When the Local Government election holds Saturday, Jan 11, 2014 in the
21 councils of Anambra state, it would have earned Gov Peter Obi
another feather in his numerous achievements cap and long list of
firsts. Because he would have become the first governor to have
successfully organized a council election in the state since its
creation in 1981, after being at the helm of affairs for 8years.
Council election was last conducted by the military in Dec 1998, with
a 4-year tenure which expired in 2003. Though the state Assembly later
amended the law to a 2-year term, since then every attempt to organize
the election has been frustrated by one form of excuse or another
including the fear that the would-be council administrators would not
manage the funds well, especially in the last eight years. It was
therefore believed that Gov Obi has used his style of governance to
teach the incoming council officers how to run things. So far, he has
been running the allocations, accounts, affairs and welfare of the
state and its 21 councils as well as the constituting 177 communities
of about 450 electoral wards from Awka since 2006, all alone.
Little wonder many are presently disturbed as to what becomes of the
faith of the state when he bows out in two months’ time.
Unfortunately the governor’s move to eventually conduct the election
has been met with all manner of obstacles and negative attacks.
Whereas some citizens, including surprisingly, some stakeholders were
happy that at last the election would now hold eventually, others are
opposed to it. The mixed reactions of opposition and those in support
were same in virtually all the political parties, including the
governor’s All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA) where many tried
every conceivable means to stop the election, so that they be
accommodated and or to allow the in-coming administration ample chance
to have its own men in the councils. That is if they actually would
not delay the election like Obi, masking under all manner of excuses.
With a 2-year tenure, it means that under the eight years of Gov Obi,
he has usurped the positions of no fewer than 4 sets of council
administrators. Little wonder that all parties apart from the All
Progressives Congress(or at least a faction therein) have experienced
one rumble or another as most of those who won the nomination
primaries of their various parties since 2001 were replaced by some
new entrants and leaders of their various parties. Also, some parties
were not in existence when the issue of the council election began in
the state, while some of those who are in charge in various capacities
and offices today had not joined partisan politics then. Regrettably,
some candidates have passed on, whereas some lost their lives in road
mishaps while running to and from Awka for one meeting or another in
respect of the council election over the years. They are many. The APC
faction loyal to Senator Chris Ngige under the chairmanship of Chief
Amechi Obidike indicated their unwillingness to participate since
after the last Nov 16, 2013 governorship poll where the voters
register was found to be very flawed. But the other faction led by
Chief Chuks Chinwuba and loyal to the party’s Deputy National
Chairman(South), Senator Annie Okonkwo has maintained that they would
participate fully. While Ngige blamed the voters register which he
said has at least three distinct versions in circulation, hence
confusing and unacceptable as one of his main reason for opting out,
Okonkwo told journalists that his point was experience has taught him
that once you stay away from any election, you have foreclosed and
foregone your right of protest for that particular election
whatsoever.
Curiously it could be observed that since the seeming fratricidal
leadership war between Ngige and Okonkwo which took root in the last
governorship election began, one of the factions discovered rather
subtly that it would have to kowtow to the other for the list of
candidates, since that other list was long ago submitted to the
Anambra state Independent Electoral Commission(ANSIEC). So may be as a
face saving measure they asked their followers to boycott the election
instead. The last appeared yet to come however.
Also the LP raised alarm over what it described as an open plot by the
ruling APGA in the state to rig the council elections in especially
Nnewi North, Nnewi South, Ekwusigo, Dunukofia, Onitsha North and
Onitsha South councils where LP believes it holds commanding political
control and popularity.
The party’s stakeholders in a meeting in Awka alleged that besides
having concluded plans to write the results of the election in private
premises, that APGA members have also boasted to whoever cared to
listen that they would ensure the Nnewi North and South councils
results were coloured in favour of APGA. Their spokesperson, Chief
Patrick Meniru who read out the communique, however reassured their
members, candidates and supporters that the party was committed to
protecting their interest and that of Anambra voters always.
He named the alleged locations and residences where the so-called
results of the election ‘’were planned to be written, were already
being written, and or would be written, as I am speaking to you now”.
Meniru listed what his party saw as ‘red-flag’ concerning the election
to include:
*the failure or refusal of the Chief Sylvester Okonkwo-led ANSIEC to
hold meeting on the planned council election with political parties,
stakeholders or the candidates;
*none of the voters register out of the three alleged to be currently
in circulation has been ascertained or given to the parties as the
operative one for the election and
*the non-release/publication of list of candidates and participating parties.
*Other issues raised included the failure of ANSIEC, the supposed
organisers of the election, to collect list of poll agents from
parties, or to publish same for the world to see and make inputs.
*as well as the reported training of serving civil servants in the
employ of the Anambra state government to be used in the election as
The party also accused the state government of drawing a unilateral
list of Poll agents, Returning Officers(GL 12 and above) and others as
Supervising Presiding Officers(SPOs) and keeping other political
parties in the dark on the preparations about the election. The
communique highlighted that no list of party agents has been collected
from other parties or published. It described Gov Peter Obi as the
greatest beneficiary of judicial process and political due process in
contemporary Nigerian democracy. The communique pointed out that the
least expected of him was to leave behind Local Government Council
thrown up by popular wish of the electorate. They noted that history
would not be kind to him if he looks away or pretends not to know or
see what his men are upto.
When confronted with the LP allegations, one of the leaders of APGA
and former national President of the National Institute of Estate
Surveyors and Valuers who is also the chairmanship candidate of the
party for Njikoka Local Government area, Chief Emeka Onuorah, he
described it as frivolous. He stated that, “as you can see, you met me
at a rally. We have been intensifying on our campaigns and tours and
consultations in preparation for the Jan 11, 2014 council election in
the state.”
He pointed our that some parties have reportedly thrown in the towel,
while some including the PDP, the Accord and LP amongst others have
been preparing too. “The APGA has displayed from the just concluded
governorship election that it is very popular with the landslide
victory it recorded. We are set for the council poll and has no reason
to play any undemocratic card…”, Onuorah noted.
Another chieftain from Idemili North, Chief Maurice Ebo, also wished
the LP allegation away, saying it was coming from ill-prepared
candidates and parties, pointing out that the officials in charge of
the ANSIEC were experienced and have repeatedly informed the
electorate and candidates that everything that should be done have
been done.
Chief Ebo described the voting pattern as seen in the Nov 16, 2013
governorship election really show that APGA will sweep the stakes in
every other election in the state any time. He urged anyone nursing
apprehensions or fears to assured of the fair disposition of the
party, or they would seek redress in a court at any time.
The PDP went through the whole hug of democratic opinion seeking to
ensure the candidates made the choice of either participating or not
themselves. The PDP chairman, Ken Emeakayi on his return from an
emergency meeting at the party headquarters in Abuja Wednesday called
a meeting of all the party’s chairmanship and councillorship
candidates. He asked them to decide on their own whether to
participate or not. They chose to go ahead, at least to close that
chapter of their lives that had remained in the limbo since 2001,
having spent so much on it.
And in June last year, just like he did some days ago, the embattled
chairman of ANSIEC, Prof Titus Eze sent out a shrill word of caution
to all stakeholders to the council poll in the state for them to be
legally guided and notified that participants in the Jan 11,2014
election should note that his pending cases over the chairman seat of
the commission and the manner of his removal has a direct bearing to
the process.
Sounding like a caveat emptor, Eze’s caution stated that his suit
which was slated for judgement on Jan 16, 2012 was caught up in the
web of the petroleum subsidy crises then and has ever since suffered
indefinite hiccups. He accused the state government of using all
manner of undemocratic tactics to frustrate the progress of the suit.
The government had on resumption of the suit after the subsidy crises
introduced a new motion accusing the presiding Justice Hope Ozo of
bias, hence has no more faith in him. They then applied for transfer
of the case to another court.
They also noted that they were not properly served the hearing notice,
and since their earlier motion was overruled, they therefore rushed to
the Court of Appeal in Enugu to file a stay of proceedings. Since then
the case had remained in the limbo. It spent 6 months for
reassignment, which later came and it landed on Justice Iguh’s court
where it has remained without a hearing date till now. Apparently
frustrated, Eze later went to the Federal High Court seeking an
injunction to stop the scheduled Jan 11, 2014 election in keeping with
the earlier guarantee by the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner
for Justice, that no action would be taken by the government or the
state Assembly which would negatively affect him, his position at
ANSIEC or the suit.
The acting chairman of the commission, Mr Sylvester Okonkwo, disclosed
the readiness of the commission for the council election while playing
host to the Movement for the Conduct of Local Government Election at
the commission’s headquarter in Awka. He said that there was enough
logistics to carry the commission through the exercise successfully.
Earlier, one Chief Udo Udeogaranya, a governorship aspirant in the Nov
16, 2013 election had also forwarded an open letter to President
Goodluck Jonathan and the INEC to impress on Gov Obi to postpone the
council election before the governorship election, claiming it was
“ill-timed electoral time line and thereby prompting distractions and
heating up the polity unnecessarily”.
He pointed out that elections in a proper democratic terms refers to
giving equal opportunity, awareness, incentives and fair share of time
for preparation, and therefore “beclouds all norms of intelligence for
a democratically elected State Governor to wait almost eight years, a
few days to the end of Governor Obi’s tenure in office, before
realising that the third tier of government deserves democracy.
“As a former political party chairman, no party can come up with
credible candidates, both Chairmen and Vice Chairmen with their
councillors, running into hundreds, to represent them in Local council
election, given the time frame allotted by Governor Obi to the
election.
“As one who grew from political foot soldiering under Zik’s NPP party
and a believer in grassroots politics, I cannot in anyway be against
conduct of election at the local council level or deepening democracy
at the grassroots level… Therefore the election must be postponed
and be conducted by the incoming administration, if the election must
achieve some level of credibility” , Chief Udo Udeogaranya.
