POLITICS
Anambra Election: Supreme Court to Vote for the Governor
By Law Mefor
Anambra State is fast becoming the home of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Recently, the state has been in the news mostly for the wrong reasons and many unsettling issues surrounding the coming governorship election scheduled for November have only served to heighten it. Political party primaries for the governorship election have come and gone but have equally created very wide latitude for confusion and conflict.
The three leading political parties capable of producing the next governor for the state, namely, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and All Progressives Congress (APC) are now riddled with crisis and court cases.The constitutional requirement for becoming the governor of a state does not stipulate that the candidates must be indigenous to the states where they are contesting.
For the avoidance of doubt, here are the extant provisions of the 1999 Constitution for qualification to become a governor: Section 177 explicitly states: “A person shall be qualified for election to the office of Governor of a State if (a) he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; (b) he has attained the age of thirty-five years; (c) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party; and (d) he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent”.Indeed, there is no provision for the candidates to be indigenous to the states to qualify to contest. Many say that this lacuna may be what the Chief Edozie Njoku faction is exploiting by organizing primaries which produced him, a man from Imo state, as a candidate, which means he could become the governor of Anambra state since the window for substitution has since closed up. Politicians have really been doing the dance of the absurd with the Anambra governorship election.
What is more, the regulations of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), are such that only the national chairman of a political party can submit the names of the flag bearer and his or her running mate. Furthermore, it is political parties that actually stand for elections in the current dispensation and not the candidates per se. What this means is that while the election may go on, it may ultimately be the Supreme Court that will determine which of these candidates will become the governor.
Here are the possible and plausible scenarios for Anambra state: All Progressive Congress: Senator Andy Uba is the candidate so far recognized by the INEC but one of the aspirants, the Executive Secretary of the National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, Dr. George Moghalu, is in court challenging the candidacy of Andy Uba and the validity of APC primaries. As a matter of fact, George Moghlau is asking the courts to even disqualify his own party from participating in the governorship election owing to the way and manner the primaries were conducted. If George Moghalu’s court case succeeds, the APC may not have a candidate in the Anambra governorship election and Andy Uba may also not become Governor even if he and his party win.
The Peoples Democratic Party on its part has two candidates laying claim to being the legitimate candidate of the party. The multiple court cases by the PDP contestants forced the INEC not to publish any of the candidates when it first released the list of candidates. Two rival primaries held under the auspices of the PDP produced the former President of the Transcorp Group, Valentine Ozigbo, and the rival primaries produced a former senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and senior brother of Andy Uba, by name, Ugochukwu Uba. As it stands, no one is certain who the candidate of PDP is between Val Ozigbo and Ugochukwu Uba. The Supreme Court will also decide it and either man will become governor if the PDP wins.
Perhaps the most interesting is that of the ruling party in Anambra state, All Progressives Grand Alliance, where three factions are laying claim to producing the authentic party executive committee. The three factions are respectively led by Dr. Victor Oye, Hon. Jude Okeke and Chief Edozie Njoku. The three factions are in court, each trying to prove why its executive committee is the authentic one. Without going into the nitty-gritty of the cases to avoid being prejudicial, it is Dr. Victor Oye’s executive committee that produced the former CBN governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, as candidate; while Hon. Jude Okeke’s faction produced a serving member of House Reps, Hon. Chukwuma Umeoji whose name was first published by INEC before being replaced with Soludo; and Chief Edozie Njoku who apparently produced himself in his faction’s primaries despite the fact that he hails from another state (Imo).
It is important to note here that Edozie Njoku hails from Imo State and if the courts uphold him as the authentic chairman of APGA and since he is the candidate produced by his own primaries, it stands to reason that he hopes to become governor of Anambra State since the extant constitutional provision for qualification of candidates for governorship does not include one being an indigene of the state he or seeks to govern. This novel development, though could be a watershed if it materializes, will open a new vista in the nation’s democracy, Many however believe that the man Njoku is only upping his bargaining power and not necessarily positioning to become a governor position of Anambra state.
As stated earlier, though the court cases may not stop the election, the situation has made it rather very difficult to identify the candidates of these leading political parties. For a state that goes with the slogan, ‘Light of the Nation’, this is not a good example for the rest of the country. Many attribute the kind of politics played in Anambra to too many rich persons and relatively high social exposure. But even if this is true, the two factors can still be better deployed if the citizens of the state can learn inclusive politics and play down their individualism. The billions of Naira that aspirants from Anambra state commit to purchase forms of political parties can be better channeled to the development and empowerment of the less privileged ones.
Indeed, nothing is settled in the Anambra governorship election. But it promises to be yet another election where the courts will decide who will eventually become the governor. Only the candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, who has all the trappings of a dark horse, is certain of his candidacy and the motley of other political parties and their teeming candidates do not seem to stand much chance.
So, all eyes are justifiably on the three leading political parties now enmeshed in crisis and ridiculing the prime state.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, National Chairman, Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) has appealed to political parties, candidates, and supporters to maintain peace during the governorship election in Ondo State.
Yakubu made the appeal while monitoring the 2024 Ondo State Mock Accreditation held on Wednesday across the three senatorial district of the state.
Report says that INEC is scheduled to conduct the Ondo State Governorship Election on Nov.
16, 2024, with 18 political parties to participate in the election.The INEC chairman, who said that the exercise was part of the commission’s preparation, said the maintenance of peace would enable the commission to conduct a free and fair election.
He also said that the mock accreditation was to further test the functionality of their system.
“In the last election, our machines performed optimally but we can not take that for granted.
“We will ensure that all the polling units open on time so that voters will not come and wait for INEC officials and materials.
“And we have tested the integrity of the machines, it is not the matter of early deployment, but also early accreditation.
“We are doing our best as an electoral commission and others should also do their best, particularly political parties and their candidates.
“I want to appeal to political parties, candidates and their supporters to ensure that they maintain the peace that will enable us to deploy and conclude the process in good time.
“And also to announce the candidate people of Ondo State are choosing as their governor on Saturday,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Usman Isiaka Taiwo, who was accredited at the Ijapo High School, Akure, Ward 4 Unit 41, applauded INEC for the conduct.
“There is no delay in the exercise, and I will come along with my family to cast our votes for the candidate of our choice,” he said.
Also, Mrs Adebimpe Bankole, who was accredited at Alagbaka Primary School, Akure, Ward 5 Unit 18, scored INEC 80 per cent for the mock exercise.
“I am satisfied with the process because I did not waste any time before I did my accreditation.
“I would have given them 100 per cent but I can’t, rather I will give them 80 per cent because they have done well.
“By Gods grace, I will come out on Saturday, Nov. 16 for the election proper to cast my vote,” she said.
The INEC national chairman visited Ijapo High School, Akure, Ward 4 Unit 41; and Alagbaka Primary School, Akure, Ward 5 Unit 18.
Ward 10 Unit 12 in Owena, and Ward 10, Unit 1, Aiyetoro/ Owena, Idanre Local Government Area in Ondo Central Senatorial District, were also visited.
Yakubu also visited two Local Government Area offices of the commission including Ile-Oluji/ Okeigbo in Ondo North Senatorial District. (NAN)
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the claim by Atiku Abubakar, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, that he did not lose the election but stolen, was most comical.
Mr Felix Morka, the party’s National Publicity Secretary said this, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to comments made by Abubakar on the outcome of the election.
Abubakar, also a former vice president, on his X handle, stated that he did not lose the 2023 presidential election, claiming the election was stolen from him.
Morka, in his reaction, described Abubakar as Africa’s most infamous presidential election loser, noting that since serving as vice-president, he had lost election to every elected president.
“Six times in the last 17 years, Nigerians have declared their verdict of untrust and lack of sportsmanship on Abubakar’s presidential candidacy, and roundly rejected him at the polls.
“Abubakar’s long record of electoral defeat was serially certified by Nigeria’s highest courts, sealing his rejection by the electorate with judicial and constitutional finality.
“However, a clearly unabashed Abubakar continues to lay a bogus claim that he did not lose the 2023 presidential election. That is beyond comical,” the APC spokesman said.
He said that this was so as the former vice president probably believed that he was cheated out of all previous five presidential elections that he also lost.
Morka added that Abubakar’s inability to come to terms with the reality of his rejection cuts an ominous portrait of extreme and disturbing political desperation.
He added that Nigeria’s intelligent and discerning electorate would not act against their best interest by electing Abubakar into office.
According to Morka, the former vice president is a central and recurrent player in some of our country’s most vile roll call of corruption scandals perpetrated by the PDP administrations.
“He was the vice president in the government that created crooked and viscerally corrupt petrol subsidy hydra-headed dragon that has crippled our country’s economy,
“And laid the foundation for the endemic corruption and inefficiency that have undermined our power sector through the years.
“His desperation to be president can only be understood in the context of his determination to complete the full subversion of Nigeria’s economic life from where he left off as vice president.
“Nigerians will not entrust their country to someone who puts his selfish interest, and the interest of his cronies over and above the national interest,” Morka said.
He added that having demystified himself with his recent release of what he would have done differently if he was the president, showed that he had nothing to offer Nigerians.
Morka added that from Abubakar’s release, it was obvious that all he would had offered was his stale, tired, tested and failed economic ideas that were at polar relevance to the current existential economic challenges facing the country.
He added that the former vice president had a chance to execute whatever economic ideas he may have ever had, but failed to do so.
He further added that as vice president, Abubakar also failed to get his party, the PDP, to do so in all of its 16 years government.
“Abubakar thinks himself capable of fixing Nigeria but cannot fix the rot and hopeless dysfunction in his PDP,” the APC spokesman said.
He urged Nigerians to be steadfast in support of the APC-administration of President Bola Tinubu and valiant efforts to restore vitality to our economy for the good of all Nigerians.(NAN)
Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, on Tuesday submitted N156.5 billion supplementary appropriation bill for 2024 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly for approval.Mr Danladi Jatau, the Speaker of the House, announced this during plenary in Lafia.He said that the supplementary appropriation bill would enable the state government to provide the much needed dividends of democracy to the people of the state.
Mr Suleiman Azara, the Majority Leader of the House, moved a motion for the bill to scale first reading which was seconded by the Deputy Minority Leader, Mr Onarigu Onah Kana. The Assembly read the bill and unanimously passed it through the first Daily Asset recalls that in Dec.2023, the House approved N199.8 billion budget the for 2024 fiscal year.The supplementary appropriation bill if approved, would take the Nasarawa State Government 2024 budget to N356.5 billion. ( NAN)
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