THE FACTORS: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO NGIGE, WHY EVERYTIME??

Dr. Chris Ngige proved to be the cat with many lives when as governor of the state between 2003 and 2006 he fought within the PDP against the establishment as dictated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
As governor, Ngige was humiliated and...
hounded out of the PDP, but
there was no other party that took him in and he remained like a
political orphan until he was finally removed from office by the
courts in March 2006.
Though Ngige came into the contest with the perception of a strong
presence on the ground, he was, however, to be underemined by serious
factors, some of his making and some external to him.
The Platform
It is claimed that if Ngige had used any other platform apart from
APC, he would have put in a more challenging battle in the election.
APC in the opinion of some Ibos is a Yoruba cum Hausa party with a
culture that is alien to Ndigbo.
Dr Chris Ngige
It was thus no surprise that in the run up to the election that some
APGA partisans went on internet blogs to paint the APC as a Muslim
party with many giving a breakdown of senior officials of the party
all being Muslims.
Many Igbo irredentists were also quick to recall that the late Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe after winning election in the Southwest in colonial
Nigeria was denied opportunity of service and wondered why a "Yoruba"
party should be so honoured on Azikiwe's birthday which incidentally
was November 16.
Personality
The APC candidate was despite his fame as a grassroots man is known to
have fallen out with many opinion leaders in the state. The candidate
is described by some to be cantankerous especially to the elites many
of whom ganged up against him.
His Friends
The friends that came to help Ngige may not have in the end not have
helped him. Prominent among them are Governor Rauf Aregbesola of
OsunState and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
Governor Aregbesola has recently won to himself the label of a Muslim
fundamentalist through his ongoing policy of school reclassification
upon which has inflamed the Christian community in that state.
Mallam El-Rufai, the former minister of the FederalCapitalTerritory
who is now a chieftain of the APC was in AnambraState to lend support
to the APC candidate. But his presence would only have inflamed the
emotion of many Igbos when it is recalled that Ndigbo were the worst
losers from El-Rufai's demolition policy as Minister of FCT.
Anambra Geopolitical Balance
The outgoing governor, Mr. Peter Obi is from Anambra Central
senatorial zone, the same zone where Senator Ngige comes from. When
Obi came to power in 2006, Anambra Central through Ngige had spent
three years in office as governor. Hence it was considered in some
quarters in Anambra that with a combined span of 11 years, that it
would be illogical to allow Anambra Central to again retain the
governorship and hence the momentum for Anambra North where the
winner, Obiano comes from.
What Anambra 2013 means for PDP, others in 2015
The quick endorsement of the outcome of a victory for the All
Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA by senior officials of the PDP even
before the election result was declared underpinned one fact: The PDP
as a party is willing to concede the victory when the small pies are
in contention.
By conceding victory to APGA, the PDP it is argued, would be preparing
itself to defray suggestions of rigging in 2015 when the party seeks
to retain its flag in the presidential villa.
Before Anambra, the PDP had proved itself as a party willing to
concede victory to opposition elements in states including Ondo where
it came second to Labour Party, and before then in Edo State where the
then Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN prevailed.
"If the PDP through the instrumentality of the same process has
conceded victory to opposition parties, why should anyone doubt when
the same process throws up the PDP as the winner of the 2015
presidential election," one political commentator observed yesterday.
The seeming determination of the PDP to acknowledge the APGA victory
was also a reflection of the PDP to deflate whatever plans the
opposition APC had made to use the Anambra election as its entry point
into the Southeast in the prelude to the 2015 presidential election.
The APC had envisaged that the Anambra polls would be a stepping step
for the party to enter into the Southeast, a region where the party's
presence is relatively seen as not too widespread.

*Vanguard