Governor Willie Obiano’s Staying Power

 By Chuks Iloegbunam

 The electioneering campaigns in Anambra State are grounding to a halt, making way for the governorship ballot of November 18, 2017. It is necessary to review the road since travelled, and project on expected outcomes. For those with an ear to the ground, the campaigns unofficially started when, a year after he got into office, Governor Obiano made it clear that he was not interested in being anyone’s stooge.

*Gov Obiano

Now everything is coming to a dazzling conclusion. The campaign convoys are backing out of streets and squares and veering into parking lots. Loudhailers are coming unstuck from sundry lips, stopping the torrents of flowery promises. Those that have screamed their vocal cords sore can now race to “chemist” shops for lozenges. Branded T-shirts and ankara wrappers will thenceforth constitute little other than fashion statements and bed sheets.

Anambra Governorship Election: I Will Vote Willie Obiano

By Chuks Iloegbunam

Someone brought to the office a video clip of Tony Nwoye “campaigning”. Since the man is the APC candidate in the November 18 Anambra governorship election, the urge to view his message was overpowering, especially as he had been rather taciturn since the contentious primary election that threw him up as his party’s candidate.

*Gov Willie Obiano

What was his governorship ambition all about? Decked out in a dark suit, a cordless microphone appeared glued to his lips. “Willie Obiano is a thief,” shouted Tony Nwoye. “His wife also is a thief.” He mouthed this abuse for the second and third times. Like a repeater station, the voice of an unseen fellow echoed his foul words. A few of his listeners clapped. In a minute the clip ended. What an anticlimax, I thought.

Tony Nwoye’s sacrilegious tongue apart, there was the more serious tenor of malicious prejudice in this unsubstantiated accusation. Was his fulmination the sum total of the APC’s manifesto? One assumed that, in soliciting for political endorsement, effort must be made to portray the candidate as deserving of support. Did the outpouring of invectives ever solve any society’s problems?