GOVERNOR SOLUDO’S MISREADING OF HISTORY, THE MOMENT
AND NEAR FUTURE: STATEMENT BY LEAGUE OF ANAMBRA
PROFESSIONALS. PT.1
Against the backdrop of economy-strangulating simmering insecurity of the past
two years, Anambra State has hardly been on the news for the right reasons in the
recent past; what with the slapping drama during the current Governor’s
inauguration, his predecessor caught whilst sneaking away at the airport by the
EFCC amidst accusations of large-scale plundering of public funds and other such
unsavoury developments. It would therefore be understandable that the League
of Anambra Professionals (LAP), as true patriots, would rather avoid
prolongation of any discussion of or attention to the presently trending
unfortunate gratuitous incendiary animadversions against Peter Obi by the
Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, in his written statement with claims
that ‘History Beckons’. However, not only because that Governor Soludo called
in aid history to be his witness, the substance of what he was supposed to be
addressing, i.e. the investments and savings made by Governor Peter Obi whilst
in office, are subjects which LAP is privy to and had cause to intervene on in the
past. And the records need to be straightened for posterity even as we seek closure
to the present avoidable damaging controversy.
Barely midway through Governor Obiano’s first tenure as Anambra State
Governor there erupted the controversy over the savings, in dollars and naira,
made by Governor Peter Obi, his immediate predecessor, and handed over to him
on the state’s behalf. Driven by the desire for avoidance of dissipation of energy
and to facilitate maintenance of the widely lauded governance momentum of the
past government under Mr. Obi, LAP moved to quickly intervene and obtained
the consent of the Obi and Obiano camps to mediate over the dispute. Seeking to
first establish the facts of the matter, we requested both men to give us their
respective sides of the story. Peter Obi made detailed representations backed with
documentary proof but Obiano backed off soon thereafter and, in response to our
reminders for his own side of the story, made mealymouthed excuses that ‘he had
moved on’ and that the matter had been overtaken by events.
There was and remains no doubt that Peter Obi’s claims of the savings made by
the Anambra State Government in three commercial banks under his watch were
the truth; the documentary proof palpably verifiable and indeed verified in the
event. As it turned out LAP incurred the displeasure of both camps. Obiano’s
grouse, it appeared, was that rather than his obvious expectation of a whitewash
and instinctive support for him as ‘the man of the moment’ we actually took the
matter seriously and represented a danger of exposure of his disingenuousness.
Peter Obi’s camp, on the other hand was unhappy that LAP did not sufficiently
publicise its findings. And as was put by one of Obi’s associates, they wondered
“how could LAP set an exam without announcing the result?” Whatever LAP got
right or wrong in those circumstances is another matter and which would not
detain us here.
Anyway, with the amount of documentary proof and involvement of credible
third parties in the form of the concerned well known banks through which the
monetary savings/investments were made, no reasonable person would doubt
Peter Obi on the issue. Indeed, Governor Soludo acknowledges that the savings
were made but went ahead to dismiss it as representing poor governance choice
when, in his view, ‘there were lives to be saved.’ For all his stature as a celebrated
economist, Professor Soludo was here exhibiting ignorance, or dishonesty. This
is most lamentable, whichever is the case. We shall not be unduly detained by an
analysis of the self-evidently untenable criticism of the savings. Suffice it to say
that the catastrophic economic abyss confronting Nigeria today is partly on
account of a daunting debt profile and absence of any cushioning sovereign
savings. Meanwhile Soludo could not spot the illogicality in bragging about the
healthy foreign reserves Nigeria had under his watch as the Central Bank
Governor and lamentation that he met a huge debt profile on assuming office as
Anambra State Governor, but in the same breadth criticizing the fact that Peter
Obi left for Willie Obiano not debts but unprecedented savings in naira and
foreign currencies and other investments.
As for the current worth of the Anambra State investment in a brewery made
under Governor Peter Obi, it is axiomatic that generally the value of stocks ebbs
and flows with time. The important thing is that the principle which informed the
investment was sound. And worthy of note also is that the brewery itself is
buoyant and providing direct and indirect employment to many residents of
Anambra State, in addition to exemplifying the conventional wisdom of
diversification of investments when considered together with the savings part of
which was in eurobonds.
Discerning Ndi Anambra and indeed well informed non partisan Nigerians could
see through the pettiness and sophistry which characterize Soludo’s insufferably
misguided letter. It would suffice here to reflect on and ponder on the trajectory
of the firestorm ignited by Governor Soludo. He was being interviewed on his
2023 budget for the state and then left the subject and, a more pertinent question
of his view on the controversial timing of the Nigerian currency redesign, to latch
onto an incidental casual observation by his interviewer to dismiss the value of
Peter Obi’s investments for Anambra State as being “next to nothing”. Unless he
is a naïve recent Martian émigré, Soludo must have known that Peter Obi’s
mainly youthful huge online followers were going to leap to their candidate’s
support, especially given the obvious mischief which informed the criticism.
Equally pertinent in the present vein is that he is not known to be contesting
anything with Peter Obi and who did nothing wrong against him. As it were,
Soludo drew the first blood so to speak.
If he could be excused for instigating the ensuing firestorm, after all there is
freedom of expression, it is unfortunate that Soludo instead of being occupied by
the devastating security and other problems confronting the state had time to
immerse himself in the twittering maelstrom of the so-called Obidients. As if that
was not a sufficiently shocking misuse of his valuable time, he went further to
descend from his lofty gubernatorial perch to join issues with the Obidients, most
of whom are probably young enough to be his biological children; authoring and
disseminating a rambling epistle which read more like an offering by Humpty
Dumpty and evoking haunting reminders of his past unflattering characterization
by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala which Ndi Anambra hoped he had evolved beyond
when they entrusted him with political leadership in a most challenging time as
now.
[LAP]PT.2
LAP wonders, like other reasonable and well-meaning Nigerians why Governor
Soludo is weeping louder than the bereaved. He belongs to APGA and what is
his legitimate concern in Peter Obi supposedly by his aspiration denying PDP
votes otherwise available to it, and in the process aiding an APC victory in the
coming presidential election, as he suggested. He wants his audience to see a
coalescence of the PDP’s interest with those of Ndigbo, but it is the same party
whose leading lights like Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State propagate the
fallacy that given their alleged lack of great numbers no Igbo person should
seriously aspire for the Nigerian presidency notwithstanding that person’s merits
and acceptance by many Nigerians across ethnic and religious divides as seems
to be the case with Peter Obi presently.
Soludo in his denigration of Obi’s current presidential bid not only stoked that
fallacious fire, he apparently also did not see the likely strategic blunder of PDP
in jettisoning its constitutionally enshrined zoning arrangement regarding its
choice of presidential candidate; and in the process jeopardizing the already
dangerously strained national unity and cohesion. Undoubtedly, whatever little
elite and regional/zonal consensus that existed in the country has been mortally
wounded by the party. And without such consensus, or semblance of it, peace and
economic progress of the country would remain illusory.
Making short shrift of Obi’s chances of winning the Presidency next year misses
the point in our considered view. In a way, Peter Obi and a significant percentage
of Nigerians are, in some ways, already winners regardless of the eventual result.
The Nigerian political class with a chokehold on the country through the two
biggest political parties disdainfully imagine that the populace has no choice but
must accept whoever they present as presidential candidates; regardless of merit
in all its ramifications, including character, mental and physical fitness, notions
of equity amongst ethnic and other divides. There is no doubt that the palpable
wide resonance of the Peter Obi candidacy, a fact duly acknowledged by serious
local and international political pundits, would ensure greater care and
circumspection by the bigger political parties in choosing their candidates in
future. We would not pretend to possess Soludo’s crystal ball to be able to speak
so authoritatively regarding the outcome of the coming presidential election
which promises to be like no other in recent memory; the contest seemingly
replete with so many peculiar sub-plots and counter-acting factors. Indeed INEC
in a seeming acknowledgment of the peculiar unpredictability of the election has
announced its preparedness for a run-off. Somebody in Government House Awka
may well be reading the wrong tea leaves or misreading the right ones. Time will
tell.
Governor Soludo had most unkindly attributed the verbal violence and bullying
of Peter Obi’s online fanatical supporters as a mirror of their hero’s character.
Without holding brief for him, Peter Obi’s life history is most transparent and it
is common knowledge that he had been a prominent and well-known figure in the
business community ever before his foray into politics twenty or more years ago.
Peter Obi of course has some faults and one of which, in many peoples view
(including the irrepressible activist Aisha Yusuf) is an inclination to carrying his
pacifism too far. Nigerians may be pardoned for wondering if it was another Peter
Obi that Soludo had in contemplation. The truth is that Peter Obi does not have
much control over the actions and reactions of the vast army of rightly angry
youths and many others who see in his candidacy a vista of hope for a new
Nigeria.
However, actions and events which one controls or is in a position to control is a
better insight into character of the person, and Governor Soludo may well be the
one whose character and persona should be more questionable in the overall
circumstances. The admission of how he unilaterally offered to Peter Obi the
presidential ticket of APGA indicates how, unsurprisingly, he is now in total
control of the party. He is also undoubtedly in the position to even more
decisively influence, if not outrightly gifting, the party’s candidacy for lesser
offices. And so we must use this opportunity to question how under his watch
Mrs. Ebele Obiano is flying APGA’s flag for the Anambra North Senatorial
election. Have we forgotten the shame she brought on womanhood and Ndi
Anambra by launching an unprovoked attack on Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu in
the full glare of millions present and those watching the live broadcast of
Governor Soludo’s swearing-in ceremony? And she never deemed it fit to tender
unreserved apologies to Ndi Anambra for the monumental odium and ignominy
she brought to them.
LAP had cause last year to publicly deplore the odious selfishness of the majority
of Anambra State, and indeed South-East, NASS members and made a call for
better quality representation in the next round of elections. Soludo’s APGA must
have a very cynical sense of humour, tinged with disdain for Ndi Anambra’s
sensibilities, if its idea of better quality representation for the state in NASS
accommodates the idea of a Senator Ebele Obiano. Speaking of the Obianos, it is
remarkable that Governor Soludo who has been lamenting the empty treasury and
huge debts he inherited from his predecessor and justifying his recourse to huge loans and drastic tax collection measures carefully avoided the culprit, whilst launching his scathing attack on Peter Obi. It is probably lost on many Ndi
Anambra that one of the reasons Soludo gave for seeking loans was for completion of the over celebrated Anambra Airport which was supposedly Governor Obiano’s flagship project.
If Governor Soludo really cares for the truth and his responsibilities as the chief
trustee of the resources of Ndi Anambra then he should be demanding from the
EFCC status reports on its investigation of Governor Obiano’s alleged corrupt
misappropriation of state funds, and briefing Ndi Anambra accordingly; the
objective being to ensure that the state’s funds diverted into private pockets are
recovered and put to maximum use for the masses as was self-evidently the case
during Peter Obi’s tenure. For the record, Governors Obiano and Soludo should
know that Ndi Anambra would not allow the matter to be swept under the carpet.
Apart from the issue of a shockingly depleted treasury, Governor Soludo
inherited a state under the siege of nihilistic anarchists and other violent criminal
elements and, to be fair to him, he had been rising to the challenge to the relief of
Ndi Anambra. But much more still needs to be done, and he should focus
wholeheartedly on this security and other challenges. To do so successfully, his
government undoubtedly needs the total goodwill of Ndi Anambra and which he
is dangerously in the process of throwing overboard by his current misadventures.
He threatened to write part two of his epistle but he knows better than it to be
anything like the first part. No one begrudges Governor Soludo his freedom of
expression but he must also understand contexts and limits. As far as Anambra
State is concerned, he is in the position of the custodian of the extended family or
communal ofor, and who is forbidden from acting or speaking whimsically and
intemperately, much less in disregard of truth.
Chijioke Okoli, SAN
(Orji Nnewi)
President, League of Anambra Professionals