Major stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Anambra State put aside their historical differences last Saturday to enthrone a new state executive of the party. The notable exceptions were Chief Chris Uba and Comrade Tony Nwoye.

•Emeakayi: Anambra PDP chairman

By Vincent Ujumadu

For the first time since the current democratic dispensation, the Anambra State branch of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, held a peaceful congress, with most of the major stakeholders in the state participating directly or indirectly and ensuring that their foot soldiers formed part of the 27 –member state executive committee.

The only PDP group that stayed away was that loyal to Chief Tony Nwoye, the party’s governorship candidate in the 2013 election in the state and even at that, the group did not interfere with the process.

Expectedly, Prince Kenneth Emeakayi from Anambra South senatorial zone, who was the former state chairman of the party and who was supported by the national publicity secretary of PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, emerged the state chairman.

Though Emeakayi was the only aspirant for the position, the delegates from all the 326 wards who were elected during the ward and local government congresses conducted earlier last week, still cast their votes as required by the party’s guidelines. At the end of the exercise, Emeakayi polled 958 votes, while nine votes were voided. The administrative secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the state, Mr. Godfrey Nsofor and other officials from the commission monitored the congress.

Before the congress, Nwoye and his group held series of press conferences calling for the postponement of the exercise to give aspirants more time to purchase and complete their nomination forms. Nwoye’s reason was that the national secretariat of the party did not give enough time, as the notice for the congress was published on a Thursday and election fixed for the following Tuesday, with the two working days in between – Friday and Monday – being public holidays for the celebration of Edel Fitri.

Similarly, some of the stakeholders allegedly tried to stop the exercise via the courts, but were unsuccessful and therefore decided to team up with the Metuh group.

Metuh, it was gathered, was able to convince the major stakeholders at a meeting held at his Nnewi country home before the state congress, that the cap for the state chairman fitted Emeakayi properly as he was seen as the best grassroots politician in the state capable of mobilizing the people anytime, anywhere for the party.

He was also said to have informed them that having been a consistent PDP stakeholder since the formation of the party, he was the only person capable of reaching out to both his admirers and aggrieved members of the party to unite for the great task ahead.

With most of them agreeing with Metuh, the next issue was allocation of positions to supporters of the stakeholders, which was also successfully done. So, while Metuh himself produced the state chairman, former Governor Peter Obi produced the state secretary in the person of Chief Joe Martins Uzodike, while Senator Andy Uba produced Chief Egwuoyibo Okoye, who emerged the financial secretary.

Similarly, Senator Stella Oduah produced the deputy chairman, Mr. Goddy Ejiofor, while Senator Uche Ekwunife was said to have nominated Mr. Mike Ikebundu, who was elected the vice chairman for Anambra Central. That was how the 27 members of the state executive committee emerged and all the people who were present at the state congress were happy for the first time in the history of Anambra PDP.

The large number of security operatives, including over 100 well- armed policemen, who were around to maintain peace, had little or nothing to do as the exercise went on smoothly.

Smooth exercise

Chairman of the five –man congress committee led by Mr. Ike Abonyi, a veteran journalist from Enugu State, was elated that he was in charge during such a smooth exercise.

He said: “I am aware that this is the first time Anambra State PDP witnessed a peaceful congress and I am lucky to lead the team that conducted it. In the past, we all heard of stories of how those who came to conduct congresses in this state were smuggled out of the state at night for fear of being attacked by rival groups in the party.

According to him, the desire of the PDP National Working Committee, NWC, is to set up the party’s structure in Anambra State because the state was not being represented at the various meetings convened by the party.

Even though Abonyi explained that the national secretariat of the party had constituted a three –man appeal committee to entertain protest from aggrieved members of the party over the conduct of the congress, the chairman of the appeal committee, Mr. Collette Odenigbo, told reporters that there were no protests from any quarter, an indication that most members were happy with the outcome of the exercise. Other members of the appeal committee were Alhaji Nuhu Sani and Mr. Buchi Ndiokwere.

Odenigbo said: “We made ourselves available since the commencement of the congresses on 21st July, 2015, but as we are talking, there was no complaint from any quarter. For this reason, we are going back feeling satisfied that Anambra people accepted the outcome of the congress.”

With the new leadership of the party on ground, the next task facing it is the unification of all the members to bring everybody was on board.

Political watchers had always admitted that PDP remained the strongest political party in Anambra State, but its problem had been the inability for the party to get its acts together.

The feeling of many delegates at the congress was that if the situation remains as it is, PDP will be the political party to beat during the next governorship election coming up late in 2017.