Abia LG Poll: Decimation of a Ruling Party

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo writes about the Abia state local government council election held recently the outcome of which saw the ruling party, the Labour Party, being thoroughly humiliated by unknown Zenith Labour Party.

On Saturday, November 2, 2024 voters in Abia State went to the poll and elected a new set of 17 Local Government Chairmen and their Deputies. It was the first time such a  democratic election of leaders would happen in the Abia grassroots governments. In this new dispensation they have been christened Mayors and Deputy Mayors by Governor Alex Otti and the nomenclature has officially been stamped by the State House of Assembly with the amendment of the Abia State Local Administration Law last month.

The outcome of the 2024 Abia LG poll as announced by the Chairman of the Abia State Independent Electoral Commission(ABSIEC), Professor George Chima on the night of the election day appeared startling.

Zenith Labour Party(ZLP), a hitherto unknown political party in Abia won 15 out of the 17 available chairmanship seats, while the Young Progressives Party (YPP) collected the the remaining two. The little success recorded by YPP was understandable as the party had won two House of Assembly seats in the 2023 general election, though the lawmakers later melted into the ruling LP. 

No other party tasted victory of any sort among the 15 political parties that ABSIEC claimed to have participated in the LG poll. Even the ruling Labour Party was no where in contention for victory in the poll.

So, how was it possible for ZLP to supplant LP,  the party of the Abia Governor. LP has been swirling in leadership crisis at the national level which snowballed to Abia, the only state under its control. The Labour Party in Abia State was torn between Governor Otti and Ceekay Igara, the National Vice-chairman, Southeast, of LP and a staunch loyalist of Julius Abure.

Otti was at the vanguard of the expanded stakeholders’ meeting in September, 2024 which he hosted in Umuahia. It was at the meeting that Abure and his National Working Committee(NWC) members were ousted and replaced with a Caretaker Committee headed by Senator Esther Nenadi Usman.

As an aggrieved person, Igara stuck with Abure his co-traveller in the survival fight hence his estrangement with his own governor as they battled for the control of Abia LP. Governor Otti was obviously having the upper hand in the fight during the period the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) treated Abure as pariah and denied him recognition as LP National Chairman.

But the pendulum later swung in Abure’s favour when INEC eventually accorded him recognition in obedience to Appeal Court verdict. This development strengthened the hand of Igara in his battle with Otti for the soul of Abia LP. The Abia LG election, therefore became a test ground to determine who was in charge. The Abia LP under the leadership of Otti with Emmanuel Nweze Oti as acting state chairman was selling nomination forms while Igara was also issuing forms to those in his camp. Basking on his new-found strength embedded in Abure’s leadership, Igara warned the rival LP camp that any candidate not nominated by his group for the Abia LG poll would be disqualified. He specifically stated that his LP faction would go to court and nullify any victory recorded by candidates from the “factional” LP platform backed by the governor.

Faced with unpleasant prospect of losing out if he stuck to using LP as platform for his loyalists to contest the LG election, Otti did a fast political calculation. He remembered what his Rivers State counterpart, Siminalayi Fubara did when it turned out that the platform of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) was becoming shaky to be used for the LG poll in his state. In like manner, Otti turned to an opposition party to provide the vehicle that would convey his loyalists to Abia LGCs as elected officials. In fact he has always expressed his belief that political parties are nothing but vehicles to use for election purposes. Otti chose ZLP as the vehicle for use in the council poll. He, therefore, directed the chairmanship and councillorship candidates that had already emerged from his LP faction to migrate to his adopted ZLP. Igara was thus left with a hollow carcass of LP.

That was how ZLP, a party that was virtually non-existent in Abia waxed so strong overnight to sweep the LG polls. Because of the veiled backing of Otti, ZLP was the only party that officially launched its campaign for the LG poll. Bustling with new life, Otti’s proxy party on Thursday, October 24, 2024, loudly proclaimed its readiness for the poll at a huge rally held at the Enyimba International Stadium, Aba.

The fact that the party was allowed to use this government-owned sports facility, in addition to the elaborate coverage and celebration of the event in Abia government media sent strong message of government backing. Thus, as light in the LP camp has going out, the spark in ZLP kept glowing increasingly to make the party a shinning star. Governor Otti was obviously working behind the scene to ensure the success of ZLP at the LG poll. This could have given the Abia Chairman of ZLP, Prince Onukwue the assured hope and confidence when he declared at the rally that his party would come out tops at the poll on November 2.

His prediction eventually came to pass. Though Otti didn’t openly canvass for votes on behalf of his adopted party, his body language spoke volumes about his love for this adopted child of political circumstance.

During the inauguration of the elected Mayors and their Deputies on Monday, November 4, the Abia Governor acknowledged that it was at his instance that candidates that used other parties outside LP recorded success at the LG poll.

“At the beginning of this process”, he said, “I had charged every interested contestant to join any party of their choice”. Without specifically mentioning LP,  the Abia Governor said that he had “realised that a few parties have leadership crises that I didn’t think should be imported into this process(LG poll)”. The other party in crisis aside from LP is APGA, which has two factions with Sunday Onukwubiri and Ben Onuoha in contention as to who should be the authentic state chairman.

It was really a gamble for Otti to have gone for ZLP with obscure presence in Abia. How could its symbol have even been known to the Abia voters to the extent of recognising it within such short time frame before the poll. But Otti explained that his past political experience had made him to understand the voting behaviour of the Abia electorate. According to him, “our people have always voted candidates and not necessarily parties”. This explained why he merely told voters to vote for candidates that “shared our vision” for Abia development.

Otti had also  asked voters “to vote the best candidates irrespective of political parties”.  The location of those best candidates that share in the vision of his administration was never in doubt as the unseen finger steadily pointed in the direction of ZLP.

So, it didn’t matter that Otti did not tell LP supporters to vote for LP candidates. Otti cited his electoral outing as a governorship candidate in 2015 to illustrate how Abia voters behave. He pointed out that the outcome of that election was a “clear proof” that parties matter less in Abia State when it comes to casting of ballots. He said: “My carefully chosen candidates at that time won almost 50% of the House of Assembly seats from a party(APGA) that had not won a councillorship seat in the state prior to then”.

At the end of the day, Otti felt hugely satisfied and elated that his gamble had paid off. He enthused that even though the elected Council Chairmen “have emerged from different political platforms, the agenda remains the same: Abia first”.

Both the government and the state electoral body are clinking glasses in celebration of peaceful and successful conduct of the LG poll. The ABSIEC Chairman, Prof Chima after declaring the results announced that “we have carried out the duty we were inaugurated on September 5 to undertake”. He said that “it was not an easy task, but we went out on our way to create awareness about the election across the state”, adding that the poll was free, fair and credible.

“It must be noted that, in recent times, this Commission has not conducted an election where over 12 political parties took part; this on its own is a plus to the Commission,” the ABSIEC boss said.

Otti agreed with Chima, saying the state electoral umpire did “an excellent job of conducting a very free and fair electoral exercise”.

The  Forum of State Independent Electoral Commissions of Nigeria (FOSIECON) has also accorded credibility to the Abia LG poll as credible. A delegation of the body led by the Chairman of the Sokoto Independent Electoral Commission(SIEC), Hon Sidi Ibrahim Mukhtar, came calling waving cheerleaders’ floral bunch to commend Governor Otti for conducting a free and fair poll. The group was on a working visit to the Abia Governor at his Umuehim Nvosi country home, Isiala Ngwa South LG, barely 24 hours after the poll. Mukhtar said “we observed the election” and based on what they saw, congratulated the Abia Governor “for conducting a successful free and fair election”.

But in the opposition camp, the perception of the outcome of the 2024 Abia LG election was different. The verdict was also damning. Members of the main opposition PDP were of the view that the outcome was already predetermined before the polling day.

A former Commissioner for information in the last administration, Chief John Okiyi Kalu described the poll as a “charade”, adding that in the few areas where there were some semblance of voting, there was no reflection of the ballots cast in the results announced. Two regular opposition voices on radio, Ugochukwu Emezue, who was a former Commissioner for Documentation and Ifeanyi Umere, a PDP state assembly aspirant in 2023 have continued to insist that the results were “written” before the polls.

The Abia PDP which was the ruling party in the state for more than two decades, had gone into the council election with the high hope of posting a good result after losing power to the opposition LP 17 months ago. But it came out of the duel thoroughly humiliated without winning even a single councillorship seat. The All Progressives Congress(APC) appeared to have correctly read the handwriting on the wall. It saw the humiliation coming and ducked out of the poll. The party had publicly announced that it would not participate in the Abia LG election, citing the short period of time given for preparation. In addition, the Abia APC chairman, Dr Kingsley Ononogbu said ABSIEC did not invite his party to the stakeholders meeting where the election date and timetable were announced on September 21, 2024. The ABSIEC timetable had required the parties to start their primaries just four days after the election date was announced.

Despite opting out of the poll, APC still appeared on the ballot papers and was even credited with winning a councillorship seat at Isuochi in Umunneochi Local Government without fielding a candidate. The electoral body has not explained why APC got on the ballot papers. But the State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Uzor Nwachukwu offered an explanation, saying ABSIEC might have printed the ballot papers before APC announced its non-participation in the poll. Nonetheless, this explanation can only be plausible if it is established that the Abia electoral umpire had gone into the printing of the ballot papers immediately after it announced the date of the election.

Whatever its flaws, the 2024 Abia LG poll has passed off as having ushered into office elected officials in the state local government administration. Otti was in reality compelled to conduct the poll by the Supreme Court judgement which recognised the autonomy of the third tier of government. The attendant threat of possible withholding of federal allocations of LGs in states with unelected council executives, forced Otti, like some other governors to hurriedly organise council polls. But in Abia the outcome has brought unintended consequences on the ruling party. The Labour Party is now decimated in Abia. The party, now the biggest loser in the LG poll, will in due course, sing its Nunc dimittis by the time Governor Otti would officially pull out of the fractious party and officially embrace the ZLP.