5 THINGS WE LEARNT FROM THE ANAMBRA GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS [2nd Edition of Frankly Speaking with D1]
*****DISCLAIMER/PROVISO*****The Anambra State Election has come & gone and in the Interim ‘The boys have been separated from the men.’Well, I learnt 1or 2 things so put on your reading glasses,read this with me and as well add your own observations.
The words, allusions and contents of this script solely represents the opinion of the writer with regards to the topic under review and as such should not impliedly instigate a feeling of aversion/hatred on any of the consumers of this piece towards any of the parties involved in this exposition.-D1
1. APGA continues their sequence of ‘O ga-eme gi Vuum n’anya’ in Anambra Politics:
I first heard of the Igbo colloquial expression ‘O ga-eme gi vuum n’anya from my beloved friend; Denze Frank before it was somewhat popularized by rapper phyno in one of his songs.
But be it as it may, the expression ‘O ga-eme gi vuum n’anya’ means in Pidgin English ‘The more you dey look, the less you dey see’ and in proper English language, I can define it as ‘a situation where the outcome of events materialize in such a manner that people are astonished, dumbfounded and are caught unawares as to how the results of a process came to be.
Such was the principle that APGA applied during the just concluded election.
Prior to the election, many pundits made fun of the APGA candidate; chief Willie Obiano.many said he lacked stability in speaking, others said he is a puppet controlled by Peter Obi while the extremists termed him another ‘oga at the top’.
In fact he was summarized as a joker when on the day of the election he proclaimed in his own words “that he’ll win the election with a landslide victory” but lo and behold, the following ‘miracles’ took place around Anambra on the day of the election:
i).The PDP candidate; Comr.Tony Nwoye interalia(among others) discovered that his name and that of his family ‘magically’ vanished from the voter’s register and the polling unit in which he was meant to vote.
ii)Mallam Nasir El-rufai (APC chieftain and supporter of Sen.Chris Ngige )was held incommunicado in his hotel room @ finotel by operatives of the SSS(State Security Service) and freed when the election had been 99.9% concluded.
iii) The E.O (electoral officer) in charge of Idemmili North (Ngige’s purported stronghold) went ‘AWOL’ and consequently obstructed sensitive electoral materials from reaching their various intended polling units in Idemmili L.G.A
iv) The Labour Party Flag-bearer; Dr Ifeanyi Ubah alleged on AIT “that under-aged voters miraculously appeared in Nnewi and other polling units wearing old wigs and apparently voting for the APGA candidate.
v) Chief Willie Obiano declared winner of the Anambra Gubernatorial elections.
My ebullient readers, how else can we describe/define all these magical events than to align it with the words of my friend; Denze-Frank…….’O ga-eme gi vumm n’anya’
2. Money alone does not guarantee political success in Nigeria viz’The Money-Magicians’:
His full name is Dr Patrick Ifeanyi Ebubechukwuzor Ubah and according to www.codewit.com, he was quoted as describing himself as a ‘money-magician’.
Money-magician indeed but if any of my wonderfully made readers think that having money or ‘sarkodeing that u know say money no be problem’ can always assure victory in Nigerian politics, then the person needs to take a closer scrutiny on the man; Dr Ifeanyi Ubah.
He freely gave out money, gave out free food, free engine oil, free indomie and many other freebies but the luxury of free votes eluded him as he only won in Nnewi-north L.G.A out of all the 21 L.G.A’s in Anambra state.(*so much so for being a money-magician*).
I literally put him in my prayers every day because the ‘money-magician’ (Dr Ifeanyi Ubah) currently has his Capital Oil and Gas conglomerate impounded and administrated by AMCON(Asset management corporation of Nigeria) for debt/financial issues. His numerous filling stations are also suffering the same fate.
3. Anambra state PDP lacks cohesion with the National body of PDP:
It is often said “that a soldier who goes to war without a gun will be sent back to his family BID (Brought in Dead).
I draw light from the aforementioned maxim because the PDP Flag-bearer; Comr.Tony Nwoye went into the Anambra election on the back of a highly contested party ticket which afforded him barely 2 weeks for his campaign and mobilization. Though He won the PDP governorship ticket, clearly he didn’t win over all the key players in PDP as the following events will prove:
i) Shortly after the Anambra state gubernatorial election, Comr.Tony Nwoye cried foul that the election was manipulated against him and also announced his intention and that of his party (PDP) to pull out from the INEC proposed supplementary election as the election process was not credible and as such should be cancelled. But the National body of PDP had a contrasting view from that of Comr.Tony Nwoye and announced through its National publicity secretary; Chief Olisa Metuh that the election was credible and that Comr.Tony Nwoye will be contesting in the INEC scheduled supplementary election.
ii) Surprisingly the Director-general of the Tony Nwoye campaign organization; prince Ossy Ezenwa and the director of protocol; Prince Kenneth took an opposing stance from that of the National publicity secretary of PDP by vehemently insisting that Comr.Tony Nwoye will boycott the scheduled supplementary election.
Consequent upon this rift between the National body of PDP and the Tony Nwoye Campaign organization, the state executive of the party announced on the 27th of November, 2013 of the suspension of the Director General of the Tony Nwoye campaign organization; prince Ossy Ezenwa and the director of protocol Chief Kenneth Arinze from the party while emphasizing that Comr.Tony Nwoye would take part in the INEC scheduled supplementary election.
4. INEC is Credible vs. INEC is unreliable:
The adage that “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” will take centre stage here because the credibility and the reliability of INEC vis-à-vis the just concluded Anambra state gubernatorial election is classified based on who benefited from the conduct of the polls and who did not benefit from the polls.
Sen.Chris Ngige said on AIT channel that the disposition of INEC towards him in the Anambra polls was “a systematic and strategic disenfranchisement of his voters” and he afterwards in unison with the candidates of the labour party and the PDP called for the cancellation of the Anambra election as the result lacked credibility and the conduct of the election was not free nor fair.
But sitting on the other side of the divide was the All Progressive Grand Alliance Party (APGA) which spoke through its party chairman; Chief Victor Umeh who said that the Anambra governorship election was free and fair and that the aggrieved contestants have failed to accept defeat in the spirit of sportsmanship. Furthermore, he said that all the complaints from the aggrieved politicians are all based on fabricated documents which do not hold water.
Conclusively, President Goodluck Jonathan did not help matters for the aggrieved governors as he stated that any of the aggrieved contestants that is dissatisfied with the conduct of the election by INEC should stop heating up the polity but instead should head to court. *sounds to me like ‘onye o na-ewe ya wegbuo ya’*
5. Ethnic/Tribalistic sentiments still play a major role in Anambra state politics:
Prior to the announcement of the Anambra state gubernatorial election results, many pundits said that the man to beat in the election was Sen. Chris Ngige. So much so that even Alvan and Mr. Best saturated this blog with news of Sen.Chris Ngige but when the result was announced by INEC, the ‘almighty Ngige’ was not even the second best in the election but he was the 3rd best placed contestant which made me ask this question that I think I have the answer “what went wrong for Sen. Chris Ngige in the just concluded Anambra governorship election”?
The answer to the question that I posed should not be far-fetched cuz I conducted an opinion poll and majority of the response I received pointed to the fact that Sen.Chris Ngige contested for the Anambra state election under a party which many of Ndi-Igbo perceive as a Yoruba party and /or a party that does not have the interest of Ndi-Igbo at heart viz The All Progressive Congress (APC).
Interesting is it not? A man that spoke to Gistmeansu crew on condition of anonymity explained that many Ndi-Igbo felt that Sen.Ngige supported Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state when he deported many Igbo indigenes from Lagos state to Anambra state and that voting for Sen.Chris Ngige is akin to voting for Governor Fashola and the Yorubas.
Another critic of Sen.Chris Ngige made a witty description of this issue by alleging that Sen.Chris Ngige had been re-baptized by the Yorubas to Sen.Chris Olaniyi Olatunde Ngige and that had he voted for Sen.Chris Ngige, he would have given over the control of Anambra state to the yorubas and that instead of him doing that ‘ka O yoor’(let him slump).
Well, if all these uncertified talks are true, then I advise that next time for election, Sen.Chris Ngige should try and join an Igbo political party or better still form his own indigenous political party…….*Igbo tete n’ula party(ITP) might do*.lol
CONCLUSION
The Anambra state gubernatorial election has come and gone. For me, it was an education as apart from the aforementioned experiences, I learnt other things that is obtainable in this ever-changing Nigerian politics and hereby come to the conclusion that:
In the U.S.A=it is politics
In Nigeria=it is poli-tricks
**feel free to add your own observations because till next time we have a date, I am frankly called D1 and you are frankly logged into GISTMEANSU
About the Author
Emekwue Tochukwu, fondly known as D1 is a 400L Law student of Anambra State University Igbariam Campus. He is a regular G.M.A columnist.
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