Crisis-ridden parties targeting Anambra Government House

By Raymond Mordi Deputy Political Editor

 

Political parties have been defined as organized groups of people with roughly similar political aims and opinions that seek to influence public policy by getting its candidates elected to public office. Even though parties fulfil many vital roles and perform several functions in a democratic society, the nomination and presentation of candidates in an electoral contest is the most visible function to the electorate. Indeed, in Nigeria, under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), political parties are the only channels through which candidates can canvass for votes and be voted into political offices.

In democracies, political parties are saddled with the responsibility of recruiting competent individuals for political leadership during periodic elections, as well as mobilization and education of the electorate through political rallies and dissemination of information about government policies. They also serve as vehicles for the articulation and aggregation of the interests of people. In other words, political parties are the pivot upon which the entire political process revolves. Therefore, there can be no meaningful democracy without a properly functioning political party system.

The country has just marked 22 years of uninterrupted civil rule, but all is not well with the polity. Impunity and injustice have characterized the internal affairs of many political parties. Over the years, political parties have failed to promote a culture of internal democracy, accountability and good governance. The attitude of the political class is putting the country’s democracy at risk. For instance, in developed democracies, healthy intra-party rivalries are part of the nomination process, as they help not only to interrogate and strengthen the party’s internal conflict management mechanism but also to ensure ultimate cohesion in strategy and tactics. But, in this clime, such rivalries in contests for elective and other positions among members of the same political party have been needlessly fractious and have tended to tear the organizations into shreds.

This is the type of rivalries being witnessed today among members of the major political parties in the Anambra State governorship race. The internal wrangling within the big three parties, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) is likely to shape the governorship contest in the Southeast state. Ordinarily, winning the contest to occupy the Agu Awka Government House election would have been an easy one for the APGA, which has governed the state since 2006 and the PDP, which also held sway there before the emergence of the former.

But, they are facing deep and unabated factional crises. The crisis in the APGA and the PDP could be an opportunity for the APC, which can be regarded as the third most popular party in the state, to take over the state. Though it is equally facing some internal crises, it appears to be more stable than the two leading parties. It could also give the little known Young Progressives Party (YPP), which has picked Senator Ifeanyi Ubah as its flag bearer, an opportunity to defeat the big three parties in the state. Ubah, who emerged unopposed as the candidate of the YPP currently represents Anambra South at the National Assembly on the platform of the party.

Based on the manner the major political parties have conducted their internal affairs, the party and the candidate that eventually wins the election is likely to be destabilized by post-primary litigations in the early days of the administration. This is because the parties are required to abide by the law in the conduct of their primary to nominate candidates that would represent them at the election.

Disputes often arise from issues of qualification, disqualification, nomination, substitution, the conduct of primaries and sponsorship of candidates for the election. Pre-election matters are issues that must be determined by the court, even after the declared winner has been sworn in. According to experts, pre-election litigation generally refers to suits instituted prior to the actual conduct of elections into contested offices.

The increasing rate of defections from one party to the other is the result of the lack of internal democracy and internal cohesion within many of them. This development not only constitutes a democratic nuisance but raises serious concern among political observers as to where the country’s democracy is headed. Today, the country’s democracy appears to be for the highest bidder; recognition of candidates for nomination and selection for primary depend on the strength of the candidate in the area of economic and political power, without any due consideration of his or her integrity.

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The dream of the founding fathers of the APGA was to use the Southeast to launch the party into national politics. But, the party that originated as a platform to champion the Igbo cause has failed to spread even within the Southeast. Today, it is enmeshed in a serious factional crisis, as the succession battle ahead of this year’s governorship election intensifies in the only state it controls.

Governor Obiano secured his second term mandate in 2017, by winning in all the 21 local governments. His tenure will end on March 17 next year, but his attempt to impose former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo as his successor may backfire. Soludo was picked as the candidate at the primary held at the Prof Dora Akunyili Women’s Development Centre by the mainstream faction of the party led by Chief Victor Oye on July 26. Soludo, a professor of Economics scored 740 votes to beat Okwudili Ezenwankwo, who came a distant second, with 41 votes, while ThankGod Ibeh polled four votes. But, Ezenwankwo has rejected the result citing irregularities.

Another faction within the party held a parallel primary at Finotel Hotel and elected Chief Edozie Njoku as its flag bearer. The Njoku-led faction has been on warpath with Oye since a court in Abuja declared him (Oye) as the authentic national chairman of the party.

While the Oye-led faction was trying to come to terms with the Njoku-led faction, a third faction led by Jude Okeke emerged, canvassing for Soludo’s disqualification on the grounds that he engaged in anti-party activities. The Okeke faction has announced Chief Chukwuma Umeoji as its candidate for the election.

Last week, Umeoji had been recognized by INEC on the strength of a court ruling as the party’s candidate. But, on Monday, another court presided over by Justice Chukwudi Okaa reinstated Soludo. The court has ordered INEC to substitute Umeoji’s name with that of Soludo. This was based on the ruling that Oye remains the authentic national chairman of the APGA. But, it is not over yet, as the APGA has up to four cases still pending in court over the primary.

But, how the crisis in the ruling party will affect its chances in the November election remains to be seen.

Like previous elections in Anambra, the PDP is facing an internal crisis. The party produced two candidates through parallel primaries held at different locations in Awka, the state capital, on June 26. The party had gone into the exercise after an order by a high court in Abuja on June 9 dissolving the executive committee led by Ndubuisi Nwobu. The court validated the leadership of Ejike Oguebego. But, Nwobu immediately faulted the court injunction, insisting that his tenure had not expired and that Oguebego was loyal to his leadership.

The controversy created room for Chukwudi Umeaba, a loyalist of Chris Uba, the self-styled “godfather” of the party, to assume office as a caretaker committee chairman. Promptly, he announced the annulment of the election of a three-member ad hoc delegate by the Nwobu-led faction. When leaders of the party returned to court on June 24 to ask for a restraining order on the judgment of June 9, the court refused to oblige them.

Subsequently, the national leadership then dissolved all the executive councils in the state. The PDP state executive, ward executives, and ad-hoc delegates in Anambra were then replaced by “automatic delegates” signed off by the National Organising Secretary of PDP, Austin Akobundu, an action the party national leadership said was necessary because of the dissolution of the state and ward executives of the party in the state.

However, reports on Monday indicate that a High Court in Awka has ordered INEC to recognize Senator Ugochukwu Uba as the PDP candidate because Valentine Ozigbo, who is also laying claim to the ticket, did not vacate the earlier ruling in Abuja before the so-called Super Delegates Primary that produced the former Transcorp CEO as the candidate was held. The court, which was presided over by Justice Obiora Nwabunike said the party’s NWC ought to have vacated that order before proceeding with the party’s primary. But, the battle for the PDP ticket is not over yet. The party has about five cases on the primary still pending, so the situation can change any moment.

The outcome of the APC primary is also a subject of dispute. The emergence of Andy Uba, a former senator, as the party’s candidate, has brought division in the Anambra State chapter, as many stakeholders maintain that no primary took place in their domain. But, it has not generated the kind of dispute currently tearing the APGA and the PDP apart.

The chairman of the APC primary panel and Ogun State’s Governor Dapo Abiodun declared Uba the winner of the contest with 230,201 votes. His closest rival, Johnbosco Onunkwo, Governor Abiodun said, polled 28,746 votes. The governor noted that the election committee adopted the open ballot mode also known as Option A4 to conduct the primary.

Incidentally, Andy Uba who secured the APC ticket is a younger brother of Ugochukwu Uba, winner of the factional PDP primary.