Anambra 2025: As Parties Prepare for April Guber Primary

David-Chyddy Eleke takes a look at the political atmosphere in Anambra State and also reveals what to expect as the electorates prepare for gubernatorial election in November, 2025.

On November 8, 2025, the people of Anambra State will be faced with the task of electing a new governor for an initial four-year tenure, or to re-elect Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the incumbent governor of the state to complete his second term.

Though the governor has not declared his intention to re-contest, there are multiple evidences that he will be seeking for a second term in the election. Anambra became the first state to open the gate for off-season election after Mr Peter Obi in 2006 sacked a sitting governor, Dr Chris Ngige, and also went ahead in 2007 to win a case of tenure interpretation, after he was pushed aside, and a fresh election conducted, leading to the swearing in of Senator Andy Uba. Since after then, about seven more states have long joined the off season election, and they include; Bayelsa, Imo, Ondo, Edo, Kogi, Ekiti, and Osun States.

As the state prepares for elections, political parties and politicians have begun preparations for the exercise. Though there are still over 20 active political parties in Nigeria, after the 2019 general election where about 70 of them were deregistered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but out of the 20, only a very minute number have noticeable structures in Anambra State. Some of those with structures in the state include the state’s ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP), which is being championed by former governor Peter Obi, whose popularity  across the state rubbed off on the party in the state, All Progressives Congress (APC), whose clout as the country’s ruling party has engineered its dominance in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which once ruled the state, and the Young Progressives Party (YPP), which was popularized by late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, who produced two house of representatives members through the party and also about three house of assembly members, before leaving to join the APC.

By April, 2025, all the parties will be holding their primary election to choose a candidate to rival the incumbent governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. There is no doubt that the ruling APGA will field Soludo for the contest. Already, a source within the party told THISDAY recently that the party has barred other intending aspirants from picking its governorship forms, to give the incumbent an edge to emerge. It was also gathered that the agreement was reached because of what was considered to be the very beautiful and captivating performance of the governor so far.

In PDP, only one aspirant, Hon Jude Ezenwafor purchased its forms, and even though he has been routed to be a place holder for another aspirant in another party, the party is no longer considered a viable option to actualize a governorship dream in the state.

The parties that are considered to be viable and likely to make a strong showing in the contest to rival the APGA and her candidate, Prof Soludo are the Labour Party and the APC. Both parties would be holding their primary elections on April 4 and 5 respectively.

While the Labour Party has two noticeable aspirants, for the contest; Mr John Nwosu and Dr George Moghalu, the APC has the highest number of aspirants, seven in all. They include Sir Paul Chukwuma, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, Mr Valentine Ozigbo, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, Mr Edozie Madu, Engr Johnbosco Onunkwo and Hon Chuma Umeoji.

On the other hand, the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance is not relenting in consolidating it’s hold on the State. Currently, after the first tenure of Prof Soludo next year, APGA would have ruled Anambra State for an unbroken record of 20 years. To ensure that this record is not broken under his watch, Soludo will be angling for a second term victory, and also be looking forward to hand the baton to another APGA governor after his second term.

He believes that his employers are the people, and that if they okay him for a second term, he will continue. To ensure that he gets the nod of the people, he has been taking groups on a tour of his projects across the state, as a way to appeal to them for a second term. During a media chat to mark his three years in office recently, Soludo said: “The people of Anambra State are my employers, it is in their hands to assess what I have done in the last three years and also ask me to go for a second term. On the other hand, I say, there is no room for private candidacy, so if my party the All Progressives Grand Alliance decides to nominate me to run again, I will graciously accept the offer.”

Already, both the people of Anambra State and members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, and its leadership seem to be in agreement for Soludo to run for a second term. There are currently over 30 support groups in the state, with different names, but same ideology of continuity, all begging the governor to run again. Recently, one of the groups, which is mostly students-based and has its root in Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Igbariam, which is owned by the state government – pledged to buy the APGA governorship nomination and expression of interest forms for the governor.

As other political parties make plans to unsit Soludo, the governor himself has boasted that none of those in the race in all the other political parties has the capacity to remove him. He continues to preach that Anambra is an APGA land, and that the people of the state are so politically aware that they can choose to vote for any candidate in a federal election, but when it comes to the governorship, they choose to stand with APGA.

Asked during a media chat if he was not scared of the political heavy weights in other political parties, Soludo said: “If there is an election, I mean there will be an election, and if I am the candidate, I will be on the ballot, and then I ask: who else is running? Which party is fielding a candidate? So far, unless the person will come down from somewhere but so far, I have not heard of any”.

The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria said he has gotten calls to run for a second term but his party would take the decision on who becomes the flag bearer.

Anambra is a state whose politics has become peculiar for a number of reasons. The state is noted for the number of billionaires it has, and in same way, its politics has always been a way its people showcase their stupendous wealth through spendings. While a number of issues will shape this year’s election, some of them include the zoning formula in the state which other political parties have discarded as a making of the rulling APGA, and the entrenchment of religion into politics, where the state has always been ruled by Catholics, who form the larger chunk of the population of the state, with the Anglican Communion always playing the deputy role.