Anambra State Wrote: On Friday saw the first local debate between the candidates of the various political parties vying for the Anambra governor’s office. The election is expected to hold on November 16th, and this first local debate organised by Silverbird Television was moderated by Uzonna Ononye who hosts Politicalscope on Silverbird television. Of the six candidates invited, four were present. They include APGA’s Willie Obiano, APC’s Chris Ngige, UPP’s Benedict Akanegbu and UDP’s Godson Okoye. The candidates of the Labour Party, Ifeanyi Uba and that of the PPA, Chief Goddie Ezeemo were however absent. It would be recalled that Obiano was widely reported to have been beaten by Ubah in a recent debate in the US. However the said Ubah whose campaign seems to be fizzling out reportedly due to shortage of funds, was absent this time around. Ubah has repeatedly shown an inexplicable penchant for positioning his campaign outside of Anambra state and failing to take advantage of opportunities to showcase himself before his people in the state. No PDP candidate was invited as the party is still unsure of who will fly the its flag with only three weeks to the election. Friday’s debate showed a more assured performance from the APGA candidate, Willie Obiano who first won hearts by arriving 15 minutes early. The APC candidate, Chris Ngige, however arrived 45 minutes later, by which time the debate had started already. His entrance was noisy and put off some of the audience members who made snide remarks. The senator apologised for his late coming but in the course of the debate, he tried to play smart by claiming that his lateness to the event was as a result of the bad condition of roads in the state. That attempt at being comical failed to elicit the applause he had hoped for because people felt offended by his lateness. Ngige’s experience showed in certain aspects of the debate though as he showed some understanding of the revenue generation profile of the state due to his past experience as governor. The APGA candidate was no pushover however, as his financial acumen showed when he reeled out several facts and statistics on the matter. Obiano gave one of the lines of the debate when he said: “I have years of experience in banking. I understand international finance. My running mate, Dr. Nkem Okonkwo has a PhD in monetary economics. When we take a trip to the United Nations and the donor agencies we know what to say to them to make them support development efforts in Anambra state. But this is not the same with my good friend, Chris Ngige. If he arrives the UN with his crowd singing his praises as usual, they will chase them out of the hall.” Obiano also had to respond to challenges about the widely reported secret agreement which he allegedly signed with the APGA national chairman, Victor Umeh, to hand over the treasury of Anambra to Umeh in exchange for electoral victory. Obiano once again denied the claims and said that after spending 30 years in the private sector, his signature could be verified in so many public documents and would show that the signature on the alleged document was not his.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 08:41:13 +0000
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