While the party primaries for the November 8 Anambra governorship seat have been concluded, several candidates across the opposition parties are displeased with the outcome, leading to shenanigans, cross-carpeting and other intrigues, LAWRENCE NJOKU reports.

A headway into the November 8, 2025, governorship election in Anambra State may have been made with the conclusion of the governorship primaries by political parties participating in the process. This also aligns with section 28 (1) of the Electoral Act, which specified that the primary must be completed on or before April 10, 2025.

However, the outcome of the exercise has become a mix of joy, regret, and sorrow for some aspirants. It has also thrown spanners in the wheel of progress of some political parties participating in the election.

For instance, in the All Progressives Congress (APC), some of the aspirants are either complaining about the primary or picking up the governorship forms of the fringe parties; a development not seen as healthy in the party?s quest to win election for the first time in the state.

After the stressful primary that first saw some of the aspirants withdrawing from the race and the emergence of the old war horse, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, as the governorship candidate, some of the aspirants that participated in the primary have continued to lament the process.

Ukachukwu had secured 1,455 votes to beat his rivals. His close rival, Valentine Ozigbo, got 67 votes; Johnson Onunkwo got 26 votes, while Edozie Madu got eight votes.

The party had cleared seven governorship aspirants to contest the election, including Ukachukwu, Ozigbo, Madu, Onunkwo, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, Mr Chukwuma Umeoji and Mr Paul Chukwuma.

Umeoji, Chukwuma and Okonkwo were allegedly pressured to withdraw from the contest earlier. The development lowered the number of aspirants to four, who were eventually voted by the delegates and cleared for the primary.

But no sooner had the exercise results been declared than Ozigbo and Chukwuma showed their disdain for it. While Ozigbo had dismissed the exercise as a ?charade? and a ?theft against Ndi Anambra? and went ahead to submit a petition to the party?s governorship primary appeals committee, Chukwuma quietly left for the Young People?s Party (YPP) and picked their governorship ticket.

In a message he released on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, Ozigbo confirmed that he had filed a formal petition before the APC Gubernatorial Primary Appeals Committee, alleging that the process that produced Mr Nicholas Ukachukwu as the party?s flag bearer was riddled with fraud, irregularities, and violations of democratic norms.

Citing widespread manipulation, voter exclusion, and non-transparency in vote counting, Ozigbo asserted that the process violated internal party rules and broader expectations of fairness and accountability in a democratic system.

It is still unclear whether his protest would undo what had been done since Ukachukwu had already received the party?s certificate of return to represent it in the governorship election. But sources insist the party must put its house in order if it intends to go far in the election.

Ozigbo joined the APC in February of this year after a stint with the Labour Party. Many believe it would be a serious error to hand him the ticket of the party with the number of aspirations from formidable and foundation members of the party in the state

Chukwuma, on the other hand, was the immediate past National Auditor of the APC. He withdrew his aspiration a day to the primary in what many believed was related to the move to ensure the emergence of Ukachukwu. He took his supporters to the YPP to pick the party?s governorship form.

Chukwuma had set up structures for APC in the state and ensured the establishment of a state secretariat and offices in the 21 local government areas and the 326 wards.

MEANWHILE, the People?s Democratic Party (PDP) survived the initial scare of finding aspirants interested in its ticket when it settled for Sir Jude Ezenwafor. Ezenwafor was unanimously endorsed by the 853 delegates drawn from the 21 local governments featured at the primary on April 8.

Before his emergence, the incumbent governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, who was the sole candidate for the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), had effortlessly been picked.

In the same guise, the former Managing Director of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), George Moghalu, had, in an exercise held at Finotel Hotel, Awka, secured 575 votes from the delegates to beat John Nwosu, who secured 19 votes. Nwosu had about eight hours to the election withdrawn in what was seen as part of efforts to support the aspiration of Moghalu.

A Southern affair?

Even with the emergence of Ezenwafor and Chukwuma, who hail from Anambra Central and Anambra North, respectively, there are strong notions that the outcome of the primaries has thrown up an all-southern contest.

The trio of Soludo, Ukachukwu and Moghalu hail from the Anambra South Senatorial zone. While Soludo is from Aguata, in Aguata Local Government Area (LGA); Ukachukwu is from Osumenyi in Nnewi South LGA and Moghalu from Nnewi, North LGA.

Sources indicated that the emergence of the trio, who are members of the leading political parties in the state, may have strengthened the unwritten agreement in the rotation of the governorship office of the state. Although the issue of rotation had become toxic following criticisms that it is an invention of the APGA and not that of the state, circumstances may have reinforced that it is the most acceptable way to gain power by any politician and party aspiring to do so in the state.

Peter Obi, who became governor on the platform of the APGA years back, had indirectly introduced the rotational clause when he insisted on a successor from the Anambra North Senatorial zone.

This arrangement threw up the immediate past governor, Willie Obiano, from Aguleri, Anambra East local government area, Anambra North. Obiano handed it over to Soludo, who is from Anambra South senatorial zone after he had served for eight years.

Soludo is on the verge of completing his first four years and seeking re-election. The way it is, political parties for the November 8 governorship election may have concluded that defeating the incumbent governor would only be possible if they pick their candidate from the Anambra south senatorial zone.

It was gathered that this realisation fueled pressure on some aspirants, especially from the opposition APC who are not from the zone to withdraw from the primary to enable those from the area to vie for the ticket to foster better and stronger cohesion at the election proper.

A Chieftain of the APC, Olisemeka Okafor, confirmed this much when he told The Guardian that the preference of the party members guarded the choice of the eventual governorship ticket, stressing that ?we could not have done without putting into consideration other possibilities that could help us win the election.?

He added: ?If it is being viewed that we have by our choice of candidate supported the unwritten rotational arrangement in the state, I will not contest it. But aside from that, we looked at political exposure, experience, and reach, and you could add loyalty to the party. Apart from being in good stead, the candidate the delegates elected from the APC (Ukachukwu) has been in politics for a long time.

He had contested elections in the past and won. Before joining APC, he was in the House of Representatives; he had been at several political parties, including the ANPP, PDP and APGA. So, he has a rich credential. That will tell you that the delegates knew what could support our quest to win the governorship election in Anambra State for the first time. We want to win this election, and the issue of candidates coming from the same senatorial zone has nothing to do with it.?

On the side of Moghalu, he was already a candidate even before the delegates cast the first votes. His opponent had withdrawn about eight hours before the voting started.

Although he is new to the party, having joined the LP from the APC last year, where he served as the national auditor, sources indicated that since joining the party, he had left the members without any doubt about his readiness to contest with any opponent.

Can this unsettle Soludo?

Speaking shortly after picking the ticket of the LP, Moghalu stated that running an election against an incumbent was not a tea party, expressing confidence, however, that it was doable.

?This is why I am pleading with you to put your confidence in me, and I will not betray your confidence if you check my track records. We are going into this election determined to change the narrative. The trajectory today is such that Anambra State needs a rejig.

?Our security and basic infrastructure have all failed, and something must be done. I must acknowledge that there are areas they have done very well, but there is a need for improvement, and we will definitely make those improvements for the benefit of our people,? he stated.

To do the battle, Moghalu would heavily be banking on the support of party members at the State House of Assembly. The party controls eight of the 30 seats in the State Assembly. He would also be relying on the support of the members of the National Assembly from the state. LP has the highest number of National Assembly members, with six House of Representatives seats and two of three senatorial seats

On his own, Ukachukwu stated: ?It is not a journey, but the beginning of a journey. All of us have come together as one family for this journey. It will not be easy fighting the incumbent, but with a united house, everything is possible with the help of God. We should close ranks and deliver Anambra to APC by November 8, and I promise not to disappoint you.?

Ukachukwu?s party is in power at the national level. His party has however, not won in any election before in the state. Of the 30-member State House of Assembly, APC has none. It has none of the 10 seats available in the House of Representatives.

The party only showed a semblance of belonging in the state?s politics when late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah defected to APC with the Anambra South senatorial mandate given to him in 2023 through the Young People?s Party (YPP) platform.

Ubah?s death has thrown open the senatorial seat, and any of the political parties in the state can grab it when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) decides to conduct the election.

This could be why the Vice Chairman of the party in Anambra South, Izuchukwu Okeke, had ?urged President Bola Tinubu and the National Working Committee (NWC) of our party to provide Ukachukwu with all the support to navigate this journey to the Government Awka successfully.?

He added that it was unacceptable that the party, despite its strength, had not made significant inroads into Anambra State politics, stressing that winning the election would change the state?s political narrative.

However, there are strong beliefs that Soludo?s second term in office is assured by how the primaries had gone. Sources stated that aside from his power of incumbency, he has deepened governance to the admiration of the people of the state, adding that his party allegedly maintains a strong affinity with the government in power

Soludo would also rely on the strength of the House of Assembly, where he has 18 out of the 30 members in his kitty and four of the 10 House of Representative seats.

He has also ensured the spread of the APGA in the state with last year?s local government election, which led to the institution of 21 local government chairmen and their numerous Councillors.

An APGA Chieftain from the Ihiala LGA, Jerry Chikwendu, stated that truncating the rotational arrangement using the coming election may not be easy.

?Soludo will gain the support of the two other senatorial zones of North and Central to enable him to undertake another four years and return power to the central zone. There is no way it can go to the north, and that is why you don?t see them coming out,? he stated. (The Guardian)

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