Ekwunife and 2019 poll

She stepped into the Anambra State political tarmac as a green horn oblivious of what the game of politics held for her.

Her first port of call was the Federal House of Representatives on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) representing Anaocha-Dunukofia Njikoka Federal Constituency in 2007.

In 2010, she left the PDP to contest for the gubernatorial position of Anambra State on the platform of the Peoples Progressives Alliance (PPA) in a bid to further taste her popularity beyond her immediate constituency.

Though she did not win, she apparently made a “statement” among the political class that she has the capacity wade through the crucibles of the mucky waters of Anambra politics.

Her failure to win the 2010 governorship election ironically did not affect her second term bid for the National Assembly as she was later re-elected for the same seat in 2011 on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

In 2015 she out of pressure from her colleagues in the PDP returned to the party to contest for the Anambra Central Senatorial District ticket of the party and ultimately dusted two formidable candidates, Senators Chris Ngige and Victor Umeh.

But her stay in the Senate was short lived following the judgment of the Appeal Court that the PDP Primary Elections that made her candidate was a nullity.

A repeat election was ordered by the Appeal Court and the ruling disqualified her from contesting under the platform of the PDP hence she joined the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The then incumbent senator from the APC Dr. Ngige announced that he is not part of the repeat election and the APC was compelled to conduct a fresh primary election which pitched her with Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor former National Women Leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

On the day of the primary election, she was far away in Abuja battling against her rumored disqualification from the race. While her opponent Ikeazor was at the Olive Montage Hotel venue for the primary election where she had already won in four local government areas out of the seven that made up the Senatorial Zone.

The primary election committee had to postpone the exercise to the following day promising to complete the rest of the three council areas, but on the following day the committee was not seen at the venue and the election ended in a stalemate.

Sir Victor Umeh the candidate of APGA ultimately emerged the winner of the repeat election, and was inaugurated as a Senator of the Federal Republic for Anambra Central District.

However, she remained in the APC and contested for the ticket of the party which she emerged as the candidate of the party. But bickerings and litigations trailed her victory in the party and apprehensive of her experience at the Appeal Court she sort a return to the PDP as candidate of that party.

Chief Charles Odunukwu the PDP candidate for Anambra Central District reportedly withdrew from the race and in line with the electoral act Senator Uche Lillian Ekwunife emerged candidate of the PDP as a substitute for the senatorial zone.

Since Ekwunife’s emergence her event centre along the Onitsha-Awka expressway has become a pilgrimage centre hosting politicians and stakeholders across political parties.

Ekwunife while speaking with this reporter painted a picture of optimism that she would return to the senate.

“My ambition in the Senate is selfless and the Anambra Central District needs to sing a new and better song. My short stay in the senate I must say was eventful.

“I was the Senate committee chairman on Down Stream Petroleum but the person that replaced me is the Deputy Senate committee’s Chairman on Labour and Employment. When you compare the two you should be in a position to judge which of the two committees is beneficial to Anambra Central and the entire Anambra and Igbo people in general.

“Look at the person that is representing Anambra Central in the senate and I know that I am not the only person that owns a television here, have you ever seen him say anything in the senate chamber”?

“Let nobody deceive you about political parties that belong to us. There is nothing like that APGA as a party; will he hold meetings with his party members in the senate”?

Some even feel that her actions show some form of desperation to be in power, but another school of thought contend that her acceptability across all political party she had joined is to her credit.

But Ekwunife has to face the huddles of the incumbency factor in Senator Victor Umeh, whose political party APGA is in charge of Anambra State. Umeh is no push over and his political antecedence depicts a candidate that has been on ground in the annals of Anambra Politics.

The expectations of political watchers are that Ekwunife’s APC ticket as it were would have favoured her since the party is in control at the national level.

They posit that had it been that Ekwunife is still in the APC it would have bettered her ambition, but the APC ticket in view of Umeh’s supporters would have been a minus for her and plus for Umeh.

With Ekwunife in the PDP and former Anambra Governor Mr. Peter Obi the running mate to Alhaji Atitu Abubakar’s Umeh already has a fundamental problem in the 2019 general election.

Pundits insist that Obi maybe using Ekwunife as a cannon folder to pay back Umeh who according to former commissioner for information Jeo Martins Uzodike frustrated Obi out of APGA.

Similarly Ekwunife herself has an axe to grind with Umeh who allegedly promised her the Senatorial ticket while the duo was in APGA only to take up the party’s ticket to get to the senate.

However supporters of Ekwunife described those allegations as mere propaganda against their candidate insisting that Ekwunife as a candidate would beat Umeh irrespective of the invendoes being canvassed by her political opponents.

Umeh’s headache, however, is the controversy that has trailed the conduct of APGA primary elections.

He had expected that had it been the likes of Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah got the ticket of APGA for the senatorial election, it would have favoured the futures of APGA and his ambition in next year’s 2019 election.

Ekwunife still has battles to fight in the zone following the emergence of Chief Sylvester Okonkwo as the candidate of APC in Anambra Central District.

Okonkwo had contested for the primaries of PDP in the last general election which Ekwunife won the ticket.

Okonkwo cannot be described as a stranger in this contest, but how he can galvanize the support of Idemili North and South against the already existing structure of Ekwunife in Anaocha, Dunukofia, Njikoka Awka North and Awka South Local Government Areas, is a different kittle of fish.

This is not to run away from the fact that Ekwunife still has support in Idemili political block which indeed played the decider in the last election.

The battle, however, in Anaocha Local Government Area between Ekwunife and Umeh would make little or no impact in the contest since the duo belong to the same council area.

For Ekwunife, it is yet another opportunity to prove to Nigerians that she actually won the last General Election for Anambra Central District under the nose of the incumbent Victor Umeh and the third contender Sylvester Okonkwo.