APC And Anambra Guber Election

The colouration of the Anambra State governorship election which will hold later this year  is becoming clearer, with many heavy-weight politicians, especially from the once powerful Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), joining the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). 

This year’s election is coming to become a two-way contest, between the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which is in power in the state and the APC.

Those who understand the dynamics of Anambra politics are already beginning to sense a cataclysmic conclusion of the election, that is still months away. The reasons are not far-fetched.
The defection of “timbers and calibers” of PDP to join forces with the “timbers and calibers” of APC is akin to the creation of a mega party. The idea of a mega party is not far from what is evolving because the men and women who are joining the APC, all have a chunk of Anambra’s political soul and when the chips are down, this will translate into massive following.

PDP is long, impressive and intimidating and reflective of the potent threat that APC is becoming  in the state. For instance, Emeka Offor, Charles Soludo, Obinna Uzor, Okey Ezeibe, Arthur Eze, Tony Nwoye, Uche Ekwunife and virtually every other individual who is something in Anambra’s political firmament aside the residue still equivocating in APGA are the faces of the new APC in Anambra State.

Any attempt to deny the political values of these men and women could be the result of either myopia or delusion. APC has at last made strangulating in-roads into Anambra’s political terrain.
But the boldest and smartest of the party’s strategies to win this year’s governorship election in the state was perfected penultimate Wednesday, in the quiet town of Uga, Aguta Local Government Area of Anambra State, when Sen (Dr.) Andy Uba, in the midst of his kinsmen and teeming supporters joined the APC. His defection provided solution to a nagging problem that APC henchmen must have been trying to solve. There was the unspoken problem of who would become the party’s flag bearer in the coming election. With APGA enjoying incumbency, APC should have a candidate, who is as ubiquitous in Anambra’s 179 communities as he is acceptable and domineering.

In Anambra now, the ranks of the APC is fledging with bigwig politicians, movers and shakers, wheeler  and  dealers and opinion molders but the problem of who would give APGA a good mien for the Anambra Government House was always on front burner.  Which of the old and new members had been consistent in creating and maintaining political structures in and of election seasons? Who among them truly sees governance as service to the people? Who is the most visible, most accepted and most trusted across the length and breadth of the state?

This challenge silently confronted APC in the state from its rich pack of suave businessmen, party apologists, favour seekers, seasonal and focused politicians that  it appeared like the search for a pin in a haystack. It was not exactly the pack to be wagered on to win the guber election because there are not many career politicians in the pack.

Some of the few that are in the pack would not attract optimal advantage to the party’s chances. Some others have their ambitions entirely dependent on funding from godfathers, which is repulsive to Ndi Anambra. Will APC therefore contest as usual, perfunctorily, just for wannabes to massage their vanities or in serious contention for the Anambra Government House? These challenges were put to rest when Sen. Andy Uba joined the APC. It’s no gainsaying that in Anambra State, the only politician with good measure of what it takes to over run APGA, from coast to coast is Sen. Uba.

The reasons are plural and self-expository. First, Uba has a near  cult following in the state, made possible over the years, by his massive, extensive and overwhelming welfarism in interventions in the lives of people, who are desperately in need . This has won for the senator, a whirlwind of appreciation and goodwill across the state and beyond, from cities to hamlets and from palaces to dungeons.

Secondly, he has been consistent in maintaining  and servicing  his political structures in and out of election seasons.  From 2007 till date, his political structures had been regularly serviced and fine-tuned. The opportunities to remain close to the people are some of the secrets of the success of the Andy Uba brand. In 2007, he contested the Anambra guber election on the wheels of a magnificently erected and amply serviced structures and won.

In 2010, he was back to the people, maintaining and servicing those structures, until PDP’s impunity thwarted the obvious choice of the majority. One year later, in 2011, he returned to the structures, campaigning for a seat in the Senate which he won. In 2015, he re-contested and retained his seat in the Senate after another round of vigorous campaigns, which brought him close again to the people and his firm political structures.

These opportunities offered by the campaigns are exclusive of the annual “the people and Andy Uba” meet, during which the senator meets his coordinators, supporters and loyalists at the point of everyone’s needs. Those who have witnessed or  deluged in Andy Uba’s annual philanthropic rain can attest to the frenzy of the occasions. It is always audacious and overwhelming and for one man to have sustained this phenomenal impact on the lives of people, especially outside election seasons, says so much about the political success of the senator.

Uba sees politics and governance as service to the people and not highways to self aggrandizement or self actualization. He told his supporters, that he joined APC because the party has ideology and focus, which he needed to tap into to provide quality representation to his people. It took courage to accept that PDP’s ideology and focus no longer offered credible platform for service delivery to his constituents.

This is an uncommon but commendable approach to politics that a political leader would become a lifeboat in order to save his people from the calamity of a capsizing vessel, knowing exactly when to and why.

This is why in nine years, Sen. (Dr) Andy Uba has remained the most visible, most accepted, most trusted and the politician with the closest affinity to the voters in the party in the forthcoming election in the state have never been better.

By Uchem Obi