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ANAMBRA STATE AND THE ONE-TERM GOVERNOR SYNDROME (PART II)
 By Chukwudi Nwokoye Esq


In my previous article titled: “Anambra State and the One-Term Governor Syndrome”
published in Nigeriaworld.com on March 8, 2007, http://nigeriaworld.
com/articles/2007/mar/081.html, I traced the history of governors in democratic dispensation
in Anambra state and how they were all restricted to one-term irrespective of how good they
were. Starting from the time of Chief Jim Nwobodo and Chief Christian Onoh of the old
Anambra state through Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Dr. Odera Mbadinuju, and Dr. Chris
Ngige of the new Anambra state, the state has never produced a governor that had the
privilege of two terms.

Governor Peter Obi is now front and center with history. History is not on his side. That jinx
has never been broken. Of course Gov. Obi knows about this jinx and wants to give it a fight
to see whether he would break it.

With Obi’s doggedness and tenacity, he can as well break another record. So it is only time
will tell whether he would break this barrier that others before him could not. But Obi's is
putting tremendous efforts to consolidate his hold to power by his sterling performance.
Time has changed; Anambra is more politically savvy than was given credit by the
bookmakers. Anambra State is a unique state, despite what detractors and so-called
analyst say, history has shown that they cannot properly analyze our state. Anambra is on
its own program. It is the first and only state with the highest turnover of governors. Between
2003 and now, Anambra produced four different governors and five different administrations
as I pointed out in the Part I. The time I wrote the first part of this article, Prof. Maurice Iwu,
the Independent National Election Commission was in the process of disqualifying Gov Obi
of APGA, Chris Ngige of AC and Nicholas Ukachukwu of ANPP from participating in the
April 2007 election and thereby making way for the ‘chosen one’, Andy Uba.

True to people’s fears, Prof Iwu disqualified Chris Ngige, Peter Obi and Nicholas Ukachukwu
based on spurious charge that Ngige did not come back to Nigeria to swear to an affidavit in
front of a High Court Judge, even though Ngige’s form of intent to contest an election was
sworn to by Ngige before a Judge in Maryland, USA and thereby satisfying that provision of
the electoral law. Gov. Peter Obi was also disqualified by INEC from contesting the election,
basing its action on the fact that APGA had two factions. But Iwu recognized the faction of
the expelled former chairman of APGA, Chekwas Okorie, even though a court of competent
jurisdiction has recognized the Chief Vincent Umeh faction as the genuine faction of APGA.
It was later alleged that Iwu’s INEC forged an Abuja Federal High Court judgment
recognizing the Okorie’s faction. Prof Iwu usurped the power of the court by suspending
candidates from election, a power reserved to the courts as the Supreme Court had ruled in
the case between Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and INEC had shown.

Also at the time I wrote the first part of this article, Peter Obi was at the Supreme Court for it
to interpret section 180 of the 1999 constitution with regard to his tenure. Obi had argued
that since his tenure was usurped by Ngige and that since his (Obi’s) oath of office and oath
of allegiance was taken on the 17th day of March, 2006; that his tenure has not expired,
judging from the the provisions of section 180 (2) of the constitution. When he was going to
court for the interpretation of the constitution, many people did not believe he would make it.
Many thought that Obi has lost his mind and that his belief was an utopia "taken too far".
But he did not listen to nay-sayers. But as the matter was going on in the Supreme Court,
INEC conducted the ‘sham’ called election and (s) elected Andy Uba. Uba was sworn in on
the 29th day of May, 2007 but the Supreme Court ealier warned him that if Obi’s case
succeeded at the court, that Andy Uba would be sacked. Andy ruled Anambra state for
barely 2 weeks (from May 29 to June 14 2007) before the Supreme Court sacked him ruling
that Peter Obi’s tenure was still subsisting until March 17th, 2010, and that Andy Uba was
sworn in to the post of governor that was not vacant. In other words, the kernel of the
Supreme Court ruling was basically that it is biologically impossible for a woman to conceive
a second time while she is still pregnant. The court also chastised INEC for wasting the tax-
payers’ money to conduct an election to the post of a governor that was in contention even
when INEC was a party to the suit. INEC also went ahead to conduct an election thinking
that it would circumvent the judgment of the apex court.

By the Supreme Court’s ruling, Peter Obi resumed his office as governor. By the ruling of
the court also, Andy Uba cannot be said to be a governor since the post he was contesting
was not open for contest. But for the purpose of this analysis, Andy Uba has added his
name to the list of the ‘one-termers’ in Anambra state.
That leads us to the issue of the day: can Obi defy the gods and win a second term? The
answer lies sometime between January and February 2010 in line with section 178 (2) of the
constitution which states that:

“An election to the office of Governor of a State shall be held on a date not earlier than sixty
days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of office of the last
holder of that office.”

So our answer would come at that time. However, hate Gov Obi or love him, he has changed
the political landscape of Anambra. With no god-father and being in the minority party, he
enjoys the goodwill of the masses. Prior to his becoming governor, Abuja or Lagos
politicians had dictated who gets what in Anambra state. Before Obi, no one has won a
landslide victory against a ruling party only to be rigged out in a landslide.

Also before Obi, no candidate has ever dethroned a sitting governor! When he was going to
court to recover his mandate stolen by Ngige and his cohorts, no one gave Obi a chance to
win in the court. He was called a ‘day-dreamer’, ‘idealist’ and even ‘utopian’ but he kept faith
with his ideals. He was offered political settlement and cash to off-set his campaign
expenses and he refused. He lost close political associates when he was involved in the
struggles to recover what rightly belonged to him. The Chairman of his party at the time,
Chief Chekwas Okorie, threw him overboard and went to Ngige to surrender APGA and Obi’s
mandate. However, when he finally won in the Court of Appeal, his ‘friends’ came back. Just
like everything in life, everyone loves a winner, but everyone would not go to the trenches
with you to fight.

It becomes the norm now for rightful winners of election to go to court and stand firm to get
what belongs to them. Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state and Governor Olusegun
Mimiko of Ondo state had followed suit and helped in solidifying our democracy. Also other
states have not completed election challenges in the tribunals. States like Delta, Osun, Imo,
Ogun, Oyo etc are still battling in the tribunals to recover what they believe are theirs. Ekiti
state had its election nullified by the Court of Appeal and a new election scheduled by INEC
on the 25th of April 2009. There are many other states that had witnessed intense
challenges at the tribunals both in the gubernatorial and state and federal legislative houses.
This is unprecedented in our history, but thanks to the precedent Obi created, every
candidate now believes that following due process and trusting the judiciary would lead to
recovery of political power brazenly stolen by professional riggers, the PDP. Obi’s name is
therefore associated with due process and rule of law. He has expanded the interpretation of
the constitution and has by his fight to recover his mandate made for the broadening of our
status as a country that practices federalism.

Also Peter Obi has changed the election calendar in Nigeria. Before now, elections were
held uniformly in the whole federation. Governorship and Houses of Assembly elections were
held in every state in Nigeria on the same day. But with Obi’s history at the Supreme Court,
election would now be held after the term of a governor expires counting from the day he
took his oath of office and oath of allegiance. Anambra state now has its own gubernatorial
election time-table, and also Edo state, Ondo State and Rivers State.

Gov Obi also made another milestone when he became one of the few governors to have
their purported impeachment nullified by court. His party, APGA had only one member out
of thirty in the House of Assembly but the majority party, PDP, could not muster a 2/3
majority to impeach him but violated section 188 of the constitution that deals with
impeachment of a governor of a state. Obi was able to get 13 members to oppose his
impeachment.

Also prior to his becoming governor, NARTO (National Association of Road Transport
Owners) was a parallel government in the state. They collect park dues and rates without
accounting to the state government. In other words, any dues or levies they collect go not to
the government but to them and they feed fat on the government funds and accounted to no
one but to themselves. Obi stood up to them and put a stop to that even when it was seen
as political suicide to challenge the almighty NARTO. Now I do not know whether anyone
knows why the Internally Generated Revenue of the state is now in billions of naira.

Many towns and villages now have a feel of government presence. Before now, funds
allocated for all kinds of projects were embezzled by state officials and their collaborators,
state officials were at the payroll of contractors. Contractors collude with government
officials and the so-called town union representatives to embezzle money allocated to their
towns for government projects.

All these are in the past since transparent government and accountability is the signpost of
Obi’s administration. Before now, who knew that Anambra could actually rank among the
best states in the federation in terms of development.

Also prior to Obi’s government, private security or vigilante is the order of the day. Mbadinuju’
s government used the services of Bakassi Boys to provide security of life and property even
when there a law enforcement entity called the Nigerian Police. But he came on board and
disbanded the dreaded Bakassi Boys. Also MASSOB (Movement for the Actualization of
Biafra) was infiltrated by some sponsored hoodlums to cause problems in the state, but Gov
Obi showed some political courage and banned them from the state. He received severe
criticisms from politicians that wanted to play to the gallery, but he stood firm believing that
it was the right thing to do.

Just like when a barrier is to be broken, not many people would come on board. When
Barack Obama wanted to be president of the United States, many people, including this
writer, did not believe that a skinny black man with funny looking ear and a funny sounding
name would prove cynics wrong to become the president of the most powerful country in the
world. Also when former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu said that Enyimba Football Clubs of Aba
would win the African Cup of Champions for the first time for Nigeria, many people called
him "big-mouth". When they won and Orji Kalu said that they would win the cup back to
back, some people did not believe him, but it came to pass and the jinx that stopped other
Nigerians elite teams were broken. Gov Obi has been doubted before and many doubt that
he would scale through the one-term jinx, not with the political forces against him.

But Obi is not a superstar as our typical politicians are. As Henry Kessinger would say:

"The modern politician is less interested in being a hero than a superstar. Heroes walk
alone; star derive their status from approbation. Heroes are defined by inner values, stars by
consensus"

So for now the one-term jinx remains. With Obi's breaking many barriers, let us wait and
see whether he would meet his waterloo in this election or whether he would break yet
another record. As this one-term jinx stares him in the face, we will know as Obi had said
whether we are cursed or whether we are the cause.


*Chukwudi Nwokoye, an attorney, writes from Maryland, USA
nwokoyeac@hotmail.com