BY TONY EDIKE
THE 2011 elections in Enugu State was indeed an easy ride for Governor Sullivan Chime and his political camp, which is in total control of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP structure in the state.  The party scored 100 percent in all the elections including the Presidential, Governorship, National and State Assembly.

In the presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan got  802,144 from the state while the PDP cleared all the three Senatorial and eight House of Representatives seats in the National Assembly elections leaving the opposition candidates grumbling far behind.

With the superlative performance of the PDP in the two elections, it was clear that the Governorship and House of Assembly polls would be a walkover for the ruling party which had two major opponents to contend with.  The outcome of Tuesday’s election was therefore not a surprise to the people of the state. Chime swept the polls by scoring 419,790 votes to beat his closest rival, Chief Okey Ezea of Labour Party, who polled 30,135 while the People for Democratic Change, PDC candidate, Dr. Dan Shere occupied the third position with 29,565 votes.

A total of 16 candidates contested the governorship election but apart from the governor-elect (Chime) others performed abysmally.  The PDP also cleared all the 24 House of Assembly seats in the state.

Although some of the opposition parties alleged that elections in the state was characterised by massive irregularities including ballot box stuffing and thumb-printing in favour of PDP, it was evident that the ruling party properly utilised its incumbency powers to dominate the political terrain. The PDP campaigned vigorously for the elections and deployed a lot of resources to the people at the grassroots level who had no option than to reciprocate the government’s gesture with their votes.

The opposition parties especially the PDC which was led by former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani also campaigned and reached out to the people at the grassroots but it could not match the PDP squarely in terms of resources.  The Labour Party also campaigned effectively but had a lot of challenges outside the Enugu North senatorial zone from where its Governorship candidate hails.  The bulk of votes garnered by the party came from Enugu North also known as Nsukka Zone.

The PDC candidate, Dr. Shere also from Nsukka zone, was sponsored by the once famous Ebeano political family which was instrumental to Chime’s victory in 2007 but the group could not make much impact in all the elections conducted in the state in the current dispensation.

Ebeano’s choice of Shere as the PDC governorship flag bearer was based on the political calculations that he could attract the bloc-votes of his people.  But with the emergence of Ezea as Labour Party flag bearer from the same zone, Nsukka people could not speak with one voice in the recent elections.  Their votes were shared between the PDP, PDC and Labour Party with Governor Chime winning in all the six local government areas in the zone.

For the Enugu West which is the governor’s zone, it was not difficult for the PDP to defeat other candidates as the people of the zone expressed through the ballot boxes their determination to retain the governorship seat for another four years.  They voted en masse for Chime to ensure that the zone completes eight years to equal the tenure of Enugu East senatorial zone which produced Chimaroke Nnamani for two terms of eight years.

Enugu West was therefore a no-go area for the opposition candidates in the governorship poll.

The governor’s aides, political appointees as well as local government chairmen within Enugu East senatorial zone also fought gallantly to deliver the votes of Nkanu people to Chime against Senator Nnamani’s favoured candidate.

Chime who was backed by renowned political leaders in Nkanu like former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo and former Deputy Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani had a smooth sail through Nkanu land despite claims by some people in the area that his first four-year term was not beneficial to the zone in terms of infrastructure development.

Beside the popularity and dominance of the PDP in Enugu politics, Chime’s landslide victory in the governorship election could rightly be attributed to the giant strides made by his administration in the last four years.

His government had been generally acclaimed to have performed creditably in the provision of infrastructure especially within the Enugu capital territory, Nsukka and some communities within the three senatorial zones.

Apart from projects executed by his government, most of the local government councils had effectively utilized their funds for the provision of basic infrastructure in the rural communities and this was regarded as a major political gain. Though some political analysts in the state had predicted that

Chime would be re-elected for another term, there were fears before the election that what would be a major obstacle on the way of the governor are the endless legal tussles within the PDP over his nomination for the election. The governor, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and other National Assembly members in the governor’s political camp had been engaged in a protracted legal battle by the splinter group loyal to former PDP National Chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo.