62years old. BSC. accounting, MBA marketing. Career: Banking & oil and gas ( First Bank, Fidelity Bank, Chevron)

He came ready with a strong grip on policy and his achievements as Anambra state Governor. he made some good points and analysis on Internally generated revenues.   But the difficult questions especially on Anambra State reserves shook him and broke his confidence hence he stuttered through his speech and forgot some of his lines.

but he tried to pull a humorous  comeback  by attacking other candidates, according to him

“Tony Nwoye does not have executive capacity, he has never worked in his entire life”

“Obaze should be distributing relief materials in Syria”

“Osita Chidoka needs to be checking number plates”

He also told his opponents categorically that they do not know the size of the Anambra state economy which is importing yams and fruits to the UK ( he said the yams are called Ada Onitsha. When asked about his fall out with peter obi he quickly switched the subject to his achievements and objectives stating that peter Obi was not a candidate.

He deflected the question on state reserves quickly switching to the fact that he is the only Governor paying salaries, pensions and still undertaking construction.

Our verdict  Governor Obiano : The guilty willy

I liked his debate style, deflect, deflect focus on your agenda. he had some good content on the state economy, but confidence and delivery was his undoing.  He was afraid, it was obvious in his face and Nigerians could smell it.

But why so afraid? guilty of something, diversion of funds maybe ? just asking. Its time to retire.

Tony Nwoye: APC

Age: 41yrs,  Education: MBBS, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki

Career: Politics – Student unionism (NANS President), Anambra PDP Chairman, PDP Governorship aspirant (2013)

 Owner of Vintage Consolidated Ltd, a construction company

The only thing that Tony Nwoye did right was reciting all the roads in Onitsha by names which kind of demonstrated an understanding of inner cities. but his performance was a complete disaster.

His black suit ( the type you can call coat)  and his angry face set the tone for a bad performance.

In the Opening remarks, he spent such a long time introducing himself.  when asked why he left PDP he went into a long rant about his political turmoil rather than deflecting to his agenda for the  Anambra people.

When the Moderator pressed him about his alleged thugery, killings and even  kidnapping Former Governor Chris Ngige. He argued relentlessly  showing flashes of hot temper.

On policy issues he literally had nothing to say apart from roads and power. at some point he even tried to borrow Buhari’s line about blocking leakages

Our Verdict : the street breed

With all the word on the street (according to the moderator) this is the guy Willie Obiano should be afraid of. ven the way he looks and talks , men it could get ugly.He has no real job, his past experience is politician….I just they look

Oseloka Obaze : of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

62 years old. B.SC & Masters political Science  Nebraska University.

Civil service, Diplomacy ( United Nations) Author, Politician, SSG to Obiano and Peter Obi. APGA governorship candidate 2013

 “Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable”

When Oseloka Obaeze opened his mouth to speak, there was some seriousness and maturity to it.

He pointedly told Governor Willie Obiano, that they were not here to play games but for serious business.

HE criticised Willie Obiano for poor accountability.  HE challenged him on open budgeting,  show us the roads that were built commensurate with the money spent

He threw a direct shot at the Buhari presidency, Why should IPOB be proscribed terrorist when The herdsmen roam free.

He responded to all his critics intelligently and pushed his experience forward time and time again, with some arrogance.

He is a favourite to win ( at least on twitter)

Our Verdict : The CV politician

He has a clean slate, good records and impressive CV.Word on twitter… he won the debate But we all know he needs some street cred in this election, its not by English . beware of the street breed.

 

Godwin Ezeemo ( PPA)  63 years old.

OND, HND Marketing , Federal Polytechnic Illaro

Career: Industrialist, politician, (Owner Orient Group) (PPA). 

He is a Slow talker, we barely heard his voice. it was very easy to overlook him. there was no dirt on him, no word on the streets

He was calm relaxed and unfazed. he gave his policy speech without quotes, grandiose or fancy words.

According to him

 “I will work towards skill-based education; skill-based and not certificate,” he said. We’ve relied so much on certificate and we are failing.”  “Because  I am an industrialist, I’ve seen that 70% of our graduates are not employable; it is only about 30%,” he added.

He talked about creating  an enabling environment for Nigerians that want to come back home to work and using agriculture to boost internally generated revenue because we had good soil.

Ezeemo said: “I have my programme which I call SHAPE – Security, Health, Agriculture, Power, Education, Empowerment and Environment.

Our Verdict: Mr boring

He gave very clear policies, improve agriculture, His SHAPE programme and skill based Knowledge.

Skill based knowledge is perfect in a town like Onitsha full of manufacturers and traders ( a commerce centre).The policies he mentioned are relatable, executable, and realistic. but he kind of drowned in the noise.

Osita Chidoka .UPP

Education: B.Scs. Management, University of Nigeria;

41years old. Master’s in Transport Policy and Logistics, George Mason University.

Government Relations Advisor to Exxon Mobil; Corps Marshall and CEO of Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps; and a one-time Minister of Aviation in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

• His opening remarks were quite impressive, and his debate was generally full of quotes, some of his grand quotes includes:

“we will apply the philosophical foundations of Uche(intellect), Uchu (Commitment) and egwu chukwu(morality) in rebuilding  the broken foundations of governance”

“The time has come for us to tell the world that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere, the time has come for us to tell the world this is the time for a new beginning.

He reiterated he wanted  to export programmers from anambra to the world? though he did not say how they would be trained or if  Anambra education system produce world class programmers?

He quoted, we cannot collect from the poor to build a state. we have to grow a state by growing the people in the state who live in the state. though he did not specify if he would be taking tax off from the middle class.

Our verdict : Smooth Talker

There is no real economic recovery policy. but he was good at hitting emotional buttons referring to himself as the child of the post civil war.

He uses a lot of prayers on his website positioning himself as someone with Egwu chukwu (fear of God) because he knows how spiritual Anambarians are .Rochas of Owerri was also a smooth talker ( now he is erecting statues)

So who wins this debate?

 Third runner up would be Obaeze for his straight to the point no nonsense character + experience.

Second runner is Seun Okin the channels Moderator.( yeah we know he is not a contestant but we must award him for asking difficult questions)

And moving against the tide of popular demand our winner is…

Godwin Ezeemo

He was straight to the point, cool & calm

As an industrialist he can lead an industrial city like Anambra state

He reiterated that he would focus on Skill based education over Certificate based education ( perfect for the commerce city)

He has an actual policy proposal : SHAPE ( Security, health, Agriculture, Power, education, empowerment)

He identified that Anambra has good cultivation soil.

Sometimes what we need may camouflage in the most boring package…  beware of smooth talkers and shoeless politicians