The governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, is facing a rebellion from his former political allies. He has been expelled from his party by a group led by party heavy weight, Chekwas Okorie,

The troubles in the party, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, however, are not the only issues that are likely to make the elections in Anambra extremely volatile.

The PDP, which is Nigeria’s ruling party, is determined to win back Anambra from the opposition. To do this however, they must first get their house in order and select a candidate to run for the seat of governor. As of the last count, more than 40 people have picked up nomination forms from the party secretariat in Abuja, indicating they will be contesting for the right to represent the party during the election.

At least one of these candidates, the former governor of the central bank, Chukwuma Soludo, is thought to have the blessing of the wife of the president.

The political manoeuvring that is going on in the state is not limited to the big players, those on the fringes are dipping into the mix and confusing things even further. Some of them include the former state governor, Chris Ngige and the current deputy governor, Virginia Etiaba.

The beginning

The genesis of Anambra’s very complicated, and potentially violent politics can be traced to the 1999, elections that restored democracy in the country after 16 years of military rule. Anambra blazed the trail of what was to become known as political ‘godfatherism’ when Emeka Offor, to all intents and purposes, imposed Chinwoke Mbadinuju on the state.

Having spent a lot of money to get Mr. Mbadinuju into the Awka State House, Mr. Offor, being the businessman that he is, expected returns. He wanted direct access to the state’s treasury, a request that, to his credit, Mr.Mbadinuju refused. That was the beginning of the end for him. In 2003, he failed to get the PDP’s nomination for a second term in office.

While Emeka Offor was dissipating energy fighting the man he had put in the state house, another ‘godfather’ was preparing the ground for his ‘godson’ to get there. Chris Uba, brother to a close confidant of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, Andy Uba, had set the wheels in motion for his protégée, Chris Ngige, to become the governor. His thugs made sure that the 2003 gubernatorial elections were heavily rigged in Mr. Ngige’s favour, while the APGA candidate, Peter Obi, could only watch more or less helplessly as his own vigorous campaign efforts were wasted.

That lasted until Chris Ngige fell out with his godfather. In typical Nigerian style, Mr. Uba, in an effort to forestall any kind of ‘betrayal’ had prior to the elections , hauled Mr.Ngige before a shrine in the now infamous Okija incident, to swear an oath of loyalty; not to the people of Anambra State, but to him. Apparently, Mr. Ngige had agreed and sworn to the oath, so Mr. Uba was confident that unlike Mr. Offor before him, he would have unfettered access to the state’s treasury.

But there is no honour among thieves, and Mr. Ngige reneged on his oath, claiming to be an upstanding Christian. An enraged Mr. Uba had the recalcitrant Mr. Ngige kidnapped. Unfortunately for Mr. Uba, and fortunately for the people of the state, the Federal Government intervened in the crisis on the order of the then vice president, Atiku Abubakar ( President Obasanjo was away at the time).

Mr. Ngige was released and his removal declared illegal. Mr. Ngige’s tenure was cut short, however, when the courts decided that his election had been a farce, and that Peter Obi was in fact the lawfully elected governor of the state. That opened a new chapter in the drama that is Anambra State.

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