Lessons from Anambra Election

THEFRONTLINES

One of the biggest stories to come out of the South-east geopolitical zone in recent times is the successful conduct of Anambra election and the emergence of one of the most credible candidates, Prof. Charles Soludo in the race to the government house.

Indeed, in the run up to the election, there were so many odds stacked against the conduct of the poll. The build up to the crises started with agitations by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for self determination. The federal government reacted by deploying federal forces to quell the agitation. Rather than reducing the tension, the militarization of the zone backed by excessive force and killing of some innocent citizens by the military further inflamed passion and emboldened IPOB to dig in and match the federal forces with force.

Adopting guerilla styled warfare operations, members of IPOB embraced hit and run strategy, torching and killing policemen and military personnel within the vicinity and capability. As casualties on both sides mount, economic and other social activities in the zone grinded to a halt.

When IPOB said the Anambra election would not hold and went ahead to declare a sit-at-home to press home its point, the die was certainly cast. What was more? The federal government fortuitously captured and repatriated the leader of IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya back to Nigeria and quickly charged him to court. Tension was at the highest boiling point and no one was sure if the election would go ahead or not.
However, a frenzy of back door negotiations involvi
ng the South-east governors and the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo led by Prof. George Obiozor succeeded in dousing the tension and brought IPOB to the negotiating table where it agreed to give peace a chance and allow elections to hold. As a demonstration of its commitment, it cancelled the subsisting sit-at-home order and urged its members to go out and vote.

In the end, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof. Charles Soludo emerged victorious with Valentine Ezigbo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as runner up.
There are certain takeaways worth noting in the just concluded Anambra election. The first is the apparent voters’ apathy which could be attributed to the fear already instilled in the electorate by both the federal forces and IPOB. Many people were afraid of venturing out to exercise their civic responsibilities.

Worthy of commendation is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Although the exercise witnessed initial hiccups in the early hours when voting started with complaints of late arrival of materials and malfunctioning of the BVAS, the commission rose to the occasion and ensure that complaints were sorted out and people voted within the extended voting period.

One notable innovation in the Anambra election was the introduction of The Anambra Debate by ARISE NEW CHANNEL. It would be the first of its kind since the creation of Anambra state and a novelty that has come to stay. The most significant part of this success story is that even with the heightened security challenge, ARISE rose to the challenge and successfully held the debate for the leading candidates to ventilate their manifestoes to the people of Anambra state.
Another significant development was the resolve by the people of Anambra to stick with an indigenous party that they identified with. It was the highest display of nationalism and patriotism to jettison other parties and settle for APGA which incidentally is the ruling party in the state.

Without a doubt, the credentials of those who aspired to lead Anambra were commendably formidable and it goes to show how the state has succeeded in carving a niche for parading its first eleven team.
Thus the emergence of Soludo is not only an icing on the cake, it is in line with a well established tradition in the state where all its past chief executive officers paraded solid credentials.

From Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Harvard trained, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, Dr. Chris Ngige, Peter Obi, Virginia Etiaba(briefly) Peter Obi and Willie Obiano. Each of these men and woman are accomplished performers in their respective rights.
Soludo would be stepping into Obaino’s shoes whose tenure expires very shortly. He would be inheriting a highly endowed state in crises. His first baptism of fire would be how to rein in IPOB and return Anambra to its past glory where peace and economic activities reign supreme.

The governor-elect is a tested and proven hand whose wealth of experience and footprints dot the Central Bank of Nigeria where he was governor and also the World Bank where he has consult anted for decades.
Soludo, who is also an accomplished academic, a lecturer and an orator in his own right would be expected to start walking the talk presently and turn around the fortunes of Anambra. He has his job already cut out for him right there.
Now that APGA has won in Anambra, could this be the beginning of the party resurgence in the zone? Can this feat equally be replicated in the entire five South-eastern states? If what happened in Anambra is replicated by Igbos in their respective states, it is right to conclude that the Igbo renaissance is finally here.

Imagine that APGA controls the entire states in the zone, the talk or horse trading for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction would carry a lot of weight and other zones would be forced to listen and cut a deal with Igbo nation.
This may have been the dream of the Ikemba of Nnewi to establish an Igbo party in the mould of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group, Nnamdi Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons/National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), Aminu Kanu’s, People’s Redemption Party (PRP), Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), Northern People’s Congress (NPC), Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to give each zone a formidable political position with which to negotiate power sharing in the Centre.

Although regions on which old parties were aligned no longer existed, there is nothing wrong with rekindling such parties along geopolitical lines. It is political theory worthy of practice because it would go a very long way in breaking the dominance and remove the danger of an imminent one party state which the All Progressives Congress (APC) is gradually assuming today.