By Chuks Ehirim
As the November 16 date for the Governorship election in Anambra draws nearer, the Peoples Democratic Party[PDP] appears to have found itself in a state of confusion over how to organize a credible primaries that will produce a governorship candidate who will be acceptable to all, or at least, majority of the party members in the state.
This state of confusion is as a result of the number of factions of the party in the state, with each claiming to be the authentic and wanting to hijack the process of selecting candidates for any election
The existence of these factions which are more than five in number, has been hampering the progress of the party since the days of former governor Chinwoke Mbadinauju. According to sources within the party, Anambra PDP is divided along lines of loyalty to more than five major godfathers, including but not limited to Chief Chris Uba,Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu,Professor Chukwuma Soludo,Prince Arthur Eze and Dr Andy Uba, among others.
Major stakeholders of the party within the state, this reporter gathered, are of the opinion that the national leadership of the party should not leave the current exercise of choosing the party’s governorship candidate for the November 16 election in the hands of the cronies of any of these factional leaders.
Investigations revealed that the party’s leadership at the National level is tinkering with the idea of getting members of its Board of Trustees[BOT] who hail from Anambra State, to act as the clearing house for the forth coming congress that will choose that PDP Governorship flag bearer for the election.
So far, four members of the current BOT of the party, are from the state. They include former Vice-President ,Dr Alex Ekwueme, Senator Onyeabor Obi, Mrs Josephine Aneni and Chief Maxiwell Brown Okudo. Incidentally, all the four are founding members of the party who are said to be well grounded in the affairs of the PDP in the state.
Those pushing this idea argue that it is about the only panacea left for PDP to regain control of Anambra State as resort to the old ways of doing things , will still leave the party in the hands of the godfathers who will engage in another round of bickering till the election is over.
They also fear that ,with Governor Peter Obi almost out of the way and his All Progressives Grand Alliance[APGA],remaining weaker than ever before, the state may be captured by the emerging All Peoples Congress[APC], which is growing from strength to strength in the state, if the PDP does not put its house in order.
Insider hope that the issues generating this confusion will be discussed at the July 15 National Executive Committee meeting of the party in Abuja.
