₦airaland Forum

Afam4eva: It's called Youthful exuberance

Afam4eva: I like this SDP candidate. He's young.

awodman: The APC chiefs just confirmed to us that they have a long standing unholy alliance with this man..source of their many judicial victories..only if MTN can release those call logs

mikeansy: [size=18pt] Peter Obi is the biggest DEMAGOGUE the South East has produced

The man has no shame whatsoever!!!! [/size]

bestview: If it needs rigging to humiliate and blot out the Islamic Yorobar Party APC, it is supported..

Posted by: Socrates Ebo in Sunday Interview 13 hours ago



It is election time once more in Anambra State. Once more, an array of men and resources are on parade before the electorate. The stakes are high; so high for some people. For some others, however, it is an opportunity to make a political statement. Anambra is a state that is in a class of its own. It parades men and resources; men found among the best and among the worst. It is unique. Its uniqueness can sometimes be found in the absurd. But there is no gainsaying that it is an unqualifiedly great and interesting state of the federation.

In governance, Anambra has seen it all: the great, the crooked, the mediocre and the sly. Little wonder, the generality of the people have grown cynical of governments. Among the persons jostling to govern Anambra come March 17 2014, three have become more visible in the pack. That is not to say that the rest are neither qualified nor are they not campaigning. The election at the moment can be zeroed down to a contest between Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah of the Labour Party. Among the three, Senator Ngige unarguably stands tall.

For Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah, the election is much more than a contest; it is a fierce fight for survival; a make or mar battle. Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah has, so to speak, decisively hinged his future on the contest. First, he ran his company to a near state of bankruptcy in the build up to the campaigns. The banks had to blacklist him, designating him a persona non grata so far as credit facilities are concerned. The Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) had to take away his company, Capital Oil and Gas Limited, from him, to save it from the hands of the banks. He had to relinquish the management of the company to AMCON for two years as a compromise decision after AMCON unsuccessfully sought to take away the company from him for good. The Assets Management Company (AMCON) has since confiscated and offered his private jet for sale. His worries are not yet over: Mr. Cosmas Maduka of Coscharis Motors Limited is on his neck for a multibillion naira deal gone awry while the subsidy committee is looking for a way to do him in.

For Mr. Ifeanyi, success at the November 16 poll would mean freedom from many woes. Freedom from AMCON, Coscharis, subsidy and sundry woes. It would offer him the accoutrement of power, among them immunity and the many benefits that come with gubernatorial power in Nigeria.

If there is a man is dire need of that election, he arguably qualifies for one. Accordingly, Mr. Ifeanyi has given in his best in the contest. He was the first of the contestants to flag off his campaign with live coverage on a national television and an impressive attendance. He has assiduously worked his way among the fold of the big three in the contest – no mean feat.

Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah is rumoured to be the highest spender among the gladiators in the gubernatorial contest. This is rather a bewildering happenstance at the backdrop of the fact that his company was tottering to bankruptcy. Apparently, he was going up while his company was going under. This is another wonder of the world; African wonder.

Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah is incontrovertibly generous. He doles out largesse to all and sundry save his workers who are said to be owed for many a month. At any rate, we hope that his management skills would be better than that applied at Capital Oil and Gas if he wins the governorship. Anambrarians cannot afford to have Anambra State taken over by AMCON. It is better imagined than experienced.

For Chief Willie Obiano, the stakes are not really that high. He is the anointed godson of Mr. Peter Obi who has a lot to protect and a lot more to keep in place. Chief Willie Obiano, so to speak, is an extension of his reign; a third term by proxy. For Mr. Obi, it is a battle of life and death. A lot is at stake. He is into the race like a moving train ready to bulldoze any opposition in his way. He has bruised Chief Victor Umeh into reconciliation. He bulldozed Rochas out of APGA and gave Soludo a clean upper cut.

He has literally constituted his fancies into the budget of the state as he extra-budgetarily doles out state funds like Father Christmas. The defeat of Obiano means the requiem of APGA. It implies an imminent review of the Obi administration by a different government. It means a searchlight on the grey areas of his administration. The future of Fidelity Bank is at stake. Fidelity Bank, where Obi was chairman and is the highest shareholder, has benefitted so much from the government of Anambra State. A different government in Anambra State means bad business for the favoured bank.

Mr. Peter Obi, above all, has his nemesis, Dr. Chris Ngige, to contend with. Ngige is one politician in Anambra State that has kept Obi ill at ease.

For Chris Nwabueze Ngige, however, the contest is a quest for the fulfillment of prophesy. At the twilight of his administration in 2006, Dr. Ngige had prophesied that he would return to complete the work he started. The contest is a contest of ideology. It is a quest to fulfill his blueprint for infrastructural development of Anambra. It is a battle of legacies: his vision of Anambra versus Mr. Peter Obi’s vision of Anambra. Ngige had fought hard against money politics and god fatherism in Anambra.

While the triumph of Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah would mean the triumph of money; the triumph of Chief Obiano would mean the triumph of god fatherism.

As the date draws nigh, the stakes are high and getting higher. The choices are clear: money, god fatherism and radical infrastructural development. Anambrarians have a date with destiny come November 16, 2013.



— Ebo, wrote in from Awka

benzion72: President GEJ kneeling on Jesus tomb praying. May God give him the wisdom to manage this country in a better way

slimghost: Did i hit a nerve kid? . Ohhh, i forgot you are a Yoruba who knows next to nothing about my dear Anambra state. Now off to your cave.

slimghost: When Yorubas are the ones campaigning for Ngige on Nairaland, it tells a lot of stories. Anyway, November 16 is just around the corner.

FreeGlobe: The only hope Peter Obi has is rigging which will not work. The Obiano guy is still not popular. This election is between Ngige and Ifeanyi Ubah