Can APC rescue Anambra?

INITIALLY I didn’t care. I stopped caring long
ago about politics in my home – state of
Anambra. It was not because I have become
less of an Anambra indigene. It was entirely due
to two factors. The first was the ease with which
impunity occurred in my dear state. The second,
a direct descendant of the first, was the rise and
rise of mediocrity in every facet of governance
and the enthusiasm with which my state
celebrates incompetence. It was horrifying
watching my state metamorphose into a grand
theatre of home-grown absurdities.
Deep within me I stopped caring. Deep within
inside me also, I knew I should not stop caring.
Though I reside outside the state many of my
folks do and I am uncannily aware that, one day,
sooner than later, I may voluntarily or forcefully
or even circumstantially be compelled to retire
to my state. Won’t I then become guilty of
acqueisance and abdication? Won’t it also be
too late then to tackle the crooked hands of
mediocrity and incompetence? It would be very
sad to begin to sojourn in a state where neither
I nor my children and their peers would have
any guarantee for peaceful, progressive and
developmental existence.
This is not what I want to retire into or how I
want my children and other Anambra children to
live. I have spent two months of vacation in my
state and I have visited major towns and several
villages. I have engaged people in and out of
government, met different classes of people and
listened to varying shades of opinion; truths,
half-truths, exaggerations and outright lies. I
met realists, psychophants and confusionists.
I have reflected on everything, pondered and
reasoned. I have sieved the grains from the
chaff and the remnant has become a prime
source of escalating worry. The sincere
deduction I made from all I saw and heard,
persuaded me to the conclusion, that my state
is in dire straits and urgently desires rescue.
Obviously, the administration in the state has
reached its wits end and can do no more. It
would be grossly insensitive and detrimental to
task it further as the result would be total
disappointment.
Indeed, the incumbent administration in my
state has given its best and though this best
has not been good enough, it was still its best
and the governor deserves our commendation.
We may be angry and blame the system that
compelled him into power.
As a successful career banker, he did not
aspired to become governor and therefore, did
not conceive plans or ideas for being governor.
He was strangely preferred above career
politicians, who had planned not only to become
governors but on how they would become
successful governors. The enormous
responsibilities of governance on an unprepared
mind can be totally overwhelming. The recurrent
maladministration, misplacement of priorities
and pervading incompetence in Anambra State
now are the result of the imposition and also,
the triple reasons why the rescue of the state
should be paramount to Ndi Anambra.
As the November governorship election draws
near, the state must avoid the mistakes of 2013.
It must shun candidates imposed by powerful
individuals or cabals. The state has had enough
of differences between godfathers and godsons
e.g Mbadinuju vs Emeka Offor, Chris Uba vs
Chris Ngige, Peter Obi vs Obiano. The state
should opt for a strong party which controls its
members and not a weak party controlled by
one person or a clique.
Ndi Anambra must align with a nationally
oriented party and forbid the retrogressive idea
of belonging to a one state party. Another Biafra
has not happened. Anambra is still in Nigeria
and therefore, Ndi Anambra must put an end to
the politics of exclusion and embrace inclusion.
We must bear in mind that being defeated is
often a temporary condition; giving up is what
makes defeat permanent.
Now in Anambra, there are just three viable
political parties. The first is the incumbent All
Progressives Grand Alliance APGA, which has
reached the limit of its best and can go no
further. The second is the Peoples Democratic
Party PDP, once upon a time, a roaring and
devouring lion, truly king of the jungle.
Incidentally, this lion has suffered multiple
fractures and can no longer even roar. No one
knows how long its healing process would take
before it roars again. The third is the All
Progressives Congress APC, the only party with
federal might today and more national presence.
I have heard and observed that it is the only
party with truly national colouration and the only
party that still stands cohesive and strong,
owned by all members and not manipulated by
few individuals.
Before, I began talking to people; I already had
a distant hunch that APC was the only party that
could provide credible and reliable alternative in
my state. Now, that I have talked and listened to
people, I am more resolute that only the APC
can now fulfill the eternal wishes of Ezeigbo
Gburu-gburu, Chwukuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu,
Ikemba Nnewi, to re-integrate Ndi Igbo into the
mainstream of Nigerian politics. In the emerging
realities in Nigeria, Ikemba would not have
wished for Ndi Anambra to be engrossed in Eke
Awka or Otu Nkwo politics as alternative to
mainstream politics. We must listen to the
advice of Pope John XXIII, “consult not your
fears, but your hopes and your dreams.”
As I discovered reasons to back APC in the
November election, I became helpless as to
which of its many aspirants to support. In two
months, I have heard, read and researched
about the aspirants. One odd thing stood out.
They all spoke about themselves, about their
antecedents and how they would transform
Anambra under their watch. They all saw the
November election as individual contests they
would win on their own strengths. Only one
aspirant, Sen. Andy Uba, chose to be different.
He was dynamic and pragmatic and his
strategies are not personal or cloned to his
person. He chose to talk about the party and
seized every opportunity to market it. I began to
notice him.
When recently I read in the papers, that he
donated 24 vehicles to the party and not to his
campaign organisation, I saw the vision of a
man who could easily win an election because
of how strongly he has positioned his party. I
followed his speech on that occasion across
print and social media and it was quite revealing
that he kept talking of how APC would run APGA
out of Anambra and how APC had come to help
Ndi Anambra out of their present problems. Not
once did he use the prefix “I” in relation to the
forthcoming election or its preparation.
I concluded that Andy Uba was the only one in
the pack who maturely believes in the power of
a strong party. His willingness to submit to
party’s control was not in doubt and he
appeared to me, to be prepared to work for the
greater glory of the party. His legendary
philanthropy which was attested to everywhere I
went makes him very easy to market. I see him
as the aspirant with natural capacity to
reintegrate Anambra State into mainstream
Nigerian politics.
With a candidate like him, APC can indeed
rescue Anambra State and many people would
have guarantee for developmental existence in
the state.