…Tales of betrayals, political interference threaten peace in Anambra State
Fresh crises that might assume intractable dimensions are looming in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with the disqualification of Professor Chukwuma Soludo. Barely a mere three weeks after the celebrated reconciliation of its warring factions, marked by the public embrace of its chairman, Chief Victor Umeh with Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, at the Awka Government House, APGA has been thrown into turmoil.
The insistence of Governor Peter Obi to interfere with the course of the gubernatorial primaries of the party for the gubernatorial election coming up on November 16, on the alleged prompting of the Presidency has all but ruined the party. Obi is be bent on imposing a candidate from the Anambra North senatorial zone of the state, which he says has never produced a governor.
There are widespread accusations within the party that Governor Obi’s efforts might not be best intentioned, as he is being accused of making those efforts to throw up a candidate that would be incapable of winning the election, as a way of doing a favour some privileged outside interests, at the detriment of his party.
The impending crises gained new currency with the recent reconciliation, following which APGA netted a very big fish in the person of the former Central Bank Governor, who resigned from PDP under whose platform he had contested the 2010 gubernatorial election, to pitch his camp with APGA. Professor Chukwuma Soludo, in a major game-changing game in the political scene of the state, immediately signified his intention to contest for the gubernatorial election under the APGA platform.
Said to be highly favoured by the leadership as well as the rank-and-file of the party in the state, who see in Soludo’s coming into the party a very bright prospect of victory for the party in the forthcoming election if such a man of clout who could be guaranteed of a state-wide support and even among the followership of the PDP, his entry into the party did not seem to excite Governor Obi and a band of his followers who were recently saved from an embarrassing predicament through the reconciliation, as they had practically lost out when the courts restored Chief Umeh at the controls of the party.
However, as it was learnt, on the very day that Prof Soludo joined APGA and instantly became its hottest gubernatorial contender, Governor Obi was said to have drafted his crony and the Executive Director of the Fidelity Bank, in which he owns controlling shares, into APGA and into the aspiration of the gubernatorial race. Mr. Willy Obianyo who was said to have possessed no previous political or public affairs experience was said to be Obi’s weapon to checkmate Professor Soludo and that a veiled warning he had not given up on his insistence of an Anambra North candidate.
In addition, Obi is said to be fronting such an array of aspirants from the North that there now seems to be confusion, even among the aspirants themselves as to who the governor is really rooting for. At the last count, at least five cronies of the governor’s, including the Obaze brothers, are claiming to be aspiring at the behest of the governor.
It was learnt that Soludo enjoyed the support of the partly leadership which sees in him the capacity of defeating the other heavyweight candidates of the other parties, likely to be PDP’s Senator Andy Uba who is suspected to be the favourite of the Presidency as well as Senator Chris Ngige, likely to fly the flag of the newly registered All Progressive Congress (APC). There are unconfirmed rumours all over Anambra State that the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan is behind the aspiration of Senator Andy Uba of PDP who is also said to be counting on his relationship with the INEC as the chairman of Senate committee on INEC to have his way once his nomination is pushed through by the party.
In addition, there is the calculation amongst pundits in Anambra State that in the likelihood of blow-out in the PDP which could come with the looming large discontent among many of its over 25 big-wig aspirants when the party in Abuja and the Presidency go ahead to impose their preferred candidate on the party, and that most of them would most likely move into APGA in droves in support of Prof Soludo who was the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the last 2010 gubernatorial election in the state and whose support base is said to still be fairly intact.
The PDP at the centre as well as the Presidency are said to be in panic over the possibility of Soludo’s emergence as the APGA candidate and are said to be apprehensive that with his clout and acceptability across the state, PDP’s hope to win the gubernatorial election would be bleak, especially as APGA which was founded as the late Dim Chukwumeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu is becoming a mass movement once again since the recent reconciliation.
The Presidency pulled all levers to frustrate both Soludo’s emergence as well as APGA’s victory at the polls in November, and the president is said to be relying on his ally in Anambra State to help him, even if that would be tantamount to sabotaging his own party and mortgaging its interests.
A very impeccable source close to the Government House in Awka is suggesting that the Presidency might have requested Governor Obi who is acknowledged as a close ally and open supporter of the president’s second term bid and is said to have requested of him that every effort be put in place to frustrate Soludo’s emergence, to ensure that the next government in Anambra State would not be hostile to President’s 2015 aspiration.
The same sources have also intimated that Governor Obi might have broken the news of the presidency’s “request” to the APGA leadership which does not seem impressed, allegedly arguing that neither Obi nor the Presidency have such powers to order another party on how to pick candidates that would fly its flag and win elections for it. The APGA leadership that initially called the bluff of the Presidency and the PDP has now been arm-twisted into disqualifying Soludo. The belief is rife in the state that if APGA does not field a candidate that would command a widespread clout and support, the election would easily be won by Dr. Chris Ngige, the likely APC candidate, as the PDP is believed not to be in any shape to win the next election in the state.
Already, tongues are wagging in Anambra State that the insistence by Governor Obi for a candidate from Anambra North has nothing to do with an effort to enthrone equity but rather a ploy to work for President Jonathan and PDP ensuring that APGA does not produce a candidate that would be capable of beating others, especially that of the PDP who would be helped to win the election, as a way of smoothing the road for the president’s second term politics in 2015.
Political observers who foresee a big crisis over Governor Obi’s plot to undermine his own party for the interest of the president and the PDP claim that the PDP and the president would come out as the biggest losers, as the APC, a party that is guaranteed to be hostile to his ambition would benefit from an ensuing confusion to the eventual chagrin of the president.
Already, top political stakeholders in Anambra State who are angry over Soludo’s disqualification have promised both the PDP, the president and Governor Obi a battle of their lives if they go ahead to turn Anambra into a political guinea-pig that would, instead of respecting the wishes of the people, hanker to the interests of outsiders.
By Isidore Isotonu
