Just two weeks into the Enugu State’s Local Government elections, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued at a disturbing pace – especially in Aninri. The voices of the opposition were completely drown, attention to their activities effectively drained, too.
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It’s probably the first most coordinated campaign in Aninri politics – considering the sizes of crowd in the rallies, the make-up of the blocs in the clans, the issues of the rhetorics on the trail.
Behind the wonder is Prince Ugochukwu Nwanjoku, the chairman of Aninri local government area. Tapped by Governor Peter Mbah to be chairman in 2024, he was again ‘anointed’ for re-election months ago.
Yesterday’s rallies at Okpanku and Mpu, once again, highlighted not just the ingenuity of this young mayor, but also the low energy that has obviously failed to power whatever life that’s still left in the mushroom political parties in Aninri to mount meaningful opposition.
When he had the floor to speak in Okpanku, Nwanjoku didn’t just start with promises. Instead, he called attention to some of the legacy projects he has initiated in the border town over the course of two years.
Okpanku, which had faced decades-old, existential threats from the invading Isiagu local hunters, has known peace under Nwanjoku’s watch. He has graded local roads across major villages with the town, and has in his payroll numerous Okpanku natives.
“It is the simplest political campaign I’ve ever seen,” Comr Basil Ojenwa, the youths leader of Enugu State APC, added that “you don’t have to talk too much in order to convince the people that he (Prince Ugochukwu Nwanjoku) would deliver in the second term.”
Although the campaign identified the socioeconomic commonalities of Okpanku and Mpu, it, however reached out to the two border towns on their respective uniqueness in the areas of cultural cohesion, security and strategic importance.
A veteran Aninri politician, Hon El Ajah told his Okpanku kinsmen that Nwanjoku was a leader to emulate, while Mrs Sandra George, the campaign’s director on strategy and planning, assured of bloc votes.
What opposition are doing ahead of September 26th polls
In the true sense of it, there is no opposition parties in Aninri. InfoWars reported that the chairman of the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC) and the acting state secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has publicly endorsed APC candidates ahead of the coming elections. According to reliable sources, other gutless opposition leaders, including flag-bearers for the 2027 elections, have surreptitiously sneaked into Aninri APC camps in the night – like the biblical Nicodemus – to support the ruling party.
“They’re with us – all of them,” one source told InfoWars, referring to the so-called opposition forces.
But then, that’s the tradition. Apart from Chief Tony Nwonye no one else has ever won Aninri chairmanship from opposition party. At every election cycle, what smart individuals did was to group gullible voters under the umbrella of alternative parties. While they talk tough in the open, they utilised the public resentments to negotiate at backdoors with the ruling party, and then forsook their followers in the last minute. It’s a pattern; a die-minute betrayal. A strategy for the wise.
Prince Ugochukwu Nwanjoku is leading the most formidable campaign the like of which is only to be compared to those led by former Senator Ike Ekweremadu. The opposition has no chance in the coming council polls. In fact, one of the political parties has already announced it would be boycotting the elections, citing reasons that only highlighted the party’s idiocy in the business where dirtiest competition alone – not talks – defines the deals.
Seasoned analysts have seen the September polls as a mere “walkover for APC.” It’s also expected that Aninri APC would carry the potential victory to 2027 general elections.
Prince Nwanjoku has repeatedly vowed “with my blood to re-elect His Excellency Governor Peter Ndubisi Mbah”. More than any other political office holders from Aninri, he has far expanded the reach of secular politics, indoctrinating the rustics into the party ideals, and incorporating apolitical business moguls abroad.
As the chairman strides across the zone – backed with heavily financed APC structures and with his own commendable footprints – opposition candidates are still snoring in their quite camps, holding no campaigns and showing no presence at all.
A good number of members of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Accord Party, and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were sited at the APC rallies at Okpanku and Mpu yesterday. No one can explain the meaning of the support, but it appears members of the opposition are in a direct competition with their leaders on whom should betray the other first.