Next year’s election has the potential to make or break politicians across party lines. By the time the ballots are cast in February and winners and losers emerge, the grain will be separated from the chaff.
In the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), or in any other party, the boys will be isolated from the men.
By then, the shenanigans called endorsement would have been forgotten or meaningless. Those who had thought that endorsement would be the most potent vehicle for winning election would have discovered that in a democracy in particular, and politics in general, there is more to the game than the endorsement of candidates.
After the vote must have been conducted, most senators who loomed large in the Upper Chamber, not because of what they offered their states and zones, but because of how they enriched themselves to the detriment of the electorate, will drop off for those who know why voters send them to Abuja.
I have an idea of those seeking elective offices who will win and those who will not, at least from the South East. I also have an idea of politicians who will give their best shot at the assignment if they get elected as governors, senators, House of Representatives or House of Assembly members.
I am constrained to focus here on Anambra State, for obvious reasons. Not just because it is the only state under the control of APGA, but because the time to test the strength of Governor Willie Obiano is now.
What happens next year will help determine the staying power of Obiano as the leader and Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of APGA.
It will show how better he would perform than his predecessor in ensuring that the fortunes of APGA in the state do not dwindle further in terms of building party structures, helping more credible and qualified Anambrarians and other APGA members from other parts of the country, particularly the South East where the party’s strength is to pursue their political careers.
The mistake Obiano will make is to allow those running for elective offices in his state to go it all alone. That has always been the bane of the party since the days of his predecessor. APGA aspirants are abandoned like orphans.
I have been watching developments regarding APGA members from Anambra who will be standing for election to represent the state in the Senate and how political jobbers have been blackmailing such individuals.
It is not out of the ordinary that the plot to undermine potential Anambra senators comes from the high and mighty in the state and from the usual political quarters outside the state because they know they will win.
I have interacted with a cross section of Anambrarians and what they are telling me about Victor Umeh, Ernest Ndukwe and Dubem Obaze’s senatorial candidacies is quite encouraging and raises hope of a stronger APGA and better Anambra State under the party. But Obiano has to seize the moment.
It behooves him to equally listen to genuine people and ensure he invests in a team that will ultimately benefit him next year when the polls would have been conducted and APGA candidates declared winners.
I am not the one saying Umeh, Ndukwe and Obaze have records of achievements for state and community, been tested in several spheres of responsibility, and by extension, are committed to improving the lot of APGA as the conscience of the Igbo nation. A number of Anambra indigenes, in and out of politics, have attested to that fact.
Umeh in particular does not need introduction, having fought through thick and thin as APGA national chairman to ensure it remains a party the Igbo are proud to identify as theirs.
Obiano’s wife, Ebele, is one of those who have seen the potential in Umeh and the need to harness it. That is why she has asked the people of Anambra Central Senatorial Zone to vote for him.
At the 10th Deanery Convention of the Catholic Women Organisation, Awka Diocese held at Madonna Catholic Church, Agulu last week, Ebele appealed to the people to elect Umeh because his aspiration for the senatorial seat is for the collective interest.
She described Umeh as a courageous fighter, saying he has ensured the survival of APGA and the Anambra State government amid all odds since the party clinched power in the state.
But that is not the issue. The point, really, is that Obiano as governor needs to work hard to ensure that his party wins all the seats in the three senatorial zones in Anambra, the way he must work flat out to ensure the victory of APGA candidates for the House of Representatives.
As long as the federal system of government subsists, there must be synergy between the executive and the legislature at the centre, and the support the Anambra State government gives the three senatorial candidates now will determine the feedback.
What Obiano in Awka will achieve working with Umeh, Obaze and Ndukwe at the Senate as well as with other APGA candidates vying for the House of Representatives is better imagined if they can work together prior to the election.
It is not enough for Obiano to nickname Umeh Ogbunigwe (Biafran weapon of war known for its potency in mass destruction) when Umeh hosted friends recently in Abuja after his conferment as Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR).
Obiano should find out why that name has stuck with Umeh in the past few years that he has been one of the minders of APGA.
Four years after Maximus Uba
It is four years tomorrow, December 8 when news of the death of a young promising social critic and freelance journalist, Maximus Uba, left family and friends disconsolate.
He died in an auto accident in the Kubwa/Gwarimpa axis in Abuja while returning from where he went to drop the wife off to work.
Some alleged assassination. Only God knows what happened, but we are optimistic that one day, the real cause of his death will surface.
He died in his prime at 46. However, the name he made for himself in the short period he lived and his impact on society cannot be quantified.
Maxi, as he was fondly called, endeared himself to the low and the high, and plied his image-making and journalism profession with so much dignity that nobody could ignore him.
Across the length and breadth of the country; among political, business, cultural and religious circles, he was not afraid to deploy his pen to fight injustice.
In his state, Imo; senatorial zone, Owerri; federal constituency, Ahiazu/Ezinihitte and local government, Ahiazu; where all manner of characters jostling for political offices are back in the silly season of politics with all its shenanigans, Maxi is being missed.
If he were alive he would have stood his ground to resist the ambition of some politicians whose only achievement is to undermine the common people whose interest they ought to protect.
He was that bold. But as the saying goes in Igbo, the yam of he who is not there roasts on one side.
I am encouraged that his wife, Lizzy, and their daughter, Ezinne, are doing well and are not relenting to ensure that the good work he started is sustained. That is a great way of reminding us that, politics or not, Maximus is still around.