[OPINION] 2021 GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION --By REUBEN ABATI

 

...The big consolation was that the worst that was expected did not happen. Anambra did not become a killing field. The political parties and the politicians did not engage in bloodshed. Very few incidents of intimidation, violence and ballot snatching were reported. The surprising thing after a fashion is that when everyone writes off Nigeria and there are fears about Nigeria tottering at the edge of the precipice, about to tip over, this country always pulls back. It has happened before now during every election season. It has just happened again in Anambra state. The explanation for this must be an interesting subject for sociological inquiry into political behaviour and power negotiation systems. In Anambra: This is what happened - by 12: 20 am on November 8, 2021, the Returning Officer for the Anambra State Gubernatorial Election, Professor Florence Obi, Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, had announced results in 20 LGAs. The election in Ihiala LGA did not take place in all 20 Registration Areas due to the outbreak of violence in that border area of Anambra State (the border with Imo State), and on that basis alone, the Anambra Gubernatorial election of November 6, 2021 was declared inconclusive. 

INEC has announced a supplementary election in the affected LGA to take place today, Tuesday, November 9, 2021. It would appear as if the election has been lost and won already but it is important that no local government area is excluded, and that nobody is willfully prevented from exercising his or her franchise. This is the point of the Ihiala Supplementary Election: inclusion, fairness, representation and legitimacy.  We do not look forward to any earth-shaking developments in Ihiala LGA today. Still, the security agents must remain vigilant. The political parties and the candidates must keep faith with the peace agreements that they signed ahead of the election: brokered by INEC and also, the National Peace Committee led by General Abdusalami Abubakar. Even with the results from 20 LGAs announced and published by the INEC, which shows the candidate of APGA in a firm leadership position, it would be to the eternal credit of all the candidates involved in the process that they and their supporters gave peace a chance and proved the bookmakers, naysayers and sooth-sayers wrong on Anambra election 2021 till the very last minute. 

Already, Professor Charles Soludo of APGA, has been reported as winner in 18 LGAs of the state, including Aguata where he and the two other leading candidates hail from and the strongholds of some prominent politicians in the state – Anaocha, Orumba South, Idemili and Njikoka. Soludo is unlikely to repeat the “21- over-21-feat” of the incumbent Governor Willie Obiano in the 2017 election, but he is comfortably in the lead with over 50, 000 votes. Nnewi North was declared for Senator Ifeanyi Ubah (candidate of the YPP- Young Progressives Party) and Ogbaru for Valentine Ozigbo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Soludo has also won the mandatory two thirds of the votes across the local government areas. Ihiala, the only remaining LGA has a registered voter number of about 148, 000. It will be a battle ground, but with voter turn-out estimated between 10 to 15%, even a 100% turn out may not change the existing reality. Soludo seems set to become the next Governor of Anambra State. If and when his victory is affirmed by the INEC, he would be the second former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to emerge as Governor of a State. Before him there was, Clement Nyong Isong (1920 – 2000), Governor of the Central Bank (1967 -1975) and Governor of Cross River State (1979 – 1983)....

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