Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has been declared winner of the Anambra Governorship Election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The Returning Officer of the Anambra Governorship Election, Prof Florence Obi, announced the result on Wednesday morning at the INEC office in Awka, Anambra State.
“That Charles Chukwuma Soludo of APGA, having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar said on Wednesday.
Soludo, who was the apex bank governor between 2004 and 2009, was declared winner after the November 6 election was declared inconclusive by INEC and after a supplementary election was held in the Ihiala Local Government Area of the state on Tuesday. He won 19 of the 21 local governments areas including Ihiala LGA.
Sixty one-year-old Soludo won with 112,229 votes beating Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party, who polled 53,807 votes, and Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress who got 43,285 votes. Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressive Party polled 21,261 votes came fourth.
Soludo’s walk to victory was paved with stony challenges including legal battles and intra-party squabbles but the Supreme Court in Abuja affirmed him as APGA governorship candidate. This was after the sacking of a former APGA candidate, Chukwuma Umeoji, by the court.
Umeoji, who is the current member of the House of Representatives representing Aguata Federal Constituency in Anambra State, was recently sacked by a court decision after his name had been listed by the Independent National Electoral Commission as APGA’s candidate.
The court then ordered INEC to replace Umeoji with Soludo as the validly elected candidate of APGA for the governorship election.
Also in April 2021 during the build-up to the election, Soludo narrowly escaped death when gunmen unleashed terror on him and his security aides during a town hall meeting in his hometown in Isuofia in the Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra.
Three of his police orderlies were killed during the attack which he described as “senseless”. Soludo dedicated his victory to the three policemen in his acceptance speech on Wednesday.
Soludo is expected to be sworn into office next March after the expiration of the two-term tenure of the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, who is also of the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
#AnambraDecides: Soludo extends lead to all eight LGAs announced by INEC
The candidates of APC and PDP are the runners-up so far.
Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance has garnered more votes than his main challengers in Saturday’s governorship election, winning all the eight local government areas results announced so far by the electoral office INEC. The state has 21 local government areas and the candidates of APC and PDP are the runners-up so far.
Mr Soludo, 61, has been locked in a close contest with Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress, Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party and Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressives Party. The candidates are seeking to replace Governor Willie Obiano, the only APGA governor in the country.
Mr Obiano supported Mr Soludo during the primaries and pulled resources that aided his ardent campaign against candidates of the two biggest political parties, APC and PDP.
The eight LGAs so far announced are Onitsha South, Awka South, Aguata, Anaocha, Orumba North, Orumba South, Njikoka and Anambra East. Voting will, however, be allowed to continue on Sunday across polling units where delays were forced by widespread voting machine malfunctions.
From announced results, APGA scored 54,755, PDP scored 23,420 and APC scored 19,526.
Announced results:
1. Aguata LGA
APC: 4,773
APGA: 9,136
PDP: 3,798
2. Awka South LGA
APC: 2,595
APGA: 12,891
PDP: 5,489
3. Anambra East LGA
APC: 2,034
APGA: 9,746
PDP: 1,380
4. Onitsha South LGA
APC: 2,050
APGA: 4,281
PDP: 2,253
5. Orumba North LGA
APC: 2,692
APGA: 4,826
PDP: 1,863
6. Orumba South LGA
APC: 2,060
APGA: 4,394
PDP: 1,672
7. Anaocha LGA
APC: 2,085
APGA: 6,911
PDP: 5,108
8. Ekwusigo LGA
APC: 1,237
APGA: 2,570
PDP: 1,857
This page will be updated as new results are announced from remaining local government areas.
Lai Mohammed backs Malami, says IPOB bigger threat than bandits, as Obiano kicks
The Buhari regime has brushed off criticisms against threats to impose a state of emergency in Anambra.
The government also brushed off criticisms of the move, claiming that the threats posed by separatist agitators IPOB were more grievous than those of bandits in northern states.The Muhammadu Buhari regime says talks of invocation of a state of emergency in Anambra by Attorney General Abubarkar Malami is in order.
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, expressed this sentiment on Thursday.
“In the last couple of weeks, IPOB had imposed sit-at-home on the citizens, they did not allow people to go to schools, markets and there are also high profile killings.
“The AGF said yesterday that the government will do whatever it takes to restore law and order in Anambra and the entire South East to ensure that symbols and pillars of democracy are not tampered with.
“The forthcoming election in the state is one of the pillars of democracy
“Those who are criticising the AGF on this, have they thought for one minute what will happen if the election does not take place in Anambra State on Nov. 6?” Mr Mohammed asked.
However, governor of Anambra, Willie Obiano, on Thursday, after his meeting with Mr Buhari described such suggestions as “unfortunate”. He argued that northern states which had suffered more violence had not been threatened with invocation of a state of emergency.
But the information minister reckons that what was happening in Anambra presently was not similar to the situation in bandits-ravaged states such as Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina.
“It is a disingenuous argument to say that they have killed more people in Katsina, Zamfara and Kaduna than they killed in Anambra,” Mr Mohammed argues.
“What is happening in Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna and Niger is criminality and the government will not condone it.”
The minister added that if there is any need to declare a state of emergency in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna States, the government would not hesitate to do so.
Often, while the past is fraught with bleak history, the future is poignant with imponderables. That cliché fits well into Anambra States governance narrative and leadership needs. A slew of well known names aspire to lead Anambra come 17 March 2022. The qualifying election is scheduled for 6 November 2021. Everyone in the race is running against a glaringly poor APGA governance record from 2014 to date.
The choice of who leads Anambra state in 2021, is now well beyond debate or academic exercise. It is an existential question for the Anambra population. History should serve as a guide. For the past seven years, Anambra has been a case study on lessons learned and hugely missed opportunities. The only apt word for defining governance in Anambra since 2014, is “mistake”.
The choice in 2014, has been affirmed as utterly mistaken. The incumbent Governor, Willie Obiano wrote his own testimonial. The governance scorecard is most unflattering. The decision to keep him in office in 2017 after the first dismal four years was consequential, negatively speaking. It was a factor of a blinkered choice foisted and fostered by traditional emotionalism. Anambra is worse off for it. While the incumbent will bear the historical burden, vicarious responsibility goes to the supporting cast from all sectors.
Obaze and Ozigbo
Since 2014 good governance has eluded Anambra State, despite cosmetic approaches, sloganeering and governance by billboard and media hype. The concrete results are less tangible and less evident, both in-terms of soft power dividends and hard power accruals. Even the touted security sector has suffered evident severe reverse.
Now for Anambra, another opportunity beckons.
Of the contesting lot, just one person will elected. If the choice is left entirely left to Anambra people, it ought not to be a hard sell or difficult choice. Anambra needs a focus, disciplined, down to earth administrator to guide her henceforth. That person, should not be concerned about politicking, but about good governance, period.
The reality is that Anambra stands broken – in infrastructure, governance, as well as morally and fiscally. The state needs to be fixed, very badly, considering that the governance record of ruling APGA party and incumbent Governor Willie Obiano has been nothing but abysmal. This view is bereft of sentiments and partisan fervor. One must call a spade a spade. Already, erstwhile supporters of the APGA regime are jumping ship or recusing themselves, lest they become guilty by association.
Of all those qualified candidates who hold party governorship tickets, only one person, Valentine Chineto Ozigbo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag-bearer is eminently qualified on all accounts to lead Anambra going forward. The underpinning qualifier, is not just the credentials, it is a mix of experience, credentials, personality, global worldview and the ability to effectively run the state as an enterprise based on global best practices.
For her inscrutable candidate, APC’s record at the Centre is an albatross. Such record will not sell at Nkwo Nnewi, Onitsha or Eke Awka. It won’t even sell in Chris Ngige’s hood of Allor and Nnobi. Anambra is not an APC State. It has never been and will not be going forward. A Supreme Court reprise of its affront in Imo, is not possible here.
The ruling APGA’s poor governance record rules her out. No one rewards poor leadership. Regardless of who is her eventual candidate, APGA is toast.
Moreover, Prof. Charles Soludo, who seeks the Anambra mandate under APGA, must now deal with the inconvenient truth; when Anambra was going down the road to perdition and prebendal abyss under Obiano in 2017, rather than speak truth to power and to the Anambra people, Soludo engaged in self-serving obfuscation, by claiming that “IF IT AIN’T BROKEN, WHY FIX IT?” So if Anambra is not broke and broken, rotten, filthy, decrepit deeply indebted and underdeveloped, what is Soludo coming to solve and why does the state need his solution?
The other parties and their hopping, knee-jerk and forum shopping candidates are in the race only to fill up the rest of the racecourse track. Most of the parties are minor leaguers bereft of grassroots support base or fans, albeit with deep pocket maverick candidates. Try as they may, no one will entrust Anambra to another egocentric persona.
Anambra is a hub begging for good governance. The material, human capital, revenue and fiscal resources required to effectively run the state exist, despite its having been recklessly dragged into a debt peonage. What is needed, is a transformative, adaptive, purposeful and caring leader.
From a policy and governance perspective, Valentine Chineto Ozigbo (VCO) of PDP offers the best possible platform and grand strategy for rejuvenating Anambra and setting her on the part of sustainable development.
From the hard copy and televised defense of his Manifesto, it can be gleaned that Ozigbo is on his marks, set and ready to hit the ground running, in governing Anambra. Indeed, a glimpse into his mindset and template of the policies and programmes he plans to execute in his first 100 days is quite revelatory.
With Valentine C. Ozigbo, Anambra and her progressive future and development will become fungible as well as inextricable. And that is why I have endorsed Ozigbo for Governor. The campaign and race for Agu Awka 2021 is that simple.
——————-
Obaze, the PDP 2017 Governorship Candidate, wrote from Awka
AWKA SOUTH PDP DELEGATES RECEIVE LADY CHIDI ONYEMELUKWE, HER CAMPAIGN TEAM, AND THEIR MESSAGE OF #BETTERLIFE
Lady Chidi Onyemelukwe and her LCO #TeamTrinity Campaign Organisation were received by Awka South PDP Delegates on Thursday, May 6, 2021. The team has been on a tour of the 21 local government areas of the state to exchange ideas with PDP delegates on how to restore Anambra to the right path to progress.
Onyemelukwe told Awka South PDP delegates that the #BetterLife Ndi Anambra collectively yearn for will remain elusive if they nominate a candidate and eventually elect a governor that is neither accountable to God nor humanity.
She said the volume of work that needs to be done, especially in the area of tackling insecurity, addressing unemployment and providing better economic opportunities, education, healthcare and infrastructure require leaders that will serve with the fear of God, and will be accountable to the people they serve.
Onyemelukwe was the deputy governorship candidate of the PDP in the Anambra 2017 governorship election. Before that, she served as a Special Assistant (SA) to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).
As President Olusegun Obasanjo’s SA, Onyemelukwe spearheaded the initiation, planning and implementation of some of the major SME programs and projects of the Government of Nigeria, which later culminated in the formation of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
Onyemelukwe also served as the Chairman, Board of Directors, Federal Housing Authority where she commissioned over two thousand housing units built by the authority, including initiating the over 104 units of Site and Services at Amansea, Anambra State.
As a private citizen, her focus has been in real estate law practice and international business.
Onyemelukwe, the first daughter of Late Alex Ekwueme, first Vice President of Nigeria and one of the founding fathers of PDP, is happily married to Dr. Okey Onyemelukwe. She has the requisite street and administrative experience to drive her broad vision of restoring Anambra on the right path to greatness.
