Why the next governor of Anambra State matters more than the next president of Nigeria

There was a plan to build a light rail connecting all the five state capitals of the East and major cities and towns. There was a great development plan to turn Eastern Nigeria into the industrial heartbeat of Nigeria like Spanish Catalonia or the German Rhine-Ruhr. There was a plan to secure for Eastern Nigeria a political structure that would guarantee the region an unrestricted right to self-determination, a kind of quasi-political independence the Scottish people in the UK enjoy. These plans had remained nothing but words on paper because, for so long, the right political leaders have not emerged in Eastern Nigeria. As Nigeria spirals out of control, who becomes the next governor of Anambra State come March 2022 matters more than who becomes the next president of Nigeria.

Looking at how different political parties in Anambra State conducted their primaries last week for the November 2021 gubernatorial election, you would think that the upcoming election is just an ordinary election. The November 2021 election for governor of Anambra State is without question the most important in the state’s history. It is probably the most consequential election since the division of Eastern Region of Nigeria in May 1967 into three new states. Who will move into the government house in Awka in March of 2022…