Special Report: Implications Of Ekiti Polls For Imo State In 2015

The outcome of the Ekiti governorship election that catapulted Ayo Fayose of the PDP to victory ahead of the incumbent Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has serious political implications as the 2015 polls comes nearer.

 One, it alters the political calculations of the opposition APC which had hoped that it will take advantage of its present size across the country to secure victory against the PDP at the States and the centre.

Irrespective of the claims and allegations by the APC that election was militarized as the ruling PDP  applied unconventional tactics  to ride back to power  in Ekiti,   the PDP's  victory  has certainly punctured the APC and more importantly ruptured the political ego of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who prides himself as the alter ego of the party.

Tinubu has been sulking over the outcome of the elections and was alleged to have frowned at the manner Fayose quickly conceded victory to his opponent.

From whatever dimension one may look at the Ekiti election, it sends strong signals that the PDP is desperate to cut to size the growing political tentacles of the APC in the country.  And they are ready to take advantage of its control of various instruments of authority  to actualize its mission. This however explains the misapplication of instruments of State Power by the ruling PDP to achieve success for its governorship candidate, Fayose in the State.

Aside the South West region, where the APC has been cut to size with the recent victory in Ekiti, there is increasing worry over the fate of the APC and Governor Rochas Okorocha in Imo State.

APC is the only State in the domain of the opposition party in the South East.

At the moment, the South East region has considerably displayed its support for the re election of President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP.   This is why the APC recorded poor membership in the State when it conducted its registration exercise.    And the party leaders did not help to alleviate this sorry situation when it conceded the party’s national chairmanship seat to the South South to the chagrin of everyone who expected the party to zone the office to the South East.

And going by reports that some APC stakeholders in the South East allegedly led by Governor Rochas Okorocah of Imo State actually scuttled the ambition of one of the leaders of the party in the South East, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu to be the APC national chairman, it adds feul to the fire to the raging inferno ravaging the APC in Imo State and the South East.

With disjointed structures and lack of political will to drive the APC in the State to actually take its place as the ruling  party in Imo State, the PDP in Imo  has successfully branded the APC a party that has no place for Igbos and therefore should not be seen as  a safe political abode.

This sentiment has spread like wild fire and seems to have been accepted by the non elites  and a large segment  of the political  class who go the polling units to vote and moderate the political heartbeat of the State respcetively.

With Okorocha’s popularity not the same presently, compared to his overwhelming  acceptance when he rode to power in 2011, it will be difficult for him to use his personality and the APC platform to convince Imolites  to vote for a party that seems to have showed political disdain for its people- a party that opposed an Igbo for the position of national chairmanship.  it is important to say that those who think the APC will conceed the presidential or vice presidential tickets to an Igbo man can be said to be suffering from political amnesia.

With the presidential vote coming first in the order of elections organized by INEC, it will be difficult for the South East to throw in their votes for the APC- a party that has not shown the people sufficient green-light and neglect President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP who have given some considerable economic and political empowerment to the South East in the present dispensation.

If the PDP exhibit the same desperation or fiery determination it used to re capture Ekiti State in Imo State, then one can say that the APC is in for political uncertainty in  Imo that still has strong political affinity not only with the PDP but the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA,  a party that is also so strong with firm political taproots in the State.

The APC concede or rather delude themselves that the PDP will implode after its governorship primaries. And this perhaps gives the APC leaders in Imo the false belief that it can take advantage of an event that has not occurred to coast back to victory. Sadly, they forget that any political party that has ethnic and tribal colourations cannot not make a  headway in Imo State.

The case of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, and the Congress For Progressive Change ( the three political parties that merged to give birth to the APC) never had any electoral value in the State. 

Despite the massive carpet crossing of political gladiators from the PDP to these political parties in the last dispensation, their ambitions crashed like a pack of cards and these political parties had poor outings as they were overran by a national party- the PDP and a pro- Igbo political platform- APGA at the 2011 polls.

One then  wonders how the APC will meander its way out of these collective political gang up, especially  now  that the party has shot itself on the foot as a party Igbos cannot have their way or say.