ANAMBRA PEOPLE HONORS OJUKWU, RETURNS GOVERNOR PETER OBI!

In the battle for Anambra State governorship, Governor Peter Obi of the APGA has won! Riding the co-tail of Ikemba Nnewi Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a former warlord who is still revered by the Igbo for his role during Biafran war, Governor Peter Obi broke the jinx of a time long begun, which have prevented any incumbent governor from returning to office in Anambra State. All People Grand Alliance Party gubernatorial candidate and incumbent governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi has been declared the winner of the governorship elections in Anambra state. According to available result, Governor Peter Obi won by a total of 97843 votes, followed by the Action Congress's candidate, Chris Ngige with 60240 votes while PDP party flag bearer, Chukwuma Soludo came third with 59365 votes. Governor Obi has officially been declared winner of the election by the state's resident electoral commissioner. What a poor turn-out with less than 20% of the population and speaking of a mandate?

Icheoku says, congratulations to Peter Obi and his APGA for the feat of a second term in office in Anambra State. We pray that Peter Obi will repay the people of Anambra State with good measured dividends of democracy; remembering that it is their goodwill for Ojukwu that he immensely benefited from in getting re-elected and really go to work for them, this time around. Now that the campaign is over and he has won the election, he must settle down immediately and prove to the people of Anambra State that he deserved and earned their trust; that he will work for them with greater fervor such that his work will begin to speak for themselves and without the people asking, what has Peter Obi done for Anambra State lately? That his re-election was not exclusively just because of Ojukwu's influence, but because he earned the right to be their governor through his good-works with promise to do more. Also he must endeavor to be his own man and not be seen as an appendage of Ojukwu or his puppet; and that he can stand up for himself and for the people of Anambra State!

Admitted that Peter Obi may not be the most qualified or the best out of the 25 candidates who threw their hats in the ring for the contest, but his election is better than allowing the brigands in the PDP to once again hijack another state in Nigeria. A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is bereft of any internal democracy and which forcibly foist Professor Chukwuma Soludo on the party in Anambra State, despite his lack of any grass-root support therein and not being a foundation member of the party in the state. The party hierarchy in Abuja led by Tony Anenih and Alex Ekwueme discarded the niceties of democracy, which would have allowed the 58 PDP candidates to vie for who would fly their flag in Anambra State governorship election and despite several courts' pronouncements rejecting their anti-democracy activities, still managed to sneak in Soludo as the governorship candidate? However, Anambra people knew better, being wiser than the honchos of PDP in Abuja; and today, the rest like they say, is now history. As a result, Professor Chukwuma Soludo has been perpetually and permanently damaged politically, being an accomplice to the perversion of democracy with his imposition as a candidate and the attempt to extend the infra-dig, with him as the governor?

Icheoku commends the people of Anambra State for making a bold and loud statement to the PDP that their planned 60 years in office is but a wishful thinking of a drunken sailor, and that Nigeria will collectively reject them come 2011. Further what went down in Anambra State is a testament that the days of rigging by the party in Abuja is over and/or that the people who owns the land will out-rig them? Also that the people are now ready, willing, able and prepared to defend their mandate and not a gazillion PDP thugs will be able to pervert the will of the electorate anymore.

Once again, congratulations Peter Obi; while we wait to see if the recent ruling of a court in Lagos State, disqualifying INEC from conducting any election in Nigeria, will have any adverse effect on his election or be invoked by a court petitioned by an aggrieved to nullify it? Until the other aspirants concede the election and congratulate Obi, it remains a waiting game; especially for Soludo and his henchmen who had earlier sworn to win Anambra State by all means possible and coronate him the governor; notwithstanding that he neither stood nor won any party's primaries or has any serious grass-root mobilization/structure or campaign strategy; and despite the true outcome of the election! For them in PDP, election or functional democracy is just a ruse to remain in power for 60 years; and they do not care if it is given its rightful place in the Nigerian society. But the good news however, is that the Igbos of Anambra State were vigilant as they waited for this perversion to take place and would have vented their pent-up anger against those detractors who do not mean well for Nigeria. Way to go Anambraians! Also, please see this as a victory over Soludo and his power-drunk PDP!