Tony Nwoye, the controversial gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 18 election in Anambra State, provided the public with a glimpse of his mental and intellectual abilities when during the gubernatorial debate on Channels Television on Sunday, November 12, he told the audience repeatedly that the state needs "potable roads". Since I was born, I have never heard of "potable roads". They exist only in Nwoye's world. How such a person, rusticated from the University of Nigeria medical school in Enugu, can possibly preside over the affairs of the state of the Great Zik of Africa, Dr Alex Ekwueme, Gen Emeka Okukwu, Professor Chinua Achebe, Prof Chike Obi, the Okigbos and other world-class thinkers is a conundrum only himself and his godfather, Arthur Eze, can resolve.
Dr Chris Ngige, Minister of Employment and Labour, may not have much electoral value today. But everyone in Anambra State credits him with beginning the development revolution which has been going on in the state since 2003 when he became our governor. He contested twice, since ceasing to be our governor in 2006, in the gubernatorial race but lost. The first time Ngige ran, after losing office, he was the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate and took a second position. The second time was four years ago when he ran as the candidate of the APC and came a distant third.
Ngige would have done better if he had contested on the ticket of any other party. APC’s image, far from improving, has worsened in the state. The APC-led Federal Government committed a grave error by sending the most hardened Boko Haram fighters to the Ekwulobia Prison in Anambra State no sooner than President Muhammed Buhari assumed office, resulting in a month-long protest against the APC. The outright neglect of Ndigbo generally in the national scheme of things since the APC administration has worked effectively against the party. So has the poor national performance of the APC government. Operation Python was a public relations disaster in the Southeast for the APC. But the election of Tony Nwoye as APC’s gubernatorial candidate in the upcoming election in Anambra State is arguably the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
Everyone acknowledges that the APC cannot make an impact on the November 18 election. If Dr Ngige couldn’t make an impact as APC candidate, how can anyone expect Nwoye, a very controversial person, to accomplish what Napoleon couldn’t? APC operatives on the ground have given up, and many of those still working ostensibly for Nwoye are secret agents for the leading party in the election. APC governors who reportedly promised Nwoye N100m each haven’t donated a kobo, convinced that it would be a waste of resources. The APC campaign is in disarray.
So, why hasn’t Nwoye given up? Why is he still in the race? The truth is that Nwoye will not give up. He is looking forward to winning through what is called “the PDP way”, mirroring how the PDP as Nigeria’s ruling party for 16 years was winning mysteriously in certain places. In Bayelsa State, for instance, the PDP won the 2003 election in which all registered voters voted 100%. In other words, no registered voter died in one year, transferred or relocated to another place or was ill during the poll. Even though it rained heavily on the day the presidential and governorship election day, every voter voted, according to figures from electoral commission.
The bad news for Nwoye is that he is almost the only person who hopes to win the Anambra governorship election in the PDP way. Buhari can’t share this discredited practice. Not after Goodluck Jonathan conducted a free and fair election in 2015 in an election and gracefully conceded defeat. Buhari knows his image is right now at an all-time low across the country. He would not like to exacerbate it. In fact, his reputation will be enhanced if he allows a level-playing field in the Anambra election, and be graceful enough to accept the defeat of his own party. Though there are many reports alleging that the APC candidate is desperate to rig the election, there is a particular one which looks convincing because it is quite detailed and well written. I crave your indulgence to reproduce much of it. Here are excerpts:
“We can authoritatively disclose that Nwoye, who became a member of the House of Representatives in very controversial circumstances which included a bizarre result in his Nsugbe constituency, has a two-pronged strategy to manipulate the election result in his favour.
“The first part is to have two sets of electoral documents, one fake and the other authentic. The authentic documents will be used in places where he believes he enjoys relative strength while the fake ones will be used in areas where there are strong indications he is weak, and they are in the overwhelming majority.
“The second part of the strategy is to use the police and the military to subdue voters who are most likely to protest against the planned declaration of false results, alleging that the protesters are members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) fiercely opposed to the election. Police and military chiefs may not buy into the plan since they want to maintain the standard set in the 2015 elections which earned local and international applause.
‘“The first part of the strategy cannot work without the active collaboration of officials and agents of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)”, a Nwoye’s confidant told our correspondent on condition that his name would not be disclosed in the media.
“Another confidant confirmed that Nwoye is not working alone on the plot to use the electoral body to rig the election, saying that top party members are “working hard to ensure that a friendly person like the Vice Chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture at Umudike in Abia State, Professor Francis Otunta, is appointed the returning officer of the state for purposes of conducting the November 18 election.
“Though those working with Nwoye on the election rigging project are not yet known to our correspondent, one person suspected to be neck-deep in the plot is Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment as well as coordinator of the Tony Nwoye Campaign, who was the first person to declare on radio that the APC “will win the polls by fire, by force”.
“Ngige, ironically, had a frosty relationship with Nwoye until now because of Nwoye’s alleged role in the mayhem visited on Anambra State between November 4 and 6, 2004, during Ngige’s tenure as Anambra State governor. During the mayhem, the headquarters of the state judiciary, the state House of Assembly, the Government House as well as the state broadcasting service were burnt.
“According to sources close to both Nwoye and the Labour and Employment minister, Ngige was up to three months ago still pleading with Arthur Eze, a controversial businessman from Anambra State and Nwoye’s financier, to stop supporting Nwoye in his quest to become the APC governorship candidate on the ground that “Nwoye is not marketable”.
“At the APC primary election on August 26, 2017, which Nwoye won with 2146 out of the 5430 votes cast, Ngige campaigned for one Joseph Chukwuma who was to get only 125 votes.
“Ngige’s sole reason for now backing Nwoye, including in the plan to rig the election, is to prove that as APC leader in the state right from the day the party was formed that he is still relevant in Anambra politics”, said a former National Assembly member and close political ally of the minster who didn’t want his name mentioned in the press because he doesn’t want to “be accused of being a saboteur.
“Our investigation has revealed that both President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo are not in the picture about the election rigging plans, and they are not likely to approve of them if eventually they become aware of them.
“Anambra Governor Willie Obiano met Buhari on Tuesday, October 4, in State House, Abuja, over the polls, and the president pledged to make it free and fair. “Buhari likes high performing governors like myself,” Obiano declared to State House correspondents after the meeting”.
The police, the Department of State Security (DSS), the army, the electoral commission and President Buhari have their job cut out for them.
Nzeribe is a former Keystone Bank manager.
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