When it comes to politics, grassroots campaigning gives the most impactful results, but depending on who is delivering the message, how and where.
You need to be the voter’s ‘friend’, or preferred candidate to win. Today, there are characterises to measure the contestants, before people can ‘lend’ you their collective rights to represent them. Actually, before now, credibility of the candidate and the message they’re delivering never mattered, because people sold their votes for cups of rice, a wrapper, or mere N500. Though, these have not completely disappeared, but the narratives are fast changing.
Today, you need to start by winning the minds of your immediate party members before you can even approach the community to cast their votes for you.
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuany’s Model
Since Sunday, May 29, 2015 the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Returning Officer, Prof. Hilary Edoga, declared Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the duly elected Governor of Enugu State, governance has centered, squarely, on how best to serve and add meaning to the life of the grassroot people. This also played out during the recent LGA elections.
This is a sharp contrast with the elite politics where the rank and file decides or dictates the peoples’ (masses) fate without providing adequate ground for their input.
Interestingly, Enugu State has gradually said bye to ‘Money Bags and Helicopter Politicians’, who remember their wards/people only when election dates near.
Suffice to say, the overall political efficacy of the Enugu State has been gratifying in the last two years; largely for the present Administration’s believe that political gain is meaningless without positively impacting the grassroot.
Prelude to the 2015 General Elections, some people appeared bemused by then Congress’ choice of Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Gburugburu) as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer for the Governorship.
Some perceived him as lacking the ‘muscles’ to flex in response to potential punches from the opponent. Well, by now, the naysayers would have come to agree with the saying “obsession is a word used by the weak to describe the dedicated”.
But, Gburugburu responds in ‘silent punches’ targeted at knocking out poverty, injustice, inequality, illiteracy, improper healthcare, bad roads, insecurity, and whatever vice that could deny the people good life.
You know, sometimes, grassroots advocacy itself has the power to sway hearts and minds of elected officials, tapping into public sentiment to feed itself and refresh its ranks with new activists that are unafraid to participate and anxious to contribute both in time and treasure to a cause in which they believe.
In Enugu State, Governor Ugwuanyi has demonstrated this in many ways- Gburugburu is an attitude hence ‘Gburugburuism’ deserves a common place in the lexicon of Nigerian politics as a compassionate all-rounder, all embracing, and all caring leader.
The LGA Elections
Why? As the Local Government Elections in Enugu State drew nearer, participating political parties were expected to conduct primaries to elect their flag bearers for Chairmanship and Councillorship positions. And as Nigeria’s political ‘custom’ demands, these potential candidates were supposed to dole out thousands and in some cases, millions just to purchase the form(s) for amounts un-refundable. But, Gburugburu thought otherwise. He believes that democracy is better when it frees the man from every encumbrance that limits his potentials.
Well, this neither trended on social media, made screaming headlines in newspapers, nor scroll through the screens of as many tv stations as possible, but the young man has written his name in gold in the annals of Enugu State.
It was sort a relief when out of compassion and against all odds His Excellency declared to the PDP family that each Ward should nominate their candidate while the Local Governments should present a consensus candidate to represent them at the then coming elections.
What can be more democratic than this? It implies that any party member stood the chance to be nominated for the elections. It also implies that ‘money politics’ has been finally interred by the PDP family in Enugu State. No question of hijacking the primaries, votes, or bribing of delegates. Ugwuanyi had no preferred candidate! This was surely a great relief! Democracy in action! People oriented and non discriminatory gyrate that Governance has become in Enugu State.
The people were happy with their Governor. The sweetening of it all actually came from the opposing party- APC that have caught the Gburugburu fever, describing him as “a governor for everybody”.
In simple terms, of the 266 Wards cutting across 17 Local Government Areas in the State, PDP candidates got the forms almost free; the only ‘ticket’ was to be convincing to the people.
Therefore, prelude to the elections, Ward Congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) conducted in the 266 Electoral Wards were hitch-free as party members trooped out en-masse to ‘queue’ behind their choice candidates. What a remarkable way to Govern.
The results:
Of course, it was will be difficult to defeat a ‘united family’. This played out on November 4, 2017 when the political parties filed out to garner votes at the grassroots level. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has won the entire 14 chairmanship positions in the Local Government areas elections conducted in Enugu state on Saturday. A total of 17 Chairmanship positions were contested where PDP won 14 positions.
The chairman of the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission, ENSIEC, Mike Ajogwu, SAN, announced the result on Sunday, November 5, 2017, with PDP clearing both the chairmanship and councillorship seats. Even after the bye-elections in Eke and Obioma wards in Udi local government, PDP candidates still won.
It is actually a new dawn in the Nigerian electoral system as the rural dwellers are taking the bull by the horn.
(NB: Part of this article was published on Oganiru Enugu State Facebook Page)