OKEY MADUFORO 
Following the demise of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, who represented Anambra South Senatorial District at the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to conduct a by election to fill the vacant seat, OKEY MADUFORO reports on the political intrigues already playing out
The political space in Anambra South Senatorial District has become charged in the last two weeks, following the planned bye election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to seek for a replacement for the seat occupied by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, who passed on recently.
No doubt, the contest will not be without fresh primary elections among the political parties, and already, political machinations have commenced in about six political parties even before the announcement of dates for the primary elections and the election proper.
APC
For the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), it would surely be a test of the party’s popularity in the state before the conduct of the 2025 gubernatorial election.
Anambra South is the senatorial district of Governor Charles Soludo, who needs to stamp his feet to show that he is on ground.
However, the in-house politics of the party is one that appears interesting going by the fact that the primary election would include its candidate in the last election, Hon. Chris Azubogu, who is a two-term member of the House of Representatives and four other major contestants.
The party has thrown the floor open for contest, ruling out the idea of returning Azubogu as automatic candidate. And as expected, the contest is getting tougher going by the fact that some sections of Anambra South are crying of marginalization.
A record of former occupants of the seat shows that Ihiala political bloc had the seat through Ifeanyi Eriobuna between 1999 and 2003, while Nnewi political bloc has produce late Ubah (Nnewi North) and Ikechukwu Obiora (Nnewi North).
So, for the rest of Nnewi political blocs such as Nnewi South and Ekwusigo local government areas, it is a fight to finish as they contend that it is their turn.
As it stands, the pendulum appears to be swinging towards Ekwusigo Local Government Area, which has Chief Ebuka Onunkwo, who has been endorsed by the Anambra Rainbow Coalition going by a resolution of the body signed by Comrade Chukwudi Ibeh of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mrs Chioma Nwosu (Labour Party – LP) and Arinze Nanka (Peoples Democratic Party – PDP).
The coalition stated: “It is a fact that nature abhors vacuum hence throwing the seat of Anambra South Senatorial District vacant and it is in the light of the above that this coalition has resolved to support Chief Ebuka Onunkwo, the CEO of Sea Horse NIgeria Ltd as the consensus candidate in the coming bye election.
“This is in the spirit of justice, equity and good conscience in view of the fact that the Old Aguata Union is occupying the position of the governor of Anambra State in the person of Prof Charles Soludo.
Though the coalition is made up of other political parties the choice of Ebuka Onunkwo of the APGA is based on the fact that of all the senatorial hopefuls in Anambra South, Onunkwo has the best of credentials, capacity and experience to steer the ship of Anambra South Senatorial District to prosperity.
“Similarly, at a time when populist and pragmatic representation have become the bench mark for measuring the success of representative democracy, Chief Ebuka Onunkwo has those latent qualities to stand in the gap for a very robust and optimal representation for the good people of Anambra South Senatorial District.
“We urge the leadership of APGA to endorse the candidacy of Chief Ebuka Onunkwo in the coming bye election and also appeal to Mr. Governor to give him the necessary backing as expected.
Similarly, APGA chairmen in the seven local government areas that make up the senatorial district and the recently-inaugurated chairmen of the councils have given their nod for Onunkwo to emerge as the candidate of party.
But other contestants have continued to intensify lobby to unseat the endorsement of Onunkwo, giving the fact that the Old Aguata political bloc has the incumbent governor and has also produced two senators such in the persons of Ugochukwu Uba and his younger brother Andy.
Similarly, the Ihiala bloc is also interested in the ticket despite the fact that it had once produced a senator. When contacted the state chairman of APGA. Barr. Ifeatu Obi-Okoye, who dismissed the claims of automatic ticket, maintained that the party will provide a level playing ground for all the aspirants to take part in the primary election.
His words: “It is against justice, equity and good conscience for our party to impose a candidate on the party and we as a party believe in internal democracy and we stand by that.
But be it known, however, that the bye election is for us to once again prove to other parties that we are on ground and no other political party has that capacity to stop us.”
LP
The expectation is that the Labour Party will sustain what played out in the last general election in the Anambra South Senatorial District bye election.
However, the party appears to have lost its steam since after the general election given the leadership tussle rocking it at both at the national and state levels.
Besides the crisis, the party’s candidate in the last National Assembly election, Dr. Obinna Uzor, will have to battle for the ticket with his kinsman, Chief Chuma Nzeribe, who is among the four contenders for the ticket.
Again, the crisis in the party raises moral questions of who conducts the primary election and who signs the ticket of the eventual candidate of the party?
Also, the APGA dominated political stakeholders of Anambra South is one obstacle that will be too many for the Labour Party to handle as it has no national or state Assembly member from the zone that could build a formidable structure for the eventual candidate. Deepening this predicament is the last Local government election, which APGA swept.
PDP
The recent election of Chief Chidi Chidebe as the substantive state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a new era for the Anambra State chapter of the main opposition party, which its crisis dates back to 2002.
While Chidebe is optimistic that the party is poised and better positioned to return to its winning ways, analysts are of the view that the PDP must, first, put its house in order if it really wants to produce a senator in Anambra South.
Already, there are fears that its candidate in the last general election and self-styled political godfather, Chief Chris Uba, who is apparently not comfortable with the last state congress that produced Chidebe as chairman may want to rock the boat.
Guided democracy
In the his history of party politics in Anambra State, the All Progressives Congress APC is known for organizing guided primary elections and congresses, which has never produced any democratically nominated candidate for state Assembly, National Assembly and governorship elections and pundits are of the view that history will certainly repeat itself in the coming bye election.
At the moment, no aspirant has indicated interest for the party’s ticket and the 2023 candidate, Hon Chuma Umeoji, has not made his interest public.
Like the other parties, the APC also has internal issues to resolve, and like what obtained in the past, especially the plethora of litigations during elections, such issues are likely to come up again.
APP new impetus
The Action Peoples Party (APP) is indeed the political party to watch given the fact that it has made great inroads into Anambra politics.
At the moment, the 21 local government chairmen of the party are on a membership drive, which perhaps, explains why the party has six aspirants that have indicated interest to vie for its ticket.
The state chairman of the party, Chief Chijioke Okeke, who spoke on the development, said APP will replicate the victory recorded in Rivers State in the last local government election in that state.
His words: “We are not worried about those so-called big political parties because they are living in the past even as their internal crisis may end up stopping them from producing no candidates.
“You know that APGA still has a pending matter at the Supreme Court over who is the national chairman of the party and that is an issue that will affect them as well as other political parties.”
At the moment most aspirants who are not comfortable with the happenings in their present political parties have been reaching out to the leadership of APP in the event of any development that may likely to come up during the primary elections.
YPP at crossroads
For the Young Democratic Party YPP it is indeed an unfortunate twist of fate that its candidate in the last election, Ubah, who won the poll, but later defected to the APC and was hoping to fly its flag in next year’s governorship election.
