Apart from the party platforms and personality of the governorship candidates, one other factor to be reckoned in Saturday’s governorship election is the role of Deputy Governorship candidates.
All governorship candidates parade running mates lined up in the contest. The influence and roles of the Deputy have capacities to sway votes in favour of the eventual winners.
Among those running as Deputy Governorship candidates are the speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Rt Hon .Acho Ihim, a former Reps Member, Hon Gerald Irona, and Deputy National Organizing Secretary of APGA, Steve Nwoga.
Others are former Vice Chancellor of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Prof Placid Njoku and Rt Hon. Okey Dike.
Speaker Ihim who is from Okigwe LGA is running as Deputy Governorship candidate to AA candidate, Chief Uche Nwosu, while Irona and Nwoga are for PDP’s Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha and Senator Ifeanyi Araraume of APGA respectively.
The APC candidate, Senator Hope Uzodinma has Prof. Placid Njoku and Barr Humphrey Anumudu running with Rt Hon Okey Dike.
Ihim, a former council chairman and two time lawmaker of Imo State House of Assembly is expected to muster support for the AA party not only in his Okigwe abode but Okigwe zone. The lawmaker will have to partner with Rescue Mission warlords in Okigwe like Prof Nnamdi Obiareri and Sunny Chiadi to prove reason why Nwosu considered him the running mate.
In his own case, Ironna will go extra mile to justify that Ihedioha’s decision to dump his former running mate, Rt Hon Chuma Nnaji in 2015 for him in the 2019 is not a waste of time, by mobilizing the votes of Oil region of Imo State for PDP. A strong leader of the Arthur Nzeribe political family, it will be a tough battle for the former Reps member to overcome the hurdles likely to be faced in the area considering how his party lost out in the National Assembly election.
Unlike others above who ran elections and won in the past, the APGA Deputy Governorship candidate Steve Nwoga, a lawyer has not experienced electoral victory despite running for Federal House position under the party’s platform.
He will be able to complement whatever effort the APGA guber candidate, Araraume had garnered in Mbaise land.
Coming from the classrooms into the interesting terrain of politics, Prof Njoku from Ikeduru LGA is the man to watch among the Deputy Governorship candidates. The manner he breezed into the scene from the academic sector to pick the slot remains a puzzle, he may use this weekend’s election to prove.
