By Mascot Tecu Ezeukoma
It is true that the 2017 Anambra gubernatorial election has come and gone, but it could not have done so without some inherent lessons to be learnt by all concerned. Indeed, before the elections, many had doubted that it would hold, let alone peacefully like it turned out. As the self-anointed ‘light of the nation’, many non-indigenes of the blessed state had even seen the election as a litmus test for its supposed brightness. Many of them even hoped that it would end a stillbirth, necessitating the declaration of a state of emergency in the state. There is only God to thank that it never came to pass.
Like it stands, following that landslide re-election of Governor Willie Obiano to serve out another four-year tenure in office, the state now has a unique opportunity to reassert itself even more brightly than ever before. Given the unprecedented nature of the victory, he should see the result as a beginning rather than an end. It has, indeed, given him a golden opportunity to write his name in gold in the template of all those privileged like him to have governed the state.
True, the names of Senator Chris Ngige and his predecessor, Peter Obi, have often resonated when the office is recalled, but Obiano has a truly unique opportunity to surpass the duo if he plays his card well enough. A supposition ought to be doubled given the enormous resources he is rumoured to have spent to make the dream a reality.
Easily, the incumbent reason to be derived from the foregoing is that elections do not often go according to the plans of all. The other parties involved would have by now realized what they did or did not do right as the race wore on. For instance, while Chief Obiano and his All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) were busy winning converts, the rest of them watched their members being converted. This cannot be for nothing.
The greatest loser in this case was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). After its fractional primaries, virtually all the contestants, except the adjudged winner, refused to throw their weight behind the party in the general elections. This saw the party going to war divided against itself. And sadly enough, there appeared to be no effort by the candidate to try a mending of fences as the battle drew closer. A failing they will, no doubt, be ruing by now that they have lost an election they would ordinarily have counted themselves as one of the possible winners.
Somehow, this also affected the All Progressives Congress (APC). As always, many pundits had adjudged it the party to beat on account of its being in power at the centre. After all, they argued, the results of prior elections in Edo and Ogun states were there to be cited. The prognostication had appeared to fly following their final rally for the elections, with no less a person than Vice President Yemi Osibanjo putting up a personal appearance. All that, however, paled somewhat when weighed against the reality that their own primary also ended up throwing up a kind of underdog. Like many have stressed ever since, perhaps the result of the election would not have been such a landslide like it turned out had the party presented its best choice for the race.
The only other lesson there is to point out remains the fact that by now, the lone wolves who had thought they could have made headway in the polls as virtually independent candidates would have counted their teeth with their tongues. Though Anambra is not that big a state compared to some others, it holds that it is still far from one its governorship can be won without a solid party structure nurtured over time.
The idea of winning the governorship of any state for that matter because of a splendid performance in a debate of your townsmen and women casting block votes for you is yet to dawn. Arguably, for one to nurse such a hope aptly amounts to such a candidate taking people for granted; a decision they may carry over any other time such a candidate decides to hoist his flag again.
All said and done, the Anambra gubernatorial election coming peacefully and unbiased like it did is really worth celebrating. Like the winner has asked, all the contestants should rally round him to see that the state makes the most of it. And, hopefully in four years time we can do it again to the glory of our state so that we shall remain a light unto the entire nation as always.
Ezeukoma writes from Awada, Obosi, Anambra State.