The battle for Anambra State senatorial seats in the forthcoming 2019 general elections is one to watch given the calibre of personalities, who would be contesting for the three seats up for grab.
The seats are presently occupied by Victor Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) – Anambra Central; Stella Odua of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – Anambra North and Andy Uba of All Progressives Congress (APC) – Anambra South.
The trio have already picked the tickets of their respective political parties to return to the Red Chamber of the National Assembly, but it would not be an easy ride for any of them.
According to the provincial list of senatorial candidates by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Umeh would be squaring up against an old political foe, Senator Uche Ekwunife (APC) and a vice president of apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Charles Odunukwe for the Anambra Central seat.
The battle for Anambra North seat is between Oduah and wife of late Senate president, Chuba Okadigbo, Margery (APC) and a former deputy governor of the state, Chinedu Emeka (APGA). That of Anambra South is between Senator Uba (APC); his younger brother, Chris (PDP) and businessman, Nicholas Ukachukwu (APGA).
Anambra Central: Umeh, Ekwunife in rematch
For Anambra Central, it is a rematch of the 2015 contest between Umeh (a former national chairman of APGA) and Ekwunife. INEC had declared the Ekwunife winner of the March 28, 2015 election, but the seat became vacant after she was sacked by the court.
Ekwunife, who contested then on the platform of the PDP, polled 101,548 votes to defeat 14 other candidates, including Umeh and a former governor of Anambra State, Senator Chris Ngige (presently Minister of Labour and Productivity), who contested on the platform of APC and polled 77,129 and 20,850 votes, respectively.
The APGA and APC candidates, however, rejected the results. Ngige particularly called for a cancellation of the election, while Umeh headed to the State and National Assembly Election Tribunal. After four months of legal battle, the tribunal, which sat in Awka, the state capital, dismissed the petition filled by Umeh.
The Justice Naiyi Aganaba-led three-man tribunal unanimously upheld Ekwunife’s election and struck out all relief sought by the APGA candidate. Affirming the result declared by INEC, the tribunal declared that by its calculation, Ekwunife scored 93,300 votes as against Umeh’s 85,898 to win majority of votes cast during the election.
Justice Aganaba also ruled that the petitioners – Umeh and APGA – failed woefully to establish their case, which they hinged on alleged mutilations and incorrect figures of results upon which Ekwunife was declared winner by INEC.
Umeh had approached the tribunal for it to declare him winner on the ground that he got the highest number of lawful votes cast. At the tribunal, through his lawyers, the APGA candidate, going by the ruling of the court, was able to show that the result announced by INEC was false by re-calculating the figures on the certified true copies of the results declared by INEC.
A re-calculation of figures presented by INEC showed that PDP got 93,860 on the face value instead of 101,548 while APGA scored 85,898 instead of 77,129.
There was also the issue of whether Ekwunife was validly nominated. Umeh in his petition argued that the PDP in Anambra State had been factionalised in the past 12 years. He argued that before the primaries started, internal squabbles in the PDP took a heavy toll on the party, necessitating that Ekwunife and her group became candidates without going through any primaries or any process as provided by the Electoral Act.
Despite the issues raised by Umeh, the tribunal ruled that the election was conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
Expectedly, the APGA candidate appealed the judgement and after about eight weeks of legal tussle, a Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu, on December 7, 2015, sacked Ekwunife and ordered a fresh election within 90 days.
Chairman of the three-man appeal panel, Justice A.D Yahaya, faulted the earlier judgement of the lower tribunal which upheld Ekwunife’s election. The two other judges in the appeal panel, Justices T.O. Awotoye and D.S. Sanga, also concurred with the lead judegment.
Series of litigations by interested parties stalled the re-run, but it finally held on January 12 this year after over two years. With Ekwunife barred from the contest, Umeh emerged victorious. He polled 64,879 votes out of about 67,000 votes cast in the seven local government areas of the zone – a margin of over 95 percent over his opponents.
Ngige came a distant second with 975 votes despite withdrawing from the election, while the candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) placed third with 116 votes.
But as the duo duel each other again in the 2019 polls, it is going to be on a clean slate as the political dynamics in the state have changed. Though Umeh’s APGA still maintains its firm grip on Anambra politics with its victory in the November 2017 governorship election; Ekwunife’s APC, which was hitherto unpopular in the state, has made appreciable inroad into the state since the last general elections. The ruling party at the centre came second in the governorship poll ahead of the PDP, which took the number position.
While no two electoral contests are the same, Umeh has to roll up sleeves this time if he is to return to the upper legislative chamber. Besides Ekwunife, he also has Odunukwe, who is flying the flag
of a rejuvenated PDP in the state. The recent nomination of a former governor of the state, Mr. Peter Obi, as vice presidential candidate of the main opposition party has rekindled the party’s hope of bouncing back in Anambra State, where it held sway between 1999 and 2006.
Anambra North: Obiano factor may decide outcome
It also promises to be an intriguing battle in Anambra North, where Odua, a former minister of Aviation has Margery Okadigbo and John Emeka to contend with. Oduah, who was elected to the Red in Chamber in 2015 on the platform of the PDP, dumped the party in July this year for APGA, but later made a detour.
Oduah is banking on a rich political experience to return to the Senate. Besides serving as a minister and being a senator for almost four years now, she was also active in the political campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan, where she served as his campaign’s Director of Administration and Finance.
But, Mrs. Okadigbo is equally not new to the senatorial contest. She was a member of the Seventh National Assembly on the platform of the PDP, but lost out in the party’s primary preceding the 2015 general election.
She hinges her quest for the senatorial seat on the need to help “restore the legacy of principled leadership” which is a principle her late husband, Chuba stood for throughout his life time. No doubt, the late Senate president’s political structure would be handy to aid her pursuit.
For Emeka, it is also rich political profile, having served as member representing Anambra West in the Anambra State House of Assembly (1991-1993), member representing Anambra East and West Federal Constituency (1997, deputy governor (1999 -2003) as well as commissioner for Public Utilities, Water Resources (2014 -2015) and Science and Technology (2015 -2018).
While each of the trio could be said to have what it takes to win the poll given their respective political pedigree, the contest is likely to be decided by Governor Willie Obiano’s factor. The governor hails from the zone and he is expected to seize the opportunity of the poll to prove that he calls the shot the shot in the area and that his second term victory was not a fluke.
Anambra South: Uba brothers battle Ukachukwu
The Anambra South contest is between two brothers, one a former presidential aide and serving senator, the other, a businessman and self-styled political godfather, Andy and Chris Uba, and businessman, Nicholas Ukachukwu.
Another of the Ubas – Ugochukwu – occupied the seat between 2003 and 2007, but was defeated by Obiorah Ugwu, when he attempted a second term. The family, however, bounced back and clinched the seat through Andy in 2011. He had earlier been sworn-in as governor of the state (May 29, 2007), before the Supreme Court sent him packing two weeks later.
The former presidential aide returned to upper legislative chamber after his victory in the 2015 elections. His second coming to the Senate was however threatened by Chris, who insisted on being the validly nominated candidate of the PDP for the senatorial election.
The two brothers had pitched their tents with different camps of the state’s chapter of the party prior to the election and emerged candidates from parallel primaries. Andy was however listed for the election by INEC.
Chris, who has not held any political office before, but was determined to join his brothers in the club of senators, however got his faction of the PDP, led by Ejike Oguebego, to file a suit against the Ken Emeakayi faction backed by his brother.
The matter traversed from the High Court to the Supreme Court, which on January 29, 2015, upheld an earlier verdict delivered by Justice Evoh Chukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on December 15, 2014, which affirmed the Oguebego-led executive committee of the party, along with the primaries conducted by it and its list of candidates that emerged from the exercise.
A five-man panel of the apex court, led by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, in a unanimous decision affirmed as null and void a caretaker committee, headed by Col. Augustine Akobundo (rtd), and its list, nominating Andy, as well as the rest of PDP state and federal legislators from Anambra State to INEC as the party’s candidates for the 2015 general elections.
With the judgement, the Oguebego camp insisted that Andy and his co-travellers, including Senator Oduah (Anambra North) were sacked. But the lawmakers’ disproved assertions of their removal from office. Faulting the assumptions that the Supreme Court judgement effectively removed them from office, they argued that they were not party to the suit, which basically had to deal with issues of leadership crisis in Anambra PDP then.
Uba (Andy) later dumped PDP for APC), contested for its 2017 governorship ticket, but lost to a member of the House of Representatives, Tony Nwoye.
While the 2015 battle was won and lost in the court, the stage has been set for an epic clash between the Uba brothers in the 2019 general elections. While Andy picked the senatorial ticket of the APC, Chris emerged the candidate of PDP in the just concluded primaries of the various political parties.
Already, Chris has given a hint of what to expect as he told journalists recently that he is contesting the senatorial seat against his elder brother because he would not want him to overstay his usefulness in the red chamber.
His words: “My brother has been there for eight years and must take a bow now. I pray for my brother to go higher; he can become a governor or vice president but not a senator again. It is now my turn. I want him to throw in the towel because the fight is going to be very serious.”
Chris, who said he had played the role of political godfather for over two decades in Anambra and beyond, further revealed that he decided to contest for the senatorial seat to correct some anomalies in the system.
“I want to run because we have been sponsoring politicians in Anambra State and across Nigeria. I have been doing that and a lot of people have passed through my school, but, they call us godfathers. We have made cases several times for the party to make some provisions in its constitution to protect godfathers, but no way, no provision.
“The truth remains that godfathers are closer to the grassroots. A lot of people depend on us, a lot of families depend on us and many families today are hungry. But after sponsoring politicians, immediately they get to Abuja, you can’t get them on the telephone again, nobody will see them again, they buy choice cars and the next thing, they will blackmail you.
“Any little thing, they will start fighting you, they will say they’ve known the President, they’ve known the party chairman and as a godfather, you are in trouble. So, now we need to occupy offices to protect our positions and the positions of our people. That is why I am running for the Senate.”
While Andy has not bothered to respond to his brother’s boast of stopping his third term ambition, the contest is not limited to the Ubas as Ukachukwu, who is flying the flag of APGA, is equally not a pushover.
Ukachukwu, who defeated wife of late Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bianca, for the APGA ticket is a known face in Anambra politics having run for the governorship position on several occasions. He also represented AMAC/BWARI federal constituency at a time and served as Chairman House of Representative Committee on Federal Capital Territory.
As the dust raised by the primaries of the various parties settle and campaigns for the election expected to commence soon, analysts say each of the contenders has what it takes to win the election come February next year. However, who wins will not matter much as the people of the three senatorial districts stand to be the ultimate winners as quality representation, which has eluded not only the state but the entire South East zone is likely to be a thing of the past, given the make-up of the candidates on the line to represent the areas in the National Assembly in the next political dispensation.
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