Senator Victor Umeh second-guessed the bitterness that has caught up with campaigns for Anambra State, November 8, governorship election. Umeh had at a public function on June 19 pleaded with candidates and their supporters to keep the coming campaigns free of rancour. With gradual acceleration, the political bickering recently turned into mudslinging, raising electoral temperature sharply.
Following a volley of accusations and counter accusations, the campaigns degenerated to personal attacks. As if that was not bad enough, candidates’ families have been roped into the fray.
It’s a matter of concern that while Professor Charles Soludo’s broadsides with the APC’s Nicholas Ukachukwu/Uche Ekwunife raged, another front opened with the alleged beating of Patrick Mbah, Anambra State Commissioner for Youth Development by security men of the YPP candidate, Paul Chukwuma.
Adversarial political competition is not new in Anambra State. The Second Republic years were marked by acute rivalry between the National Party of Nigeria and the Nigeria Peoples Party in the old Anambra State. Anchored around the gain of Alex Ekwueme’s vice presidency in a post war scenario, the NPN viewed NPP’s fiery rhetoric detrimental to the interest of the Igbo. The NPP which saw itself as a movement, however, considered NPN’s bar an inferior shot at the ultimate prize which Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was over-qualified to assume. It was a contestation extensively and intensively prosecuted. The tension was easily felt because of the unique structure of the media at the time. All radio and television stations were government-owned and private newspapers, few and far between. It was a period without the regulatory authority of today’s Nigeria Broadcasting Commission. Anambra Broadcasting Service and the local NTA Channel 8 station became theatres of the broadcast battles. On print media front, Daily Star and Weekly Trumpet amplified the divisions. Mid-1983, MKO Abiola’s National Concord praised the restraint from violence in Anambra State in spite of the heated political exchanges. Two weeks later, the commendation was reduced to ashes with the Nwobodo-Ojukwu, Nkpor Junction faceoff.
It’s a-given that the incumbent is on the receiving end at election campaigns. How else does the opposition command attention? The manifesto, a catalogue of what may be, is a tepid, if not boring tale. The bite, and therefore the news, is the declaration of the government as a failure. And the variety and punchier of illustrations of incompetence, the more headlines and followership attracted. And, there are citizens of Anambra State who, even without the detractions of the opposition, rate Soludo as underperforming. As elsewhere, civil society activism against government in Anambra State comprises both the cynical and the constructive. Some of Soludo’s predecessors were also victims of this belittling of whatever the efforts of government. In the case of those who opposed the government with what they considered superior argument, it sometimes boiled down to difference in perspectives. Other times, it was a matter of what ought to come first.
First civilian Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife faced this plight. Ezeife, Third Republic Governor, was in office for less than two years; a year and 10 and half months to be precise. But just three months into the government, the street verdict was that Ezeife had failed!
Against the background of the dire conditions of the new state, cross sections of the citizenry looked forward to speedy and massive interventions in the area of road construction and social infrastructure. In the face of many areas crying for attention at the same time, cost-saving measures, planning, and appreciable progress in some projects seemed ineffectual to a population hungry for modernisation.
It was a similar experience in Peter Obi’s first tenure. Following Chris Ngige’s deliberately populist administration, the sense of government as a radical, single – minded, intervening authority stuck with a lot of people. The confrontations with perceived enemies of the state and declaration of emergency on roads became new parameters for assessing performance. Consequently, Obi’s cautious start did not make sense to this constituency. Mid-way into his first term, the impression of a too slow, too little and timid leadership was widely shared. Professor Itse Sagay would say at the time that he was not impressed and “preferred Ngige ten times.”
In retrospect, the above conclusions are thought to have been hasty. With the benefit of hindsight, the approaches adopted by Ezeife and Obi are better appreciated today. No one can in all fairness fault Ezeife’s preoccupation with providing the material and social environment for the state’s take-off. Obi’s preference for touching “all sectors simultaneously” had its merits – and demerits. Detractors will always be at work. A leader’s attitude to criticism however, can make the difference in governance.
For Ezeife, the de-marketing of his government was emotionally disturbing. He had complained bitterly on occasions, saying if this was what politics was about, then, he was not a politician. The retired federal permanent secretary succeeded in keeping his cool with the naysayers till the military’s termination of his mandate.
For his part, Peter Obi understood the power of public engagement from day one. He had come into reckoning as the candidate to beat in the 2003 governorship poll through a deft combination of media and personal interfacing. Obi, much like his successor, Willie Obiano, did not directly confront their critics and rivals. The task was taken up by the media offices. Since leaving office in 2014, Obi has kept an informal media machinery working at full throttle, even as the engagement tone comes across as intolerant. Leadership disposition, then, is critical in management of disputes. This is even more so in the case of politics and elections which are prone to divisiveness.
By the dictum of ‘to whom much is given, much is expected,’ Anambra State governor, Charles Soludo, would assume higher responsibility for the mess that recently beclouded campaigns for the November 8 poll. But beyond the onus of public office, the various actors contributed to the distasteful drama. All sides in the Anambra campaign fracas overreached themselves in their conduct. It would appear that Soludo took the poor ratings of his government in bad faith. What else was he expecting from those seeking to dislodge him from the coveted position?
In any case, some of the objections raised by the gubernatorial candidates have merit. Even without categorising the administration “anti-people”, the load of collectable levies at a time of soaring inflation is heavy on majority of the people. And the crude, extortionist style of enforcement adds to the pain. The state security outfit has also been acting as if it were a law unto itself. If the administration believed these representations to be erroneous, the appropriate response would be to counter them with credible information. The impression is strong that the turning point was the sudden fixation on academic certificates. That in itself would not be a breach of any rule. What seems to have offended was the mockery without evidence of petition on authenticity of the certificates. The aggrieved parties saw the sarcasm over the certificates as unwarranted act of belittling.
But as provocative as the certificate innuendos might be, the retaliation with stigmatisation of body make up was above bounds. And so much can also be said about morality of individual lifestyles. These are private matters that should not substitute public service debate. And what business has a Commissioner for Youth Development directing affairs at government hospital? Deliberately blocking the hospital gate with a vehicle was disorderly just as the physical assault by security operatives was misconduct. Desperation is the common element in this run of excesses.
In about eight weeks from now, the Anambra governorship election will be decided. Election outcome will most probably not be determined by intimidation and hot, empty rhetoric. Anambra’s civil society is enlightened and can claim a measure of political sophistication. She knows the indices for arriving at informed choices. As it were, the star card sometimes used to distort voter preference, is neutralised this time around. The Abuja reach balances out, setting the stage for a fair contest. An averagely performing incumbent is already a step ahead of his competitors.
In Anambra State, the unwritten rule of zoning cannot be wished away. It predisposes the stand of the next benefitting zone in second term election. Five notable parties, namely APC, APGA, ADC, LP and YPP will slug it out in the November governorship election. Each of these parties promises to win some wards in the state. This dispersal setting is a perfect recipe for incumbent’s advantage.
