Ahead of 2023 general elections, political observers and pundits in Anambra State are of the opinion that the 2023 polls are among the early tests awaiting the incoming governor of Anambra State Professor CC Soludo.
Soludo was sworn in as Anambra governor precisely on March 17, 2022 and by so doing he automatically becomes the national leader of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), thereby leading to the 2023 battle field. Analysts say the leader of APGA will face a daunting task to see the party win National Assembly elections in Anambra and more importantly win majority of the State House of Assembly election.
Going by results of previous elections APGA doesn’t have a good record in National Assembly elections mostly in elections to the Senate. Since inception in 2003, APGA has produced only one Senator in the person of Senator Victor Umeh who represented Anambra Central Senatorial District for 18 months only in the Senate owing to longline litigations that characterized his election.
Interestingly, Umeh’s sojourn to the Senate was bountifully fruitful as he demonstrated Igbo sagacity and vibrancy by fearlessly tabling issues of Igbo Interest on the floor of the Senate during plenaries with courage and charisma.
As a Senator, Umeh was outstanding on the floor of the Senate with captivating motions that invariably made positive impact on his constituents of Anambra Central, Ndigbo in particular and Nigerians in general.
As a matter of fact, Umeh received an award for the best motion of the 8th from National Assembly Press Corps for moving the motion against illegal confinement of under aged children of 16 years with adult inmates in prisons.
It was Umeh that moved the motion that rekindled the demand that the Southeast geopolitical zone has to be connected with the railway track project in Nigeria. It was also Umeh that moved the motion to counter the order issued by Inspector General of Police to disarm vigilante groups in the Southeast and so on
Senator Umeh was also vibrant at oversight functions ensuring that Anambra Central in particular and Ndigbo in general did not lag behind in the affairs of the Senate. Consequent upon his vibrancy Umeh attracted unprecedented dividend of democracy to the people of Anambra Central.
Some constituents got jobs at Abuja courtesy of him.
And again, a good number of youth and women received lifeline empowerment materials such as vehicles for transport business, sowing machine, hair dresser, grinding machine and other things including cash grant from Umeh’s 18months representation.
Quite like previous elections, APGA lost all three seats in the Senate to other political parties in the 2019 election. In Anambra Central Senatorial District APGA’s Umeh lost the Senate to Uche Ekwunife of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
In Anambra South Senatorial District APGA’s Nickolas Ikechukwu lost the Senate to Ifeanyi Ubah of Young People’s Party (YPP) while Senator Stella Odua of the PDP defeated APGA’s Chinedu Emeka to win the Senate seat of Anambra North Senatorial District.
What a sad story to hear that a political party that won all the 21 local government areas during governorship election in 2017 could not win a seat in the Senate in 2019.
Facing, 2023 it is expected that APGA will do much better to win all the Senate seats in the State, win majority of the Federal House of Reps seats and majority of the State House of Assembly seats. To achieve the feat of winning elections in 2023, Soludo has to do more work on mobilizing support for APGA than his predecessors.
For APGA as a party in charge of structures of electorates to lose Senate elections in all the Senatorial Districts means that something is wrong somewhere and that is what Soludo should first of all find out.
Why should the electorates vote for APGA in successive governorship elections and reject the party in Senate elections? Secondly, the issue of candidacy is very important. Who are those that will stand for APGA in the 2023 Senate elections? Observations are indicating that the three incumbent Senators namely Senator Odua in the North, Senator Ekwunife in the Central and Ifeanyi Uba in the South are interested in retaining the Anambra seats in the Senate, thus APGA must work harder to upstage them. According to observers APGA should field Umeh because he is apparently the only one good enough to defeat Ekwunife of the PDP.
An observer Dr Ejike Nwangwu is of the opinion that Umeh supposed to go back to the Senate to start where he stopped in fighting the cause of the people of Anambra Central, Ndigbo and Nigeria at large because he has shown the capacity to do so. Dr Nwangwu cautioned that the situation of things today demands that people like Umeh with a bunch of experience and capacity have to be in the Senate.
He added: “Senate this time is more like a job for men of immense experience and capacity like Umeh and not for young ones and learners. What I am saying is that APGA and the people of Anambra Central should return Umeh to the Senate because we need him there”
Asked to explain the possibilities of Ekwunife losing to Umeh this time, Nwangwu noted that Umeh lost to Ekwunife in 2019 consequent upon the PDP bandwagon in the Southeast following the choice of Peter Obi as Vice Presidential candidate of PDP. “You know Peter Obi from Anambra Central was the Vice-Presidential candidate of PDP in 2019 election and that was a big factor that worked in favor of Ekwunife against Umeh. The situation in 2023 election night be a different ball game” he added
In Anambra North, the immediate-past First Lady, Osodieme Eberechukwu Obiano has indicated her interest to use the platform of APGA to dare the incumbent Senator Stella Odua who will be seeking third term in the Senate under the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
It is not clear yet if there is any other Senate aspirant under APGA in Anambra North that will take Osodieme to a Royal Rumble in the ring for the ticket of APGA ahead of the election. Analysts say the First Lady is as good as the candidate of APGA because there may not be anybody who can muster the courage to seek APGA ticket against her.
In the South, it is expected that Soludo bandwagon will inspire APGA politicians to come out to seek the mandate of the electorates to sack Ifeanyi Uba from the Senate. In 2019 Iyom Bianca Ojukwu aspired for APGA ticket for Senate but lost the ticket to Nickolas Ukackwu alias Ikukuoma. Will Bianca try his luck again in 2023?
Ukachukwu might still be interested in going to the Senate being one of the die-hard political gladiators in Anambra.
Ukachukwu has been consistently involved in Anambra politics since 2003 when he contested Senate election with Ugochukwu Uba. In 2007 he also contested the governorship with Andy Uba and repeated the same in 2013 under Hope Democratic Party (PDP) after losing the ticket of PDP to Tony Nwoye.
Still on Anambra South it is expected that people of Ihiala axis would mount a strong move to take the Anambra South seat in the Senate having been sidelined by Aguata and Nnewi axis since 1999. Since 1999, Aguata and Nnewi have been sharing the Senate with Aguata taking it three times through Ugochukwu Uba 2003 – 2007 and his younger brother Andy Uba who sat in the Senate from 2011 – 2019.
Nnewi on the other hand has also taken it three times with Nnamdi Eriobuna ~ 1999 – 2003, Ikechukwu Obiora 2007 – 2011 and Ifeanyi Uba from 2019 till then.
Observers and analysts are keenly waiting to see how Soludo will handle the Senatorial elections in Anambra in 2023 and it is the wish of the people that he does better than his predecessors who could not perform creditably well in Senatorial elections during their tenures as Governors under APGA.
As Governor under APGA for eight years Peter Obi couldn’t win a Senate seat for his party. Obi’s successor Willie Obiano narrowly escaped total failure but Umeh pulled strength to break the jinx to spend just 18 months in the Senate out of Obiano’s 8 years in office.
