Politics is largely local; its democracy brand more so. The dominant political traits of a people (reflections of the common political idiosyncrasies of the constituent persons) determine the characterization the people’s politics bears. Anambra State is home to notable politicians, urbane statesmen and stateswomen whose diverse but rational dispositions to the play of politics over the years earned the state an exemplary political culture where respect for human dignity and the sanctity of life thrived. This is why the devil-may-care violence visited on Anambra State, and the acrimonious politics the state experiences this election season neither properly represent Anambra State nor Ndi-Anambra. It is an unusual time therefore.
Loading ...Indeed, events building up to the November 6, 2021 Anambra gubernatorial election disappointingly tend towards validating the widely held notion that politics is largely dubious and most politicians duplicitous.
Without doubts, two major underpinning factors define the noxious political intrigues and the strange security challenges deviously tugging at the socioeconomic mainstay of Anambra State today. First is the palpable victory scare floated by the All Progressives’ Grand Alliance (APGA), following its choice of Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo as its candidate for the November 6 poll. The second factor, a reaction upon the first, is the phenomenon of two strange bedfellows identifiable in the hell cast desperation of Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) to muscle his way from a despicable antecedent in Anambra political space to become the state governor; and the crass miscalculation of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressives’ Party (YPP), who despite the weighty burden of a convoluted debt profile, still goes ahead investing huge raw energies in seeking to weirdly appropriate Anambra State Governor’s Office to himself. Other contributory factors in the prevailing harsh politics of Anambra fall in-between the two set factors: Soludo’s unassailable flight and the unchecked gubernatorial impulses of Senators Uba and Ubah.
It is not often that a candidate enjoys as much goodwill as Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo of APGA does amongst the electorate in an election as consequential as the November 6, 2021 Anambra gubernatorial poll. For the level of sophistication that the Anambra electorate has acquired, Soludo’s glaring privileged status in the contest is no mere contrived happenstance. It is won by the intimidating résumé he dutifully garnered over time; not any ad hoc conjecture to hoodwink the public into kowtowing to partisan slogans tailored for electoral advantages. Soludo’s impressive combination of superlative intellectual endowment, his consistency in the pursuit and attainment of excellence in the ascending rungs of self-development and public service, and more importantly the obvious hand of Providence in his affairs, institute him ahead of the competition in context. Little wonder the cult followership he commands from an overwhelming population of Anambra people who clamour for his enthronement as the Chief Executive of Anambra State, come March 17, 2022.
The reality of the people’s clamour for Soludo long before the parties’ primary elections dawned on desperate politicians who, having studied the political trend, contrived plots to torpedo his participation in the electoral process. He was calumniated; he suffered death threats leading to loss of lives, but he would not be deterred from yielding to the clear voice of the people. He would not be cowed by the vile brigandry of elements dead sworn to calling the bluff on civilized ethics in politics. Ndi-Anambra’s devotion to APGA, a party they heartily embrace as homegrown and as Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s prized bequest, favourably combines with Soludo’s determination to bring his internationally acclaimed experiences in wealth creation and management home.
The unsavoury records of political rascality and flatulent impudence of Senator Uba of APC; YPP Ubah’s unsparing measures in his pursuits; the tangential effects of Valentine Ozigbo’s (People’s Democratic Party) lethargic presence; Dr. Godwin Maduka’s (Accord Party) mere largesse for the boys; Dr. Obiora Okonkwo’s (Zenith Labour Party) regrettable arrogant repudiation of the zoning scheme, among other peripheral impressions by the other candidates, are ready criteria for determining the way of victory in the November 6 election.
Soludo is by no means a reluctant entrant into the politics of Nigeria. He started seeking the good of society from his undergraduate years when his interest in public affair was established. Since then, his interest in public service has seen him participate in the making and driving of crucial economic policies that have birthed remarkable economic growth in nations and organisations across the globe. Soludo’s professional ingenuity spans beyond his attainment of the pinnacle of economics knowledge as a reputable professor since his 30’s; he became a giant in consultancy on global economy and has creditably served in the highest echelons of Nigerian economic affairs, having served as Chief Economic Adviser to the President and the Chief Executive Officer of the National Planning Commission of Nigeria in President Obasanjo’s regime. At 43, he became the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria where he caused the revolution in the Nigerian Banking industry that stabilized Nigerian Banks and emboldened them as effective participants in global banking business. As a statistics scholar, Soludo is known to be uncompromising with regular appraisal of economic activities in defined polities as a way of measuring the performance of micro economies of his interest vis-à-vis contiguous economies and the macro economy under which they are subsumed. He would often say, ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t grow it,’ as a way of emphasizing the importance of empirical assessment of the dynamics of an economy.
Anambra has not been better blessed in a person with a consummate capacity to lift the state to a dream development height. In his articulate manifesto, Professor Chukwuma Soludo outlined his vision and mission for Anambra when he becomes the governor. Following his conviction, Ndi-Anambra anxiously wait for November 6 to vote for him in demonstration of their faith in his schedule for a prosperous state.
Okechukwu Anarado writes from Adazi-Nnukwu
