Anambra poll: Trap APC must avoid

By Affred Ohagwa

As the Anambra governorship election draws near, the major political parties in the state are involved in final strategies to nominate flag-bearers for the main election. The impending political battle appears to be between the incumbent All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and one major contender, the All Progressives Congress (APC). There are other political parties in the race like the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) etc but pundits know that this year’s Anambra governorship election is a straight battle between APGA and APC.

         Between the two parties, APC is resurgent and appears to have the support of many Anambra voters. The incumbency factor does not seem to be aiding APGA, which is believed in some quarters to have squandered twelve years of massive goodwill in just four years. Even the APGA administration has read and interpreted the general mood in the state very well. Now, it has unveiled a new strategy which does not involve the party doing anything to shore up its image but systematically goading APC into a trap that will decimate its chances to win the election.

     APGA’s strategy includes supporting and championing the emergence of a lightweight candidate in the APC that it (APGA) will conveniently overrun in the election. APC has four major aspirants, Sen. Andy Uba, Tony Nwoye, Barth Nwibe and George Moghalu, in that order. In this pack, the aspirant who is known to be more popular than others including the APGA candidate is Sen. Andy Uba. Every trick in the bag is now employed by opposition political parties to mislead, confuse and deceive the APC into making the mistake of coming into the election without its best.

       Incidentally, APC aspirants have knowingly or unknowingly been recruited as foot-soldiers to ensure the non-emergence of Sen. Andy Uba. It is not yet clear if the aspirants understand what is going on but the trap has been set and APC aspirants seem no longer motivated to allow the best among them to fly the party’s flag. They seem rather eaten up by a debilitating selfish desire, not really to win but to run, at the risk of the party’s best ever chance to win governorship election in Anambra State.

         Barth Nwibe and Tony Nwoye have accused Andy Uba of buying the APC ticket. The wonder is: who sold the ticket? The names of the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and the National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, have been mooted. For what fee was the ticket sold and at what market? If Andy Uba had bought the Anambra governorship ticket and still continues to sprint across the state, to flooded riverine communities and the remotest parts of the state campaigning for the coming election, then he must be taken into a psychiatric ward for proper evaluation.

         The truth is that, what Nwibe and  others are manifesting are still the symptoms of the escalating fear of Andy Uba. Nwoye knows that Ndi Anambra sees him clearly as a political mis-match for his mentor, Andy Uba. When the Senator made him chairman of Anambra PDP, the Senator’s muscles were behind him. Today, the Tony Nwoye of APC is radically different from Tony Nwoye of PDP. In PDP, dogs ate dogs and sons rose up against their fathers and the result was a divided house. APC has a better approach. The interest of the party towers above the private ambitions of its members. Therefore, it is not how long but how well.

         Moreover, the greatest burden of Nwoye’s ambition is the fact that he is believed to have a godfather, who is driving his ambition. Worse still is that his godfather is known in Anambra as part of the  problems of the state since the military days and cannot suddenly become a solution. If Nwoye could not be submissive to Andy Uba who mentored him and gave him his first political break, it is incomprehensible that his godfather can control him as he likes, now that Nwoye has become a medical doctor and an Honourable member of the House of Representatives.

         There is bound to be a clash and the mere thought of the consequences of such clash evokes potent reprehension. The brutalized psyche of Ndi Anambra still conjures the better forgotten memories of bitter acrimonies between Emeka Offor and Mbadinuju, Chris Uba and Chris Ngige and Obiano and Peter Obi. No one in Anambra wants to witness another round of devastation in a war between Nwoye and his godfather. Above all, Ndi Anambra no longer want to follow someone who is following someone else.

         Where has Nwibe been all the time in Anambra politics? Probably, in his office doing private business. He hadn’t cared about community service or about communion with the voters because he didn’t need them and they were not important in the things he did. The times have now changed and Nwibe knows that the only credential he possesses in his quest to emerge APC flag bearer is his old membership of the party, which is not enough to win this election.

    Nwibe is largely politically unknown outside his native Igboukwu. His candidacy and that of Tony Nwoye are experiments that no ambitious party like APC wants to conduct. Andy Uba on the other hand, with his ubiquitous structures, massive followership and unprecedented popularity, is the real deal for APC in this election. APC wants to win the election and should use its best asset, which is represented by Andy Uba. The lure to field lightweights in this election is a booby-trap APC must avoid.  Even George Moghalu has been drawing the same sharp lines between old and new members of the party. He and the others should tell us what their ancient membership added to the fortunes of APC. In the general election of 2015, APC lost in Moghalu’s Ward and in his polling unit. Why did his ancient membership not forestall this scandalous loss in front of his house? Right now, it’s not about old and new members but about who has the best chance to win the governorship election for APC.

  The others candidates do not have the sweeping political structures Andy Uba has built and maintained over many years. And that is the reason opponents of APC want either of the above three to emerge as APC candidate. Running against any of them is the equivalent of victory but running against Andy Uba is a nightmare that the opposition is doing everything to avoid.

       The opposition is colluding with some APC aspirants to manufacture every manner of allegation against Andy Uba in order to stop the Senator’s emergence and ensure that APC falls into the trap of fielding a candidate they will defeat in the election. APC should avoid this trap.

Chief  Ohagwa writes from Awka

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