Chief Victor Umeh and re-run of senatorial seat in Anambra state By Polycarp Onwubiko

It is incontrovertible to posit that one of the greatest misgivings attending an Eldorado in democracy in Nigeria is the intractable challenge to mid-wife satisfactory primaries in the political parties that field candidates for the general elections. It appears that Anambra state has recorded the greatest manipulations in party primary elections to bring out credible candidates for the people to make informed choices to better their living standard.
Recently, a political commentator claimed that in the Second Republic political activism, there were scant brazen manipulations in the conduct of primaries among the then existing political parties which the National Party of Nigeria, NPN was outstanding. Actually he was insinuating was that the present political parties have gumption and discretion in the wind in the conduct of party primaries.
Really, it was painful that the 2015 senatorial election in the Anambra senatorial district between the APC candidate, the indefatigable Senator Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige, APGA political stalwart, Chief Sir Victor Umeh, and the PDP amazon, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife, was cancelled by the Appeal Court and a re-run to be conducted within 90 days.
Apart from the reason of faulty conduct of the party primaries in the PDP, the election proper was marred by fraud in the three senatorial zones. Sadly, Anambra people were short-changed and exasperated by the brazen electoral malfeasance whereby the north and south senatorial zones were supposedly won by the candidates of the PDP. Unfortunately, the frightening manipulations by the ever-itching palmed INEC officials and adhoc employees; in addition to the nuisance value of over-zealous and compromised security operatives were not easy to be countenanced as evidence to cancel some poling units by the election tribunals and the appellate court. It is very unfortunate that the supposedly elected senatorial candidates of the PDP were not the ‘best eleven’ of a strategic state like Anambra.
Interestingly, the scramble to re-contest the Anambra central senatorial district has gone into speed mode with political stalwarts in the ever-crises ridden PDP. The former governor of Anambra State Chief Peter Obi has thrown his gauntlet. These financial heavy weights in the PDP will slug it out with the vivacious APGA political strong man, Chief Sir Victor Umeh. Iyom Mrs. Uche Ekwunife has tragically miscalculated in her brazen political prostitution; having dumped APGA when she could not brazenly snatch the slot for senatorial candidacy from the older party members and went back to her vomit in the erstwhile party, PDP.
Since her emergence as the senatorial candidate in the crises-ridden PDP, the long arm of the law in the Appeal Court eventually caught up with her gimmicks. Having thrown gumption and discretion in the air, she according to Igbo saying “sold shame in the market” and smuggled herself into APC to clinch the senatorial slot; not knowing that she does not have the monopoly of brazen intrigues and sleight of hand in party politics. Sadly for her, the political gambit that would eclipse her political career came like a bolt from the blues as the apex decision makers at the national level flatly rejected her bid to reap where she had not sowed.
Destiny is a complex phenomenon and remains a deep mystery in the affairs of men. There was no contesting the fact that Mrs. Uche Ekwunife was a pain on the neck of the vociferous APGA chieftain, Chief Victor Umeh. In the cancelled senatorial election, there was no denying the story that both of them matched violence with violence, cash for cash and sundry ‘mysterious’ things to emerge the champion.
The re-run of the Anambra central senatorial zone has been shorn of the glamour because of the absence of His Excellency Senator Dr. Chris Ngige who has opted out by reason of being the Minister of labour and productivity; an exalted political position for the benefit of the people no doubt. As I said earlier, destiny is a deep mystery and it was played out during the funeral ceremony of the father of the federal minister.  What the Right Hon. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe predicted about two decades ago that Dr. Chris Ngige was an “authentic Igbo leader” manifested at the funeral ceremony of his father.
Anambra people therefore have no option than to give massive support to Chief Victor Umeh to represent us at the hallowed red chamber of the national legislature. He is a profound intellectual, an outstanding legal luminary but without degree in law, a master political strategist.   True blood of Igbo man runs inside Chief Victor Umeh just like Dr. Ngige who called the bluff of the imperial president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who had wanted to humiliate him when he was Governor. Anambra people should not commit monumental blunder to have a senator in the mold of the other senators who bench warmers, tongue-tied marionettes, tools and minions of the northern Moslems; the feudal caliphate who revel on the illusion that Nigeria belong to them and that Igbo ethnic group is like the ethnic groups in the middle-belt who have become vassals to their hegemonic exploits that pushed the apparently accursed country to the brink of a failed state.
The southerners lost much during the 2014 National Conference as Chief Victor Umeh came at tail end of the national dialogue; but the few contributions he made was at the roots of what the marginalized Igbo man wanted. He stands boldly and uncompromisingly for restructuring of the largely lopsided country to reinvent True Federalism. Anambra people must face the stark reality and resolve that this re-election is not the time for sentiment for a political party or the other because he will be the only formidable political force for Anambra people in the National Assembly. If Senator Dr. Chris Ngige was to re-contest the senatorial slot, the stark reality in the political leadership in the country today would see him through because of deft political calculations. He equally would stand firm for the people and shiver before the feudal caliphate who revel on intimidating other ethnic groups as ‘born to rule’.
Mr. Onwubiko, an author and public affairs analyst wrote via [email protected], Awka, Anambra state
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