Issues that May Blight Imo LG Polls

Ahead of the September 21, 2024 Local Government Council polls in Imo state, members of the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition parties are wary of the process leading to the election, Tony Icheku reports.

About two weeks to Imo State’s first local government council polls in five years, furrows have formed on the foreheads of the All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirants,  and their eyes are red and bleary from sleeplessness and worry. They are no more certain that the process would be transparent, free and fair as they grapple with the contradictions in executing the letters of the party’s constitution concerning internal democracy.

In early June, 2024, Chairman of the Imo state Independent Electoral Commission  (ISIEC), Chief Charles Ejiogu announced Saturday, September 21, 2024 as the date for   local government council polls in the 27 local government areas (LGAs) of Imo State. He  assured critical stakeholders and all registered political parties in the State of ISIEC’s preparedness and readiness to offer all a level playing ground. “It will be free, transparent, and credible”, he said. 

APC  loyalists quickly embraced the exercise. They looked forward to a seamless and rancour-free process: The governor may  have nothing at stake, they reasoned, that he is in his second and last term. Expectations were high that he would play the unbiased umpire and allow loyalists who have stood with him through thick and thin to finally have their day in the sun.

In a twinkle of an eye, over 800 councillorship hopefuls purchased nomination forms to jostle for 305 councillorship seats at N1 million each and 200 chairmanship hopefuls shelled out N3 million to jostle for 27 chairmanship seats.

The weeding out process would be through primary, the party and ISIEC assured them stressing that the principles of internal democracy would be duly observed, but after four postponements, the message finally sank in that it may not all be smooth sailing after all.

By the tail end of August, 2024, after several postponements of the primary, Governor Hope Uzodimma finally intervened and prescribed consensus as his preferred option for  the selection of chairmanship and councillorship candidates. The governor while addressing all chairmanship and councillorship aspirants, state leaders and stakeholders at APC’s Secretariat in Owerri, the state capital explained that the party constitution allows for three methods of producing candidates for election, namely direct primaries, indirect primaries and consensus.

The Imo Governor also declared that party aspirants who failed to clinch the party ticket will be refunded their expenses, but on the condition that they exhibit good behavior during and after the process, stressing that the decision to opt for consensus candidates was taken to promote unity and cohesion in the party as well as stability of politics in the State. He reminded the party members that APC was one family in the State, urging them to make sacrifices for the victory of the party.

His words: “I will plead with the party to go into the contest with one spirit. Those who win, we will encourage them to work with those who didn’t win”.

According to him, the 27 chairmanship and the 305 ward councillorship candidates would emerge through consensus. He added that where the consensus option fails to select a candidate, the party will conduct a primary election, either direct or indirect.  The decision became imperative following the high number of interested candidates in the polls, he said.

Uzodimma was economical with details of how the consensus candidates would emerge. And it is also pertinent to recall that earlier in the race, he recommended zoning of the positions as one of the factors in determining the flagbearers for the chairmanship slots.

Aspirants left the meeting holding their breath in suspense which turned to bewilderment few days later when Local Government chairpersons of the party were forbidden from holding meetings in their domain forthwith.

Uzodimma’s current posture and body language are at variance with his earlier stand that he is “not going to influence the Local Government Election, it will be transparent. We must go by the rules and ensure that credible people that will serve the people are elected.”

He advised those angling for positions as either chairman or councilor to go to their people and sell themselves since they will be accountable to the people at the end of the day.

Analysing the issue, a journalist and public affairs analyst, Henry Ekpe stated that Governor Uzodimma’s position on zoning and consensus option are opaque and ambiguous as  “there are clear differences between  zoning formula and  consensus, including Direct or Indirect primaries.

“While zoning means  the rules must be followed to  balance the political equation in each given LGA based on their age long way of sharing political positions, but consensus means arriving on immediate acceptable solution based on what is on ground, not minding if it met balancing or not”

Again Ekpe maintained that the consensus option renders the delegates impotent while transferring powers to a clique or a powerful leader to produce the candidates. So, who ever, between a leader or group of leaders who manage to foist a chairman on a LGA become automatically a kingmaker or  kingmaker(s).

“Under this consensus option, the Imo APC chairmanship and councillorship primaries have been left on the altar of the survival of the fittest, lacking in democratic norms, but the  end justifying the means, with a looming implosion”, he submitted.

Ekpe argued that the true pictures would emerge if Uzodimma’s next political agenda is known – Will he be running for elective office after his governorship or simply interested in installing his successor? Either way, he would want only his trusted allies to hold power as Executive Chairperson or Councillor under the LG’s new financial autonomy dispensation where they would be very influential.

In its reaction to the development, a civil society organisation, the National Youth Alliance (NYA) Imo State chapter described the consensus option as a confrontational attack on the psyche of Imo people and a brutal attack on democracy and rule of law.

According to the NYA Imo  coordinator, Comrade ChinonsoNonsokwa, the consensus option is “…totally unlawful, illegal, undemocratic, unacceptable, tyrannical, dictatorial and grossly dehumanising of all aspirants in that party who truly believed there would be primary election”.

Beyond the controversy over the emergence of  APC candidates, the insecurity challenge has also reared its ugly face as ISIEC recently declared that the  scheduled elections may not hold in three local government councils namely:  Onuimo, Okigwe and Orsu LGAs due to insecurity l.

ISIEC Chairman, Ejiogu, while speaking during an interactive session with the various security outfits in the state, proffered that the major operational challenges facing the Commission in the discharge of its duties ahead of the upcoming elections is protection of staff and  movement of election materials.

He noted that electoral officers cannot get easy access to some LGAs for routine verification of polling units and collation centres in line with operational guidelines.

Nevertheless, the ISIEC boss affirmed that the Saturday, September 21,2024 date for the LG Polls in other LGAs of the State remains sacrosanct in the absence of any circumstances beyond the Commission’s control.

The LG election is definitely an APC affair as the major opposition parties have distanced themselves from it.

Speaking with THISDAY, DrVinUdokwu, the Coordinator of the Rebuild Imo Movement, comprising former Governor EmekaIhedioha’s loyalists that pulled out from the PDP ruled out the participation of the movement in the LG elections which he described as being programmed to produce a predicted outcome.

Udokwu, a former Chief of Staff to former Governor AchikeUdenwa, maintained that it is an established tradition for LG election conducted in a particular state to be won by members of the ruling party in the State.

“The parties which field candidates in these elections fully understand the game and they only use the elections for sensitisation and mobilisation of members, at worst a very popular party may win one or two councillors, but definitely not the chairmanship”.

The Imo State chapter of the Labour Party (LP) has emphatically distanced itself from the election and described the Imo State LG Polls as coronation of selected persons to man the 27 Local Government Councils in the State and not an election.

Speaking exclusively to THISDAY in  Owerri, the Imo LP State Chairman, MrCallistusIhejiagwa maintained that LP chose to boycott the LG elections as it refuses to lend itself to be used to endorse the  shenanigan and coronation of cronies of Governor Uzodimma to man the LG Councils.

“Imo State LP have no confidence in the democratic credentials of Governor Hope Uzodimma and we do not see ISIEC as completely independent. Go and find out, the word on the streets is that Uzodimma and the Imo APC have already compiled a list of those who would be announced as winners in the so-called election. The LP refuses to be part of such coronation. The Party will not lend itself to endorse such shenanigans”, Ihejiagwa stressed.

The LP State Chairman described the electoral process as flawed from the beginning even as he argued that Uzodimma have an agenda for scheduling the LG elections so early in his second term, stressing that in his first four years the Imo governor refused to hold any LG elections.

 Commenting on the forthcoming LG polls, the State Organising Secretary of the APC, Hon IkechukwuUmeh, refuted the allegations that the GovUzodinma has already endorsed certain candidates ahead the September 21 council polls, describing the allegations as false and misleading.

The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the governor on Electronic Media, Ambrose Nwaogwugwu stated: “We want to categorically state that this claim is false and misleading. Governor Uzodimma has not endorsed any aspirant for the elections, neither privately nor publicly.

“There is no list of endorsed aspirants existing anywhere, and the Governor has not made any statements to that effect and will not make”.

Across the State, the political environment is like lifeless ashes after a a big fire as the aspirants wind down on the hitherto hyperactive political activities as they wait directives from the APC leadership.