Hurdles before APC in Anambra as actors prepare for 2025

The recent visit to the headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja by the delegation of Anambra State stakeholders of the party officially marked the commencement of the build-up of activities for the state’s 2025 off-cycle governorship election.

The Abuja meeting, a follow-up to the earlier maiden stakeholders parley held in the state capital, Awka, was a gathering of virtually all the heavyweight APC chieftains and leaders of Anambra extraction.

The motive and mission behind the meeting were expectedly to strategise ahead of the governorship election by way of making hay while the sun is still shining or what the Igbo will say searching for the black goat before darkness falls.

And typical of the flamboyant Anambra politicians, the composition of the delegation, drawn from business and professional cadres, were intimidating and unprecedented.

The attendees ranged from serving and former lawmakers, political appointees and business moguls among others. Ifeanyi Ubah, Uche Ekwunife, Andy Ubah, Joy Emordi, Margery Okadigbo, Chima Umeoji, Chigbo Enwezor, Peter Madubueze, Ifeanyi Muoma, Uche Ibeabuchi, former deputy governor, Nkem Okeke, and Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, made the delegation frightening.

Others were Chido Nwankwo (Overdose), Azuka Okwosa, Ifeanyi Ibezi, Chinedu Eluomuno, Ralph Okeke, Chioma Ejikeme, the state party chairman, Basil Ejidike, among many others.

To further underscore the importance of the stakeholders’ engagement and to also make a bold statement, four serving governors, comprising Imo, Hope Uzodimma, Yobe, Mai Mala Buni, Kwara, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, and their Nasarawa counterpart, Abdullahi Sule were also in attendance.

Incidentally, almost all the APC National Working Committee (NWC) members, including the National Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, his North and South deputies, Ali Dalori, and Emma Eneukwu respectively, South East zonal chairman, Ijiomah Arodiogbu, National Organising Secretary, Suleiman Argungu and his deputy, Nze Chidi Duru, among others, were part of the parley.

Speaker after speaker, the meeting, carefully packaged to kick-start the strategic planning, left no one in doubt of the readiness of the mission by APC to sack the ruling party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) from its hold on the seat of power, Agu Awka Government House, after the conduct of the 2025 governorship election and by extension, capture the remaining South East states in the 2027 general election.

From his introductory remarks, the state’s party chairman, Ejidike, was unequivocal in his appeal to the leadership of the party; “to ensure that Anambra state APC receives all the support it needs to prosecute the 2025 election.”

Defining their mission further, he said: “We are here in connection to the forthcoming 2025 governorship election. The party at the state level is poised to go into the election with increased vigour, and it is ready to deploy all democratic arsenals and utilise the enormous human capital available to win that very important election.

“We appreciate the importance of Anambra State as a socio-political and economic melting pot of the South East and therefore cannot afford to gamble with the coming opportunity to take over Agu-Awka Government House. At our periodic stakeholders meeting, we received two great and eminent politicians from YPP and PDP, Senators Ifeanyi Ubah and Uche Ekwunife.

“We also received Mike Ugwa and John Nwokeji, former Deputy Speaker and member, Anambra State House of Assembly, who decided to pitch tents with the real progressives. We also set up a strategic membership drive committee, with the intent of reaching out to persons with the wherewithal and harnessing the grassroots to improve the fortunes of the party. The heavyweights that we received recently will assist further in this regard.”

And Ejidike was honest to catalogue the hurdles APC encountered previously that thwarted and crippled its chances of winning the governorship election. “One major problem of the party in Anambra has been the unholy alliance between some interests in the Presidential Villa and the APGA government in Awka.

“These persons, in the past, compromised the interests and frustrated the aspirations of the APC in the state. This evidently manifested in the 2017 and 2021 governorship elections: thus preventing our party from winning those elections despite all efforts put in,” he recalled.

The state party chairman however expressed readiness for the tasks ahead, noting: “We are now very optimistic that with the change of guard in the Aso Villa, and the party under Ganduje’s able leadership, we believe the tide has turned in our favour. We, therefore, urge you to make a difference, and see to it that Anambra State receives all the support it needs to prosecute the 2025 election.

“One major request is for you to ensure and guarantee a free, fair and transparent primary election in Anambra State. This will help the party in no mean way in going into the election as a united family, APC Anambra possesses the human and material resources to win the election.

Similarly, Governor Uzodimma, in his keynote address, urged South East APC stakeholders and leaders to take the political destiny of the zone in their own hands. “I am very delighted to acknowledge the moves and new spirit in Anambra State APC. It has become very incremental of late. I want to urge our supporters and leaders in Anambra State to learn from the history of the events of the past and be guided by two items.

“The first is the unity of purpose, tolerating each other because anybody bitten by a snake is always afraid of the head of a lizard. We should be able to learn from our past. Anambra is a strategic and critical state in the country and has produced important men and women who have created history for this country.

“I have never seen in any tradition where the man who is always first should be counted last. We need to rise and take our destiny into our hands. I urge all of you brothers and sisters to forget the past, forgive yourselves, unite and represent our people for the interest of the country.

“There is nothing God cannot do and I urge you to go home and rediscover our party. I don’t want our zone to go extinct in national politics. The South East, which ordinarily should be the citadel of Nigerian politics, is left behind of late. We should be able to advise and set targets for ourselves and drive our targets to fruition.

“I am encouraged by the number of men and women I saw here. Nobody is remaining. But, we need to show commitment, tolerance, reconciliation, love for each other and be our brothers and sisters’ keepers,” he challenged.

In his messages of assurances and commitments, the party’s boss, Ganduje, had revealed to the delegation that President Tinubu has already approved the blueprint to liberate the zone from perpetual complaint of marginalisation and equally capture the remaining states for the APC.

Let me announce to you that President Tinubu has approved the blueprint for the political liberation, political emancipation and political de-marginalisation of the South East. The blueprint will make your voice heard louder and wider on the APC platform so that you will be able to negotiate for the political leadership of the country. You could not achieve that previously because there was a lack of unity among you.

“We need you to be united for the delivery of the party in Anambra State. The liberation started in Imo and will continue in Anambra in 2025. We need a change, and revolution in the South East… We thank you for your cooperation,” he noted.

But, beyond the rhetoric, the strategic networking, the intrigues and scheming by the intending aspirants and other vested interests to outsmart one another and beyond the tactical manoeuvre to send warning signals to the other parties of its readiness to occupy Agu Awka, leaders, chieftains and members of APC Anambra State will certainly encounter multiple hurdles towards actualising their big dreams.

As the party leaders, rightly pointed out in their comments during the stakeholders meeting, lack of unity of purpose, cohesion, sabotage, superiority complex, show of financial strength, and unholy alliances for predetermination to manipulate the primary have always been the bane of the party making any appreciable impact in the state’s governorship and other elections.

Politics in Anambra, according to pundits, is a labyrinth and cobweb of an intricate network by the participants with the largest financial war chest. It is the politics of the person with the smartest weapon to manoeuvre and outwit each other. It has little or nothing to do with collective appeal and dialogue to resolve problems based on consensus building.

From the hindsight of experiences, it has been extremely difficult for Anambra politicians to work based on principle. With political giants like former Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, former National Auditor of the party, George Moghalu and many others, perhaps regarded as a factional wing of the party in the state, shut out of the jamboree and build-up to the election, peace may still be a remote possibility in Anambra APC.

“The fact that some factional members cannot be successfully emasculated and shut out from contesting the party primary is already a dangerous signal and difficult situation to manage; but, resolving the conflicting interests of the intending aspirants for the position among those in the delegation also poses bigger threats to the party.

If mere pronouncement by Ganduje that new entrant, Ifeanyi Ubah has become the leader of the party in the state could result in many stakeholders already angling for war, only God knows what becomes of the decision to anoint one person as speculated during the stakeholders’ meeting could portend to the party.

For example, responding to the speculations at the Awka stakeholders meeting that one of them has already secured the endorsements of the party’s national leadership, principal officers of the Senate and even the presidency, a chieftain had reminded the stakeholders of the unwritten convention in the state that newcomers must queue behind the old members in terms of consideration for elective positions.

Apart from that, the unanswered question will therefore be whether Andy Ubah can willingly surrender his ambition, and collapse his political structure in support of any other aspirant. Again, will Ifeanyi Ubah and Ekwunife, perpetually interested in contesting for the governorship position, shelve their ambition in support of another contestant?

Again, can Senator Ifeanyi and Andy Ubah successfully surmount the odds against them like the widely reported indebtedness to business mogul, Arthur Eze and the speculations that his decision to join the APC was for the federal government to drop the litigation against him?

What will be the sagacious persuasive measure the party’s leaders will adopt to ensure a seamless emergence of a candidate that will be acceptable to the party members without attracting litigations and sabotage from other angered aspirants?

In Anambra, where money is the name of the political game, with the history of aspirants jostling to outsmart each other in a competitive survival of the fittest financial war chest during the party primary, how does the national leadership of the party intend to manage the contending forces without straining the relationship that has always been the bane of the party going into the election as a united, indivisible family?

Judging by the posture and insistence of a founding member of the party, George Moghalu, that only due process should be the antidote for a peaceful emergence of the party’s candidate, the mission of the delegation, described as a mere jamboree, may have already been defeated at an embryonic stage.

Hear him: “The issue of reintegrating me into the party as you mentioned does not arise because you can only reintegrate someone outside. I am a bonafide founding member of APC. It is an irony for a tenant to sack the landlord in his house.

“I am one of those who insisted that things must be done properly. Due process must be followed, and an enabling environment created for things to work out smoothly. And that is what I have always demanded. I went to court then because things were not properly done. You cannot ask us to contest primary and sit back in your bedroom to write results, come out and announce it, and yet expect me, George Moghalu, to accept it.

“I will be honourable enough to congratulate the winner if I lose in an election. But, when you manipulate the process, I will tell you that it will not work. That was exactly what I did last time, and I will do it again if the need arises. However, if things are done properly, I don’t have a problem,” he observed.

On the speculated endorsement, he said: “I am very excited about the people joining our party. But I will remind us that APC has no governorship candidate yet. It is a party built on equity, justice, and fairness. When there is a need for us to look for a candidate, we will go to the primary but everything must be done properly. Whoever emerges in the primary becomes the candidate of the party. So, the issue of endorsement does not even arise.

“There must be a level playing field. We are excited that people are joining our party. I did not attend the stakeholders meeting because I was indisposed and I felt it was not necessary to be there at that particular time,” he spoke with Daily Sun on the political development in Anambra APC.

Amidst the imbroglio, the advice from APC Deputy National Chairman, South, Eneukwu, came in handy as the much-needed succour. He said: “With the calibre of heavyweights assembled here, I can unequivocally tell you that Anambra is in the kitty of APC. I am very proud to come from the South East. I am happy that we have agreed that the South East must plunge into the national grid of Nigeria politics because it is as if we are not part of what they are doing.

“I want to commend the unity of Anambra stakeholders and preach that you should not allow the opposition party to penetrate you. What they usually did in the past was to apply divide-and-rule tactics among you just to orchestrate trouble to break your rank. If you can avoid it, nothing will stop you from emerging victorious.

“They have already started contacting some of us and they know that as far as the present dispensation is concerned, it will no longer be business as usual. You have to be very careful not to allow this golden opportunity to slip out of your hands.”

The dice is now cast and Nigerians are watching with keen interest to see how the party manages the contending forces, unite as a family to battle the odds posed by the ruling party in the state and an emerging force in LP for the governorship poll.

Credit: Daily Sun