Date Published: 11/28/09

Anambra Governorship: Soludo, Anosike clash over campaign organization

With less than two weeks for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the final list of party candidates for the February 2010 governorship election in Anambra State, it has emerged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, and his running mate, Senator Emmanuel Anosike are locked in a bitter battle over control of their campaign organization.

Sources close to Pointblanknews.com disclosed that the curdling of the relationship got to a hilt last week when Anosike moved to pull out of the controversial ticket, but was dissuaded by certain PDP elders who reportedly cautioned that a walk out at “this critical stage” would dent his political career.

Soludo is believed to backing the dingy Third Republic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Agunwa Anakwe as director-general (DG) of the campaign organization, Anosike reportedly contends that organization would be better run through Hon. Okey Muo-Aroh, a dashing lawyer and former council chairman.

Pointblanknews.com gathered that Anosike had from the onset objected to Anakwe’s appointment as DG. He reportedly argued that, given the shortness of the period preceding the election, they would fare better under a younger and more dynamic DG with a better grasp of the current political realities of Anambra State.

Sources close to the campaign organization volunteered that so upset was Anosike with happenings in the campaign organisation that he unilaterally removed Anakwe penultimate week. Anosike also sacked Dom Obieke, a former Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly and former assistant to Soludo when he was CBN governor.

The deputy governorship candidate was said to have been misled by a blank cheque Soludo handed him just prior to their emergence as PDP candidates, to run the campaign organization “as he so desired.”

Said a PDP chieftain: “You know, with a string of stalemated congresses, Soludo found himself in a dilemma every man wooing a lady for the first time faces; you promise her paradise. Realizing other PDP aspirants would inevitably force him to kiss the dust, Soludo hurriedly entered into an alliance with Anosike for obvious reasons.

“Apart from being from the core Anambra North, an area that has been agitating to produce the next governor, Anosike is considered to have some experience in politics having served as a member of the House of Representatives and briefly as a senator.

“However, no sooner had PDP announced Soludo’s candidacy that it dawned on Anosike that pairing with the former CBN governor may soon become the costliest mistake of his political life given that he didn’t cognizance the very autocratic nature of Soludo. Now, it has dawned on Anosike and he is suffering in silence. My fear is that this ticket may ruin his political career, declared the party chieftain.

Apart from Anaekwe, Anosike was said to have been discomfited by Soludo’s very powerful cousin, Chike Ayaonu, the self-styled director of operations of the embattled campaign organization.

Ayaonu, the sources claim, was very instrumental to Anakwe’s appointment as DG, and was the later’s classmates at the Christ the King’s College (CKC), Onitsha. While Anakwe was Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Babangida diarchy, Obieke served as Speaker of the Anambra State Assembly before he was sacked by his colleagues.

Since Soludo’s controversial emergence, Ayaonu has reportedly left no one in doubt as to who is in charge when it comes to getting anything, when and how from the governorship candidate and his cousin. So influential is Ayaonu said to be over Soludo that he runs the campaign organization like a sole administrator.

Another axe the Anosike camp is said to have to grind with Ayaonu was in the handling of the recent kidnap saga of Soludo’s dad. The Anosike camp had reportedly opposed Ayaonu’s idea of giving the kidnap a political colouration. They had reportedly argued that a political colouration could boomerang if at the end complicity cannot be established against any of the “aggrieved” PDP aspirants whom Soludo’s cousin had maintained kidnapped their father.

Some PDP chieftains are reportedly miffed that Soludo elevated Anakwe and Ayaonu above Anosike, his running mate, by insisting that all funds for the campaign be channeled through his DG after approval might have been secured from his cousin, Ayaonu.

These chieftains believe Soludo may have made a grave error in handing the campaign organization over to persons they consider “political liabilities” with “zero political value.” This, they contended, was in addition to the many legal and intra-PDP battles ahead of the two politicians since their controversial selection as PDP governorship and deputy-governorship flag-bearers.

Argued a former federal legislator: “How many people in and outside Anambra State remember Agunwa Anakwe was a former Speaker of the House of Representatives? Look at the way he is running his hotel, which is located in the heart of Abuja. It is a glorified brothel. I think Anosike was right. A man who cannot manage a hotel sure should have no business trying to run a governorship campaign organization.”

In the estimation of another PDP chieftain, Soludo lost it when he surrendered his campaign organization to his cousin, whom the chieftain argued brought ignominy on PDP in the 2007 elections.

“What happened after Soludo elbowed his way to get Ayaonu the PDP ticket for the Aguata Federal Constituency of the House of Representatives in 2007, displacing the likes of Chukwuma Umeoji? Didn’t he suffer a grating defeat in the hands of Umeoji who defected to little known Labour Party?” demanded the PDP chieftain, adding, “and that is the only Labour Party seat in the 360-member House of Representatives.”

He also argued that the presence of Dom Obieke has not helped the Soludo campaign organisation.

“Dom Obieke has proven to be one of the most naïve politicians in Nigeria. As Speaker of the Anambra Assembly, he insisted on travelling to the United States with the then governor, Dr. Chuwuemeka Ezeife, as if he were his protocol officer. The fall out of the trip was that, while in America, Obieke’s colleagues in the legislature replaced him as Speaker,” narrated the party chieftain, demanding, “What can such a naïve politician have to offer?”

“Instead of them (Soludo et al) relying on Anosike who has some political experience and contacts to salvage their ebbing political profiles, they have chosen to back the wrong horse. It remains to be seen how PDP intends to use a divided ticket to battle an incumbent who has spent four years touring the nooks and crannies,” he added.

A governor in one of the southern states run by PDP told Pointblanknews.com that there were mounting fears in PDP circles that by anointing Soludo, his party may have made one of the gravest political miscalculations. He argued that a doctorate degree was not sufficient proof of Soludo’s competence, particularly in the light of recent uncomplimentary revelations on how he ran the Central bank.

“Yes, Soludo has a PhD. So have Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Chinwoke Mbadinuju. Ezeife’s doctorate was even from Harvard. But Ezeife and Mbadinuju are said to be the most unpopular former governors ever to come from Anambra State. Thankfully, in my state we don’t need a chain of doctorates to govern well,” he said.

The governor offered that the joke in PDP circles is “if Soludo is able to get just 20 percent of the votes in the February 2010 election, the entire governors elected on PDP platform shall issue a communiqué urging the INEC resident electoral commissioner in Anambra State to declare him governor.”