Governor Willy Obiano’s declaration as winner of the Anambra State election by the Independent National Electoral Commission ((INEC) yesterday ended the battle for the coveted seat in the Southeast state. RAYMOND MORDI and NWANOSIKE ONU write on the factors that shaped the election in which the incumbent trounced 35 challengers.
Incumbent Governor Willie Obiano of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) won last Saturday’s governorship election convincingly. He defeated his opponents in all the 21 local government with 234,071 votes, representing 55.42 per cent of the total valid votes cast.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer in the race, Dr. Tony Nwoye trailed him with 98,752 votes. Mr. Oseloka Obaze of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) followed closely with 70,293 votes.
Obiano had the highest number of votes in his Anambra East Local Government Area. His APC challenger is also from the local government area.
The governor got 20,510 votes in the local government, while Nwoye trailed behind with 5,248 votes. Obaze garnered 1,132 votes in the council, which has 72, 886 registered voters.
At the height of polls’ collation, the Chief Returning Officer and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Zana Akpogu, declared that Obiano have satisfied the requirements of the law and “is hereby declared winner.”
Obiano declared that his triumph at the election is a victory for the people and not for himself or APGA. He said it is the time to build a new world for the people of Anambra, thanking them for having confidence in him, to leading the state to the promise land.
The United Progressive Party (UPP) candidate, Osita Chidoka, who came fourth in the race, said he lost because he refused to share money like others.
In his reaction, the political godfather of Anambra, Chief Chris Uba, said his party, the PDP, lost the election because of the impunity and the hijack of the party by former Governor Peter Obi.
He said the last time the PDP produced a governor in Anambra was in 2003, when he made Dr. Chris Ngige governor. He described Obaze as a foreigner imposed on the party by Obi, noting that was painful for the PDP to come a distant behind APGA and APC in Anambra.
He, however, warned the PDP to either correct the impunity during the forthcoming national convention of the party on December 9 or remain same. He said Obi should apologise to members of the party on the pages of five newspapers and he (Uba) would know what to do.
With the landslide victory, the people have shown more confidence in Obiano and APGA as a political platform. The APGA flag bearer defeated his APC counterpart in Senator Chris Ngige’s polling unit in Alor, Idemili South Local Government Area, Anambra Central Senatorial District; in Senator Uche Ekwunife’s unit at Nri, Anaocha Local Government Area, Anambra Central; and Prince Arthur Eze’s polling unit in Ukpo, Dunukofia Local Government Area, also Anambra Central.
The Chairman of the Willie Obiano Campaign Organisation, Chief Victor Umeh, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying the way and manner the commission went about the process accounted for the difference.
Umeh said that all the ad hoc staff and collation officers that took part in the election were selected by the commission in such a way that their identities were not known until the last minute.
The returning officer, a former National Chairman of APGA, who said the party feared that the election might be rigged by the APC-controlled Federal Government in favour of its candidate, noted that the electoral umpire shocked the people with the best election that has ever been held in the state.
He said: “We already knew that Governor Obiano have won the election yesterday, but there was palpable tension that the result will be changed overnight. But the results declared here today suggest that the process was transparent: nothing was changed.
“All the results we received from the local government collation centres yesterday were the actual results declared here today. This is what we wish for the country; to have an electoral process where the people will decide who becomes their leader. If we get it right continuously in this regard, this country will always have leaders that will serve them.”
According to Umeh, last Saturday was not the first time APGA will be securing a landslide victory in a governorship election, recalling that “in 2013, Obiano won in 20 out the 21 local government areas in the state. But he won in all the 21 councils this time around, because of the great work he did in virtually all the communities. So, you can see that the mandate was unanimous: no local government shied away from giving him maximum support.
“Again, APGA has shown that it is the dominant party here; the people believe in it because it represents their political life. By the time Obiano completes his second term, the party would have governed the state for 16 years.’’
Umeh said APGA has offered good governance in the last 12 years, thereby making the state secure and stable.
Confirming his early belief that the people will not gamble, by voting for somebody they do not know, he added: “Good governance is very rare in Nigeria; any place you see it the citizens will grab it. That’s what the people of Anambra haws done.”
Why Obiano won
One of the biggest factors that aided Governor Will Obiano’s victory is incumbency. Naturally, Obiano exploited it throughout the electioneering campaign period. His billboards and posters were the most visible throughout the major roads in the state. One can hardly find billboards and posters of the other candidates on major roads in the state. Opponents have accused the party of destroying their billboards and posters.
In terms of performance, Obiano may not have performed to everyone’s expectation, but he exploited the fact that he is in power by embarking on last minute developmental projects to garner votes in areas his opponents are expected to have block votes.
In his campaign, Obiano tried to whip up the same sentiments that worked for the party in previous elections. One of such is to position APGA as an Igbo party. Owing to this sentiment, APGA has been winning elections since 2003. Though former Governor Peter Obi and the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s son, Emeka Jnr., have refuted the claims of APGA that the former warlord warned the Igbo not to abandon the party, their words have certainly not made impact in the minds of the people of Anambra, who take APGA as their own.
Besides, the party is well rooted in the state. So, it has its own die-hard supporters, who believe he has done well under the circumstance he finds himself.
Another factor responsible for Obiano’s re-election is the zoning arrangement. In the spirit of the zoning arrangement, the two other major parties – the APC and the PDP – picked their candidates from Anambra North, which is favoured to occupy the governorship seat in the next four years. But the odds favoured Obiano, who is entitled to only one more term of four years.
Although both Nwoye and Obaze who are from Anambra North like the incumbent signed an undertaking pledging to do only one term to complete the eight years allotted to the zone, electorates from Anambra South were more favourably disposed to back Obiano as a matter of expediency.
Observers say the political titans from the zone were more comfortable with Obiano, because his continuation would provide the shortest route for the zone to grab power.
President Buhari
Despite being the national leader of the ruling party, the President did not interfere in the conduct of the Anambra elections. His father-for-all role was on display when he ordered the reinstatement of the security details of Obiano, who were withdrawn by Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris, few days to the election.
INEC
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is one of the major beneficiaries of the Anambra governorship election, having conducted it without the usual hiccups that always characterized the exercise in the country.
Though there were few complaints of late arrival of materials in some places and malfunction of the card reader machines, but the election has been adjudged the best so far in the land.
Obiano
He is the incumbent governor of the state, who was pressurised to relinquish his office by the opposition. But his dogged nature, sincerity and straight forwardness paved the way for him during the election on Saturday
Many people had written him off in the election, but his open mind and politics of anti party by some members of other political parties gave him victory.
Police
The masses had lost confidence in the Nigeria police especially, when it comes to issues of conducting elections in the country because of the way they bully, harass and intimidate innocent souls.
But the comportment of the police men including rank and file and maturity displayed by them had given the people a new hope in the police
APGA
The party has really proved with the Obiano victory that it is no longer a party, but a movement for the voters in Anambra State. The party defeated the PDP, despite the backing of Obi, who dumped APGA for the then ruling PDP after ruling the state for two consecutive terms.
