The Soludo Smear Campaign Against Peter Obi And Other Matters -By Gozie Irogboli

I am happy about how the public especially the social media users in the last few days have unleashed their umbrage on Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the Anambra State governor over his allegation against Peter Obi, the erstwhile governor of the state, about borrowing money during his tenure and leaving debt for his successor instead of credit as he claimed. Many have wondered why the acclaimed Professor of economics could not distinguish between sovereign subnational on-lending funds borrowed by the federal government and distributed to the subnational states for special projects from the loan initiated and borrowed by the states from the commercial banks and if participating in such loans tied to special projects has become a crime? The summary of the Anambra State assets and liability as Obi was leaving office in 2014 was contained in the hand-over note that he left for his successor and yet Soludo chose to ignore that.

Many have wondered too about Soludo’s fixation on Peter Obi instead of facing his business and mandate as a state governor. People are asking why Soludo is not concerned about the state of the nation: the poor state of Nigeria economy, the decaying state infrastructure, the deplorable security situation in the country, the marginalization of his South-East political bloc and the survival of the nation’s democracy. Indeed, many have asked why he is so concerned about tarnishing the unblemished record of Obi while he kept mute about Tinubu and his baggage of scandals that has dominated discussions in both the local and international media. And it is unfortunate in the extreme.

Many have attributed Soludo’s pull-him-down attitude towards Peter Obi to many things ranging from jealousy, selfishness, ignorance and the fear-factor. Since Peter Obi humbled him in the Anambra gubernatorial election in 2010, Soludo has taken every occasion and every opportunity to malign Peter Obi. From the flippant lips of Soludo, it is: Obi this, Obi that. When he is not calling him “a common trader”, he is saying that the only project he commission in Anambra during his tenure is the brewery or that Obi was wrong to have left some money while leaving the office as governor instead of investing it or that Obi is lying about his campaign promises and many other preposterous remarks and allegations.

But, unknown to Soludo, his conduct and unwarranted attack on Obi, is working against him. He has indirectly downgraded and demystified himself in the process. Nobody sees him any more as the great economist who transformed the nation’s banking land scape. Many are in fact questioning his credibility and his much-touted intellectual credentials. And, Ndigbo see him now as a traitor and a saboteur.

By attacking Peter Obi unfairly and trying to frustrate his presidential ambition, Soludo is now seen among the Igbo as being in the same level with Jim Nwobodo who publicly addressed the PDP delegates in Hausa during the presidential primaries in Jos in 1999, telling the delegates not to vote for Ekwueme, that Ekweme would balkanize Nigeria if elected president. He is also seen as another Ukpabi Asika who betrayed Ndigbo during the civil war, insulting the great Zik of Africa, calling him ex-this, ex-that, and Ojo Maduekwe who said during the Obasanjo regime that the Igbo man’s quest to seek the highest political office in the country is idiotic.

It is not out of place to state that Soludo has presented himself as someone that has refused to grow emotionally; he remains the same Charlie Nwa-Ngboafo, the village boy who refused to outgrow petty jealousy. He still remains the crude, sulking, bad-tempered village boy. He has lived like one who has no mind of his own; who lives to appease the significant-others as psychologists would put it. He has remained the timid village boy with a complex problem that tends to make him copy those who should be learning from him. Instead of tackling the peculiar challenges facing Anambra State, he is copying the Lagos crude model of governing with touts and agberos and issuing threats of demolitions. And contrary to what he said, he seems not to have any clear-cut idea on how to transform Anambra into the economic hub that he had promised.

Indeed, Soludo is a super flop who did not live up to his pre-election rating. Before the Anambra gubernatorial election in 2022, it was generally believed that the coming of Soludo would transform Anambra into the Japan of Africa. Five years after, we have not seen anything: no industrial parks, no economic master plan, no transformation, and no visible investment inflow into the state, no infrastructural facelift… Instead what is seen the government that is copying the Lagos crude model of governance with task force of touts and hooligans. Soludo in his short-sightedness did not see the danger of governance with touts. Tomorrow when he is out of office, those touts will transmute into full-blown criminals with the arms and ammunition in their custody.

Clearly, Soludo is not busy with governance otherwise he would not have time to peddle lies and spurious allegation against Obi who has unblemished public record devoid of any form of scandal. Soludo is fixated about trying to malign Obi and please his principal, Tinubu. And he used his unfounded allegation against Obi to divert public attention, albeit temporarily, away from the Tinubu’s certificate forgery and FBI files scandals currently trending in the media.

It seems that Soludo is sometimes intimidated by those with higher profile and public rating and is notorious for attacking them. In the past, he attacked Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Dora Akunyili. In February, 2015, after Sanusi’s allegations about missing billions, Soludo wrote about 6,500 words trash against the government of Goodluck Jonathan alleging missing money that he could not substantiate. But, nobody seemed to know why he stooped so low to make such spurious allegation. Some thought he was seeking relevance. Some thought he was trying to spite Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the then finance minister and coordinating minister of the economy while some assumed that he was supporting Sanusi, the then CBN governor in order to avoid a probe of his activities while he was the CBN governor.

It is ironical that Soludo one of those that made the most scathing criticism against the Jonathan’s economy is today praising Tinubu’s economic sabotage dressed as a reform. It is only a voodoo economist that would describe the carnage being done to the Nigerian economy of today as a reform. Soludo has made himself a professor of voodoo economics. He is like an economist who did not understand the structure of the economy that he is supposed to manage.

Leadership and governance are about identifying the needs of the people and channeling the resources to meet those needs. Ngige identified poor infrastructure as the major problem of Anambra during his time and invested productively in that directed by constructing roads to link up Anambra communities for ease of mobility and economic activities. Obi consolidated on Ngige’s performance, gave Anambra State infrastructural facelift, invested in social services and brought government closer to the people through many interventionist projects.

But here is Soludo’s main achievement: spearheading the re-election bid of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, smear campaign against Peter Obi, the establishment of the reign of ndi-agboro. When Soludo is not boasting about ending the sit-at-home protest in Anambra, he is talking about fighting ndi-okite or threatening to destroy the Otu-Onicha. And all that portray him as one who is chasing shadow. If Soludo is informed, he would have known that sit-at-home as a form of protest is not a crime but a legitimate practice in a democracy. He never bothered in any way to address the cause of the protest and why there is compliance among the people but he wants to end the protest by force in order to please the powers that be. It is undemocratic and dictatorial to force people out of their home against their wish. The Tinubu and his gang that he is trying to please, did more than sit-at-home in Lagos during the NADECO era of the 90s.

Again, pursuing ndi-okite with force without asking fundamental questions and tackling the root causes of the prevalence of such things is akin to chasing shadow. Many of Nigerian youths, not just Ndi-Anambra have erroneously taken to fetish rituals as a means of survival not just because of the get-rich-quick syndrome but because many of them are jobless, helpless and hopeless. And that is the major cause of the “japa” syndrome. Those that could not make it to travel out have taken to gambling, kidnapping, hooliganism and other social vices. Soludo thinks that he has ended the Okite thing in Anambra but that is delusional. Those involved have gone underground while some have fled Anambra to other neighboring states to continue their fetish act. Such is the case when you try to forcefully put an end to an ingrained problem without addressing the root causes. It would go underground and appear in a more sinister way. The Okite phenomenon is the reflection of the failure of governance in Nigeria. Soludo and his ilk; the politicians who did not plan for the future of our youths are the cause of the Okite crisis.

And in the course of forcing traders in Onitsha to abandon the sit-at-home protest, Soludo had threatened to demolish the Otu-Onitcha, the market emporium that the great Zik of Africa built in the 50s. It was the market that shaped the economy of the whole of Eastern Nigeria. It was the market, the biggest in Africa that attracts traders from all over Africa, the model that Dubai of today copied. It is the market that contributed enormously to the wealth, trade and commercial dominance of the Igbo man. It is the market that is the biggest entrepreneurial incubator in the country. It is the market that helped Ndigbo survive the post-civil war trauma. Thus, the threat by Soludo to destroy the market is sacrilegious and portrays him as the economist who did not know the economic history of his region. He wanted to destroy the market probably to rebuild and acquire it like those he is trying to emulate in Lagos or to justify the economic banditry and the state-sponsored wanton destruction of the markets and the Igbo man’s investment in Lagos. He is doing all that to please Tinubu and probably to escape the EFCC invitation after the expiration of his tenure.

However, one thing is clear from all the attack targeted at Peter Obi by Soludo and the APC gang of political never-do-wells: they are intimidated by Obi’s profile and unimpeachable records in public service. The standard that Peter Obi set in democratic governance, prudence, accountability and selfless service is too high for the Soludo and his ilk to attain. Obi is head and shoulder above Soludo in every dimension. They are never in the same class. Obi is better than Soludo in character, capability, maturity, accomplishments etcetera. Soludo is troubled that in every public gathering in Anambra State where he sits as governor currently, Obi’s presence always dwarfs that of his.

The APC and its team of political pettifoggers see Peter Obi as the only problem they have going into the 2027 general election and that is why they have mobilized every arsenal to attack Obi. They want to pull him down at all costs. It is a paranoiac situation. But, much as they try, they find it difficult to nail him and instead, they popularize him the more. The masses, the silent majority and even nature are on the side of Peter Obi because Nigeria needs him to serve the people and reverse the dwindling fortunes of the nation ruined by the APC regime. Yes, Nigeria needs a servant-leader, an ethical leader and a transformational and exemplary leadership that only Peter Obi can provide at this time.

Gozie Irogboli

(goziei@yahoo.com)

An economist, banker, a novelist and public policy analyst