Greatpeter:

Thank you pinto you understand our judicial politics well enough.

But Ngige might not win second time in Anambra.

Enemy don pass friend for Ngige, but he will surely finish this tenure.

Old Boy,
I don talk say , i ready to defend Ngige free of charge make we disgrace all those old foolish men for PDP.
Na case of thiefman thief thiefman.
If some governors commit murder, some forge certificate, some go prison before and PDP use Uncle T.Balogun weh dem dey call IG-thief now take steal ballot boxes, still dey there, how much less Ngige were siddon for him house, money he no get, PDP and INEC do abracadabra make am governor.

Anambra: APGA is a late comer
By Amanze Obi [amaobi@yahoo.co.uk]
Monday, August 22, 2005

Those who try to assume the moral high ground whenever the political debacle in Anambra State comes up for mention are merely idling away. Morality has no place any more in the Anambra saga. What counts is how much sagacity that each actor can bring to bear on the issue.

The moral or ethical dimension made sense at first. That was when the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) of Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu- Ojukwu which was supposed to make a very impressive showing in Anambra, Ojukwu's home state, was able to impress it upon the public that it was rigged out everywhere in the South East states, particularly in Anambra. The overriding sentiment which APGA held on to then was that Odumegwu-Ojukwu's party should, at least, have been allowed to hold sway in his own state.

This position was, to a large extent , well received then, at least in South East circles. Since it was a well known fact that votes were merely allocated to political parties or individuals at the 2003 general elections, some observers felt then that what was good for the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the South West should have been good for APGA in the South East. The president's party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) muzzled AD out of the way in five out of the six states presently controlled by AD. PDP merely allowed AD to retain Lagos. In the same vein, since the PDP was believed to have wilfully denied APGA victory in one or two South East states, it (PDP) should have been gracious enough to allow APGA to win at least one state, the most fitting being Odumegwu-Ojukwu's Anambra.
But the issue of who should have won the gubernatorial elections in Anambra State was soon to pale into insignificance when APGA maintained a low profile in the unfolding drama, while allowing the PDP to convert the situation in Anambra strictly into its own affair. When this happened, the argument no longer bordered on whether PDP lost the election to APGA. Rather, the focus was on how Chris Ngige, the Governor of the State, was brought into office by certain forces. At this point, whatever sympathy APGA had in the Anambra elections withered away. And with that development, all moral considerations were thrown overboard.

APGA did not just abandon the moral argument, it also did little or nothing to sustain or amplify the struggle at the political level. What it did instead was to abdicate its responsibility to PDP. The battle which APGA was supposed to wage on all fronts became PDP's. It was because APGA stepped aside that the PDP deployed all the energy it could to decimate itself in Anambra State. APGA watched with indifference or unconcern while Chris Uba and Ngige battled each other. Ngige was abducted, chased out, bullied, attacked and generally harassed by certain forces in PDP represented by Uba. Anambra State was severally set ablaze in the desperate bid by certain powerful elements within the PDP to see Ngige out of office. Several injunctions were sought and obtained on whether Ngige should remain in office or whether his security details should be restored or not. Judgments were given for and against in the Ngige-Uba debacle. When the courts were not holding forte, socio-cultural and religious groups were there to broker peace. South East governors, Ohaneze leadership, the Catholic Church in Anambra State, Anambra professionals, World Igbo Congress, and many more, were interested in the matter. None of these yielded any positive result.

Since the octopus called PDP was out to ruin the political career of Ngige, many thought that the governor would capitulate. But, somehow, he held on to power in a manner that has surprised everybody. When the PDP leadership apparently got tired of him, they decided to expel Ngige from the party, leaving him as a political orphan. While all this was going on, APGA watched with glee from the sidelines. But when it became obvious that Ngige's expulsion from the PDP had taken nothing out of him, the party began to evolve other ways of caging him.

This was how the absent- minded APGA was reminded of what it ought to be doing. APGA was reminded that the battle should have been between it and PDP, not between PDP and itself. APGA was reminded of the need to resurrect the case it filed at the Election Petitions Tribunal against the PDP over the 2003 governorship elections in Anambra State. The party which appeared to be asleep all this while was made to realise that Ngige needed to be pushed out so that its candidate at the elections, Peter Obi, could take over from him.
But the lacuna which APGA failed to fill earlier is haunting it now. Analysts are wondering what the situation in Anambra State would have been like today if PDP succeeded in ousting Ngige.

Would PDP have thrown out Ngige so that APGA's Obi would take over? This could not have been the case. The PDP was merely out to remove Ngige so that another member of the PDP would succeed him. The party did not fight the two-year fruitless war for the sake of APGA. It is therefore disappointing that APGA, the party that should have seized the day long ago, is just waking up from slumber. APGA, the party that should have taken the initiative on how to end the era of Ngige in Anambra has realised too late that it abdicated its responsibility and, in the process, allowed Ngige to gather a lot of steam. Today, the governor is firmly rooted in the battle. He is no longer an easy nut to crack. For APGA therefore, the battle is going to be a tough one. It has, through its deliberate acts of omission and commission, conceded a lot of ground to Ngige. Its latter day attempt at neutralising the governor may therefore turn out to be a futile exercise.

Perhaps, APGA needs to be reminded of the fact that Ngige's battle with PDP has equipped him so well for the faint-hearted jab coming from APGA. In the course of the Anambra debacle, a member of the House of Representatives from the state, Jerry Ugokwe, has invented something called ECOWAS Court in election matters. When he lost at the Appeal Court, the court recognised by the Electoral Law as the final court of jurisdiction in election matters, Ugokwe resorted to ECOWAS court. The overall objective is to hold on to the seat until probably his term of four years expires. Should this turn out to be the case, the other contender who went to court to challenge him would have waited in vain to take over from him.

That was a clever move. Or what do you think?
Now, Ngige's case has not been heard by the Appeal court. But the man is preparing our minds for eventualities. He has alerted us of his readiness to go to ECOWAS court should he lose at the Appeal court. He has alluded to the precedent already set by Ugokwe in this matter.

Herein lies the helplessness of APGA. Should this matter be decided in favour of APGA at the Appeal court, Ngige would, like Ugokwe, take recourse to the ECOWAS court. And since Ugokwe got there before Ngige, the world would expect Ugokwe's case to be disposed of first before that of Ngige. All this, no doubt, would eat more into the time left for the disputed four-year tenure to end. Ngige may use the Ugokwe device to stay on in office, and this will translate into the fact that APGA is, indeed, a late comer in the Anambra saga.

Is this the first topic on the politics section

Someone please confirm

How many of you were on this forum

Where are those that posted here, some history of this section needed

Thumbs up to you guys

Thanks for making this section

God bless you