By Rev Fr Gerald Nwafor
I recall the sayings of our people that we should not burn down the house because a rat ran into it (Ejiro iwe oke esu uno oku). I am fully engaged in many platforms where elites and commoners discussed the imbroglio between His Excellency, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the incumbent governor of Anambra state, and one of his successors Mr. Peter Obi. I can feel the heartbeat of the citizens and I can predict the trappings of some of my colleagues and friends.
Although we are not politicians, we have a stake in how we should be governed and who it is that we think should do well as a governor. That is the only reason that who oversees Anambra State matters to me and my friend.I have watched how Mr. Peter Obi uses the Anambra sense called ako (akpa uche) to avoid the diatribe which most people wanted him to engage in with the governor of Anambra state. Obi said that while he oversaw Anambra state, he was a simple trader who was privileged to get into politics and in that pursuit won the governor of Anambra state.
He further alluded that as a trader he did try his best with his business acumen in the 8 years he served as a governor. Obi opined that now that the state has a professor as a governor, they should be happy, and the professor should use his professorial knowledge and finish what he (Peter Obi) did not finish.
Those statements cripple the warmongers, and the fire was diluted in 2022.Very recently the president of Nigeria visited Anambra state to commission many landmark projects built by the governor Professor Charles Soludo. Once again, the choice of words of the governor did not go down well with some citizens of Anambra state, and the old emotions and sentiments were brought to the front burner once again. In 2023 I advised that we should vote for Peter Obi, not minding what the governor was saying about Peter Obi, because I have looked at all the candidates who presented themselves for the office of the president and Mr. Obi was the most qualified.
Not because he is a saint or not, since we do not know who is one until the church proclaims it. Today many people have seen the reason why I argued for Obi. Let’s get started.Vote for Soludo in the next gubernatorial election in Anambra State not because he is a saint or not but simply because he seems to be the best candidate in the list of candidates who presented themselves for the office of the governor of Anambra State.
Since we moved from PDP to APGA the question of godfatherism has been buried in Anambra state. When Peter Obi was the governor, we did not hear that the godfathers and godmothers were running amok. When Willy Obiano was the governor, we saw how the Anambra people rejected the attempt by Obi to be the godfather of Obiano and pushed him further away with his candidates in PDP (Obaze and Ozigbo).
Yes, we are not happy with some of the language the governor was using to classify Mr. Peter Obi, but we cannot jettison the fact that he is our best choice as of today. His macabre dance with the government in power, APC, is not something to worry about because the politicians think about three things while in power. First, how do I secure my seat (position) even if it means stepping over my grandmother? Two, how do I align myself with the powerful so that even if I lose I should not be disgraced or go to jail? And three, which should have been the first, is what should I do to be famous or popular so that the people would vote for me in the next election.
These three instincts guide their thoughts and behavior. We all know the reason why the incumbent governor is not attacking Ngige, Mbadinuju, or Obiano but Obi. Those three were all once a governor in Anambra state and two of them relatively did well (Nigie and Obiano) but one of them Mbadinauju was less effective as a governor and was the only PDP governor who was not returned to the whole federation in 2003.Why is Soludo not attacking them?
Your guess is as good as mine. The three have no political capital in today’s Nigeria. So, attacking Obi will align you with the powers that be. Attacking Obi will make better news although you will also face the wrath of the OBIDIENT-MOVEMENT. Remember that the governor in one of his writings called the obidient-movement the headless mob. We all know how all those shenanigans ended. Back to the main point.Mr. Obi, in our opinion, did excellently as the governor of Anambra state and many statistics confirmed it.
The present governor confirmed it also during the gubernatorial debate in 2021 where he said that during the government of Peter Obi, Anambra state was debt free, hunger-free, educational improvement was massive, and human development capital was at its all-time best. He concluded by saying “National Bureau of Statistics.” So, there is no question about the track record of Mr. Obi. Our duty as citizens is to know when the politicians are playing politics and when they are defending their territorial integrity. All the noise about Obi is figured in the 2027 presidential campaign.
We are not so interested in 2027 now because a day is unpredictable in the political calendar. We are faced with the 2025 gubernatorial election in Anambra state. We must pick the best candidate and advise the rest of the citizens to make a good decision about what they would like to see in the next four years. The beauty of democracy is the power of the citizens to make their choices. If Professor Soludo was less effective, we would also have a duty to tell the public not to vote for him because of the lapses.
The lapses we know, and we know the reasons why those lapses exist, but we should not burn down the beautiful state we have taken time to build since Mr. Peter Obi started massive development. The only reason why we are going to vote for Soludo this year is because of what Peter Obi did as APGA governor. Therefore, forget the words of the governor against Mr. Obi and vote for the governor because of Mr. Peter Obi’s antecedents in Anambra State.
