is not localized to Anambra alone. It describes a prevalent Nigerian political aberration.

    Yet Anambra ought to be one of the most politically sophisticated, enlightened and refined states in the federation. It is equipped with a long tradition of illustrious political pioneers, intellectuals, bureaucrats and technocratic pathfinders. This is the home of the legendary Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nwafor Orizu, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Alex Ekwueme, Chuba Okadigbo, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Chinwoke Mbadinuju, Peter Obi etc. In business, the state boasts some of the most illustrious names in original Nigerian entrepreneurship: Sir Louis Ojukwu, Chief Augustine Ilodibe, Mr. Innocent Chukwuma, Cosmas Maduka, Emeka Offor, Arthur Eze etc. In Nigerian art and culture, Anambra has blazed the trail in the life of Nigerian letters and the plastic arts, giving us Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo, Ben Enwonwu, Cyprian Ekwensi, Onuora Nzekwu, Ossie Enekwe, Chimamanda Adichie, Okey Ndibe etc. Among the leading lights of Nigeria’s new generation of world class technocrats, Anambra has more than its fair share of bright stars: Charles Soludo, Obiageli Ezekwesili, late Dora Akunyili, Kingsley Moghalu and many others.

    For those with a mindset fixated on ethnic stereotypes, there is a sense in which Anambra furnishes the readiest material for profiling the Igbos in Nigeria. Such unproductive stereotyping is ultimately counter productive because it merely fails to give the wider national society the benefit of harnessing the strengths of our diversity to grow the nation. Anambra and its gifts belong to Nigeria. It is what it is. It is at once the home of cultural accomplishment and intellectual sophistication as well as a rough jungle of untamed capitalist energy waiting to be galvanized into a modern potential.

    In its present state of mind and material culture, Anambra risks degenerating into a bedeviled hellhole of violence and fruitless recriminations if not checked. Like all mercantilist enclaves of old, it could be commandeered by gangs of gangster families only intent on mutual self destruction. I fear that if not saved from itself, Anambra could degenerate into early Sicily in the heydays of the crime family war lords and the birth of the Mafia, the infamous Cosa Nostra. The streets of its towns could become more unsafe. Its palatial country homes could become deserted and its city neighbourhoods rendered dangerous as rival gangs clash over control of government patronage, sharing formulas of proceeds of bad trade and the monopoly of profitable nefarious enterprises abroad. Before the IPOB menace, some of the patterns of murders in Anambra looked like reprints of early Mafia senseless killings.

    Onitsha is the unscripted canvas of both the past and the future of Anambra. The cacophony of Upper Iweka, the unplanned streets and multi -storey monstrosities of a city with neither sewage nor drainage, This is the signature tune of a disaster waiting to happen. It is the blighted past and the promise of the future shining city by the banks of the River Niger. It is the promise of prosperity waiting to be rescued with a modern plan for urban renewal so that this jungle of brick and mortar can become a reservoir of future wealth. It can be made attractive to millions of commercial visitors intent on exploring opportunities in a new African miracle commercial city. Its wealth and that of the state would come from the synergy of a market surrounded by satellite manufacturing towns and villages.

    Dubai was a desert a short while ago which has been converted into a modern jungle of skyscrapers and modern infrastructure with an economy that boasts cutting edge applications and systems. Anambra is, on the other hand, a different jungle of often misdirected energy and untamed decoration mistaken for investment, crying for a direction informed by modern economics and the laws of science and technology. In order to advance and take Nigeria with it, Anambra needs to undertake a rapid political baptism of fire. Its big money population needs to be taught to waste less money and effort announcing to Nigeria that it has arrived. Adopting the wasteful culture of old Nigeria will not bring the development Anambra needs. The young money people of Anambra need to learn new investment strategies and the wisdom of more modest homes and life styles. No one is impressed by how many carats of gold bedeck the casket of your dead parents or how many barrels of champagne you drown the rest of Nigeria in just to announce your arrival.

    The profile of Anambra has simplified the task and the choice of the next governor it needs. How do we rescue the old glory of an enlightened state? How do we transform entrepreneurial energy into sustainable development? How do we point Nigeria in the direction of modern economic development using local wealth as core content? How do we rescue the politics of state governance from ‘any how’ to ‘know how’? These are the questions on the table in Anambra next Saturday.

    I am not from Anambra state. I do not belong to any political party neither do I know any of the contestants in person except by reputation. But from everything I know and have read about the key contestants and their track records, it seems to me that Charles Soludo is about the only one on this ballot who is equipped to answer the urgent questions that trouble Anambra. He has the economic literacy and global exposure to understand how best to galvanize the potentials of Anambra into a bursting modern potential for Nigeria. His track record of beneficial innovation as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria attest to a tested hand and a clear head to tame the wild dragon of Anambra’s more prodigal recent departures. I am casting a voice vote from a distance, not just for Charles Soludo but for the real reasons for this election. It is a referendum, a choice between noisy stagnation and purposeful modernization.

    Above everything else, next Saturday’s election is a contest for Nigeria rising: above violence, disorder, divisiveness and looming anarchy. The Anambra election is about Nigeria facing hope founded on democracy and true justice.

  • Dilapidation, grid-lock on Onitsha-Enugu Road may obstruct Anambra Governorship Election – CLO

    Dilapidation, grid-lock on Onitsha-Enugu Road may obstruct Anambra Governorship Election – CLO

    The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) says dilapidation and hours of grid-lock on the Amansea-Ugwuoba axis of Onitsha-Enugu Road may affect the forthcoming Nov. 6 Governorship Election in Anambra.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Amansea-Ugwuoba axis of Onitsha-Enugu Road is located at boundary areas of Anambra and Enugu States about 15 minutes drive, but it now takes about three hours to crossover to either states.

    The Chairman of CLO in Anambra, Mr Vincent Ezekwueme, said this while speaking with NAN in Enugu on Saturday on the urgent need for the Federal Government to rehabilitate the dilapidated Amansea-Ugwuoba axis of Onitsha-Enugu Road.

    According to Ezekwueme, the current nature of the axis of the road had added to time used to get from Onitsha to Enugu, thus, from a previous average of one hour and 30 minutes to present three hours minimal.

    He also said that the development had led to recent over 50 per cent increase in fare to ply Onitsha-Enugu Road from a previous average of N1,200 to the present N1,800 and N2,000.

    “We urgently appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgent public importance to order the Minister of Work and Housing to commence immediate and inevitable rehabilitation of Amansea-Ugwoba axis of Onitsha-Enugu Road.

    “This axis of the road as it is now remains inaccessible and a dead trap; while people now sleep on the road before they can’t continue their journey due to “long stretch of hell of grid-lock”.

    “It is existential reality that the bad condition of the road has brought untold hardship, suffering, nightmare and sorrow to commuters, road users and citizens.

    “Again, the current state of the road and its hours of grid-lock may obstruct Anambra Governorship Election come Nov. 6, if unchecked and not put into consideration.

    “As it will be difficult, if not impossible, for people to comfortable travel on the road especially its halfway, which is traveling from Awka to Enugu State and vice versa.

    “It is very unfortunate and despicable that on Tuesday, Oct. 26, the road was blocked and all travelers were stranded, as most of them slept on the road,” he said.