By VINCENT UJUMADU, Awka

THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has formally declared the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, candidate, Chief Willie Obiano as winner of the  Anambra State governorship election after last weekend’s supplementary poll.  INEC had declared the first exercise held on November 16, 2013 inconclusive because the difference in votes scored between Chief Obiano who polled 174,710 votes and Comrade Tony Nwoye of the Peoples Democratic Party,  PDP, who came second with 94,856 votes, was more than 113113 registered voters in areas where the commission cancelled election after the first exercise.

So barring any judicial intervention changing the outcome of the election, the APGA candidate  would be sworn in as the next governor of Anambra State after the exit of Mr. Peter Obi on March 17, 2014.

As the campaigns for the election lasted, Anambra people had real fun as those who were interested were often transported free of charge to campaign venues by leaders of the political parties who felt that the more people attended the rallies, the more the party was seen as being popular and enjoying large followership.

Some of the 23 political parties that presented candidates for the election had party dresses meant for their members. However, it was commonly noticed that many people, irrespective of their party affiliation, had the uniforms of all the parties and wore them any day that particular party held its rally. So, it was therefore difficult to actually know the real supporters and members of the various parties.

*Voting in progress at Obosi road polling booth in Nkpor Ward II in Idemili North LGA. Photo: Tony Edike

What obtained during the campaigns was that any day a party was holding a rally in Awka or Onitsha, the people would just put on the appropriate dress and board the vehicle made available for them in the villages. Mrs. Ogochukwu Onyeka, a petty trader at Afor Ukpor in Nnewi South local government area said her small business was such that she could afford to attend rallies as often as possible where she was sure of eating a full meal and receiving the accompanying stipend for the day which, she stated, was usually more than the profit she could make from her garden egg business.

Just like the uncommitted party supporters, commercial drivers also had fun as some of them were in business everyday while the campaign lasted. For instance, Mr. Johnson Okeke said his 32- seat bus fetched him enough money during the campaigns such that he is planning to add one more bus to make it two for him. He said: “This political period is really good for me.

For the past two months, I was busy transporting people from one venue of the rally to the other. I would take the people to Awka or Onitsha or any other town they were having their rallies and after dropping them, I would make one or two trips before coming to take the people back to their villages. The pay was good and I must say that politics is good business.”

Before the beginning of the campaigns, some of the parties had great challenges, which actually were responsible for their poor performances in the election. Take PDP for instance, as the date for the election was drawing near, two parallel factions existed at the state level, thereby confusing members of the party across the state. In fact, it is believed that if PDP could get its acts together in the state, winning election would be easy for it because most of its followers believe that it is either they are in PDP or no politics for them.

With the large number of money bags in the party, funding is really not a problem and this played out anytime the party gathered for meetings or rallies. For instance, when Comrade Nwoye won the governorship ticket of the party at the Supreme Court and stakeholders welcomed him in Awka, a whooping N20 million was reportedly shared among those who attended the meeting as transport fare, with some people receiving as much as N100,000.

It was on that occasion that the oil magnet sponsor of Nwoye, Prince Arthur Eze, promised that any ward that delivered for PDP during the election would be rewarded with N4 million. The party’s candidate, Nwoye, also made a promise of N3 million, bringing to N7 million for any of the 326 wards that delivers PDP. For all the wards that delivered PDP, it is yet to be seen if they will receive the money promised them.

For the All Progressives Congress, APC, the party never really recovered from the crisis that rocked it after the merger of three parties, namely ACN, ANPP, CPP and Senator Annie Okonkwo’s faction of APGA in the state. The leadership of the party had favoured Senator Chris Ngige to carry its flag for the governorship, but Mr. Godwin Ezeemo and Senator Okonkwo objected.

Okonkwo was later to be handed the campaign machinery for Ngige but somewhere along the line, there were irreconcilable differences which made Okonkwo, who has intimidating political structure in the state, to abandon APC and Chief George Muoghalu, former national secretary of ANPP, was to become the director general of the Ngige campaign organisation.

Also, Ezeemo was to leave APC to pick the ticket of PPA. These developments depleted the ranks of APC.  APGA would have suffered the same fate after the bitter quarrel between the national chairman of the party, Chief Victor Umeh and Governor Peter Obi, but the Court of Appeal ruling in favour of
Umeh brought sanity into the party. If that disagreement had lingered, it would not have been possible for APGA to win the governorship election as it did in 16 of the 21 local government areas of the state.

Screening committee

Even at that, Chief Maxi Okwu who came into the scene while the crisis lasted, tried to pull a fast one when he presented Dr. Chike Obidigbo who was disqualified by the screening committee of the party to INEC as APGA candidate. Only insiders in the party can tell how that matter was eventually resolved.

Indeed, what made APGA to excel was the power of incumbency and the fact that Governor Obi performed in office.

Also, the large number of people that attended the rallies of the political parties gave them false impression about their stands, but what worried them more was the intrigue that played out on the day of the polls. For instance, many people came around as either election monitors or observers, but it turned out that they were party supporters.

The reports they have been dishing out since INEC declared the election inconclusive exposed everybody’s original motive. While some have declared the election as one of the worst ever conducted by INEC, others say it was one of the freest election ever conducted by INEC, depending on who the groups were supporting. As expected, the political parties have been using the various interest groups to advance their views.

Another surprising development was the rapport that existed between the candidates of APC and PDP since the election was declared inconclusive, which the leadership of PDP saw as a dangerous development. Apparently sensing that APC might actually be trying to use its governorship candidate to divide the party, the national leadership of PDP stepped in immediately and declared the Anambra election peaceful.