A former National Auditor of the APC, Sir Paul Chukwuma, who was a leading aspirant in the APC for the November gubernatorial election in Anambra State but resigned from the party before its primary last weekend, has joined the Young Progressives Party – YPP.
This development has been received with open arms in many quarters, considering the circumstances that led to Chukwuma’s resignation from the APC, despite the huge resources he had committed to rebranding the party in Anambra State.
The Young Progressives Party – YPP, was first brought to the limelight in Anambra State and Nigeria when Prof. Kingsley Moghalu mounted a robust and idea-driven political campaign for the nation’s presidency on the party’s platform in 2019. Moghalu’s campaign quickly generated national and state-wide conversations on the viability of a third force based on his bold ideas and how he communicated them. Months later in the same 2019, the late senator Ifeanyi Ubah declared for senate on the party’s platform after APGA disqualified him from participating in the party’s primary in 2019. The late senator Ifeanyi Ubah won the General Election landslide, leaving no LGA behind in the entire Anambra South, a feat he repeated in 2023 with the same YPP.
By 2023, YPP had gained a massive presence across Anambra State before the late Senator Ubah joined the APC. However, he meticulously maintained the YPP structures as his fallback plan in case of any disappointment, which has become customary with established political parties in Nigeria.
If Mr. Chukwuma picks the YPP gubernatorial ticket as expected, this might open the door to building a serious challenger and a new opposition political party, which is needed in the Anambra State political space.
Ebuka graduated with a second-class upper-division degree in Political Science from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. He furthered his education by obtaining a Master's Degree in Political Science with a specialization in Government and Development Studies from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Nigeria. His academic background and professional experience have equipped him with a deep understanding of political dynamics and governance issues.