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Politics
Election Watch
Nigeria
Voter choice, political competition and democratic accountability
Professor Charles Soludo wins the Anambra Gubernatorial Election.
The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) swept to electoral victory, winning 19 of the 21 local government areas of the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission’s Chief Returning Officer, Professor Florence Obi, in her remark asserts on Monday morning :
“That Charles Chukwuma Soludo of APGA, having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,”
Soludo, 61, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, secured 112,229 votes, twice more than his close rival, PDP’s Ozigbo, to be returned as the winner of the election.
Ozigbo had 53,807 votes while the other two frontline contenders Ifeanyi Uba and Andy Ubah scored 43,285 and 21,261 votes respectively.
It should be noted that the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Valentine Ozigbo and Young Progressives Party, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, each won their local government area.
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Senator Andy Uba, could not win any local government, including his local government area, in the election.
Keenly Contested Election
Professor Charles Soludo’s victory follows a toughly contested election that spilled into a supplementary poll over security concerns in Ihiala, one of the 21 local government areas.
Election results started trickling in a day after the election and those from 20 local government areas were collated, except Ihiala.
Party agents, reporters, and observers, among others, had waited until the early hours of Monday for a winner to be declared before events took a different turn.
Initially, Professor Obi announced the suspension of the collation exercise despite announcing the total votes scored by the contenders in the 20 LGAs collated.
She then announced a supplementary election which was conducted across the 326 polling units of Ihiala.
She asserted the alignment of her decision with the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Electoral Success Inspite of the Pervading Insecurities
The build-up to the election was characterised by serious campaigning in an atmosphere filled with security concerns and uncertainty.
At some point, the Federal Government considered declaring a state of emergency in the state to ensure the poll would proceed as scheduled.
However, it took the deployment of some 43,000 police officers and hundreds of other security agents, including soldiers for the election to be held.
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Undesirable Electoral Incidences
Observers monitoring the election, however, reported incidents of vote-buying and failure of accreditation devices such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), among others.
The device failure was also experienced at the governor-elect’s polling unit in Aguata Local Government where he waited for over five hours before he could vote.
This initially sparked tension at the polling station as just one person out of the 717 registered voters was able to vote, about one and half hours into the election.
However, the other frontline candidates voted without any glitch recorded.
Professor Soludo’s Persistence Paid Off
Leading to the election, Soludo experienced significant difficulties during his journey to succeeding Obiano as the next governor of Anambra state.
Following a series of drama accompanied by the crisis within APGA and conflicting judgements resulting from the party’s primary, INEC finally recognised Soludo as APGA candidate and Ibezim Onyekachukwu Gilbert as his running mate on August 19.
This followed a judgement of the Court of Appeal in Kano which set aside the judgement of the Jigawa State High Court on the party’s leadership and nomination of candidates.
At the event held six weeks before the election, Soludo began his acceptance speech with a song titled ‘Who Can Battle With The Lord?’ after which he thanked the party leaders and members for their support through the events that led to his emergence as the party’s candidate.
The former banker was elected as the next Chief Executive of Anambra in his second race to govern the state. He first contested in 2009 on the PDP platform.
Soludo’s victory means he will be succeeding Willie Obiano who is in the final months of his second term and that APGA will be retaining power in the state, which it has governed since 2006.
“The next thing that should happen in Anambra will be to consolidate the ongoing wonderful works, especially under the 16 years of APGA in Anambra State,” he promised.
A month later, APGA officially flagged off its campaign for the election, and Soludo was presented the party’s flag to officially recognise him as its candidate – bringing an end to all disputes relating to the party’s candidacy.
Election Reflects the Will of the People
Giving his acceptance speech on Wednesday shortly after he was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the governor-elect described the feat as the will of God.
“Let me say that with utmost humility and gratitude to God, I accept the result of the 2021 Anambra governorship election, as declared by INEC,”
said Soludo who contested the election on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
“And this reflects the Almighty God’s supreme will and the people’s overwhelming sacred mandate.”
He thanked his wife and children for encouraging him despite their reservations at some point, saying his victory in the election resulted from his perseverance in the last 12 years.
The former CBN governor also thanked the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, the leadership of APGA, party faithful, as well as the residents of the state for their love and support all through the events that lead to his victory in the poll.
While remembering the three policemen killed by gunmen in the period of the campaign, he extended a hand of fellowship to his co-contenders in the election to move the state forward.
Almost four days after the keenly contested election and a supplementary poll that ensued, INEC finally returned Soludo elected as the winner.
