Anambra’s gain… avoiding god-fathers politics

INTERESTINGLY, the 2023 presidential and National Assembly election held on the 25th of February, and the upcoming governorship and House of Assembly elections billed for 11th of March, appear to have thrown up curious and exhilarating developments in many states of the federation.

This, no doubt, could be as a result of heightened political awareness of the electorate to put less emphasis on political parties but focus on the outstanding qualities and patriotic fervor of the aspiring candidates.

One would asseverate that this development will augur well ostensibly to meet the deep yearnings and aspirations of the people who might have felt shortchanged in the past by the party in control of the state and the quality of the elected candidates.

  In many states, the scenario had been variously described as politics of “prebendalism” and politics of “god-fatherism” whereby a privileged well connected coterie and political big wigs with formidable war chest dictate the tunes and control the minds of the largely unenlightened followers.

In Anambra State, such exasperating and scandalous scenario had spread or reared its monstrous fangs with disastrous consequences. In other words, the resultant effects of god-fatherism in the state led to wanton wastage of quantum revenue resources that would have been deployed to quicken the tempo of socio-economic growth and development of the state.

  Getting down to brass tacks; it is disheartening that some misguided elements who had expected a replica of the gratuitous benevolence of the immediate past governor in showering political appointments (stomach infrastructure) perceived that standard bearer has spurned the critical stakeholders while reaching out to people who never identified with the struggles to retain power in the state.

  One can say without equivocation that this mindset is largely misplaced and patently out of sync with the stark reality on ground geared towards fortifying the All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA) to meet the deep yearnings and aspirations of the populace, especially the largely deprived people in the hinterlands.

It is perplexing to observe that these coterie have initiated anti- APGA grassroots policies, programmes and projects and carries vile and vicious propaganda that led to the loss of senatorial and House of Representatives seats by APGA.

In the trajectory of bad faith, they allegedly go house to house canvassing against APGA House of Assembly aspirants and prodding the electorate to vote for a particular political party whose leader has been tagged a god-father.

  The intriguing aspect of this gambling is that these misguided elements have apparently forgotten the monumental havoc which the concept of god-fatherism had inflicted on the developmental template of the state.

It is however, pertinent to advise these political desperados to retrace their steps and cast their minds back to what Anambra State had gained when the monster of god-fatherism was defanged and laid to rest.

It took the courage and resilience of some governors to get the acts of the state together which have placed the state on an enviable status among the states in the federation. We cannot go back to Egypt, as the saying goes!

  There is no gainsaying the fact that Governor Chukwuma Soludo has done Anambra State and its people proud in terms of prudent management of the resources within one year in office. It is apposite to remark that the synergy between the executive arm of government and the legislative arm has been a spur in laying down such monumental developmental template.

  Within the space of one year, Soludo’s administration has significantly impacted lives in the urban and rural communities with road rehabilitation in all the 21 local government areas.

There is no gainsaying the fact that good roads quicken socioeconomic activities as farmers are encouraged to put more efforts, even as able bodied men will engage in farming and agro allied ventures since there will be ready market through good roads to the sale points.

This master strategy in road rehabilitation will create wealth and drastically reduce unemployment and under employment.  

  It is on this score that ndi Anambra should jettison negative advice from anybody not to vote APGA aspirants in the House of Assembly so that the earlier synergy between the executive and legislature will not be ruptured.