By C. Don Adinuba
1. With the nomination on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, of Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, an internationally recognized economist, reformer and erstwhile Central Bank governor, as the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) gubernatorial candidate in the November 6 election in Anambra State, the campaign for the governorship election has, for all practical purposes, started. The campaign is expected to be issues-based, free of rancor and violence, as in the last two gubernatorial elections in the state. The APGA gubernatorial nominee has always been widely regarded as the shoo-in.
2. The mass media have a huge part to play in the quest to make the November 6 vote exemplary. However, the reports by a section of the Nigerian media on the statutory measures towards the elections have been anything but assuring. A mainstream newspaper, for example, claimed three days ago that APGA would be disqualified from the forthcoming gubernatorial election because, as it claimed, it did not notify the Independent National Electoral Commission of the special ward congresses held on June 15, 2021, to choose ad hoc delegates to the June 23, State Congress, at least 21 days before the event. The newspaper based the speculative report on a letter purportedly written by an INEC officer claiming that it was not notified of the congresses. The INEC officer states nowhere in the letter anything concerning disqualification. Are some journalists now campaigning for INEC to be vested with the power to disqualify candidates and parties arbitrarily long after the courts have stopped such arbitrary actions?
