NewsSoludo, Uba, Others Battle For Anambra Governorship

Soludo, Uba, Others Battle For Anambra Governorship

aiteo

July 11, (THEWILL) – As of the time the Independent National Electoral Commission’s deadline for the conduct of governorship primaries expired, 13 of the 18 registered political parties had carried out the exercise in Anambra State. The major political parties, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA); the All Progressive Congress (APC); and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) all had a rough experience as they held parallel primaries which produced different candidates. However, the parties have announced their official candidates for the Governorship election scheduled for November.

APGA has Prof Chukwuma Soludo as its governorship candidate. Other parties that have announced their candidates to the electorate include the PDP, which has Chief Valentine Ozigbo as its candidate and the APC, which also announced Dr Andy Uba as its candidate.

Other candidates, as announced, are Obiora Emmanuel Agbasimalo – Labour Party (LP); Senator Ifeanyi Ubah – Young Progressive Party (YPP); Azubuike Echetebu,– APP; Nze Akachukwu Nwankpo – ADC; Prince Afam Ume-Ezeoke – ADP ; Chief Arinze Ekeleme – SDP; Chief Uche Ugwoji – ZLP; Alex Nwankwo – Accord Party; and Dr Nnamdi Nwanwuo– PRP.

Glo

Political analysts and watchers of the political development in the South-East believe the race to succeed the incumbent Governor Willy Obiano is going to be a three-horse race between the candidates of the APGA, which is the ruling party in the state and the candidates of the PDP and the APC.

This is as they also believe that Senator Ifeanyi Ubah who won the last senatorial election on the platform of Young Progressive Party, through support from the grassroots in the state, may spring a surprise in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State.

Also speaking with THEWILL, the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chief Ralph Nwosu said its party’s candidate, Nze Akachukwu Nwankpo, will emerge victorious in the forthcoming election.

Nwosu said, “The ADC has produced the best candidate for the election in the person of Nwankpo. He is a seasoned technocrat and has also been involved recently in the state politics at different levels. He happens to be the most qualified and the candidate of the ADC, so he put the ADC as the party to beat.”

The main contenders

Charles Chukwuma Soludo

Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the candidate of APGA has the advantage of riding on the platform of the ruling party in the state. Born on July 28, 1960, he is a professor of economics and a former governor and chairman of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN).

Soludo has been a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund, the University of Cambridge, the Brookings Institution, the University of Warwick, and the University of Oxford, as well as a Visiting Professor at Swarthmore College (USA). He has also worked as a consultant for a number of international organisations, including the World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Development Programme.

A core professional in the business of macroeconomics, Soludo obtained his three degrees and then professorship at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Enugu State, having graduated with a First Class Honours degree in 1984, an MSc Economics in 1987 and a PhD in 1989, winning prizes for the best student at all three levels.

Soludo has been trained and involved in research, teaching and auditing in such disciplines as multi-country macro-econometric modelling, techniques of computable general equilibrium modelling, survey methodology and panel data econometrics, among others.

In 1998, he was appointed to the position of professor of economics at the University of Nigeria; the next year he became a visiting professor at Swarthmore in Swarthmore Pennsylvania, USA. He held the positions of Chief Economic Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo

On September 16, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Soludo as a member of newly formed eight-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC) which would report directly to the President.

Soludo is not new to the governorship race. In September 2009, he announced his desire to run for the seat of governor of Anambra State and participated in the February 9, 2010 election. He went on to lose to Peter Obi in an election that was largely considered to be free and fair by major election observers. On July 17, 2013, he resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party after writing a letter to the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur. He later joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance in preparation for the November 2013 governorship race in Anambra State.

In February 2021, Soludo officially declared his intention to run for the position of governor in Anambra State under the banner of APGA. He won the party’s primaries and is now the official candidate of the party.

On March 31, 2021, unidentified gunmen disrupted an interactive session between the youths of Isuofia and Soludo at the town’s civic centre, leading to the death of three police officers.

With the support of Governor Willy Obiano and the fact that he is vying for the governorship seat on the platform of the ruling and most dominant party in the state, Soludo is seen as the candidate to beat in the forthcoming governorship election.

Andy Uba – APC

Born on December 14, 1958, Senator Andy Ubah is the candidate of the All Progressive Congress and the ruling party at the centre. He was the elected representative of Anambra South Senatorial District at the Senate in 2011. He ran on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party. He defected to the APC in February 2017, following the leadership crises that almost engulfed the the PDP.

Earlier, while still in the United States, Uba assisted in the 1999 presidential election in Nigeria and following the election, he returned to Nigeria and was appointed Special Assistant on Special Duties and Domestic Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo. In a September 2003 visit by Obasanjo to the United States, Uba was described as the President’s right-hand man and also the gatekeeper for people who wished to speak with the President.

Andy Uba

In 2007, he contested in the PDP primaries for the Anambra State governorship election and was elected in the April 14, 2007. However, the former governor, Peter Obi, challenged the election, saying that because the courts had only accepted that he had won the April 2003 elections on March 15, 2006, he still had three more years of his four-year term to serve.

The courts accepted this argument and on June 14, 2007, nullified Andy Uba’s election. In November 2009 it was reported that Uba was planning to run for the delayed Anambra State governorship elections in February 2010 on the Labour Party platform, after the party invited him to make the move. The party’s leadership said they believed he would deliver on the ideals and objectives of the party.

Speaking about his decision to switch political parties in December 2009, he described the Labour Party as his “natural political home.”

In the February 2010 election, Uba was second runner-up. He returned to the PDP and was nominated as PDP candidate for Anambra South Senatorial district in the April 2011 election. He won with 63,316 votes, ahead of Chukwumaeze Nzeribe of the APGA who got 43,798 votes and the incumbent Senator Ikechukwu Obiorah of the Accord party’s 24,724 votes.

Valentine Ozigbo – PDP

Valentine Ozigbo, the candidate of the PDP was born on July 20, 1970. A top business executive, Ozigbo is the immediate past President and Chief Executive Officer of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria plc (Transcorp), a diversified conglomerate with strategic investments and core interests in the hospitality, agribusiness and energy sectors. He was appointed to the position in 2019.

Valentine Ozigbo
Valentine Ozigbo

Previously, Ozigbo worked as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria- based Hospitality Company, Transcorp Hotels Plc. Transcorp Hotels is the hospitality subsidiary of Nigerian conglomerate Transcorp. He also worked in the banking sector, gaining over 17 years of experience with NAL Merchant Bank, Diamond Bank, Continental Trust Bank, FSB International Bank, Standard Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Bank PHB.

Ifeanyi Ubah – YPP

Ifeanyi Ubah, the governorship candidate of the Young Progressive Party, YPP was born as the first son of seven children to Mr and Mrs Alphonsus Ubah in Otolo, a small town in Anambra State. Coming from a humble background and due to the inability of his parents to cater for the educational and material needs of their children, Ifeanyi dropped out of Premier Academy, Lugbe in Abuja to learn a trade at a young age. He later attended some local and international business workshops and seminars in leadership and business management.

He became an exporter of car tyres and other spare parts in West Africa before expanding his business ventures to some European countries, including Belgium and the United Kingdom.

In 2001, he founded Capital Oil and Gas Limited. He is the founder of The Authority Newspaper, a Nigerian daily newspaper and also the owner of Ifeanyi Ubah Football club, following its purchase as Gabros International Football Club.

In 2014, Ifeanyi Ubah lost at the 2014 Anambra gubernatorial election under the platform of the Labour Party. On February 24, 2019, he was declared winner of the Anambra South Senatorial election under the platform of the Young Progressive Party (YPP).

He also runs a foundation that is named after him, Ifeanyi Ubah Foundation.

About the Author

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AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.

Ayo Esan, THEWILLhttps://thewillnews.com
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.

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