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*The APC in Anambra State must learn from experience and not be deceived by the rhetorics of capacity.*

By Progressives Media

While we commend the renewed activities in the party as we await the Independent National Electoral Commission's go-ahead to begin the activities for the Anambra 2025 gubernatorial elections, we must advise our dear party to be wary of falling into the same trap it did in previous election cycles.

The APC in Anambra has become too accustomed to the rhetoric of illusory capacity at every election cycle, missing the big picture - the body language of voters and what statistics point towards. In 2017, we approached the election with a firm belief that we had found a magic candidate who had the power to win elections. In 2021, we repeated the mistakes, learned nothing from experience, and sank deeper.

Yet, in 2024, party members who have witnessed these scenarios have refused to learn from both experiences and are determined to plunge the party into another faux pas. Election dynamics are too wide and loosely connected for one factor to determine the possible outcome for any candidate.

In a bid to propagate this rhetoric of capacity, some have resorted to pushing narratives based on false equivalence - comparing apples and oranges. The fact that a candidate won election A does not automatically confer the right to win election B, which has different dynamics. We have seen situations in Nigeria where Senators could not win local governments in their senatorial zones during gubernatorial elections despite winning them during their senatorial contests.

Incredibly, no previous winners of the gubernatorial elections in Anambra since its creation in 1991 had any prior record of winning any election until their victory in the gubernatorial election. Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Dr Chimaroke Mbadinuju had no election victory under their belt before they became governors. Peter Obi won on his first attempt, as did Obiano and Professor Charles Soludo.

If we must discern anything from this data, it is that Anambra voters do not factor in the illusionary political capacity to vote for a candidate and are more likely to vote for a greenhorn than a career politician. There are many deductible reasons for this, but that is not our intention for today.

In conclusion, the Anambra APC must restrain itself from falling into the old rhetoric of capacity and focus on what matters - listening to the Anambra voters and their desires, then finding a strategy to ingrain the party into the hearts of the voters. This is the only way we can win an election.

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