The political atmosphere in Anambra State is gradually heating up as the people of the state prepare to go to polls on November 8, to elect a Governor, reports Ikeugonna Eleke.    Â
Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, Saturday, 18 January, while launching a security framework codenamed; ”Operation Udo Ga Achi”, at the International Convention Centre in Awka, told citizens of the state that he recently marked his two years and 10 months in office. What this means is that the governor still has a year and two months to complete his first term. But already, there is a clamour from political gladiators in the state to take his seat.
This year, precisely on November 8, the state will go to the polls to either renew Soludo’s tenure as Governor, or vote him out and get a replacement for him. The country’s electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had in October 2023 issued a guideline for the conduct of the election.
It said: “The Commission has approved that the 2025 Anambra State Governorship election will hold on Saturday, 8 November 2025. In compliance with the mandatory requirement of 360 days, the formal notice for the Election will be published on 13 November 2024. Party primaries will be held from 20 March 2025 to 10 April 2025.
“The candidate nomination portal will open at 9.00am on 18 April 2025 and close at 6.00pm on 12 May 2025. The final list of candidates will be published on 9 June 2025. Campaign in public by political parties will commence on 11 June 2025 and end at midnight of Thursday 6 November 2025. Voting will take place in all the 5,720 Polling Units across the State on Saturday 8 November 2025.”
Already, politicians have started placing themselves in good standing with both the electorate and political parties in readiness for the contest.
Typical of Anambra which has always been known for a multiplicity of contestants, many are already warming up from various parties, but what must be taken into cognizance is that only few political parties are rooted in Anambra State and any contest outside the key ones may just be a waste of resources.
Political Parties/Their Aspirants
Only few political parties possess the support and mechanism to win elections in Anambra State. These parties include; All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Labour Party (LP); Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). Though Anambra was previously referred to as a typical PDP state, especially with its cult following in the state then, today, internal wrangling has long torn the party apart, leaving it in shreds.
The party first started by battling godfatherism in the early days when it produced a Governor for the state and later went into leadership tussle which resulted in the state having more than two factions led by different chairmen at every interval. In successive governorship elections in the state, the party had always held at least two Primary Elections and also produced candidates in same number.
This has greatly affected their victory as they shared their votes among factional candidates, weakening their chances of victory. To date, the party is still struggling to find its feet and one would doubt what fight they could possibly put up in the coming election.
So far, no politician has been known to reveal intention to seek the ticket of the party to contest the election and this may not be unconnected with their waning popularity in the state.
On the other hand, the loss of PDP has constantly remained the gain of APGA in the state. Since 2006 when the party took the reins of power in the state through Mr Peter Obi, ousting then Governor, Dr Chris Ngige, through the court, the party has controlled Anambra State for 19 unbroken years with three governors.
The party over the years has grown in size and there is no doubt that if elections were to be conducted, the party would still be a force to reckon with, especially as it is the party in power in the state. The performance of the incumbent Governor, who has been adjudged to have done so very well in infrastructural development, may also pose a challenge to any party contesting against him.
So far, he has failed to mention any interest in seeking re-election, insisting that he has a major task to deliver in the state. This notwithstanding, many support groups have positioned themselves, prodding him to re-contest, and there are no doubts whatsoever that he will heed their plea as the signs are everywhere. No one is known to be seeking to drag the ticket with him either within the party.
Another political party in the state that took the state by storm, almost positioning itself as the most popular after APGA, is LP. The clout of the former Governor of the state, Mr Peter Obi, and the huge support he garnered during the last General Elections, swept through the entire country and Anambra. Because of such popularity, LP, today has the second highest number of lawmakers in the state, both in the state and National Assemblies.
Many politicians who ran into the party as a second option after they fell apart with their previous parties used the platform to defeat other more established politicians. To this day, many still believe that the party will spring wonders in the Anambra Governorship Election, while others believe that with the leadership crisis in the party, its popularity is waning.
The viability of the platform may be the reason many politicians are seeking to use the platform to contest the election, and they include; Mr Valentine Ozigbo, Mr John Nwosu, Engr Barth Nwibe, Senator Tony Nwoye and Dr George Moghalu.
The APC, on the other hand, is one Party that Anambra people have never given a chance, but today, it seems to have put its acts right and has gradually started permeating the consciousness of the people of the state. However, the party is not known to have any elected representative in the state outside the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, who won his seat from a separate party, YPP, and later decamped to the APC before his eventual death.
Today, maybe largely because of the ruling-party-at-the-centre factor, the party has become a beautiful bride, with many established politicians joining it. So far, the APC looks set to give APGA a run for their money and the party members are not mincing words about their preparedness to take the Government House.
So far, the party has two major governorship aspirants who have shown considerable interest in the ticket of APC and they are: Sir Paul Chukwuma and Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, both formidable men in their different ways.
While there is no guessing who will clinch the APGA ticket in their Primary Election because there is only one aspirant who is the governor, the same cannot be said about the other two parties: LP and APC. It will therefore, be interesting who emerges as the sole candidate of the parties after their primaries.
Based on past experience, it is expected that those who lose out in their party’s primary will seek redemption in any smaller party which may blossom into prominence depending on the clout of who they give their ticket.
Last time out, the Labour Party had jumped from near obscurity to national prominence just because Peter Obi joined it after missing the presidential ticket of PDP. It had a ripple effect as many LP members who never nursed hopes of winning, all won, including a commercial vehicle driver in a northern state.
Back home in Anambra State, the party won many assembly seats and controlled the majority of national assembly seats. Thus, as the primaries of the parties near, a repeat of the tradition may happen and political watchers will no doubt be waiting to see how it all pans out.
Additional report from Jude AtupulaziÂ
