Political pundits have substantially treated Enugu State as a settled rock in the rumbles over the 2019 general elections particularly between the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). While the PDP had dominated since 1999, there are chances that a resurgent APC in the state could create a breach at the next election.
Indeed, many believe that APC can unsettle the PDP in the state, with appropriate planning and the right message, or in the least, ignite patches of combustion in the coal city. On paper, the equities between the two parties are nearly equal. Agreed, the PDP has the state governor, the three serving senators, amongst whom is the deputy senate president, the federal representatives and the members of the state House of Assembly.
But apart from Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Senator Ike Ekweremadu, most of the legislators are paper tigers who were foisted on the people, and so, in a fair and free contest, can be given a run for votes in the next election should the opposition party field quality candidates, against them. Again, amongst the old guard, it is only the former governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani that has returned to the PDP.
The APC on its own parade political heavy weights like the former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo, immediate past governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, and the former Senate President Ken Nnamani. The trio represent a balance of terror, if not a heads up advantage, against the PDP in the Enugu east and west senatorial zones. In Enugu West, there is also the former chairman of Ezeagu Local Government, Joe Mmamel, who pulls a heavy punch.
Interestingly, President Muhammadu Buhari’s two significant appointees in the state are from the same town in the Enugu west senatorial zone. They are the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema and the Director General of Voice of Nigeria Osita Okechukwu, whose record of promoting APC across the state is a matter for debate. So, should the gladiators forgo their disparate egos and field quality candidates without any baggage in the Enugu east and west senatorial zones, there is the chance that they could upend the PDP.
Notably in the past week, the former senator for Enugu north, Ayogu Eze, who headed the influential committee on works in the senate, defected to the APC. Of course, Enugu north senatorial zone had been the safest zone for the ruling party in the state, the PDP, considering that the incumbent governor is from the state. While Ayogu was in the senate, Governor Ugwuanyi was in the House of Representative. Both are from the same senatorial zone.
The two contested the gubernatorial candidacy of the PDP in 2015, and both emerged as candidates, from the parallel congresses held by the two factions in the state. One faction was headed by the then incumbent Governor Chime, and the other by the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu. Interestingly, while Governor Ugwuanyi emerged from the Sullivan camp, Ayogu Eze emerged from the Ekweremadu camp. Intriguingly, while Governor Sullivan’s congress was declared illegal, and most of the candidates from it sacked, Ugwuanyi’s candidacy survived.
Ayogu who felt cock sure of his triumph, considering the declaration by the courts that his congress was the authentic one, fought the battle all the way to the Supreme Court, but lost to Governor Ugwuanyi. A knowledgeable person in the politics of the Enugu north senatorial zone, were Ugwuanyi and Ayogu come from, claimed that people from the zone had approached Ayogu Eze to drop the case, but he refused, and that affected the sympathy for him, when he lost the case.
But it must be noted that Ayogu was until 2015 senior to Ugwuanyi in the pecking order of the famous Ebeano family, from which most of the present political gladiators emerged. As a critic of the hegemony syndrome of the Ebeano family, I feel better that they are substantially dispersed, thereby opening the political space and allowing for a more robust contest for political positions. Whereas in the past, all political favours in the PDP were dispensed from the Lion Building, where the state governor operates from, now it has ceased to be so.
Presently, the Ebeano family have diffused into the APC and PDP, and within the two emergent camps, there are no single power centres as in the past. In PDP, the governor would have to share power and influence with his penultimate predecessor Chimaroke Nnamani and deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu amongst other lesser Turks. In APC, there is Jim Nwobodo, former senate president, Ken Nnamani, former governor, Chime and now Senator Ayogu Eze.
Of course, there are other emergent power contenders in the state, who could give these power brokers a run for influence, if the issue is a contest of ideas. But the PDP’s major concern would be what challenge Ayogu Eze could pose to the chances of the incumbent governor to be re-elected in 2019, should he emerge the gubernatorial candidate of the APC. Unlike in the past when the APC candidate weighed lesser in kilogramme than candidate Ugwuanyi, candidate Ayogu Eze could rumble the waters.
According to my source from that senatorial zone, Ayogu Eze could pose a challenge for the governor if he can convince the zone that his candidacy is an added advantage to them. But of course the other zones may kick, should Eze want two extra terms, in addition to the one already spent by his senatorial tribesman, the incumbent governor. So, the view is that should Eze emerge the APC candidate, he would have to make a deal, acceptable to the two other zones, to have a real chance against the incumbent.
But to have a chance at all, in the entire state, the APC family would have to do better in organisation and harmony within the party. It is appalling that the two appointees of the president from the state, who happens to come from the same town, cannot even agree, as they held parallel congress the last time. The party leadership should whip them into line, so the party can organize to challenge the PDP. Also the old guards, in APC, should be ready to allow the emergence of new Turks, as candidates of the party in the next election; perhaps they can ignite the rumble.
Obviously, the Coal City state has been unduly neglected as a potential firefox for the APC in the southeast, but it is not too late for the party strategists to take a closer look, to see whether PDP could be given a run for votes in the state in the upcoming general election. I believe a message crafted around the real issues of development, with helpful push from the federal government could send rumbles into the coal city.