The next time Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo is involved in governorship elections in Anambra State, there would be outraged voters, some of them former residents of Okpoko slum in Onitsha, who would have waited for years, knives between their teeth, to ensure that by thumbprinting anywhere else but adjacent the chicken symbol of the All Progressives Congress (APGA), they incinerate the electoral chances of the one the chicken represents, and finally bring the chickens home roost.
It would be such a fitting sendforth for Charles Chukwuma Soludo whose loose lips would have sunk his ship. The handwriting appeared on the wall a long time ago.
On November 21, 2021, after two failed attempts to be governor, Charles Chukwuma Soludo was finally elected Governor of Anambra State. He was sworn in on March 17, 2022,a day on when two eminent Anambra women rained fisticuffs on each other.
Charles Chukwuma’s tenure as Governor has been eventful. From a renewed emphasis on tax, to evacuating Okpoko, to decimating motor park touts,the former Central Bank Governor has shown that he is no pushover.
Anambra voters are among Nigeria’s most sophisticated, but they also bring fierce loyalty and lacerating independence.
It is those voters and other heavyweights of Anambra politics that Soludo will contend with if he decides to seek re-election in 2026.
For now, in House of Assembly elections, Charles Soludo and his All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is up against the Labour Party and Peter Obi, a different kind of force, one which has already swept away political deities and their strongholds in their states. Together,they are baying for blood.
It was on November, 2022, that Soludo’s misguided missile first rattled the camp of Peter Obi’s “Obidient” movement.In an article titled “History Beckons and I will not Be Silent,” Soludo presumed to advice Peter Obi that his chances at the election was zero.He was to double down on the divisive comments soon.
Someday, history will tell if it was envy, or misunderstanding,or just a classic case of the gods making mad a man they want to kill.
Whatever informed Charles Soludo’s daring diatribe against a man and a movement that was as searing as it was sustained, was always a drug destined for overdose.
In declaring that Peter Obi would not win the election of February 25, 2023, and he did not win, Charles Soludo charged onto grounds where Uche Ekwunife, a beloved grassroots politician,feared to tread.She had criticized Peter Obi, but quickly backtracked when she saw the futility of attacking the “People’s President.” She still lost her bid to return to the Senate.
The Igbo adjure that no one should touch the tail of a lion’s cub living or dead. Soludo did not only touch, he viciously pulled at it , probably because he felt secure in Awka.
That security faced its first test of fire on February 25, 2023,when the Presidential and National Assembly Elections in Anambra State witnessed an unprecedented assault of blind “obidience.” His All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) easily lost most of the positions it contested for in the State, while the Labour Party snared two of the three senatorial districts in the state to forcefully announce that a new sheriff was in town.
Whatever would unfold in faraway Abuja may have been shrugged off by Charles Soludo as inconsequential. But, he stands on political quicksand in the state. If he was ignorant of that, the House of Assembly Elections of March 18, 2023, in the state, will brutally remind him.
With Peter Obi and his blindly “obidient” setting their sights on the State House of Assembly, the butterflies won’t just let the linings of Soludo’s stomach rest. He has moved from begging those he once derided for votes, to openly accusing Peter Obi of planning to impeach him.
Nigeria’s demise as a country is the making of obdurate and obstinate politicians who refuse to heed lessons and read signs. This irredeemable arrogance make the average Nigerian politician abuse power instead of learning from it. Peter Obi and the Labour Party were once dismissed as noisemakers without structures. Today, after sending many political tigers and titans to early retirement, the ugly duckling has become the beautiful bride.
After less than two years in office as governor, Charles Chukwuma Soludo knows that what few structures he has will be dismantled by the Labour Party on March 18.
He has also been found out by Anambra voters who are now convinced that having a cerebral and celebrated professor of Economics in office as governor is not always a cause to cheer.
Nigerian politicians threatened by Peter Obi’s wild popularity easily dismiss him as a bigot. But they are only ignorant.
Soludo’s problems may only be beginning. The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria will know real anxiety if the Labour Party wins most of the seats in the Anambra State House of Assembly on March 18.
