Ebuka Onunkwo And Changing Dynamics In Anambra South Senatorial District
By Augustine
On Sunday, May 3, 2026, Chief Ebuka Onunkwo, a leading aspirant for Anambra South Senatorial District on platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) dumped the party and joined the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The defection of Ebuka Onunkwo, a philanthropist, is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Seahorse Lubricant Ltd into the APC has sent shock waves within APGA, his former party.
Onunkwo has been a mobiliser and financier of APGA who has demonstrated loyalty, commitment and shown good faith in spite of obvious disappointment.
In 2025, the billionaire businessman contested for the seat of Anambra South Senatorial District in the Senate to fill the vacancy created by the death of late Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah on the platform of APGA but was denied the ticket of the party.
Onunkwo had relied on his grassroots presence and immense support for the party at the stakeholders’ level for victory but none of these paid off because APGA adopted the conclave model of primary election.
The conclave method of primary election shut out members of the party at the grassroots because of the exclusion of the delegate system and key stakeholders were also not allowed to join in the selection process .
Some people argue that Onunkwo did not have the opportunity to test his popularity but instead had his fate decided by a process which was discretionary, exclusive and alien to modern democratic practice.
However, rather than give up on the party in anger and frustration, Ebuka Onunkwo remained calm and focused with greater commitment to the party.
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The three frontline aspirants for APGA ticket ahead of January 2027 are the incumbent, Sen. Emmanuel Nwachukwu, Chief Akai Egwuonwu and Chief Ebuka Onunkwo both from Nnewi South Local Government Area but there has been growing uncertainty over who gets the ticket of APGA.
Though the leadership of APGA has assured that the primary election would be through Operation A4 but the recent nomination process which disqualified all candidates but one across board through screening leaves much for suspicion.
So, it was neither unexpected nor surprising that Ebuka Onunkwo took the wise choice of going to a party where he would have a fair chance of emerging as the candidate of a political party in the January election early enough.
Already, the adverse impact of the avoidable defection has begun to emerge with a good number of aspirants for Federal Constituency in the district under APGA dropping their ambition while others have moved on to pursue their elsewhere.
The massive support base of Ebuka Onunkwo has also moved with him into the APC thereby making the party the destination of choice for aspirants within the Senatorial District.
While the APC is celebrating a big catch and a better chance of winning the first Senatorial seat in Anambra, APGA faces distrust and apathy.
APC seems poised to benefit from the Progressives-Working-Together mantra of Soludo with an Ebuka Onunkwo as its candidate while whosoever emerges candidate of APGA will face the task of warming himself into the heart of the electorate especially those who feel that industrial was unfairly edged out of party.
To many political observers, the entry of Ebuka Onunkwo into APC is a sweet first win for the party in-charge in Aso Rock and a bitter loss for APGA.
Given his capacity and growing acceptability of the APC, the general feeling and reality on ground is that, if Ebuka Onunkwo gets the ticket, the election is as good as won and lost.
Augustine, a political analyst writes from Ekwusigo
