By Law Mefor
Let me state from the outset: the only candidate who truly campaigned in the Anambra governorship electioneering campaign was Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance – APGA. The rest were either pretenders or busy sharpening their rigging tools.
My attention has just been directed to a pitiful article entitled “The Anambra Affront: How Soludo’s ‘Historic’ Victory Signals A Death Knell for Nigerian Democracy.” I have to confess upfront that I have never read more hollow drivel in my life. Such tripe can only be published in the Phoenix browser, as no credible medium would ever want to touch it.
How can even a toddler conclude that a free, fair, and credible election hailed locally, nationally, and internationally denotes “a death knell for Nigerian democracy”? There ought to be a limit to bandying words by non-starters.
The hireling’s piece should be put into the trash can as wolfing where there is none and a desperate attempt to deny the victorious Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, his flowers. He earned his lunch. The hired gun failed woefully in his flawed attempt to paint Soludo’s historic victory as a pyrrhic victory.
Jeff Okoroafor – that’s if it’s truly his name – is introduced as “a social accountability advocate and a political commentator focused on governance, accountability, and social justice in West Africa.” On account of what he wrote, he made a total mess of the profile he was given. He started quite lamentably thus: “In what was billed as a coronation rather than a contest, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was recently declared the winner of the Anambra State gubernatorial election in a landslide so comprehensive it defies belief. The headlines screamed of a historic feat: a clean sweep of all 21 local government areas. The official narrative, dutifully parroted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and amplified by congratulatory messages from President Bola Tinubu and others, is one of a performing governor rewarded by a grateful populace.”
What wrong, one may ask, has Soludo done by comprehensively beating his challengers? The INEC conducted the elections in real time before the very eyes of the watching world. President Tinubu, whose party, APC, was beaten in the Anambra election, played the role of a stellar statesman by congratulating the winner, Soludo of APGA. What is this Okoroafor’s beef, in God’s name?
The obviously frustrated writer goes further with his hallucinations thusly: “But peel back the veneer of this manufactured triumph, and a far more sinister and familiar Nigerian story emerges—one of systemic vote-buying, brazen voter inducement, and a complicit electoral body. Soludo’s victory is not a testament to his performance; it is a masterclass in the monetisation of democracy and a chilling preview of the 2027 general elections if urgent action is not taken.” Enough of boondoggle! It was even the opposition parties that indulged in vote-buying but were rebuffed by APGA supporters who had from the very beginning sponsored Soludo’s campaign. How can the electoral body be complicit when Soludo did not appoint the commission?
It is understandable that the totally unprepared opposition is crying foul after polling a meagre 28 per cent against Soludo’s 72 per cent. Adding up the numbers of the 15 other candidates cannot be multiplied to add up to one solid Soludo of APGA!
The only evidence of election rigging that this Jeff Okoroafor is providing happens to be the lamentations of the trounced wannabes of the Labour Party (LP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), to wit, Dr George Moghalu and John Nwosu, respectively. Where did the duo ever campaign? They turned the entire election into a one-horse race because they were neither here nor there.
It’s so funny that Jeff Okoroafor adds these lachrymal words: “These are not the generic, sour-grapes complaints of losers.” Of course, sour grapes can never hide – they only set the teeth on edge!
He makes this fanciful claim: “Soludo’s APGA, as the party in power with access to state resources and the backing of powerful interests, simply outgunned and outspent everyone.” Is it not shameful that this fellow is claiming that all the parties bought votes? Well, the candidate of one of the opposition parties claimed ahead of the polls that he had the wherewithal to write the results! APGA happens to be a mass movement, and not even all the money in Anambra State could have paid for their votes.
For Okoroafor, the Anambra election “is a stress test for the 2027 general elections.” He goes further to aver that President Tinubu’s swift congratulatory message, praising the ‘vitality of our political system’, is particularly cynical.” This man is fighting on all fronts, blaming APGA on the gubernatorial front and upbraiding APC in the forthcoming 2027 presidential election. He concludes as though having occult powers by foretelling the future thus: “The 2027 election is not an event to look forward to; it is a foregone conclusion we should dread.” He then made these bold calls for, notably, “1. An Independent Forensic Audit; 2. Total Electoral Reform; 3. INEC Overhaul; 4. Citizen Vigilance.”
Let truth be told: the fundamental problem with the opposition can be likened to the two knives found in a poverty-stricken home – the one with a handle is not sharp, while the one that is sharp has no handle.
Do we need to talk of the opposition candidate who sank in over N10 billion only to garner less than 100,000 votes? That’s averaging N1m for a vote, the highest figure ever deployed for vote-buying in the history of Anambra State and the Nigerian nation indeed!
It is noteworthy that Ndi-Anambra took over Soludo’s re-election campaign and funded it. Thanks are therefore due to the generality of Ndi-Anambra for collecting money from the opposition and still voting for Soludo and APGA. It is a great lesson.
No amount of sponsored write-ups can overturn the truth! The Anambra guber election has been won and lost, and the certificate of return has already been issued and collected. Candidates who still want to feed the lawyers rather than cut back on costs are welcome at the tribunals.
Law Mefor, PhD, is Anambra State Commissioner for Information.