Is Anambra’s upcoming local government election not crisis-ridden already?

There are ominous signs that the forthcoming Anambra’s local government election will end in fiasco and legal battles.

The ruling party’s intractable internal crisis and some opposition parties’ planned boycott of the Anambra’s council polls are portents of political trouble for Anambra state.

But Anambra state has had its fair share of political troubles since it came into being in 1991. Don’t we still remember Dr Chris Ngige and Mr. Chris Uba’s fight for the soul and ownership of Anambra state’s exchequer? That fight of theirs, which was legendary, threw Anambra state into a political cul-de-sac, then.

So Mr. Peter Obi cashed in on their messy and no holds-barred fight to dislodge Dr. Chris Ngige from the Anambra state governorship post through sustained litigation. Mr. Obi’s ascendance to the loft of power as the Anambra state governor marked the beginning of the reign of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra state.

But like most political parties in Nigeria, APGA has always been wracked with troubles and internal strife. At a time in the past, Chief Chekwas Okorie, daringly, took on the party’s big cheese in a litigation battle. Now, the party is riven down the middle with members of Mr. Edozie Njoku’s faction of APGA claiming that their faction is duly recognized by INEC while members of the Gov. Soludo’s faction are rebutting and controverting the claim of the other faction.

In the midst of the hullabaloo, and scuffle and tussle for the control of APGA by its stalwarts, the supreme court gave a ruling, which granted financial autonomy to local government areas in Nigeria. The ruling gave time frame for the conduct of elections for the election of local government chairmen in local government areas which have unelected chairmen. And it further stipulated that council areas with unelected council chairmen will cease to receive monthly allocation from the centre upon the expiration of the time frame.

So, the supreme court’s ruling, which granted financial autonomy to the local government areas in Nigeria, has stampeded Gov. Soludo into taking action to conduct council polls in Anambra state. But is the Anambra state government prepared for the conduct of the local government election? Is the APGA’s internal troubles and the litigation trailing the forthcoming September 28, 2024 Anambra local government election not portents of political trouble for the state?

Again, the Labour Party and APC leaders said that their parties would not participate in the Anambra council polls because Gov. Soludo’s constitution of the electoral committee and announcement of date for the election breached the electoral law. The parties had instituted cases in courts to prove that the conduct of the election would amount to the execution of an act of illegality.

Incredibly, in spite of the clouds of uncertainty hanging over the proposed conduct of the Anambra council election, the candidates of APGA and PDP are always on the hustings to tell the electorate how they will bring the dividends of democracy to them if elected into offices. And public buildings are adorned with campaign posters of those political candidates, who are vying for councillorship and chairmanship positions on the platforms of APGA, PDP, and others.

However, some people have taken a dim view of the proposed Anambra local government election. They hold the view that Gov. Soludo will use the immense power at his disposal to manipulate the Anambra council polls in favour of his APGA faction. Their entertainment of doubts that Gov. Soludo’s impartiality regarding the election cannot be guaranteed stems from the fact that ANSIEC staff are at his beck and call. They posit that a person who pays the piper calls the tune.

But the stark and indisputable fact is that the stage is being set for the judicial disputation of the election results that will emanate from the conduct of the September 28, 2024 Anambra local government election.The scenario of many political candidates laying claim to an elective post bodes ill for the state. It is an invitation to chaos. And some political parties’ strivings for the invalidation or stoppage of the conduct of the Anambra council election will distract Gov. Soludo from carrying out the gargantuan duties of his office.

Therefore, it is incumbent on Gov. Soludo to navigate this landmine of local government election deftly, justly, and judiciously to avert a harvest of unintended disasters that might result from his conduct of the September 28, 2024 local government election. We know that he is hastening the processes for the conduct of the election to avert the federal government’s sanction, which will encumber the Anambra local government areas’ carrying out of their statutory functions.

But he should balance the overriding imperativeness of conducting the election and the consequences of sidelining and alienating some political parties .

It will not be an injudicious decision if he reschedules the conduct of the Anambra local government election, co-opt members of other political parties into the election committee, and revitalises the state’s electoral body(ANSIEC) with training for its workers.

Chiedu Uche Okoye; Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State:08062220654, 09125204141. Okoye is a poet.