The Anambra gubernatorial primaries have come and gone but the dusts they raised are yet to settle. Barely two months to the November 6th election, the three major political parties (APGA, PDP & APC) are still unsure of their flag bearers.
INEC has not released the final list of candidates for the election and when it is released, it is likely going to be based on court rulings rather than the outcome of the primaries. As it stands today, the result of the election itself is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court.
In fact, it looks like everything has been put in place to replay the script that brought Hope Uzodimma to power in Imo state. But this scenario can be avoided even in this 11th hour.
To begin with, why is everybody rushing to court to challenge the primaries? Can’t the parties settle the differences amongst their candidates and how come, the candidates themselves are averse to accepting the decisions of their parties without resorting litigations?
However, anyone wants to approach these questions, one thing certain is that there are winners in the recently concluded Anambra gubernatorial primaries. Clear too is that certain candidates who lost in the primaries are not contesting the results in court because they want justice or because they thought they have any chances of winning the main election but because as spoilers, they apparently want to undermine the process.
While playing a political spoiler is a gimmick that has been in politic right from the times of the Greeks and the Romans, the problem is that it could result to a far reaching dangerous consequences. For instance, besides the possibility encouraging getting the wrong person elected as happened in Buhari’s case, and the attendant consequences, it also shows that the spoiler places his own personal interests above the interests of the society. He is a dangerous politician making money out of the collective vulnerability of the people.
This why Igbo leadership is in disarray today, it is what produced Hope Uzodimma’s debacle in Imo state and is playing out today in Anambra state: Igbo political elites come into politics with a do or die business mind-set. True, no one can deny that any politician who declares his candidacy for an elective position wants to win and make money out of the process too, but there is no assurance that he must win. Politics is a game and in every game of contestants there are bound to be winners and losers. There will only be one governor of Anambra state at a time.
If every candidate in the ongoing controversy in Anambra election understands this, perhaps he will accept the outcome of the primaries and support the popular choice of his party. For instance, if Umeoji and his faction in APGA understand that election must not be taken as a do or die affair, I bet you, they will withdraw all court cases against Soludo and join forces with other APGA faithful to give the party a resounding victory come November 6th. The same goes for those pressing charges against Ozigbo in PDP as well as Uba in APC.
More importantly, the purpose of leadership is service to the people. This is why every aspirant to leadership, is expected to place the collective interests of the people over his own personal interests. Becoming a spoiler because things did not go the way one expects, is doing a big disservice to the very people who one aspires to serve. What Ndi Anambra aspire for is a peaceful and prosperous society and the outcome of the forthcoming governorship election has the potential of making or marring that aspiration.
Going to court to derail or delegitimize the processes that produce Soludo, Ozigbo and Uba is like waging a war against the welfare of Ndi Anambra. This is not to say that the processes that produced these candidates are perfect or even just, it is saying that fighting the processes at this stage will do more harm than good to Ndi Anambra and that the more patriotic thing to do is to allow the election to go ahead without further interruption with court cases.
One of the things that make the American democratic process unique and dynamic is the often seen wiliness on the part of the contestants to let go of their interests even when they feel so strong about them for the collective interests of the American people. This attitude played out in Florida, 2000 in the presidential contest between Gore and Bush. Gore and his supporters believed that he won Florida, but had to let it go when the system decided otherwise.
This is the democratic spirit that is lacking in Anambra and which must be urgently installed to save the impending crisis. Again Jonathan showed this spirit of sportsmanship in 2015. Many people believed Jonathan won the election. In fact, Orubebe went as far as attempting to disrupt the vote counting when he saw it was going in Favour of Buhari. In spite of the many irregularities, Jonathan accepted the result. He even went as far as saying that his presidential ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian. Here again, Jonathan demonstrates that the collective interests of the people which must trump over personal ambition no matter how just the person feels his cause is.
Pressing ahead with the various litigations against the primaries at this stage can only serve parochial interests and has to be stopped. The likely outcome as hinted before is that it will transfer the mandate of deciding who governs Anambra state from the people and to the Supreme Court. The Court who may decide the case may likely not have a single justice from Anambra or even from Igbo land. Would you say that anybody creating or fighting to create this outcome cares for Ndi Anambra or have their interests at heart? Think about it!
The way forward is to call off all the litigations. The courts, including the Supreme Court, cannot usurp the right of the people to choose their governor unless someone hands it over to them. And no one no matter how strong he feels about his calling to serve Ndi Anambra or the amount of money he has spent campaign should allow himself to be used in destabilizing the state.
The parties on their own, should initiate a reconciliatory processes to appease aggrieved aspirants who lost the primaries. Leadership, especially at the state level is not a one man show. One of the reasons people go into election with a do or die mindset is because they feel that when they lose the election, they have lost everything. Reconciliation and assurance of running an inclusive government will mitigate this feeling. At the end of the election, those who participated in the process, including opponents and supporters from within and without the winning party should be given roles to play. The most important thing should always be to serve the collective interest of Ndi Anambra and the best way to do that now is to call off all court cases and queue behind the trios of Soludo, Ozigbo and Uba. To go against this call at this critical moment is to make oneself an enemy of the people.
