Ugwuanyi, PDP and Enugu’s future

GOING into the February 28 governorship election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State is brimming with an air of self-assured confidence. 

  It is a confidence built around the perception that Enugu is a PDP state and runs a non-competitive contest; the belief that its governorship candidate, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, is a credible, well-chosen candidate, who is widely accepted across the state, and among other political parties; and that the incumbent governor, Sullivan Chime, has performed creditably in the last eight years. 

  The ongoing electioneering campaigns have amply illustrated how confident the PDP feels going into the February elections in Enugu. 

  For example, the party has played down an elaborate door-to-door campaign, opting instead to the habit of gathering huge crowds of party faithful at designated open spaces at the headquarters of each of the 17 council headquarters. However, candidates still reach out to voters in their individual constituencies.

  The statewide campaigns are held in a carnival mood where neighbouring towns and towns in the council empty into the headquarters under canopies of songs, cultural dances and masquerades, eating and wining. 

  Ugwuanyi described it as, “we are not campaigning; we are celebrating. We are celebrating eight years of a wonderful government. We are thanking the people of Enugu for their support.” 

  Chime, sees it as a “time to remind the people that we are not taking them for granted. But for them, we won’t be here.” 

  The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, notes that, “this is the time to tell the people that PDP is a party that keep agreements.” 

  “We are reminding the people that we have kept our part of the agreement we entered into with them in 1999 and that we have come to renew it; we didn’t forget,” he said. 

  “If the relationship has not been beneficial, then both sides know what to do.”

  The Director of the Campaign Organisation, Chief Charles Egumbe, explained that the party is very assured of victory and that it was only campaigning to see how it could consolidate its hold in the state “because we are not underrating any political party.”   

  While promising to reward any council that returned the highest votes in the governorship election, Egumbe noted: “In this campaign, we are not just asking for support from the people; we want to know the volume of votes that we will get in the election.”

  “Our message is to ask the next government to build on the performance of the incumbent government and on the existing partnership with the people in the state.”

  At Ezeagu Council, Ekweremadu boosted Egumbe’s order, as he instituted a prize of N5 million for the council that turns in the highest votes in the election. 

  He said: “The council with the highest votes in the five elections — Presidential, Senate, House of Representatives, Governorship, Houses of Assembly — will get N5 million or N1 million per election while a 200kva generator will go to the ward that scored the highest votes in the senatorial zone. 

  “If the winning ward already has access to electricity, they can sell the generator and use the money for something else.”

Ugwuanyi’s message and critics 

  The performance of Governor Chime looks like a crucial issue in the governorship election,” said a PDP member who doesn’t want to be mentioned. 

  “Chime has performed, Ekweremadu has performed and President Goodluck Jonathan has done some things in the state.” 

  And for this reason, Ugwuanyi has built his campaign on the theme of “continuity and consolidation.” 

  The candidate explained that the need for continuity at all levels, “is not only to ensure that the dividends of democracy enjoyed by the people of the state in the last eight years will be sustained, but to add value to what the people are used to already.” 

  “We thank God for the gift of a farsighted Sullivan; we have decided to continue and consolidate on his legacies. It is going to be a case of seamless continuity,” he said.

  That message is repeated at all the well-attended rallies in the councils, as the crowds turn out, each council trying to outdo the other with its turnout, organisation and hospitality. 

  Ugwuanyi’s message centres on continuing and completing ongoing projects of the Chime administration and initiating new ones; assuring on the need to strengthen the security situation in the state; and calling on the people to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to enable them “vote for me and ensure that their votes are protected.”

  At Enugu East, his second stop in his campaigns, he promised to create 10,000 jobs in the first six months if voted in; a revival of the Enugu State Marketing Company, to start importation of goods and introduce new and modern and more utilitarian courses of study like Oil and Gas, and Maritime Studies in the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT).

  At Ikem in Isi-Uzo Council from where he kicked off his campaign, Ugwuanyi said that he adopted the theme of continuity and consolidation as his blueprint for the development of the state, because “it will be wrong to deviate from the tempo of development already set by the Chime administration.”   

  According to him, the fact that the state has witnessed massive infrastructural development under Chime has made his campaign much easier.

  He said: “Our party has performed well in Enugu and that is why it is easier for us to convince the people that we will do even much more. It is easier for us to come back for more support. 

  “We are grateful to the governor because of the tremendous goodwill he has brought to the state. The best we can do is to continue from where he will stop.”

  Building the theme of continuity and consolidation on a platform of a four-point agenda, Ugwuanyi said he would deploy government services to create fair opportunity for every willing citizen to make a living and create wealth, educate their children, and enjoy life in a peaceful and secure environment.

  The four-point agenda, according to him, has a historic relevance. “When Chime assumed office in 2007, the four-point agenda became the contract between him and the people of Enugu,” he said. 

  “He (Chime) quickly set out on an ambitious plan to implement the 4-Point Agenda. Today, the results speak for themselves. Across the state sit visible signs of change and promise.”

  He says that if elected, he intends to implement a “performance agenda focused on employment generation, enhanced social services and good governance, rural development, security and justice.” 

  Ugwuanyi has earned a surfeit of admirers and critics. The state chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), John Nwobodo, accused him of being “clueless,” without a vision or programme. 

  He questioned Ugwuanyi’s theme of continuity and stating that, “we are afraid, it is a continuation of a PDP government that, for the past eight years, deprived people of their legitimate means of livelihood by banning Okada riders without providing them with alternative; demolished people’s shops, also without alternative.” 

  “A vote for PDP is a continuation of car merchandise in the name of taxi scheme where operators, instead of empowerment, buy enslavement for themselves.”

  But the Enugu State Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Okechukwu Nkolagu, expressed confidence that with Ugwuanyi as governor, there would be a secured future for the people of the state.

  According to him, it would be a wasted effort for the APGA to field a candidate to run against Ugwuanyi, “considering his track record.” 

  “We tried to settle for an aspirant that would command the influence of majority of the people of the state and one who would also be capable of enthroning better governance,” he said. 

  “We are certain that he (Ugwuanyi) will take Enugu to greater heights. We decided to adopt him as our governorship candidate for the February 28 gubernatorial election because we couldn’t find anyone better than him.”

   Return of peace; other candidates

  At Isiuzo, the PDP senatorial candidate in Enugu East, incumbent Senator Gilbert Nnaji, admitted how he failed “to perform in the last four years.” 

  His words: “I didn’t perform because I am not ranked. Whenever I wanted to do something, senators like Ayogu Eze, who are ranked, made sure I don’t get the opportunity to perform. 

  “If I return to the Senate this time, I will be ranked and I promise I will perform.” 

  Like a whirlwind, Nnaji swept himself into the lexicon of the state’s election lore. Poor ranking and freshness in office is now an excuse for poor performance, even among council chairmen, state legislators, among others. 

  Despite his “poor performance,” Nnaji has on the list of completed projects, “the attraction of an MTN mast at Nkerefi village,” in the Nkanu East Council.

  Hon. Ejike Ani, a former chairman of the council said that, “Nnaji built the Ojolowo Bridge in Ugbawka, and a town hall in Oruku community, among others.”

  Meanwhile, every candidate, “ranked or unranked,” comes out at each rally under the leadership of Chime. As one stakeholder said: “the turn out of every stakeholder shows that peace has returned.”

  A banner of peace and reconciliation swirls round the campaign grounds. Chime and Ekweremadu, the major combatants and top ranked politicians in the state, look to have put everything behind, “even if it is for the cameras,” and are leading to the campaigns. 

  While Chime campaigns for Ekweremadu and calls on the people of Enugu to vote for him, the Deputy Senate President doesn’t fail to pay tribute to “the performing governor of Enugu, our friend and brother, Chime.”

  According to Chime, “It is the peace with which the PDP does its things in Enugu that other people are flocking to join us. 

  “For this election, we are not campaigning; we are celebrating and thanking God for His support.”

  At the headquarters of Enugu East, Chime said: “We should be grateful to the people because the promise of God has been fulfilled in Enugu. 

  “In other states like Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, Akwa Ibom and even Niger, the choice of governorship candidates has split the party. But in Enugu, the choice of our candidate has rather galvanised the party.”