Predicted Victory

Chimaroke Nnamani

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), wins a landslide victory at the recently-concluded Enugu State Council elections
By Anene Ugoani, Enugu
For watchers of the political trend in Enugu State in the last 10 years, the clean sweep which the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) made on the December 5, 2009 council elections, did not come as a surprise. The outcome was predicted long before the elections. This is because, in hindsight, no opposition candidate has ever won elections in the state since the return of the democratic dispensation in 1999. The PDP has always taken everything, leaving nothing to the opposition.
Thus, it would be misleading, for argument sake, to cite the success of the out-going chairman of the Udenu local council, Dr. Ignatius Eze, in the 2007 polls, as a victory for the opposition camp. The story is that some rebellious members of the PDP in Udenu did not want the candidate which the state governor, Sullivan Chime, endorsed for the elections on the grounds that he was at odds, at the time, with the traditional ruler. It became a popularity test, of sorts, between the governor and the traditional ruler.
The rebellious group in Udenu, got Eze, a well-know member of the PDP, to run on the platform of the opposition All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), to challenge the governor’s candidate. At that time, Eze was jokingly referred to as a “PDP man in ANPP clothes”. He was declared winner of the election, as it happened to be the “internal affairs” of the PDP. And shortly after his election, Eze defected (returned?) to the PDP.
Since 1999, the PDP has remained the ruling party as well as the opposition party in the state. The bonafide opposition parties are docile. For the eight years former governor, Chimaroke Nnamani was in power, the opposition to his government came from within the PDP itself. Former governor of old Anambra state, Jim Nwobodo, the estranged godfather of Nnamani, who fought a celebrated battle with his godson’s government, was a member of the PDP before he left when the heat became unbearable, to float the United Nigeria People’s  Party (UNPP) in 2003.
The former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, who also fought a long battle with the Governor Nnamani administration, happens to be a member of the PDP. It was only the late former governor of old Anambra State, Chief C.C. Onoh, whose political affiliation could not be determined, that teamed up with Nwobodo and Ken Nnamani to give the Chimaroke government hell.
And 10 years on, the status quo has remained, notwithstanding the rise in the number of registered political parties in the country to 54. The PDP has continued to dominate the political space in Enugu like a colossus. Aside from the pot-shots the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2007 elections, Dr. Okey Ezea takes at the Governor Chime government, intermittently, and the trouble the Ebeano faction of the PDP gives it, the opposition camp has been as silent as the door nail. And the state chairman of the Conference of Registered Political Parties (CNPP), Adonys Igwe, who is supposed to lead the opposition camp, is often seen going from one office to another at the Enugu State Government House, canvassing rapprochement.
So, it is because the CNPP has remained a toothless bull-dog and the electorate losing faith in the electoral system in the state, that accounted for the outcome of the December 5, 2009 council elections in Enugu State. Only four political parties: the PDP, the People’s Progressive Alliance (PPA), the Action Alliance (AA) and the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), participated in the elections. The three opposition parties that contested the elections in selected council areas kept on saying before, during and after the elections, that they were apprehensive that the ballot would not be free and fair.
Members of the other 50 political parties that shunned the elections, in order not to waste their time and money, are said to be having the last laugh, whereas opposition candidates who were defeated at the polls, are still counting their losses. Addressing a news conference on Sunday, December 6, 2009, the Executive chairman, Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC), Ezeudo Abel Nwobodo, said all the 17 chairmanship and 260 councillorship seats contested for, were won by the PDP.
Nwobodo, who was the Chief Returning Officer in the elections, said elections were conducted in only 21 wards and eight council areas following the return of 239 councillors and nine council chairmen unopposed at the close of nominations. And in spite of their being returned unopposed, the councillorship and chairmanship candidates, were subjected to a yes and no ballot, as required by the constitution. He told reporters that 11 serving council chairmen were among the 17 chairmen elected on December 5.
The re-elected chairmen he listed are: Uche Anioke (Awgu), Mathias Ekweremadu (Aninri), Mathias Anike (Enugu East), Herbert Oji (Enugu North), Sam Ugwu (Isi-Uzo), Julius Ogbuke (Ezeagu), Chris Omege (Igbo-eze South), Chijioke Ugwu (Igbo-eze North), James Ademu (Uzo-Uwani), Ejike Ani (Nkanu East) and Ogbonna Idike (Igbo-etiti). He also gave the names of the six newly elected council chairmen as: Nwabueze Okafor (Enugu South), Ekene Okenwa (Nkanu West), Anthony Ugwu (Nsukka), Gabriel Onuzulike (Oji River), Godwin Abonyi (Udenu) and Ikechukwu Ude (Udi).
Although the elections could generally be said to be peaceful, pockets of disturbances were reported at Igbo-eze South and Nkanu West, where political thugs snatched election materials. The ENSIEC chairman admitted that it happened. He said the election materials were replaced immediately. On Tuesday, December 8, 2009, the ENSIEC boss presented certificates of return to the victorious 260 councillorship and 17 chairmanship candidates, to draw the curtain on the December 5, 2009 council elections.
Meanwhile, the Enugu State Chief Judge, Justice Innocent Umezulike, has set up a three-man Local Government Council Election Tribunal, with Chinedu Ezugwu as chairman. He said the tribunal would determine all petitions that might arise from the council elections.
The spirited efforts the Ebeano faction of the PDP, loyal to Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, made to use the courts to checkmate the Governor Chime splinter group in the elections came to naught on Friday, December 4, 2009, on the eve of the elections. An Abuja High Court on that day struck out a suit asking it to set aside the list of candidates submitted by the chairman of the Governor Chime faction, Vita Abba, to ENSIEC and accept the one turned in by Ray Nnaji, the Enugu State Chairman of the Ebeano faction to the electoral commission as the authentic list for the December 5, 2009 council elections.
Members of the Ebeano faction were told by the judge that they were in a wrong court as the problem they complained about occurred in far away Enugu State, and not in Abuja.
With the failure of the suit in court, coupled with the outcome of the council polls, Governor Chime has undoubtedly erected the political structures with which to sweep back to power in 2011. The councilors and chairmen elected on December 5, 2009, will be there for him, political analysts posit.