Abia and Enugu States occupy unique positions in South-East politics. The two states represent two different political parties and their lone regional representatives. Governors Alex Otti and Peter Mbah, having recognised that their political future depends on how far they can strengthen their platforms, are doing all to fend off the expansionist plots of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

There are strong indications that even with the crises in the national leaderships of their political parties, the Labour Party governor of Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart in Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah, are determined to recontest on their platforms in 2027.

Their political parties at the 2023 general elections fielded candidates for the governorship positions in three states of the South-East region, including Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi States, but they were unable to go beyond the states they occupied currently.

Following leadership crises that set in at their various political parties after the elections, further depletions were made on the parties as their members, including those elected to serve at the various cadres of the National and State Assemblies, started moving into the ruling national All Progressives Congress, (APC). Those who moved stated they did so because of the crises and to enhance their political chances.

The development had thrown up permutations of a likely move by the governors to the APC. Those who held the switch-party mantra insisted that doing so would help reposition their states for national relevance and provide better platforms that would see them retain their seats in 2027.

However, with the strong presence these governors have made in their states through their performances in less than two years in office and the way they have played their politics, the tendency that they would remain in the political parties that gave them a mandate to vie for reelection in 2027 has continued to increase by the day.

A peep into Governor Mbah’s Enugu State has shown that he is determined to restore the PDP as the party to beat in the state. Mbah inherited a PDP that was on the brink of collapse as it had barely managed to secure a governorship seat from a spirited fight it got from a Labour Party that was the rave of the 2023 general elections.

The PDP won only one of the three senatorial seats, one out of seven House of Reps seats and 10 of the 24 House of Assembly seats. This was a PDP that, until 2023, had dominated in previous elections in the state, producing those who occupied various elective positions from 1999.

However, through his programmes and policies, Mbah has continued to rebuild confidence in the party. In his initial first 10 months in office, his style of governance had attracted six members of the Labour Party in the State House of Assembly who, in one day, dumped their party for the PDP. The development was the tonic his party needed to gain a firm grip of the state’s legislative arm.

With the successful reconstitution of the party’s state chapter last year and the conduct of local government area elections that returned only PDP members, efforts intensified to reconcile and bring back the members who left the party out of anger. Only last week, a major breakthrough to restore the hold of the party was made with the return of the 2023 Labour Party governorship candidate, Chijioke Edeoga to the party.

Edeoga had left the PDP after its governorship primary to join the LP in 2023. The massive support he received in the election almost wrecked the aspiration of Mbah to become governor as the matter between the two over the outcome of the election was finally resolved at the Supreme Court.

When Edeoga returned amid jubilations from members of the PDP in the state, he had told those who cared to listen that the governor’s style of administration which has created rapid development in the state was responsible for the move.

Nonetheless, those who have followed governance in Enugu would readily agree that the level of transformation that has taken place in almost every sector of the state is fast drawing massive followership to Mbah and has continued to place him in the good books of his opponents in the state.

Recall that the crisis that emanated over the presidential ticket of the party snowballed into leadership disagreement on the choice of national secretary. Injuries created by these developments have not left the party.

Otti, on the other hand, had snatched power from a PDP-dominated state using a relatively unknown Labour Party. Although his party had won a majority seat in the State House of Assembly, his challenge was deepening the hold of the party in the state where PDP and APC also made appreciable impacts in the elections.

While contending with the challenges from the PDP and APC in the state, his party had erupted in a national leadership crisis that removed many of the members who worked for its success in the 2023 polls. Although he had stepped in towards finding a solution to the crisis when he hosted a meeting at the government house Umuahia that attracted a segment of the leadership of the party led by the 2023 presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, that did not restore the needed tranquility. The meeting had risen with the setting up of a Caretaker Committee led by a former Finance Minister, Nneadi Usman to pilot its affairs and restore peace, but that gave way almost immediately as a Court of Appeal had restored Julius Abure as the national chairman of the party.