Anambra: PDP, Shema panel and the Supreme Court verdict

By AHMED SHINKAFI

All is now set for the gubernatorial election holding in   Anambra State on Saturday, November 16.  Senator Chris Ngige is   contesting the election on the platform of the APC, Chief   Willy    Obiano is the APGA candidate while Mr Ifeanyi Uba is  flying   the LP’s flag. Until last week, the candidate of the PDP   in the poll was not known. The candidature of the party  had   been enmeshed in a legal tussle after Nicholas Ukachukwu,  a  former gubernatorial aspirant, went to court to pray to be  declared the PDP candidate as against Comrade Tony Nwoye  who  emerged from the party’s primaries. The Federal High Court,  Port Harcourt Division actually declared Ukachukwu as the  candidate of the party, but the Court of Appeal set aside   that decision.

The  Supreme Court on Monday removed the maze on the PDP   candidature in the Anambra poll when it upheld the verdict   of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, which   declared Nwoye as the valid flag bearer of the party.

The apex court held that premise  one of the appeal formulated by the appellant which is   “absence of fair hearing” on issues arising from the   primaries, was irrelevant as it was clear from the papers   filed before the court that the appellant was given a fair hearing at the lower court”.

On the issue of jurisdiction, the court   held that the High Court has jurisdiction to entertain the   matter contrary to the decision of the Court of Appeal  that   held that the lower court did not have the jurisdiction  to   entertain the matter brought by Ukachukwu in the first   place.

A panel of five justices of the apex court presided over by Justice Mohammed Mahmud also held that the   decision of the Court of Appeal, which declared Nwoye as the  candidate of the PDP, has not been challenged, hence he  (Nwoye) remains the candidate of the party.

Counsel to Nwoye,  Garbu Pwul, had told the Supreme   Court that the appellant filed his suit at the High Court   after the primary election had been conducted.

He added that   Nwoye’s name  had been   submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission   (INEC) before the suit was instituted.

Pwul further argued that Section 87(4) of   the Electoral Act makes it clearer that the person with  the   highest number of votes at the primaries shall be declared   the winner and in the instant case, Nwoye had been  declared  the winner and his name has been submitted to the INEC.

Counsel to INEC, Ibrahim Bawa, submitted   that the electoral body did not take any position and that   it will abide by the court’s decision. The verdict has   laid to rest any doubt as to who is the PDP candidate in  the   November 16 poll and it is a vindication of the

transparency   of the panel that oversaw the primaries from which Nwoye  emerged as the candidate.  That panel was led by   Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema of Katsina State.  Nwoye   automatically joins Ngige, Obiano and Ifeanyi Ubah to slug   it out at the polls next Saturday.  Ahead of the PDP   primaries, the question of who picks the PDP ticket for  the   election had split the party into two camps.

There was the PDP national leadership-backed Prince Ken   Emeakayi executive and  the faction led by Chief  Ejike   Oguebego. The Oguebego faction was said to have had strong   backing from a party leader, Chief Chris Uba.

This was   apparently to ease the candidature of Ubah’s brother,   Andy, a serving senator and a former governor whose tenure   was truncated after only 17 days in office, who was  also alleged   to be averse to the PDP conducting primaries to determine   who picked the party’s ticket. Some people said  “left   to the Uba brothers, Andy should have simply been anointed  as the PDP candidate for the Anambra election to  compensate   him for his loss of the office of governor in 2007.”

Analysts   went further to say that doing so, apart from it being  undemocratic, had the tendency to cause implosion of  the   party as other aspirants would have kicked against it.

It   was against this backdrop, according to the analysts, that   the PDP national leadership needed    a tactician, somebody well- grounded in party matters, an  objective and impartial arbiter  to lead the team to  conduct   the Anambra primaries. The lot fell on Shema .

The party   trusted him to deliver rancour- free primary and come up   with an acceptable candidate. He did not disappoint. A   source close to the Wadaza Plaza national secretariat of the  PDP   said the party knew how delicate the Anambra situation was   given the factional crisis on ground and needed a party   leader with the capacity to carry all the aspirants along.

“Governor Shema fitted into the kind of party leader the PDP required to conduct the Anambra primaries because he  had   so many things going for him. Yes, he is one of the   governors who have conducted the affairs of their states   very well in the last six years.

This is a thing of pride  to  the PDP leadership that we have a governor that is doing  well on the home-front. But don’t also forget that before  Alhaji Shema took the mantle of    leadership in Katsina, he operated at the highest  level of   the party as a Deputy National Chairman in charge of  North-west”, the source  said adding

“When Governor Shema was the PDP Deputy National  Chairman,  it is on record that he discharged the responsibility of   that office with diligence and loyalty. It makes sense   therefore that if there was any assignment like the  Anambra   primaries which the party found delicate and needed tact to  deliver, the party leadership will not hesitate to use  him.

“Even before the Supreme Court verdict which upheld Nwoye  as the PDP Anambra gubernatorial election candidate, the party leadership in   Abuja was happy with the conduct of the PDP primaries in one   of the most volatile states.”

Indeed, the PDP national leadership had cause to be  satisfied about the Anambra primaries. Safe for the little distraction caused by Oguebego, the factional leader, who   organized parallel primaries, the Anambra PDP primary  under Shema’s watchful eyes, went absolutely well. Most of   the party’s 22 gubernatorial aspirants were fully involved  in the Shema-organized primary to underscore their faith   in the exercise and the person in charge to do a thorough   job.  A source at the Abuja secretariat of the party   said the quality of job done by the governor on the Anambra  primary recommends him for more responsibilities as we   progress to the 2015 general elections.

He noted that  Shema   is due to finish his second term by 2015 but pointed out  that his conduct as a governor committed to the welfare of   his people and his absolute loyalty to the PDP are factors   to pave the way for him for bigger roles in the polity after   2015.

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