The
opposition parties in Anambra State have kicked against the decision of
Governor Peter Obi to conduct local government elections ahead of the
forthcoming gubernatorial election, barely eight months to the end of his
tenure.
Many people in the state, who expressed shock with the governor's u-turn, described the plan as very suspicious, coming in the twilight of his administration and timed to foreclose the gubernatorial election, just at the corner. Reacting to the development, Mr. Jerry Obidike, spokesman, Dr. Ifeanyi Uba Campaign Organisation said: “After cornering and misappropriating Anambra State local governments' allocation for about seven years without respite, Governor Peter Obi has suddenly developed a high tempo obsession with grassroots democracy by announcing his desire to conduct local government elections less than eight months to the end of his eight -year misrule.”
Obidike lamented that for the past seven and half years, his administration blatantly refused to conduct local government elections in the state despite the constitutional provision for regular conduct of it. Consequently, Anambra State has acquired the unenviable record of being the only state out of 36 states in the federation with such an undemocratic record. “However, less than six months to the gubernatorial election and barely eight months to the end of his second tenure as the governor of the state, he has suddenly realised the need to widen the democratic space.
He now wants to become the poster boy of grass- roots democracy with this announcement.” A PDP stalwart in Awka, Nnanyelugo Okoye, who described the move as an ill- wind, added that one does not need to look far to see the real reasons for this sudden change of mind at the concluding part of his administration. According to him, first, he wants to use the proposed elections to install his stooges at the local government level for the purposes of rigging the forthcoming gubernatorial election.
Otherwise, how would the average Anambra man make sense of this desperation to do within six months what he couldn't do for almost eight years? Moreover, the governor has no political platform having lost the leadership of APGA, the party that brought him to power, to Sir Victor Umeh according to the latest pronouncement by INEC. Obidike insists that with the gubernatorial election barely five months, one sees this sudden love for grassroots democracy as a ploy to unnecessarily heat up the polity and truncate free and fair conduct of the gubernatorial race in the state.
This diabolical design becomes more worrisome when one realizes that Governor Peter Obi has been the greatest beneficiary of due democratic process in this dispensation. “Governor Obi has depleted his electoral goodwill with bad leadership and consequently will definitely not deliver a free and fair local government election. We, therefore, urge Anambra people not to be deceived by this last act of a varnishing governor who is desperately struggling to install stooges that will cover his ugly past.
Many people in the state, who expressed shock with the governor's u-turn, described the plan as very suspicious, coming in the twilight of his administration and timed to foreclose the gubernatorial election, just at the corner. Reacting to the development, Mr. Jerry Obidike, spokesman, Dr. Ifeanyi Uba Campaign Organisation said: “After cornering and misappropriating Anambra State local governments' allocation for about seven years without respite, Governor Peter Obi has suddenly developed a high tempo obsession with grassroots democracy by announcing his desire to conduct local government elections less than eight months to the end of his eight -year misrule.”
Obidike lamented that for the past seven and half years, his administration blatantly refused to conduct local government elections in the state despite the constitutional provision for regular conduct of it. Consequently, Anambra State has acquired the unenviable record of being the only state out of 36 states in the federation with such an undemocratic record. “However, less than six months to the gubernatorial election and barely eight months to the end of his second tenure as the governor of the state, he has suddenly realised the need to widen the democratic space.
He now wants to become the poster boy of grass- roots democracy with this announcement.” A PDP stalwart in Awka, Nnanyelugo Okoye, who described the move as an ill- wind, added that one does not need to look far to see the real reasons for this sudden change of mind at the concluding part of his administration. According to him, first, he wants to use the proposed elections to install his stooges at the local government level for the purposes of rigging the forthcoming gubernatorial election.
Otherwise, how would the average Anambra man make sense of this desperation to do within six months what he couldn't do for almost eight years? Moreover, the governor has no political platform having lost the leadership of APGA, the party that brought him to power, to Sir Victor Umeh according to the latest pronouncement by INEC. Obidike insists that with the gubernatorial election barely five months, one sees this sudden love for grassroots democracy as a ploy to unnecessarily heat up the polity and truncate free and fair conduct of the gubernatorial race in the state.
This diabolical design becomes more worrisome when one realizes that Governor Peter Obi has been the greatest beneficiary of due democratic process in this dispensation. “Governor Obi has depleted his electoral goodwill with bad leadership and consequently will definitely not deliver a free and fair local government election. We, therefore, urge Anambra people not to be deceived by this last act of a varnishing governor who is desperately struggling to install stooges that will cover his ugly past.
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