By Ike Ume-Atuana
Anambra governorship election in barely two months away. Activities marking the contest are already in deadly earnest. Every political party, every candidate, contesting the election has invested quality time and resources enough to swing votes in their favour. What may not be clear to the less discerning is the party or the candidate that will leave the contest, wearing a smirk. Because there must be some insolent smile, even a snigger when the battle is over. The cut-throat nature of the contest predisposes the eventual winner to sneer in victory. It will only be a surprise if does not happen.
But a winner has been foretold months before the November date. The August 16, 2025, by-election was revealing enough. It was an ample preview of what to expect when the state goes to the polls on the 8 of November. Unless for a few doubting Thomas who refuse to believe without experiencing the defeat personally, the telltale signs are there. It is difficult to see what will change between now and November to turn the balance against APGA and give added advantage to the opposition.
The by-election to fill the vacant seats of Anambra South senatorial zone and Onitsha North Constituency 1 was loud in its action about the Anambra voters’ preference for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as the party of choice in the state. The election was as bold a statement of rejection of the opposition as it was a confirmation of Governor Soludo’s avowal that he is not contesting the governorship election with anybody. Even his most implacable critic will agree that the way the opposition was defeated right inside their very wards was enough indication that Anambra is not ready to gamble on APGA. It was also a warning that the newly built Government House (The Light House) is not in a hurry to accept a Johnny-come-lately as its occupier.
But assuming the opposition is serious about winning the November governorship election which is very much in doubt because its poverty of ideas, how does it hope to go about it? What factors will work in its favour against APGA and Soludo? Outside the fact that winning an incumbent is not easily achievable, especially an incumbent like Soludo who has performed well, what does the opposition hope to campaign with? What evidence of community development effort? What record of investments in human capital? Any claim to other aspects of development or service to the people of Anambra state? What mental capacity are some of the candidates possessed of that can rightly support the rigours of governing a complex state like Anambra?
When Governor Soludo sounded the alarm bells about the low level of opposition in the coming election, many did not seem to appreciate what he was saying. But truth is that the quality of opposition in the governorship election dropped to an all-time low this season. No time since the dawn of democracy was the opposition this vapid and without promise or conviction. The closest to this in the past were the periods when Okechukwu Odunze and Nnamdi Ubah made concerted efforts to take the reins of power not by popular will but through contrived process. But the Anambra spirit which frowns at rewarding mediocrity shunted them aside. The November contest does not promise differently even as Governor Soludo has proved more than a handful for the opposition.
Employing the politics of slur as an arsenal of campaign, the opposition hopes to distract Soludo from staying the course and bamboozle the people in November. But they were disappointed as the Governor has since rolled his sleeves to confront them in the drudgery. Perhaps those who chose this beaten path of politicking with their sidekicks in the new media mistook Soludo for a wimp. They thought he could be scared silly thereby exposing him for a sucker punch in November. These people are not significantly different from the horde who nearly made governance very difficult for his predecessor in office. But Soludo was armed in every department of the game and was ready to meet his enemies at the gate.
It can be argued that Anambra politics or politics in Anambra is quite difficult – often fractious. Nothing is spared. It is without pattern and hardly follows projections. Initially politics in the state was managed by those Professor Chinua Achebe called a small clique of renegades. Those who believe that with money and contact everything, including governing the state even if without basic requirement for the job, is possible and doable. Between Achebe’s time and now not much in the terms of this unusual development has changed. The only difference is in approach. While physical violation of the office of the governor may have stopped with the decimation of the “renegades”, the recidivists are far from letting up. They have regrouped to assail Governor Soludo who unfortunately is not about to sit on his hands or cower under bed just to appear the gentle lamb.
The criminal resort to slurs is a campaign strategy employed by the opposition to weaken the Governor and render him unelectable in November. But it should be borne in mind by every right-thinking citizen of Anambra state, including those resident in it that none of those pretending to be running for the governorship election has any good to offer. They are only interested in keeping up with the Joneses. They have not only come to impede to good work of the Governor, but to also wreck the rotation order which has brought peace and integrated development to the state.
Ume-Atuana, commentator on national issues writes from Awka.
