September 19, (THEWILL) – The preparation for the 2021 Anambra Governorship election is in top gear. Parties and candidates in the election are already campaigning for votes across the nooks and crannies of the state. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has also given all the stakeholders the assurance of its readiness to conduct a free, fair and credible election on November 6, 2021.
In an interview with THEWILL, the INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Voters Education and Chairman Publicity Committee, Barrister Festus Okoye, said INEC was well prepared to conduct the election.
“As you know, we have released the time-table of the activities for the conduct of the election scheduled for November 6, this year. All the political parties have conducted their primaries. We have also published all the personal particulars of the candidates in the election. Political parties have started their campaigns. So we believe we are on top of the situation and our plan of activities is going on well.
“We keep on improving with every election and we are also going to improve with the Anambra governorship election. We have brought the polling units nearer to the ordinary people. We have expanded the polling units nearer to the ordinary people. Voters, persons with disabilities and the elderly can vote more easily because the polling units are close to their houses and workplace.
“Secondly, we have started the registration of voters online throughout the federation. And we are going to deploy more equipment and more resources to t Anambra to make sure that we registered as many people as possible. We are also going to get the supplementary voter register integrated with the main register and issue voter cards before the election. After the election, we will recommence the voter registration exercise in Anambra. So we are on top of the situation and we believe we are going to conduct a good election in Anambra,” Okoye said.
The incumbent Governor Willie Obiano’s tenure will end on March 17, 2022 and the 17 political parties who had earlier conducted their primaries, most of which were dogged with controversies leading to litigations, have thrown up candidates to succeed him in Government House.
The parties that met the July 1, 2021 deadline set by INEC for the primaries include APGA, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), Action Alliance (AA), Young Progressive Party (YPP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord (A) and Action People’s Party (APP).Others are the Nation Rescue Movement (NRM), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Labour Party (LP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the African Action Congress (AAC)
One feature of the coming election is the agitation by the people of Anambra South Senatorial District, which consists of seven local government areas, namely, Akwusigo, Aguata; Orumba North, Orumba South, Nnewi North, Ihiala and Nnewi South, to produce the next governor of the state.
Anambra Central, which comprises seven LGAs, namely, Anaocha, Awka North, Awka South, Dunukofia, Idemili North, Idemili South, and Njikoka, had former governors Chris Ngige (2003 to 2006) and Peter Obi (2006 to 2014). Also, Anambra North is where the incumbent Governor Willie Obiano hails from.
Interestingly most of the candidates in the election come from the Anambra South and so there is hope that the zone may produce the next governor.
The main contenders
Political analysts, watchers of political developments and political commentators in Anambra State unanimously agree that there are four major contenders in the coming Anambra governorship election. They are Prof Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Peoples Party (YPP). It is clear that one of the four candidates will succeed Obiano.
Chukwuma Soludo (APGA)
Charles Chukwuma Soludo was born on July 28, 1960. A professor of Economics, he was appointed Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria on May 29, 2004. He is also a member of the British Department for International Development’s Advisory Group.
Soludo has been a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund, the University of Cambridge, the Brookings Institution, the University of Warwick and the University of Oxford, as well as a Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College (USA). He has also worked as a consultant for a number of international organisations, including The World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Development Programme.
He is a core professional in the business of macroeconomics, who obtained his three degrees and professorship at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Enugu State.
Soludo graduated with a First Class Honours degree in 1984, an MSc Economics in 1987, and a PhD in 1989, winning prizes for the best student at all three levels.
He has been trained and involved in research, teaching and auditing in such disciplines as multi-country macro-econometric modelling, techniques of computable general equilibrium modelling, survey methodology, and panel data econometrics, among others. He studied and taught these courses at many universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick University.
Soludo has co-authored, co-edited, and authored a number of books on this subject matter. In 1998, he was appointed professor of economics at the University of Nigeria; the next year he became a Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA.
Soludo joined the Federal Government in 2003. Prior to his May 2004 appointment to the bank chairmanship, he held the positions of Chief Economic Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Executive of the National Planning Commission of Nigeria
Soludo stands a big chance in the election because of Obiano’s strong backing. Another major factor that may count for him is that his party, APGA, appears to be more grassroots oriented. Also 24 political support groups have declared support for him, drummed and canvassed support for his election across the length and breadth of the state.
Andy Uba (APC)
Uba was born on December 14, 1958 in Enugu and attended the Boys High School in Awkunanaw. Based in the United States, he returned to Nigeria, following the 1999 general election, and was appointed Special Assistant on Special Duties and Domestic Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In 2007, Uba contested in the PDP primaries for the Anambra State governorship election and was elected in the April 14, 2007 elections. However, the former governor, Peter Obi, challenged the election, arguing that because the court had only accepted that he won in the April 2003 election on March 15, 2006, he still had three more years of his four-year term to serve. The court accepted this argument and on June 14, 2007 nullified Andy Uba’s election.
He won the 2021 APC primaries, but following the primaries that saw his emergence as the candidate, some had predicted that the other 11 aggrieved aspirants would work against him and the party in protest against their alleged exclusion from the primaries conducted by the Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State on June 26, 2021.
Uba represented the people of Anambra South at the Senate between 2011 and 2019. The only advantages going for him is his stint as a governor, who ruled the state for just 17 days in 2007, and the support of the APC’s National Working Committee (NWC).
Speaking with THEWILL, a member of the APC Campaign Council for Anambra Governorship Election, Mr Osita Okechukwu said President Muhammadu Buhari’s endorsement of Uba’s governorship ambition had a very wide implication for Anambra State and Ndigbo in general.
Okechukwu said, “President Buhari had received the APC gubernatorial flagbearer for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra, Senator Uba, assuring him that he was optimistic about his success in the election. The gesture, acceptance and support by the President is a signal of other good and correct political possibilities for the state, the South-East geopolitical zone and Ndigbo in general.
“With President Buhari’s endorsement of Senator Andy Uba, it is now left to Anambra voters to endorse Uba, so as to facilitate Ndigbo’s quest to produce Nigeria’s President of Igbo extraction in 2023.
“My humble appeal to my in-laws, Ndi Anambra, especially the electorate, is to kindly consider the strategic underpinnings of electing Senator Andy Uba, now that President Buhari has graciously endorsed him.”
“We should not forget that the defection of state lawmakers from the All Progressives Grand Alliance and two amazons – Senators Stella Oduah and Joy Emordi – are the icing on the victory cake.”
“These are positive signs that Senator Andy Uba’s victory in the November 6, 2021 governorship election will strengthen our collective bargain for Nigeria’s President of Igbo extraction in 2023. Coming barely three days after I urged APGA leaders to see the bigger picture, I am convinced that our people are prepared to vote right.”
Valentine Ozigbo (PDP)
Valentine Chineto “Val” Ozigbo born July 20, 1970 is a politician and business executive. He is the immediate past President and Chief Executive Officer of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), a diversified conglomerate with strategic investments and core interests in the hospitality, agribusiness and energy sectors. He was appointed to the position in 2019.
Previously, Ozigbo worked as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria-based hospitality company, Transcorp Hotels Plc. Transcorp Hotels is the hospitality subsidiary of Nigerian conglomerate Transcorp. He also worked in the banking sector, gaining over 17 years of experience with NAL Merchant Bank, Diamond Bank, Continental Trust Bank, FSB International Bank, Standard Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Bank PHB.
Ozigbo is believed to have recorded some modest achievements since his journey to govern Anambra State began early in 2020, in terms of rehabilitation of schools in some rural communities across the three senatorial districts of the state and the building of houses for poor widows, among others. He will surely make a strong showing in the coming election. His only weakness is that he is a first timer in Anambra politics and election.
Ifeanyi Ubah (YPP)
Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah was born in 1971. He hails from Umuanuka in Anambra State. He is the CEO of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited, one of the significant parts of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria working in downstream tasks. He is also the proprietor of Ifeanyi Ubah F.C, a local football club.
Ubah had to drop out of school to learn a trade. He has since gone on to attend several business courses and gatherings, which have helped in nurturing his pioneering interests.
Upon finishing his apprenticeship, Ifeanyi began exchanging automobile spare parts and later broadened into tire supplies. Scarcely three years into this business, he started trading in tyres from Nigeria to Ghana and later expanded the business to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Ubah established The Authority Newspaper on 0ctober 19, 2015.
He is currently a member of the Senate, having won the 2019 Anambra South Senatorial election on the platform of Young People’s Party (YPP).
Many see him as a candidate to watch out for in the November 6, 2021 election, based on his personal popularity in the state.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
