Copyright thenationonlineng
In another four days, November, the people of Anambra State will go to the polls to elect a new governor. The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has so far cleared 16 candidates for the battle. Of the 16, Chukwuma Soludo, an outsider and the incumbent governor who joined politics only four years ago however remains the candidate to beat. Political pundits have in fact tipped him to win with a landslide beating all his other seasoned and professional politicians round and square. The rise of Soludo is unprecedented. Many are therefore anxious to know the sources of his transformation. In fact, on account of his unparalleled rise and extraordinary performance, not a few believe the Soludo brand will require future studies by intellectuals. Here was a cynical intellectual who has spent his most productive years in the Ivory Tower. He was a professor of Economics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; visiting professor at Swarthmore College, USA; Smuts research fellow at Cambridge University; visiting scholar at University of Warwick and Oxford University; visiting fellow at Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; research fellow at UN-Economic Commission for Africa, Ethiopia and a visiting scholar at IMF research department, among others. He was a former Finance Adviser to the federal government and one time governor of Central Bank of Nigeria. He was the founding chairman of the African Finance Corporation and has consulted for many international organisations including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), UNCTAD, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the African Development Bank (ADB), etc. Nothing therefore prepared Soludo, an intellectual, a cynical breed that regards all men as fortune hunters, for politics as a calling. Many of his predecessors who took the risk ended up in grief. They were unable to survive in the real world of politics where being a politician itself is a nightmare because all politicians are regarded as tricksters, corrupt, untrustworthy and an unscrupulous breed. Beyond the struggle to protect their integrity as builders of institutions including bureaucracy without which society decays, involvement of intellectuals in politics meant learning anew how to survive party intrigues, betrayal by trusted allies and stabbing in the back by those driven by party ambition. And if they survive navigating that purgatory, then comes the true test of being in power – balancing self-interest of pressure groups and that of public interest they are elected to serve. This task, as many who fell by the way side have discovered, often requires a politician’s versatility, brinkmanship and skilful exploitation of innermost fears of the masses in order to satisfy the demand of the rich, the real owners of society and the power behind the throne. That Soludo was able to successfully balance the interest of the poor masses of Anambra and the greed of their economic elite regarded as the richest group in Nigeria was part of Soludo’s unique record he celebrated through dancing and rendition of local songs about Igbo folklores and folktales as he carried his campaign message from one Local Council Area to the other. And that was all he needed to win the trust of ordinary people of Anambra who freely added their widows mite to the huge donations from Anambra super rich, to offset Soludo’s campaign expenses. But Soludo, a highly resourceful fellow, in spite of that advantage did not take his peoples’ support for granted. He campaigned vigorously, selling a new vision without forgetting to remind his people of fulfilled promises. On the other hand, many of his opponents are unknown, are without structures while some launched their campaign a week to Election Day, forcing Soludo to observe: “This is shocking and a mockery for a political party like the APC to flag off its campaign seven days to the voting process”. It is not just that Soludo’s opponents in the battle coming up in four days’ time are unprepared; they don’t appear to have anything to sell beyond fear. They are apprehensive that Soludo might rig the election through either vote buying or the use of the state security apparatus to intimidate opposition. This was the narrative of three of Soludo’s opponents viz John Nwosu of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chioma Ifemudilike of African Action Congress (AAC) and Onyekwelu YPP’s spokesman who stood in for Paul Chukwuma, candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) during their last Saturday’s encounter with Channel TV’s Ayo Makinde. For instance, the governorship candidate of ADC, John Nwosu who listed his assets as ‘18 branches of his IT firm’, his expertise as a trained economist and IT expert, has declared that the only thing that stands between him and victory is Soludo’s possible vote buying and abuse of the of Anambra security outfit to intimidate the opposition’. He was silent on the fact that his party, ADC has no structure to man the polling booths in Anambra in an election that comes up in another four days. The excuse of Chioma Ifemudilike, the governorship candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), whose party is not known to the masses, and has no structure or even agenda, was not different. The only reason she could lose the election is if Soludo rigs the election. Similarly, Onyekwelu YPP’s spokesman alerted Nigerians that if his principal, Paul Chukwuma, loses, it will not be because his party is unknown but because Soludo rigs. This why many believe that Soludo’s opponents have made his victory inevitable. For while they sell fear, he advertises his achievements. Campaigning in Oguata LGA last Saturday, Soludo reminded the people of how he dislodged IPOB terrorists from eight Local Government Areas (LGAs) it controlled before he assumed office in 2021. He also told them of how he employed 8000 teachers, over 1000 doctors and nurses and empowered over 13,000 youths. As November 8 draws nearer, Soludo’s records continue to speak for him. The latest recognition came from BudgIT which rated, Anambra State as 2025 Nigeria’s best-performing state in fiscal management, rising from second position in 2024, to beat Lagos to the second, as well as Kwara (third), Abia (fourth), and Edo to the fifth position. Anambra government has attributed the feat to Soludo’s “strategic economic reforms and disciplined financial management, which have placed the state on a sustainable growth path.” Read Also: Opposition behind claims of genocide against Christians in Nigeria – Wike On the health sector, Governor Soludo’s administration according to his commissioner of health has revolutionised the state’s health sector through the “construction of five new general hospitals and the rehabilitation of over 130 others, including primary healthcare centres, across the state within three years.” Soludo’s education policies focus on free and compulsory education from nursery to senior secondary school in Anambra State, “to ensure that children from all socio-economic backgrounds can access quality education and develop their full potential”. On agriculture, Soludo has said his agriculture policy in the last three years focused on ‘an agriculture-led transformation in Anambra State to boost food security and create wealth’. To achieve his government set goals, some of his administration’s initiatives include the “Farm to Feed” campaign”. The lack of seriousness on the path of Soludo’s 15 opponents is the reason many believe that the problem with elections in Nigeria has always been politicians who exploit our religion and ethnic faults to behave like outlaws. We remember Chief Remi Fani Kayode of NNDP in the First Republic, emboldened by Nnamdi and Ahmadu Bello, swore his party would win the 1965 Western Region election whether the people voted for his party or not. That sounded the death knell of the First Republic. In 1983, the same group with Walter Ofonagoro as rain doctor spoke of ‘landslide and sea-slide victory in opposition strongholds”. That led to the sacking of the Second Republic by the military. In 2023, the same group led by unprincipled serial cross-carpeters – Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, driven by greed on the eve of an election splintered their party into three. For two years each of them has continued to claim victory despite the verdicts by INEC and the Supreme Court. Following their rhetoric, their unthinking followers openly canvassed for insurrection or military takeover thereby once again, bringing the past to pain. As we have often said, the federal arrangement often produces egocentric men who behave like outlaws. Solution can therefore not come through electoral law but through politics. With defecting politicians almost turning the nation to one party state, the president has the yam and the knife.
