For Anambra State Governor, Mr. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, it is very much a case of setting sail early, and nailing his colours to the mast as he begins the very urgent task of taking the “Light of the Nation’ state to even greater heights.
The expectations surrounding his government are quite high given his antecedents and just how eagerly many people are waiting to see whether he flies or flounders as governor of the state. There is only little doubt that for every one of those who wish the cerebral and celebrated former Governor of Nigeria`s Central Bank success in his new endeavour, there are many more who wish him failure so they can mercilessly reprise their well-worn and utterly puerile argument that in Nigeria, intellectuals fumble once the hot coals of power are placed in their palms.
For Mr. Soludo, his first few days in office have been electric as he has sought to pick his team, polish his policies, while pointing out the direction he seeks to take the state all in keeping with his promises to the good people of Anambra State.
Mr. Soludo cannot afford to let the well-being of the people of the state out of his sight for even a second because the likes of that rural woman who went viral in a certain rural community for rejecting the sum of 5000 naira offered for her vote on November 6,2021 would want to know that her heroics were not in vain.
The good people of Anambra State would also want to be able to say at the end of the day that they made an excellent decision in choosing brains over brawn, just as intellectuals and the intelligentsia in Anambra State, and beyond would want to heave a sigh of relief someday and say that Nigerian politics is not the graveyard of intellectuals after all.
Is politics in Nigeria a dirty game as many believe? It would seem so. In a country where the perks of power mean insanely much because the system is broken, politics usually charge for its services in blood, gore and bile.
The stakes are always perilously high just as the rules of the game remain shockingly lose so that at the end of the day, those who know how to kill and get away with murder, and those who know how to bribe and get away with bribery win the day. Thus, in the trenches of Nigerian politics, even lambs soon learn to fight tooth and nail as mud is slung and no stiver of smear spared.
It is into this extremely treacherous political trough that Mr. Soludo has now dipped his snout and only time will tell if he will emerge with a mishappen or a majestic snout. The early signs have been both cautionary and celebratory.
He has chosen to be the native son – one who prefers native food and wine to the extortionate cuisines that give off colonial flavours. He has indicated his preference for cars assembled in Nigeria over the imported handiwork of people in faraway places in a bid to boost local commerce.
The touts and street urchins who hitherto held large parts of Anambra State to ransom, ruling motor parks and markets with iron fists, have also been told in no uncertain terms that they can no longer display their unsightly wares in the state.
The new government also looks ready to test the will of the Indigenous People of Biafra which since its leader, the loquacious Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, was arrested in Kenya and bundled back to Nigeria last year, has imposed sit-at-home orders in the southeast, in protest.
In a region of people who relied on their uncanny business acumen which they continue to show today, to rise from the ashes of the Nigerian civil war, the sit-at-home orders have been crippling to put it mildly.
Mr. Soludo has already indicted his desire to roll back the boulder. He has instructed people in the state to go about their usual activities every Monday in defiance of the IPOB and its instruction that people stay at home.
It remains to be seen whether faith in a new government led by an accomplished public intellectual will prevail over people`s fear of an organization of dubious legitimacy which has shown ruthless bloodlust in the past.
The IPOB has occasionally and cynically pointed out empty streets of the Southeast on the Mondays, to explain that people participate in protest because they are sympathetic to its cause. However, nothing could be farther from the truth however.
In a region where insecurity has continued to degenerate by the day, it has become an act of basic self-preservation that people should stay indoors on days when no one is accountable or even responsible for their security.
Mr. Soludos sweeping changes in the state are sure to stir the hornets nest as there are entrenched interests in the state who for many years have found bread and butter from dysfunction. These people will fight tooth and nail to ensure that things do not function, and the status quo is maintained.
When they do, Mr. Soludo must have enough wits and willpower about him to push back while keeping those who elected him on his side, lest his detractors taunt him and those who rejected bribes and brutes to elect him.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
