LEON USIGBE, notes how the crises in the main political parties in the Anambra state November 6 governorship election follow a familiar trend.
GOVERNORSHIP elections in Anambra State are historical for their rancour from the buildup to party primaries through the casting of votes to post-election legal battles. As soon as Chinwoke Mbadinuju emerged the governor of the state under the PDP following the 1999 poll, he fell out with his godfather, Emeka Offor. The consequences were grave thereafter. The power struggle between the duo crippled the state administration. Even when he apparently won a return ticket for the 2003 election, Mbadinuju was excluded from the ballot amid tussle with another power broker, Chris Uba, who preferred Dr Chris Ngige instead.
The case of the feuding Uba family in PDP can easily be recalled in the succeeding exercises in the present dispensation leading to the infamous Okija shrine oath-taking for Ngige. Ngige, who got the 2003 PDP guber natorial ticket, was beaten in the election by Peter Obi of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). However, the election was nullified and Ngige won the rerun in controversial circumstances. He never knew peace after breaking up with his godfather, Chris Uba.
There was an unsuccessful attempt on 10 July 2003 to kick him out of office through the state house of assembly. But in August, 2005, an election tribunal led by Justice Nabaruma nullified his election victory to pave the way for Obi to be sworn in.
The November 6 election is treading the same pattern. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has published the names of political parties and their candidates that are qualified for the election including Ekene Nwankwo (A Party), Ifeoma Maduka–Arisa (AA), Sylvester Chukwudozie (AAC), Akachukwu Nwankpo (ADC), Douglas Umeozeoke (ADP), Andy Uba (APC), Chukwuma Umeoji (APGA), Chukwuma Eze (APM), Azubuike Echetabu (APP), Jerry Okeke (BP), Emmanuel Agbasimelo (LP), Leonard Ohajinkpo (NNPP), Adaobi Opkeke (NRM), Nnamdi Nwawuo (PRP), Arinze Ekelem for SDP, Ifeanyi Ubah (YPP), and Uchenna Ugwoji (ZLP).
The PDP had no candidate published for it.
The ruling party too, APGA, is in jeopardy. The candidate approved for it by the electoral body is different from the one sponsored by the main body of the party. APGA has at least three factions each of them having its own candidate. Umeoji recognized by INEC emerged from the primary election organized by the Chief Jude Okeke faction.
It came on the heels of the election of Chief Edozie Njoku by the faction he leads and as well the declaration of former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, by faction led by Chief Victor Oye.
All the main factions are engaged in legal tussles to affirm their claims to the ticket.
Ngige, the minister of Labour and Employment, who is the perceived leader of the APC in Anambra date has rejected Senator Andy Uba returned as the candidate of the party after its primary election, on the ground that the exercise was flawed. His call for a repeat has not deterred INEC from confirming Uba as the party candidate, setting the stage for a showdown between the former PDP Senator and the serving minister.
To appease Ngige, it is thought that Uba may select the minister’s cousin, Emeka Okafor, as his running mate.
The PDP in its part is dire straits as far as this election is concerned, faced with the prospect of not participating in the exercise due to internal wrangling. At the time INEC published the list of candidates in the election, the PDP box was left unchecked because the umpire was unable to determine, who between Valentine Ozigbo and Senator Ugochukwu Uba, is the authentic winner of the party’s primary election. This was due to a restraining order which had debarred INEC from publishing any candidate for the party.
The PDP court cases have become a intricate web entangling the party’s aspiration to regain power in Anambra state. At the instance of Senator Uba, a state High Court sitting in Awka presided over by Justice Obiora Nwabunike delivered a judgment directing INEC to list him as the candidate of PDP at a time another Federal High Court also sitting in Awka denied ever ordering that the name of Valentine Ozigbo should not be listed by INEC as the candidate of PDP. This judgement was in the case instituted by Mrs. Genevieve Ekwochi, one of the aspirants in the PDP primaries. Ruling on the matter, the presiding judge, Justice H.A. Ngangiwa had said: “For the avoidance of doubt, there is no order made restraining anybody, including INEC, from doing any act,” but he added that “the parties are made to maintain status quo pending the hearing and determination of the originating summons.”
The PDP’s quagmire stemmed from Senator Uba’s conduct of a separate primary from the one sanctioned by the national leadership of the PDP. He relied on a judgement by an FCT Federal High Court, which had gone in his favour. Justice Nwabunike sided with him in his determination that the primary that produced him (Uba) was authentic because there was a subsisting court ruling by Justice Adeniyi of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which had not been vacated. “An order of court, whether it is right or wrong, must be obeyed until it is vacated. The peculiarity of this case is that there was an existing court order that is still alive,” he had said in strengthening the case for Uba’s candidacy.
The PDP had hoped that dissolving the problematic state executives of the party and setting up a caretaker committee would have rid it of the Uba’s shackle. In conducting its primary that produce Ozigbo, the PDP had argued that its constitution gave it the right to do what it did by utilizing super delegates to conduct the primary since the delegates list which had been produced earlier was annulled by the court. But Justice Nwabunike would have none of that. “Super delegates are officials of PDP. It is their right to serve as delegates, but the issue was that there was a court judgment,” Justice Nwabundike affirmed.
The PDP has now sensed an alleged attempt by Justice Nwabundike to subvert the course of justice by engaging in certain actions that suggested that he does not want the party to appeal his judgment. The party went public to accuse him of making away with the case file on the Senator Ugochukwu Uba Vs PDP & Ors, “in a desperate bid to frustrate an appeal against his judgment on PDP Anambra State governorship primary election.” The PDP alleged that the judge had been compromised and averred that the public was aware of it. In charging Justice Nwabundike to release the case file, the PDP national publicity secretary Kola Ologbondiyan, alleged that the only reason Justice Nwabunike disappeared with the case file and refused to make copies of his judgment available to the PDP and its candidate, Ozigbo, was because “he (Justice Nwabunike) is aware that his perverted judgement cannot stand in any appeal.”
The party spokesman further: “Barely 24 hours after Senator Uba instituted the suit, Justice Nwabunike curiously granted an exparte injunction restraining INEC from carrying out their constitutional duty and also abridged the time within which the Defendants are legally obliged to file their defence from 42 days to only 3 days in violation of Order 16 Rule 1(2) of the Anambra State High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019.
Despite the obvious hardship created by this strange ex parte order, the judge, on the day of hearing, being the 16th of July 2021, denied the defendants time to respond to the processes served on them and proceeded with the hearing of the plaintiff’s case. Regardless of the 180 days provided by the constitution for the hearing and determination of pre-election matters, the Honorable Court hastily concluded proceedings and delivered judgment within 14 days. The most unfortunate part of this episode is that the judge, after delivering the judgment, allegedly refused to release copies of his judgment to the defendants despite their application in the open court, as well as the officially written application to the judge.
However, the court has gone ahead to issue copies of the judgment to the plaintiff, Senator Uba. Moreover, the trial judge has been making every effort to frustrate the notices of appeal filed by the PDP and her candidate, Valentine Ozigbo.” The PDP also alleged that the reason for all these legal is “to frustrate the Defendants’ Appeal against his judgment, which was aimed to assist an individual who did not participate in our primary to distract our party ahead of this crucial election.”
In the APGA, claims and counter-claims rage over who is the authentic candidate of the ruling party, with a litany of litigation by vested camps. But beyond the façade in the confusion is the battle of power brokers, godfathers versus godsons, as well as young Turks determined to change the status ante in the politics of Anambra.
With time ticking, the crises in the major political parties have left their preparations for the November 6 poll in a mess. Why the APC will be hoping for a compromise between Ngige and Andy Uba to forge a united front at polls, both the the ruling APGA and the PDP will be counting on the courts for a bit of help. Whatever happens, Anambra people have seen it all before. It will be a case of dejavu.
and then