By Emmanuel Aziken & Charles Kumolu

Willie Obiano
Before now he was rarely known in the political circles, a reason why he was considered a greenhorn when he emerged as the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance,APGA, at the primaries.
Obiano hails from Aguleri in Anambra North Senatorial District. He holds a B.sc degree in Accounting from the University of Lagos, where he graduated with second class Upper.

Obiano started his banking career in First Bank in 1981 from where he moved to Texaco Nigeria Plc as an accountant. He later rose to  become Chief Internal Auditor of the company. He is a specialist in Bunkering, Lube-blending and Refinery Audits.  He was part of the team that audited Texaco Refinery in Rotadam, Netherlands in 1989.

He has chaired and is still chairing many cultural and professional groups. He has been President AMP (Advance Management Programme) of Lagos Business School for ten years running. He is also a 2006 BNV (Building New Ventures) CLASS member of Harvard Business School, Boston USA. He is also the patron of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (Lagos Mainland District) and National Youth Council of Nigeria, Anambra East Chapter.

Chris Ngige
DESPITE governing Anambra State illegally, Dr. Chris Ngige continues to be a household name in Anambra State.
Onwa as he is popularly known drew attention to himself when he fought the political kingmakers who earlier drafted him in as governor of the state in 2003.

Ngige who presently represents the Anambra Central Senatorial district in the Senate was born on   August 8, 1952 in Alor.

Ngige, APC; Obiano, APGA; Nwoye, PDP; Uba, Labour

He graduated as a medical student from University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) in 1979 and subsequently went into the civil service and retired in 1998 as a Deputy Director in the Federal Ministry of Health.

His interest in politics and power may have been inspired by his time in the federal civil service as he variously served as a doctor in the National Assembly and State House clinics before his retirement.

He joined the PDP once he left the government and served variously as the Assistant National Secretary and Southeast Zonal Secretary of the party.

In 2002 he bought the PDP form to contest the Senate Anambra Central Senate seat but before the primaries he was drafted in as the party’s gubernatorial candidate. His election and his term in office was characterized by intrigues that peaked with his abduction on July 10, 2003.

His election was annulled by the Court of Appeal on March 15, 2006 which affirmed that the APGA candidate, Mr. Peter Obi was the genuine winner of the election.

His attempt at winning back the governorship was botched when he lost to the incumbent. He, however, defeated Prof. Dora Akunyili in the senatorial race for Anambra Central Senatorial District.

Tony Nwoye
Comrade Nwoye who was born as a twin on 13th September 1974 is the youngest of the major candidates in this Saturday’s election. He is from Offianta Nsugbe in Anambra East Local Government Area and made a name for himself as a dogged student and youth activist who eventually broke the ceiling to become the first and so far, only Igbo man to serve as President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS.

Tony by his strides became a household name in youth leadership and movement in the country and was eventually elected the Assistant Secretary of the state chapter of the PDP in 2005.

By 2006, he rose from that office to become the substantive Chairman of the State Executive Committee of the Anambra State PDP at the young age of 31, making him the youngest State Chairman of a political party in the entire nation.

His famed prowess in grassroots mobilization was a factor in the PDP’s sweep of the 2007 elections in Anambra State.

In 2011, Nwoye contested and won a seat in the House of Representatives to represent Anambra East/West constituency, but his inauguration has until date been frustrated by the divisive politics in the state chapter of the PDP.

Tony has served the nation in various capacities some of which include:

2004: Member, Presidential Committee against illegal arms and violent crimes.

2005: Member, National Political Reform Conference (Constitutional Conference)

2006: None Executive Director, Hadejiya Jamaare River Basin Kano, Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

He is the owner and non executive Director of Vintage Consolidated Ltd, a construction, building and Engineering company.

He is also a trustee of many NGO’s.

He is a devout Catholic and is married with children.

Ifeanyi Ubah
Chief Ifeanyi Ubah in an interview had described himself as a money magician. Many who read him may have been amazed, but a study of the trajectory of the Nnewi born businessman through the West African sub region in Ghana, Liberia through Central Africa and back to Nigeria would confound skeptics.

Born on September 3, 1971 to school teachers, Ifeanyi early in life set his orientation towards business and by 18 had launched himself as a major exporter of tyres from Nigeria to Ghana and subsequently branching towards other Anglophone countries in the region, notably, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

His blossoming business in Liberia was, however, cut short by the civil war forcing a temporary relocation to Lagos, Nigeria.

After a short while in Nigeria, Ubah relocated to the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC from where he built a multi-million dollar business with interests in minerals and other investments.

He was also the President of the Nigerian Community in that country. As in Liberia, the war in DRC forced him to relocate to Lagos, Nigeria where he now permanently settled and built his multi-billion naira business around oil and gas with the flags-ship company Capital Oil and Gas.