NOVEMBER- DECEMBER 2021

COMMENT
Anambra State In
Nigerian politics
Chuks Iloegbunam
Anambra is one of Nigeria’s
36 states. In size, it is the
second smallest after Lagos,
measuring only 4,844 km2. Lagos State
is 3,577 km2. But Kaduna, Kano, Kogi
States are 46,053 km2 , 20,131 km2
and 29,833 km2 respectively. Despite
its tininess, however, Anambra’s motto
of Light Of The Nation is true in many
respects. Compared to all other states,
Anambra people have shone the brightest
in all positive forms of human endeavor
– academics, business, politics, sports
etc. Olaudah Equiano, the writer and
abolitionist came from Esseke, in Anambra
State. So did Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the
doyen of Nigerian journalism and the
first President of Nigeria who played a
pivotal role in the attainment of political
independence from Britain in 1960.
Chinua Achebe was from Anambra as were
countless other notable novelists, including
Chukwuemeka Ike, Nkem Nwankwo,
Onuorah Nzekwu. Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie is from Anambra.
Nigeria’s first acclaimed millionaire,
Sir Louis-Phillip Odumegwu Ojukwu,
whose son led the war to attain a Biafran
Republic, was from Anambra. Anambra
boasts the Onitsha main market, the
largest in all of West Africa. Anambra
produced Godwin Achebe, the footballer
that captained the national soccer
side before the civil war and after it.
Emmanuel Ifeajuna, the first Nigeria to
win a Commonwealth gold medal was
from Anambra. Blessed Cyprian Michael
Iwene Tansi was from Anambra. Philip
Emeagwali, the computer wizard, is from
Anambra. Francis Cardinal Arinze is from
Anambra State. Stephen Osita Osadebe,
the extraordinary composer and exponent
of Highlife music and about the highest
selling Nigerian musician of all time, was
from Anambra State.
Year in, year out, Anambra students
come out in the top brackets in School
Certificate examinations. They make about
the greatest number of First Classes in the
nation’s degree examinations. Anambra’s
Godian Ezekwe led the Research and
Production Unit that sustained blockaded
Biafra during the civil war, of which
General Chukwuemeka Odumugwu-
Ojukwu sang this song of praise in a
speech titled Three Incredible Years Of
Biafra:
In the three years of the war necessity
gave birth to invention. During those
three years of heroic bound, we leapt
across the great chasm that separates
knowledge from know-how. We built
rocket, and we designed and built our own
delivery systems. We guided our rockets.
We guided them far; we guided them
accurately.
For three years, blockaded without
hope of import, we maintained all our
vehicles. The state extracted and refined
petrol, individuals refined petrol in their
back gardens. We built and maintained
our airports, maintained them under
heavy bombardment. Despite the heavy
bombardment, we recovered so quickly
after each raid that we were able to
maintain the record for the busiest airport
in the continent of Africa.
We spoke to the world through
telecommunication system engineered
by local ingenuity; the world heard us
‘ How could anyone
deploy the blind
to lead the fully
sighted?
’
and spoke back to us! We built armoured
cars and tanks. We modified aircraft
from trainer to fighters, from passenger
aircraft to bombers. In the three years of
freedom we had broken the technological
barrier. In the three years we became the
most civilised, the most technologically
advanced Black people on earth.
We spurn nylon yarn; we developed
new seeds for food and medicines...
The reader would expect that Anambra
people, a people of this distinction, a
nation set apart by God, would be left
severely alone to choose their own leaders
in what is supposedly a democratic
dispensation. You would expect them to
always submit the very best candidates
to contest their elections. Anambra’s
gubernatorial ballot was slated for
Saturday November 6, 2021. The All
Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) had
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AFRICA BRIEFING NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2021