ANAMBRA FACES A HISTORIC MOMENT ON NOVEMBER 6

In 2015, no sooner had Mr. Muhammadu Buhari assumed office as Nigeria`s president than he sent a chilling warning in the direction of the south-east whose remorseless support for Mr. Buhari`s predecessor, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, was an open secret. Mr. Buhari warned that those who did not support him in the run-up to his victory should not expect as much attention as those who did. Six years down the line, and amidst Nigeria`s mounting challenges, it would be interesting to sample the opinions of those who overwhelming supported Mr. Buhari to see where they are in terms of being satisfied with the baby they helped deliver.

Like a boa constrictor, the proscribed group, Indigenous People of Biafra, is folding Nigeria`s south-east in a stranglehold. Another sit-at-home order was observed on October 1, 2021, being Nigeria`s independence anniversary. Others have since followed. Nigerians are yet to forget how shaken Mr. Buhari was by the effects of the sit-at-home that overshadowed his recent visit to Imo state.

Nigeria`s south-east, the ancestral homeland of the Igbos, used to be a haven of peace and ennobling enterprise. But recently, thanks to the insecurity spreading across Nigeria like a wildfire, and the abrasive rhetoric and aggressive tendencies of IPOB, the region is fast unravelling. Innocent citizens have been killed and no one has been held to account. Public buildings have been razed and no one has yet been named as the perpetrator.

It is under such an atmosphere redolent with strife and uncertainty that the good people of Anambra State will queue before the ballot box on November 6, 2021 to make their choice over who would govern them for the next four years.

Anambra is a unique state. In 2003, after four years of the suffocatingly inept administration of Mr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, the PDP`s lavishly lubricated rigging machinery broke down in the state under the relentless pressure of the people`s will. When the party invoked its infamous electoral sorcery to visit upon the state one of Nigeria`s worst electoral heists, the judiciary rose to the occasion in 2006 with a historic verdict that sent current labour and employment minister, Mr. Chris Ngige, packing as the governor of the state and brought in the trailblazing Mr. Peter Obi who went on to become a reference point for prudence in public administration in Nigeria. The judiciary was to follow the Anambra algorithm in upturning elections in Edo and Ondo States in a salutary sanitization of Nigeria`s electoral process.

In 2015, in spite of the effusive promises of APC stalwarts in Anambra State led by Mr. Chris Ngige, the state was to prove an embarrassingly slippery slope for Mr. Buhari. With former governor, Mr. Peter Obi, on the ticket of the PDP in the general election of 2019, the All progressives Congress fell to a resounding defeat in the state.

Ahead of the November 6 election, the good people of Anambra State do not appear ready to float the same boat with the ruling party and it promises to be a battle royale between the major political parties who will fight it out.

The All Progressives Congress will be desperate to get the state to use it as the launchpad for building its dominance in the southeast.

But the good people of the state must again engage their distinct sixth sense for good governance. They must again put the long-term gains of good governance above the shortsightedness of phony popularity. This has become even more critical in the face of the feverish attempts by the IPOB, to scuttle the elections. If the IPOB feels it aggregates the views and voices of the people of Anambra State, why has it not floated a political party to contest the November 6 2021 election?

The good people of Anambra must put faith over fear and prudence over popularity. As Nigeria continues to witness a famine of good governance, they must again find the courage to bear witness to the delectable fruits of democracy, and the power of choice it gives, especially through the ballot box.

Particularly, the good people of Anambra State must be wary of the candidates of those political parties who having lain waste to other states are on the lookout for new victims.

To embrace them would be to give in to those who having sharpened their spears of oppression seek to shove them into the side of the people.

Kene Obiezu, keneobiezu@gmail.com