IKE UME-ATUANA
It may be difficult to call the Anambra State All Progressives Congress (APC) confused. That would seem harsh. But the party’s actions since the campaigns have shown it may not be completely without some slip-ups. Two things have marked the party out as fretful and lacking in ideas on how to get around its object of fear – the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the November 8 governorship election in the state.
One was the party’s desperate, but silly attempt at endearing itself to the people through ghoulish entertainment. During a whistle-stop tour of the state the party did the unthinkable at Central School, Nteje, Oyi Local Government Area. Few party chieftains, goaded by its leadership, took a live cock, and in a symbolic decimation of APGA, smashed it to death. In a widely circulated video, the hapless cock was seen struggling under the weight of the strikes of broom-wielding, gloating APC goons until it could no longer writhe to escape. As inane and odious as the act, the APC felt the only way to defeat APGA in November was not by well-structured campaign, but through meanness to a luckless cock. The people were scandalized and booed as they quietly disappeared from the scene. It is important to note that beyond this bizarre demonstration the APC has not officially announced to the Anambra electorates what its mission in the state is. The party’s candidate has neither spoken to ndi Anambra in any coherent manner nor issued a clear statement of intent by way of a manifesto. Instead it has continued to ramble on, undermining itself through avoidable blunders.
The second place where the APC has proved it is incapable of structured campaign ahead of the governorship election is through self-reinforcing lies about mass endorsement of its candidate, Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu. At the last count, the APC is claiming that almost everybody and nearly every section of the state have either endorsed its candidate or defected to the party to boost its chances in the November election. One of the earliest victims of the APC lies of endorsement was former Governor Willie Obiano. In appropriating the ex-Governor’s support APC claimed he endorsed its candidate in faraway Texas, United States of America. But the former Governor was quick to discountenance the false report by issuing a prompt disclaimer in the media.
But the phantom endorsement was just a tip of the iceberg. APC’s cobweb of lies has since been reinforced to include mass defection into the party. To do this effectively, the party did enlist the support of a marginal media that shamelessly reported that 40 former members of the Anambra State House of Assembly, 5,000 appointees of the former government in the state and 36,000 APGA members defected to the APC in a space of two days. So banal was the report that the APC, the beneficiary of the false defection, has since been made to look very confused before ndi Anambra.
Perhaps APC and its uncritical enthusiasts do not know that the Anambra electorate is a sophisticated voter who is hardly swayed by cheap lies. The fact that the number the reporter bandied about as defecting to the APC does not exist shows the party as incapable of public trust. First, the number of former political appointees was not up to 5,000. Two, many of them have long identified with the Soludo government on realizing the effort his administration is making to Anambra a livable state. Either the hack who produced the fantastic report of the defection does not know this or he is just being mischievous. To nail the lie of his report to the counter, Marble Arc Hotel main auditorium where he claimed the 5,000 ex-appointees declared support for the APC does not seat up to one thousand persons. His other claim that 36,000 All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) members also joined the APC can only mean that he and his sponsors are without cognitive ability. Otherwise even the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, has only 20,000 capacity and any time it is filled to the brim, which is few and far between, the entire Coal City suffers terrible gridlock. And in Awka where the incredible figure of defectors was manufactured by the integrity-challenged Anambra APC, it is only the International Convention Centre (ICC) that has the capacity to take up to 10,000 people. This has yet to happen since the centre was opened to the public and if it does will equally come at a great traffic cost. The last claim that 40 former members of the Anambra State House of Assembly endorsed the APC candidate does not deserve attention for the simple reason that like all the lies told by the party, it was also made up.
It is important to state here that Governor Soludo may not be wrong when he says that he is not contesting the governorship with anybody. He even said that many of those who are in the governorship race are pretenders who are looking for ways to enrich themselves. It may not be easily admitted but the political leadership of Anambra state has grown beyond the quality of the candidate of the APC. Anambra State has a way of rejecting those who do not deserve her beginning from the time of Okey Odunze, Andy Ubah etc. She does not hesitate to yank off anybody whose qualification is not consistent with her choices. Besides, dislodging a government in power is not a walk in the park particularly when an Oluatuegwu is in charge. It is also not for want of ideas that the Anambra Central Senatorial Zone came out en mass to approve Soludo’s second term in office some days back. Apart from the fact that the Governor has performed to the admiration of almost everybody in the state, the zoning arrangement also supports his re-election bid. It is not likely that any self-respecting Anambra electorate will easily vote against an arrangement that has brought the state peace and development.
And with the prodigious achievements recorded in less than four years of the Soludo government it is likely that the state will want to experiment with the uncertainty of an upstart. Anambra is already on a sound development trajectory which her “owners” are not in a hurry to halt for an experiment.
*Ume-Atuana, a commentator on National issues writes from Awka, Anambra State.*