MAZI EJIMOFOR OPARA
Away from the shenanigans of “Vote Buying” that has become the easily adducable excuse for the opposition’s failure yet unsubstantiated, Soludo’s margin of lead to the one nearest to him should excite anyone in the Solution team and worry anyone on the opposing side. A whopping 323,219 votes is like the distance between heaven and hell. From facts available to me, I may not have sought the leave of some of those who regaled me with feedbacks on Saturday’s outing to quote them, however I can conveniently say that these votes are a reflection of live’s touched, destinies changed and the multiplier effects of sustainable empowerments.
In Umunnachi, my brother Emeka Odionu called in this morning to tell me the following;
“Mazi, I may not be of APGA like you already know, but something significant happened at my polling unit. A man came to vote and was besieged by a team of canvassers from different political parties, while they were all jostling to get his vote, the man quietly bellowed, ‘I will cast my vote for that man who made my child see a smart board for the first time in his life’. Mazi, the number of Teachers recruited and posted to Umunnachi, the 1youth 2skills beneficiaries, the road constructed at Ifitedunu and the women who enjoyed the free antenatal and delivery of your government influenced a lot with regards how people voted in this election”.
I really do not want to speak to the feedbacks I got from parts of Awka, Onitsha and the once deserted Ihiala (Ebonosie) and other communities in Nnewi south rescued by Soludo’s tenacity.
For the political class, “zoning” was a major deciding factor, of course to them “4 would always be better than 8”. In the overall, the sentiment analysis projected that Soludo would win by over 85%, with the 73% victory recorded for the first time in Anambra’s political history, the projections largely came true. Those who say otherwise lack data and simply spoke out of emotions.
The time to talk about “Division 1 players” and those “playing in the Champions League” would come, certainly not today. When we adopted the zinger “Anambra is Rising” and “Let the Solution continue” it was anchored on verifiable data driven by unassailable evidence that those were the words on the streets, communities and towns.
How it played is now the subject for historians, political analysts and bookmakers.