By Tiko Okoye
In the very early hours of Wednesday, November 10, 2021, Professor Florence Banku Obi, vice-chancellor of the University of Calabar and INEC returning officer for the Anambra guber poll, finally announced the results and declared the winner. This came several hours after the supplementary election was conducted a day before in the Ihiala LGA, the only one among the 21 LGAs of the state where elections did not hold on Saturday, November 6.
Forget the pretentious and hypocritical mantra of “No Victor, No Vanquished” readily spewed by loquacious victors seeking to showcase their ‘magnanimity in victory.’ Truth is that every contest or tug-of-war among living organisms produces winners and losers, and the recently-concluded Anambra governorship election is no different.
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I can boldly declare without fear or favour that the major winners include Ndi Anambra; the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Chukwuma Soludo; Military and security formations; and the Indigenous Peoples Organisation Of Biafra (IPOB); and that major losers include the All Progressives Congress (APC); Peter Obi; Andy Uba; Chris Ngige; and Uche Ekwunife.
First, the major winners:
Given the frightening incidences of killings and destruction of public buildings and infrastructure that were breaking out like rashes in Anambra state during the runup to the election, many pundits and commentators predicted that rivers of blood would flow through the streets if IPOB insisted on the observance of its lockdown order. The order was lifted a day or two to the polling day and enough Anambrarians showed up at the polling units to keep the flame of democratic mores and practices burning bright – a victory for Democracy!
And despite the dispersed reports of voter apathy, vote-buying, late delivery of materials, and malfunctioning of few BVAS machines, the election turned out to be anything but shambolic. Kudos to the electoral umpire for safely retrieving the bacon from the fire considering the potentially incendiary conditions under which the election was conducted. It would seem that APGA has yet again proven to be the political cat with nine lives.
Truth is that Governor Willie Obiano lost part of the overflowing goodwill that saw him set a precedence by winning all 21 LGAs when he sought reelection four years back. Not a few pundits predicted that with the supersized stature of his estranged political godfather, Peter Obi, looming imperiously over the former’s shoulders, APGA and Obiano would be swept into the dustbin of history in the only state that the party currently controls.
Chukwuma Soludo won 19 out of the 21 LGAs, scored at least 25% of the votes cast in all 21 LGAs, and polled nearly half of the total valid votes cast to consign his closest rivals – PDP’s Valentine Ozigbo and APC’s Andy Uba – to distant second and third positions respectively. Soludo was first drafted into the race in 2010 by powers-that-be in the PDP to contest against APGA’s Peter Obi and received a well-deserved shellacking. By a strange twist of fate, Soludo has found himself in APGA just as Obi migrated to PDP. So, for Soludo, English poet Robert Browning’s postulation that “A minute’s success pays the failure of years” rings particularly trite and poignant.
Despite the pockets of electoral malfeasances, the military and security formations should be lauded for performing the seemingly Sisyphean assignment of creating a semblance of assured safety for voters who tremulously walked to their polling units to exercise their franchise not initially certain of the fate that awaited them. They are hardly remembered when such events conclude without major hiccups but are pilloried if things turnout contrariwise.
IPOB equally deserves plaudits for lifting the one-week lockdown it earlier declared. Although many prospective voters still dismissed the reversal as fake news and chose not to take the risk of leaving their homes, that their picketing enforcers and/or associated militant groups opted to allow sleeping dogs to lie largely created a congenial and conducive environment for the poll to be conducted.
Now for the major losers:
There can be no gainsaying the fact that APC lost big time, and that along with the loss bookmakers would be offering very long odds on the possibility of the South-East producing the President in 2023. The party has been taking gargantuan steps to make major inroads into the zone. It retained a governor through a highly contested electoral process in Imo and gained a governor via defection in Ebonyi. An All Progressives Congress (APC) governor in Anambra would’ve been the clincher and a solid case would arguably have been made for the 2023 presidential ticket to be allotted to the South-East.
But given how the results panned out, it is now clearly a case of “To your tents O Israel!” Why? Because I remain fully persuaded – for cogent reasons outside the context and scope of this essay – that as long as the coalition that made Muhammadu Buhari a winner in 2015 and 2019 remains united, it would be near impossible for the PDP to make a real difference with a presidential candidate from any section of Nigeria, talk less the South-East.
The men and women of political timber and calibre whose stature and stock were significantly diminished and depleted by the victory of APGA and Soludo include former Anambra State Governor and PDP vice-presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Peter Obi; former Anambra State Governor and current Minister of Labour and Productivity, Sen. Chris Ngige; serial governorship aspirant and APC candidate in the November 2021 poll, Sen. Emmanuel Nnamdi ‘Andy’ Uba; and the effervescent and irrepressible serial governorship candidate and party ratter, Lolo (Sen.) Uche Ekwunife.
The nexus between all the foregoing political colossi – so they at least seem on paper and personal recognition – is that they not only lost their political strongholds to other party candidates, but have been consistently failing to deliver their local government areas to their parties in not less than two past governorship election cycles that they – except Peter Obi – actually participated as candidates! It goes without saying that a wannabe political godfather or godmother who cannot readily be counted on to deliver his or her electoral constituency is just a paper tiger to be sniggered and snickered at behind the scenes by fellow party members in particular and the electorate at large. For the avoidance of any doubt, the constituencies of the affected individuals are as follows: Obi (Anaocha LGA); Ngige (Idemili North & South LGAs); Uba (Aguata, Orumba North & South LGAs); and Ekwunife (Njikoka LGA).
There can be no gainsaying that the election reflects the overwhelming sacred mandate of Ndi Anambra and a clarion call to exemplary service. Those thinking of challenging the results should perish the thought and give peace a chance, their inalienable right to litigate their defeat notwithstanding. But if they persist in their dog-in-a-manger attitude, then I must appeal to the Supreme Court Justices to set a landmark precedence by refusing to hear the cases if they finally get to them without offering any reasons, just as occasionally happens in the USA.
While congratulating Soludo on his well-deserved victory, let me also remind him of the wise words of Russian-born American composer Israel Berlin: “The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.” May his road be rough!
Okoye, a public affairs analyst and financial inclusion expert, wrote in from Abuja.
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