How Labour Party Retired Governor Ugwuanyi from Politics

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What was thought impossible has happened causally in Enugu State. After 24 years in power, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is finally being dislodged from their strongest bastion of hope in the Southeast by Labour Party.
The first leg of this political tsunami took place during the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25 when Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was beaten to the senatorial seat of Enugu North by the Labour Party candidate, Okey Ezea.
Monday, Ezea polled 104, 492 votes to defeat his closest rival, Gov Ugwuanyi, who polled only 46, 948 votes.
So many factors accounted for Ugwuanyi’s disgrace at the poll. The biggest was the emergence of Peter Obi in Labour Party. With no gubernatorial election due in Anambra, Enugu was seen as Obi’s home and Enugu people wanted to give him a home base as the Igbo staked a claim to the presidency of Nigeria.
Next, Ugwuanyi displeased Nsukka people by not executing signature projects in his zone as other governors before him did in their zones. Even worse, Ugwuanyi was accused of nepotism, favouring his town, family and friends and neglecting the larger Nsukka Zone. He is from Orba, a minority town in Udenu local government area but the rest of the zone warmed up to him. They insist he failed them.
He cited the Enugu State University of Medical Sciences in Igbo-Eno, centre of four communities, including his own. He negotiated the deputy gubernatorial candidate slot and gave it to someone said to be his relative in a neighouring community in his Udenu local government. The Chairman of the local government council is alleged to be related to him.
Chukwuka Utazi, from Uzo Uwani, the senator presently representing Enugu North in the Red Chamber, is widely acknowledged in the zone to have done well and should have been given the PDP ticket to return. But Ugwuanyi felt entitled to the ticket as governor. He was in the House of Representatives for 16 years as a lame duck. His people said his voice was never heard on major critical national issues. That he went after lucrative committees and did well for himself, not his constituency. So Nsukka zone felt he is not the right person to replace Utazi in the Senate.
Moreover, they felt his town had been in political positions for too long since 1999 and that the ticket should go to another town. He would not hear that.
But his greatest sin, according his people, was his choice of a successor. Nsukka zone advised him to give the ticket to an aspirant from Isiuzo local government area part of Enugu-East senatorial zone as all the major positions were held by the Nkanu people. He pretended to be listening but at the eleventh hour, he gave the ticket to Peter Mbah and hell broke loose. Most people are against the return of the Ebeano dynasty of former governor, Chimaroke Nnnami, back to power in the State. Nnamani’s immediate successor, Chime Sullivan, had pleased the state by parting ways with the Ebeano political family.
Ugwuanyi revived the group by returning Nnamani to the Senate and making Mbah his successor. The people of the state feel it is a third term for Nnamani as Mbah was his chief of staff, and later commissioner for finance. As they said, Ugwuanyi’s cup is full and they voted him out with pleasure.
At the presidential poll, Obi scored 428,640; Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, polled 15,749 to come second; while Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) polled 4,772 to come third. New Nigerian People’s Party’s Rabiu Kwankwaso came third with 1,808 votes.
Obi’s message of integrity, competence, performance, prosperity, and security resonated with Enugu people. They feel these values are the opposites of Ugwuanyi’s values. So, Obi provided the critical mass to get rid of Ugwuanyi.
There is serious fear in the state PDP ahead of March 11 gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections. Labour Party has the impetus now, and they are favoured to win. Out of eight House of Representatives constituencies, Labour cleared seven. The only one who survived is Nnolim Nnaji, chairman, House Committee on Aviation, who his people acknowledge is an effective representative.
Out of three senatorial slots, LP won Enugu North; PDP won Enugu West. Labour’s candidate for Enugu East, Oyibo Chukawu, was assassinated on February 22, three days to the election. Labour Party applied to INEC and was granted a reschedule of the election to March 11. The party will choose a new candidate, and is favoured to win.
So, the final battle will be between LP’s Chijoke Edeoga, and PDP’s Peter Mbah. Who comes out on top on March 11? It will be a clash of the Titans. The variables will be slightly different because this time, Obi is not on the ballot. Will the Obi mantra still hold by that day? While Obi’s name is a windy mantra for Edeoga, the Ebeano mantra is a heritage of conflict.
But the Nkanu question is a mitigating factor. Will Nkanu people settle for an Isiuzo candidate against their own? All the PDP bigwigs lost their polling units last Saturday to the Obi tsunami. Can there be resurgence on March 11?
Whichever way it goes, it is a swan song for Governor Ugwuanyi’s political career; a rude denouement to over 20 years of uninterrupted Sabbatical in the corridors of power.