By late June 1990, after the Federal Government had announced the lifting of ban on political activities, Chief Iwuanyanwu had done a lot of work to ensure that he emerged as the accepted presidential candidate for the NRC during its primaries.
Many members of the NRC felt this sustained pressure from Chief Iwuanyanwu to secure the party’s presidential flag. The other serious contenders to this pressure at this time were Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.
By this time, Chief Iwuanyanwu had made important connections and friends across the country. He owned the Iwuanyanwu Nationale football club which climbed to the first division in its first season. He had succeeded in spreading balanced information with the Champion group of newspapers. He had built hospitals, roads, and schools.
He had given out huge funds of over 100 million Naira by way of charity (including scholarships to over 1000 youths as at 1990) through the Iwuanyanwu Foundation. This was besides having over 25,000 workers being paid their salaries consistently every month in his companies by 1990.
Chief Iwuanyanwu did not spare his wealth in galvanizing for political support across Nigeria. His private jet was almost always in the sky, flying to campaigns around Nigeria. At a time, he was taken around the north by Mallam Abba Dabo, Alhaji Tudun Wada and Alhaji Muhammadu Kura.
Chief Iwuanyanwu spent heavily appointing coordinators in all the then 453 local government areas of Nigeria. It is staggering to comprehend that he spent millions upon millions of Naira during the entire campaigning activities within the NRC….
He had political support base even amongst the older politicians once of the defunct Nigerian People’s Party (NPP). At this time, Chief Sam Mbakwe was in full support of Chief Iwuanyanwu’s ambition. In public and private ceremonies of important dignitaries anywhere in Nigeria, Chief Iwuanyanwu would come with older politicians to grace the occasion.
Acutely aware that votes coming from his home state were not enough to give him the post of president, Chief Iwuanyanwu cut deeper into mobilizing support from everywhere. He toured Ibadan (where he was conferred with a chieftaincy title of Balogun Babanguwa of Ibadan Land, after being endorsed by powerful Yoruba politicians). He toured all over the north, Cross River State, Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State.
He learnt quite a lot going to these places. For instance, he observed that some people in the Niger Delta claimed that some Igbo leaders did not treat them well before and during the civil war (Awogbemila, 1990:21). Chief Iwuanyanwu did his best to unite the Igbos with their kiths and kins. This was manifest from the tremendous support they gave him during his presidential contest and also the voting direction and massive support the Igbos and their kiths and kins gave to President Goodluck Jonathan during his presidential contest in 2015 and 2019.
It is pertinent to note that the cordial relationship between the South-South and South-East still exists. No other Igbo contender could rise to challenge Chief Iwuanyanwu as at 1990.
As at early 1990, some personalities from the two political parties were already being fingered as serious weights who could clinch the post of the presidency. Foremost amongst the names that kept appearing in newspaper analyses as people to consider was Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu. Other names included Chief Abel Ubeku; Hammed Kusamotu; Gabriel Akinyede; Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe of the dissolved People’s Front of Nigeria (PFN); Moshood Akanbi (former chief executive of the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company); and Reverend S.T. Ola Akande, a Baptist minister. With time, an easterner and former Nigeria’s ambassador to Brazil, Patrick Dele Cole of the SDP, became noted.
The reality of politics in Nigeria at the time was that the north had more slots than both the west and east combined. This was called “the lopsided nature”.
It occurred in the distribution of the then 453 local governments that made up the country as at 1990. 245 local governments were located in the area that was formerly the old Northern region and 208 local governments were located in areas that used to be Eastern and Western regions.
There was also the tendency for people to vote along ethnic lines. There was also the factor of political disunity in the east where rallying support for one political front was extremely difficult. This lopsided nature presented a powerful snag for prominent politicians in southern Nigeria.
Excerpts from the 939-paged “Amazing Grace: The Biography of Chief (Dr.) Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Iwuanyanwu” by Jeff Unaegbu, Sam Chukwu and Chinedu Nsofor.