By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

Nigeria’s political gladiators are today headed for a showdown that is bound to significantly define their bearing towards the country’s next general election in 2019.

Today’s governorship election in Anambra State which has 37 candidates in contention may not just be the most contested in the history of the country. The election has the prospect of redefining the country’s political configuration; a defeat for the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA would inevitably wipe it away from reckoning and reset the political map with the two dominant political parties as the major parties in all 36 states.

APGA is, however, unyielding in the face of the double-pronged attack on a state it had since 2003 reckoned as its foothold and the base for Igbo renaissance.

The two leading parties aiming to usurp the state from APGA, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the All Progressives Congress, APC are entering today’s contest in the hope that victory today would rejuvenate them and put them on a rollercoaster after recent internal crises in the two parties.

While the PDP aims to bounce back to reckoning in Abuja, the APC is hoping that victory in today’s election would give it a much-needed foothold in the Southeast.

The PDP on Thursday rolled out its heavyweights including former President Goodluck Jonathan and many of its governors to give weight to its candidate, Mr. Oseloka Obaze, the former United Nations diplomat who recently served the immediate past governor Mr. Peter Obi and the incumbent, Chief Willie Obiano as government scribe.

The day before, the APC had at a rally also rolled out its heavyweights in support of its candidate, Dr. Tony Nwoye, a medical doctor who was before now national president of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS and presently, a member of the House of Representatives. The party’s recent charm offensive to the Southeast apparently got traction on Wednesday when Chief Chukwuemeka Ojukwu Jnr., son of the late Biafran leader, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared for the party and endorsed Dr. Nwoye.

APGA and its candidate, Obiano, are, however, not giving in easily to the moves by the two major parties. As campaigns ended last Thursday, Obiano moved to debunk the serial allegations of non-performance by the opposition with the publication of the achievements he claimed to have made in the last three years. The governor also in a public broadcast on Thursday night called for support from Anambarians in the face of what he claimed as attempts to dent what he described as his achievements.

For the PDP, victory would leave the party in control of all but one of the Southeast states.

Such an outcome would also inevitably be a frustration of the recent charm offensive from the APC Federal Government and pleas from APC stakeholders to move to the mainstream.

Even more, it would boost the confidence of the party entering into the make or mar elective national convention due next month.

However, a victory for the APC would accentuate the call by many Igbo leaders who have joined the party that integration would be the best channel towards harvesting, not statutory appointments and democracy dividends to the Southeast.

It would also consolidate the position of ndi Igbo in the party that the quest for the Igbo presidency would be birthed in 2023 after a second term for President Muhammadu Buhari. It is perhaps in that light that Saturday Vanguard learned that a leading Igbo politician and former member of the House of Representatives had been pencilled down to lead the official support group for Buhari’s second term.

Just as the president commenced his swing through the Southeast last Tuesday, his spokesman Garba Shehu in newspaper publications disclosed that the Federal Government was presently engaged in construction and rehabilitation of more than 25 federal roads in the Southeast region.

Besides the PDP, APC, and APGA, two other parties that have made serious campaigns for votes are the United Progressives Party, UPP and the Progressives Peoples Alliance, PPA who have former Aviation Minister, Mr. Osita Chidoka and the newspaper publisher Godwin Ezeemo respectively as their flag bearers.

The UPP, founded by Chief Chekwas Okorie, who also founded APGA, has sought to push itself and its candidate on the platform of Igbo identity. It is a quest that has led to an identity crisis with APGA which first pushed that concept.

Despite the persistence of the PPA’s candidate, his candidacy has, however, not kindled the fiery momentum. His efforts were not helped by the fact that the acclaimed founder of the party, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu has also distanced himself from the PPA having thrown himself into the Nwoye campaign.