Fresh election for Anambra Central Senatorial District offers a window for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to get its acts right in going for an acceptable candidate, Editor, Politics/Features, EMEKA ALEX DURU, writes.
With the March deadline for fresh election in Anambra Central Senatorial District election drawing near, the battle on who represents Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the encounter resonates. Not that the squabble had entirely ceased before now. Even with the March 28, 2015 National Assembly elections in which Uche Ekwunife had forced herself on the party as its candidate, her short-lived victory was not enough to douse the agitation from other aspirants who had laid claims to the candidacy of the party.
Cases instituted against Ekwunife by her aggrieved colleagues in PDP were, in fact, at various stages in the courts, before the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu nullified her election on grounds of irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
The judgement, which came about following the petitions by All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Victor Umeh, thus, takes the zone back to the blocks for another contest.
In apparent realisation of the obstacles confronting her in PDP, Ekwunife, shortly after the verdict, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in furtherance of her ambition of returning to the Senate. Her exit, initially estimated to douse the tension in PDP, has, however, opened new dimensions in the seeming unceasing politics in the party.
The crux of the matter, this time around, is the modality to select a candidate among the existing aspirants in the absence of Ekwunife.
Kenneth Emeakayi, who was recently upheld by the court as the state chairman of the party, has given indications of the likelihood of the party going for a fresh primary.
“Ordinarily, there wouldn’t have been any need for fresh primaries. But since the court said the primaries were nullified, we have to conduct another one. We shall give everyone a level-playing ground to participate. I wish to appeal to all the aspirants to work together for whoever that emerges as the winner,” he told members of the party.
But the concern by stakeholders is that a fresh primary may open up the existing cleavages in the party. Uduak Udom, a lawyer, who wrote on the issue, argued that a fresh primary by the party may see it playing into the hands of Umeh, the APGA candidate.
According to him, “it will be legally dangerous for the PDP to hold a new primary because such will most likely be struck down by the courts in the suit that Chief Victor Umeh of APGA has threatened to file in the event that PDP proceeded with a new primary”.
There is also the fear that the aspirants with pending issues in the court may latch onto them to frustrate the efforts of the party in this regard.
Suggestions have, thus, been on the party picking a candidate from among the aspirants that ran with Ekwunife to fill the slot. These include Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, political scientist and founder of Nigeria-Belgium Business Forum (NBBF); Annie Okonkwo, erstwhile senator, who had at a time defected to APC; and Sylvester Okonkwo.
Each aspirant comes around with a rich resume that can earn him the party’s ticket. They have their individual network of contacts and relative financial war chest. These notwithstanding, analysts have urged the party to consider the ability of the eventual candidate to deliver victory in a contest with Umeh and APC candidate.
Some critical factors are thrown up as issues of consideration in arriving at a possible candidate. Among these are the antecedents of each aspirant, his acceptability ratio in his immediate constituency and loyalty to the ideals of the party.
On account of experience, Annie Okonkwo looks good for the encounter, having been in the Senate before. Supporters describe him as being level-headed.
Critics, however, accuse him of not being a good party man. They recall, for instance, that the erstwhile lawmaker has travelled from PDP to Accord Party (AP) to Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA) to APGA to APC and back to PDP. To them, therefore, he is seen as political adventurer who is in regular contest purely for his interest and not on basis of any identifiable ideology. These are the factors currently haunting Ekwunife in APC.
To a reasonable extent, Sylvester Okonkwo is seen as a loyal party man, having kept faith with PDP all the while. In the build-up to the March 2015 elections, however, there were allegations that his aspiration was at the prompting of former Akwa Ibom State governor and current Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio.
That tag of external sponsorship readily presented him as a stranger to the Anambra Central electorate. He has curiously not done much in the intervening period to establish his independence in going for the race.
He is also from the same ward with Annie, a factor that many say may see the latter working against him if he emerges the candidate. The two are said to be in the race essentially to settle scores with each other.
This is, perhaps, where Obiora comes in. He is also seen as a bridge-builder in Anambra politics, given his friendly disposition to the various tendencies in the state’s wing of the PDP.
In addition, coming from a state where the church is a critical factor in political calculations, his position as political and economic adviser to the Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha and Metropolitan of Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province stands to his advantage. In his last outing, he was said to have received the endorsement of the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion for the job.
Obiora’s leadership of Nzuko Ime Obi, the umbrella group of leading political and economic elite in Idemili North and South councils of the state, is also a factor that the PDP may give consideration at the primaries. The area, which is known for its dense population, has always played significant role in emergence of any winner in Anambra governorship or Anambra Central senatorial contest.
It is said to account for almost 50 per cent of votes in the seven councils in the zone. Supporters of GreenLife Pharmaceuticals boss, who had earlier received endorsement by traditional rulers from the zone on account of his development politics, count on the block votes from the area to swing victory for PDP, if he eventually emerges the candidate of the party.
He has a pre-election subsisting suit praying the court to declare him the lawful candidate. The argument therefore is that since his suit is still pending, it may be legally safer for the PDP to submit his name as the candidate, given also that he was produced by the recognised faction of the party in the state in the last primary election.
How these considerations affecting each aspirant may come to play in PDP settling for a candidate for the poll may be seen in the days ahead.
