As the build-up to the November 8 gubernatorial election in Anambra State hots up, OKEY MADUFORO reports on agenda of the candidate of Action Alliance (AA), Jeff Nweke, which is redefining politics in the state

Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999 was heralded by a bunch of politicians that chose to win by any means possible irrespective of the fact that their victories were against the will of the people.

The electoral process was characterized by the dastardly acts of snatching of ballot boxes and violence before and during elections, which produced office holders without the mandate of the electorate.

Then in Anambra State, were the days of long knives as top politicians muscled their way to power. From the elections that produced late Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju to subsequent ones, political parties and their candidates saw politics from the perspective of name calling and name dropping.

At some point, a former deputy governor of the state, Chief Chinedu Emeka, was profiled as an Igala man from Kogi State, while the then governor was addressed as an Imo man given that his community – Uli – borders the state. There were also issues that had to do with some candidates being addressed as Voodoo worshippers and belonging to several occultic groups. A certain governor was accused of laundering money for a one-time military administrator of a state in the South-South, while he was on national youth service.

A particular politician was even accused of killing a certain girlfriend who he allegedly impregnated, while trying to abort the pregnancy. Similarly, a gubernatorial candidate was accused of claiming to be medical doctor, when he was actually a fraudster while he was abroad. Another was alleged to have used the act of seduction to rip off Anambra State under a sitting governor of the state, who they claimed, had a spell cast on him by his kinsmen.

The lists and episodes could go on and on hence portraying Anambra politics as a turbulent sea full of sharks. Issues that had to do with an alleged refund of billions spent by godfathers to enthrone a governor had in the past taken the centre stage during the governor’s second term bid.

Some even led to the unleashing of mayhem across the state thereby making it ungovernable and the backlashes from those incidents have remained an indelible scare on Anambra’s political history. It got to a height when a sitting governor was literally abducted by his perceived godfather and his security details withdrawn from him.

However, the current political dispensation has thrown up new kids on the bloc as the serial contenders are fast leaving the stage. Top on the list is the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA), Jeff Nweke, a security consultant, who is fast defining a new vista of politicking.

Nweke, who is making his debut in politics has so far been adjudged as one checkmating his fellow contestants. While the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) have been on war path with the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nweke’s AA have been far from the riotous crowd.

“I am in this race for our people to be liberated from its present circumstances and that is indeed my point of departure,” he noted Nweke’s advice for those he termed recycled politicians, who have constantly been on the ballot since the creation of Anambra State, is that the act of character assassination should be discountenanced.

His words: “The essence of political campaigns shouldn’t be to malign or engage in character assassination or unnecessary altercations with political opponents; but to showcase our developmental plans for the people.

“Campaigns should be issue based. What are your plans for the security of lives and property? How do you intend to stop kidnappings and killings that have become common place in our state? How do you intend to tackle the debilitating multiple taxation choking our people to death and stagnating businesses?

What are your plans for the education sector, welfare of the people and the state’s economy? “How do you attract investors to come and build industries, employ our youth and improve our revenue base without necessarily taking people to the cleaners in the name of politics?

These are the issues that ought to dominate our discourse and not name callings.” Nweke further said anything contrary to these amounts to politics of bitterness and undue recourse to the gallery, which is not what the people of the state need at this moment in time.

The AA candidate equally condemned as despicable some recent attacks and use of uncouth language by some people who reacted to a trending video of Governor Charles Soludo dancing with his son to a music produced by the later, saying such attacks were unnecessary.

He said that Soludo is a family man with children and has done nothing wrong to dance with his son. According to him, the governor is human and deserves to express himself like every other human on what he likes. “It is both condemnable and detestable for anyone to ridicule the first family of the state because of that.

My idea is that we should all desist from this dirty politics of bitterness and calumny just to gain undue political advantage and focus on issues. “On our side, we have mapped out very robust programmes on how to rescue Anambra from misrule and put the state on the path of development and progress which keep unfolding as we meet people in our campaigns.

“I believe there could be different approaches towards the way things are done but Governor Soludo is trying his best in terms of general development. Though, he is not devoid of mistakes as such default is naturally embedded in our everyday life. “We hold him high and where such mistake is noticed, should be handled with correction in order to move the state further in positivism,” Nweke stressed