Since the interview Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor of Anambra State granted to Channels TV and his subsequent rejoinder, there has been all manner of outrage against his public communication.
On a spectrum, the outrage ranges from people who are genuinely concerned about the turn of events to those who are downright ridiculous in their insinuations and gratuitous insults, making a mockery of the democracy we pretend to practice.
Before I go further, I will like to present a historical context, which will help clarify some issues which many commentators may not be aware of.
First is that Prof Soludo is the current leader of APGA, the third largest party in Nigeria today.
Second is that Mr. Peter Obi was once the leader of APGA. He left the party and joined PDP. Since leaving the party he focused his energy on the destruction of the party he once led, which many Igbos believe to be their party, hence the slogan “nkea bu nke anyi. One of his immediate actions as soon as he joined PDP was to produce a governorship candidate in the person of Oseloka Obaze to fight against APGA’s candidate.
This if you ask me is fair in politics. APGA did not complain but the party from then on saw him as a foe. Consequently, the goodwill that existed between him and the party became ruptured. They saw him as someone who benefitted from the party and now wants to destroy the party that offered him a platform to success. As things will have it, his bid to install Obaze was unsuccessful and since then there has been no love lost between Peter Obi and APGA.
Third, in 2019 Peter Obi became a vice presidential running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of PDP. Popular Igbo sentiment was to support PDP because of Peter Obi. Meanwhile, Willy Obiano, the leader of APGA at the time was not so inclined because he had bargained with President Buhari to support him on the condition that he promises to complete the 2nd Niger bridge, Zik’s Massoleum in Onitsha and the express way from Onitsha to Awka. Buhari agreed and kept his own side of the bargain.
Peter Obi and the PDP craftily ambushed Ohaneze Ndigbo under the presidency of, Chief Nnia Nwodo in Enugu and got Ohaneze to endorse the PDP because of Peter Obi. In the Ohaneze meeting that will decide which party to support, APC and APGA were supposed to be in attendance. On that day, Igbo APC ministers that will attend the meeting accompanied Buhari to open the Zik mausoleum in Onitsha and thereafter attend the Ohaneze meeting in Enugu later in the day. PDP outsmarted them and induced Ohaneze to hold and conclude the meeting even before APGA representatives got to Enugu from Awka. Ohaneze hurriedly announced its support for PDP without giving APGA and APC the fair chance to make a case for their respective parties. This left a sour taste in the mouth of APGA and APC. They subsequently held press conferences to protest the unfair behavior of Ohaneze. In the national elections, Anambra voted overwhelmingly for PDP to the chagrin of APGA who lost some legislature seats to PDP as a result of the fact that Peter is a homeboy. Consequently, the trust deficit between Peter and APGA deepened.
Fourth, in the last election in Anambra (Nov 2021), Peter again threw his support behind Valentine Ozigbo to fight APGA, the party he once led. He was not successful and the damaged relationship became etched in stone.
We are now in a new election season and Peter Obi now expects the support of his home base, which is under the control of the party he fought viciously over the years. He undeservedly expects that APGA will roll out a red carpet for him and his Labour party. Igbo conventional wisdom also expects that all Igbos owe it a duty to support Peter Obi. Unfortunately, life does not work that way, especially after the bitter experience APGA had in 2019.
That is not even the point. Much as popular sentiments amongst the Igbos is that it is a foregone conclusion that Peter will win the next election, APGA thinks otherwise based on their understanding of Nigerian politics. They justifiably feel Peter will only succeed in cannibalizing APGA votes in Anambra and yet lose the election. This will be double jeopardy. Peter fails to win and APGA is weakened. No right thinking political party will agree to suffer collateral damage on account of a risk that will amount to double jeopardy.
It is against this background that the Channel TV interview should be viewed. What was Soludo’s crime? The anchorman, Seun Okinbaloye asked him what his perspective is about government investing public funds outside of the public sector and made reference to Mr. Peter Obi who Seun claims made statements to the effect that he made such investments with Anambra state funds with the intention of attracting profits and benefits to Anambra state. He then asked Soludo what has become of that investment and if he will be looking in that direction, to make similar investments on behalf of Anambra people.
Soludo’s initial response was to firmly deflect the question by reminding Seun that the interview was about his 2023 budget and not about the investments made by Peter Obi or any of his predecessors. He thereafter said he knows nothing about the statement made by Peter Obi, which Seun alluded to but that he recalls that someone tried to speculate about the value of the investment. He then added that from that standpoint what he sees today is that the value is worth next to nothing and thereafter proceeded to highlight how he will spend Anambra funds by investing in the future of the state. This is the statement that the leader of an opposition party that Peter Obi sought to destroy on a number of occasions made and boom ignited a bomb. If the investment was worth next to nothing, Soludo was expected by the mob to say that the investments are so valuable that Anambra will not need federal allocations in the next 10 years. Come-on ladies and gentlemen, are we in a multi-party democracy or not? If we are, that statement was a slap on the wrist from an opposition party that has suffered existential threats in the hands of Peter Obi.
Then the social media mob joined the fray baying for blood and issuing threats. Which kind of multi-party democracy are we practicing? While Peter’s mob is beholden unto him, his former party members know him better than his new followers who believe every word he utters, much of which are twisted facts and half-truths. For example, Obi thrills his mob with stories about how he left N75bn in the treasury of Anambra state, while he conveniently forgets to tell them that he also left N127bn debt for the next government. The sad thing is that he lied about how much he actually left. It was N44bn not N75bn.
He tells people about the hundreds of kilometers of roads that he built but forgets to tell them that the roads all became dilapidated in less than 5 years of completion. He tells his mob that he never borrowed a kobo during his tenure and left a surplus in the treasury. The Debt Management Office had a different story to tell. As at when he took over office in 2007 external debt outstanding against Anambra stood at $15 million. When he left office in 2014, the debt had risen to $41million. There is so much to write about his self-glorification, which people in his home state had understandably been mute about. However, if his mob continues to insult and denigrate other people, they will soon be shown the wood from which their wooden god was carved from. Enough should be enough.
©️Obiora Nwanekwu
