- ...And Inline With Ndi Anambra's Yearn For A Power Change To The APC
As the countdown to the Anambra Decides 2025 continues, various interest groups have begun to strategise and finetune their game plans depending on the endgame of the parties involved.
Going into the polls, every political party worth its onion must first of all do a proper in-house analysis of its strengths and weaknesses including possible advantages and disadvantages.
One of the most critical factors that help in determining the party that carries the day at the end of the contest is the critical issue of zoning.
In zoning, which is mostly unwritten but carefully engraved on the mindset of the masses. During party primaries, contestants are usually allowed from every zone. However, the zone given preference by the party delegates determines the seriousness or otherwise of the various parties towards the main electoral contest with the other parties.
Contrary to the argument in some quarters about zoning being a creation of APGA ruling government in the state, zoning/equity was actually an emotional card played by the then Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi that resonated well with the people and got unanimously adopted and engraved in the hearts of the people of the state. The North which was marginalized prior to Mr Peter Obi's call for equity/zoning, was handed the opportunity to ascend the governorship of the state for eight years. The implication of the above is that any political party that presents a candidate from the North at this moment in the history of the state, when the North just left power through Governor Obiano, has shot itself in the leg even before the contest proper begins.
The implication of this is that even as Mr Peter Obi has since abandoned the ship of APGA and traversed through the PDP to the Labour Party now, the zoning/equity that he introduced has remained sacrosanct and beyond refute by any political party.
The implication of this is that any political party that makes the mistake of handing its ticket to a person from a zone other than the one generally accepted in the minds of the masses, would be akin to one opting to enter a 400 Metres Marathon race with a cripple.
Other indices that every party must also consider in choosing its flag bearer are the capacity, charisma and level of acceptance by the masses.
In arriving at this, the political party faithful concerned must look at the track records of the individuals offering themselves as possible flag bearers and carefully scrutinize them.
To make matters even easier for the APC, a beautiful bride has not only embraced the party but also opened up its doors to the masses by staking his massive goodwill as a guarantee, a move that has since transformed the outlook of the party and made it a party of choice for Ndi Anambra who are tired of opposition politics and desires to connect to the centre and become direct participants in negotiating it's due developmental opportunities from the centre.
A beautiful bride who exhibited capacity by using a then-new and little-known party to win the Anambra South senatorial district with a landslide and repeated same again back to back garnering over 70,000 votes while at it.
Note that the governor won his election in the entire state with a little over 112,000 votes.
This beautiful bride was also handed a baptism of fire a few months after joining the APC party as if to retest his much-vaunted capacity when he faced two major rerun elections to win for his candidates for Orumba South/North as well as Nnewi North, Nnewi South and Ekwusigo federal constituencies.
While he routed the APGA occupant of the seat for Nnewi North, South and Ekwusigo out of the seat by ensuring victory for his candidate in his former party the YPP, he also made sure that his candidate that won that of Orumba North and South retained her seat by winning the rerun election.
If capacity has any other alias, it will be the yeoman exploits by Senator Dr Ifeanyi Ubah CON and that is the reason why, in spite of being of the APC, the senator continues to enjoy massive goodwill and acceptance from the YPP, APGA, PDP and Labour party faithfuls , several of whom have been beneficiaries of his philanthropy and human capital development initiatives.
With Senator Dr Ifeanyi Ubah CON as the APC guber flag bearer, who is of the south zone same as the incumbent governor and who has made a firm commitment to use four years to reset the state on a trajectory of real development beyond rhetorics/vain grammar, and hand over to Central whose turn it will become after four years.
The prospect of the APC becoming the ruling party in the state and getting the opportunity to change the present mediocre state of affairs, that has become the lot of the state under APGA's 18-year rule will become an immediate reality.