Paul Barca Benard: THE CHARADE CALL ANAMBRA ELECTION.. The much anticipated Nov 16, 2013 Anambra state governorship election has come and partially gone though still inconclusive but the ugly ripple effects will remain for a very longtime. Anambra state is seen rightly or wrongly as the head, political and economic power house of Igbo nation and its believed that Igbos will get it right once Anambra do. Before I proceed, I actively participated in the election, have been on ground since 10th of Nov till date, was also a duly accredited INEC Observer for the election. So all am about to say is out of personal experience and genuine love I have for my beloved state cum Igbo nation not a hear-say. Looking at what transpired on and before Nov 16 in Anambra state, my heart aches as it left nothing nothing good to be desired of about Anambra state cum Igbo nation and I wonder if Igbo nation will ever get better. The sharing of money at campaign rallies during campaign, the rigging, electoral fraud, buying of votes by the all major participating political parties and partisan body language of some of the INEC officials are nothing to write home about. In all fairness, APGA or PDP would have won the election but not in a landslide victory, I was expecting a runoff base on general pulse of voters (not facebook political warriors) but for the rigging and buying of votes by all the parties which APGA was superior in doing put paid to that expectation. I was in awe on how a party who has bn in power for almost 8yrs and claimed to have perform wonders would be sharing between 5-10k on election day to voters to court their votes. At Umunnachi in Dunukofia LGA, I witness an APGA agent paying 10k and one bottle of O mmpa to eligible voters. At Nodu Awka South, APGA was sharing 5k while PDP n APC were sharing 1k respectively to mention but a few, the story is the same all over the state. Lets not even talk of INEC that tactically disenfranchised registered voters in most of the perceived APGA opponents stronghold, to the extent that the PDP candidate and his family members couldn find their names in the voters register used at their polling unit and thereby couldnt vote.. if I may ask; which kinda election is that where a contestant was even disenfranchised?? A lady that stayed in same hotel I stayed who was in the employment of APGA told me how she went to distribute voters card to people to vote for APGA on the election day at a polling unit. If the billions of naira spent by all the political parties during the election especially by APGA (who spent Anambra peoples money) was put to good use, Anambra state would have been a better place and APGA would have had no need buying votes because the masses would have naturally vote for a performing party. In as much as I personally dont want APC to have a foothold in of Igbo land for obvious reasons; let no one be deceived that APGA as it is presently constituted is an Igbo party rather its a party being used base on Igbo sentiments to further some selfish gain of Mr Peter obi and his co-travellers. If its an Igbo party, it would have given equal platform to every Igbo thats eligible to contest and not tactically and dubiously disqualifying some candidates and sacrificing the best just to please the powers that be in Abuja and to protect some personal but parochial interest thats of no benefit to an average Anambra man cum Igbos. In all it was a great thing following the campaign train of different political parties, seeing how matured Anambrarians are politically, hardly will you see an election/campaign in Nigeria without any serious violent incidents, I was amazed the day we got to the self made industrial town of Nnewi at a place called Nkwo Triangle APGA, PDP and LP campaign train were having their rallies adjacent and opposite to each other and it was all fun as there were music and dance from both side and people were moving from one campaign rally to the other shouting Ojebego it was truly a delight hearing the people mostly artisans and the popularly called okada men shouting Ojebego to every candidate/campaign train they see throughout the campaign period in the state. I will stop here with this quote for the mature minds only, by Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo;- A political party without a consistent ideological predisposition is like an individual who does not believe in anything and thats dangerous for the country (Igbo nation)
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 06:32:10 +0000
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