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By Ejike Anyaduba
The homecoming and mega rally of September 20, 2025, held at the Christ the King Catholic Church field, Abatete, Idemili North LGA, Anambra State, was not just any other rally in the campaign effort of Governor Charles Soludo. It was one that shifted the dial. The homecoming of former House of Representatives member, Hon. Ifeanyichukwu Ibezi (Ochiagha Idemili) to the All Progressives grand Alliance (APGA) was all that was needed to give impetus to Soludo’s re-election effort and dim any hope of the opposition winning the biggest constituency in the state, come November 8.
The rally, convened and sponsored by Hon. Ibezi, had about 15,000 persons in attendance, 5,000 in excess of the 10,000, originally expected from members of the Ibezi political support group (Reality Family), All Progressives Grand Alliance faithful, traditional leaders and residents from Idemili North and South LGAs. It was a big and consequential gathering that had the governor and his team, comprising the national chairman of APGA, the state chairman of the party, select campaign council members, and aides in attendance. Also present were the mayors of Idemili North and South Local Government Areas, Abatete community sovereign, Igwe Engineer Chinyelugo Emeka Efobi, traditional rulers and stakeholders from almost all the 17 communities in Idemili North and South LGAs.
It was a political tour de force masterminded by Ibezi and his political family to endorse Soludo and assure him of maximum support. It was also part of the bigger Ibezi political strategy primed to break the Idemili political paradox. The paradox which is a situation where election results do not reflect the intimidating strength of voters in Idemili North and South Local Government Areas has long defied solution. Over a period of time election results from the Council Areas have fallen short of expectations possibly because of voter apathy and voter travel. While voter apathy may be widespread, affecting other areas than Idemili North and South LGA and beyond, voter travel would seem a peculiar problem of the area. Because Idemili North and South LGAs host the highest number of markets (not the biggest) in Anambra state, it goes without saying that both Local Government Areas are heavily populated, especially with traders. With fairly large number of permanent voters’ cards collected during registration it is expected that proportionate number of results would be turned in during elections. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. Many of the traders (particularly apprentices) do not appreciate the need to vote during elections. They see election period as holiday time – a time for traveling out of base which further depletes the election results.
Aware of some of the factors that encourage the quagmire, Ibezi assured the Governor of his commitment to confront them successfully. He promised to exert his political strength to nip off its dead hand. Armed with the electoral data of the two Local Governments which he presented in their unit strength and PVC collected, he said that Idemili North has 467 polling units with over 448,000 PVC collected while Idemili South has 710 polling units with over 118,000 PVC collected. He expressed his readiness to work from the polling units, through the clusters to the wards in order to put paid to the self-reinforcing paradox. “If we must break the political quagmire called the paradox of Idemili politics, we must go down to our unit levels where we have created this structure, go to our cluster levels and our ward levels and break that jinx of the paradox of Idemili politics. But let me assure you that at the end of the day we will do the needful”. He further assured the Governor of the firm support of his Abatete community which he said has 38 polling units with well over 17000 PVC collected. He said he is going to commence his support from Abatete and not from any other ward, assuring that if he does not deliver it to APGA he will drop the party’s uniform. “If you do not get 98% of votes in Abatete, I will drop this uniform”. He was emphatic about his position and was not in doubt about his capacity to deliver on his promise.
The rally and homecoming event adjudged one of the best would have come and gone but not without initial hiccups. It certainly did not come on a platter. Beyond the gloss of success, there were intrigues and last ditch effort to scuttle it. However, it took the astute politician in Ibezi to circumvent the plans and host the rally as planned. Without adding bells and whistles, Ibezi’s return to the All Progressives Grand Alliance offers the party greater chance of success. What would have been an internecine battle – a mutually destructive fight for the soul of Idemili North and South LGAs has been carefully avoided to the advantage of APGA. The state chairman of the party once admitted to the difficulty the party faced while trying to outvote Ibezi when he was in opposition.
The return of Ibezi to APGA has offered the party the fillip to go into the November election, confident of winning. It does not promise differently.
Ejike Anyaduba
Abatete
