There is heavy pressure on the Anambra State governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) to run for a second term in 2025, Anambra People has reliably gathered.
A source who would not want to be mentioned said series of delegations have been meeting the governor for defection to APC to connect Anambra State to the centre.
The source said,” I think APC is interested in getting Anambra State this time around. Big wigs in the party in the state and at the national are talking with the governor to join us( APC).
“We are thinking that politically, it will be easier and cheaper to invest in a sitting governor as our candidate in that election than bringing a greenhorn into the race.
“We’re talking with governor and hoping that our discussion will be fruitful. But you know that from now to about November next year is a long time. Even 24 hours is a long time in politics. But we are hopeful.
But we have plan B, too. So, if the governor doesn’t yield to our entreaties, we will look at our plan B. But what I’m assuring you today is that APC is interested in Anambra.
Paul Chukwuma, an aspirant in the 2025 contest on the platform of the APC corroborated our source.
He said, “I have sent delegations to our dear governor to join APC to run for a second term, but no positive answers came from the delegations. That is why I have made up my mind to take up the mantle and join the 2025 Governorship race.
Chukwuma who is the Pro-Chancellor of Olivia University, Burundi, said he was convinced that the underdevelopment in Anambra was because of the inability of the state to connect to the centre by joining the APC.
In a press chat with journalists in his country home in Umueri, Anambra East Local Government Area, Chukwuma said only an APC governor could develop Anambra State, under an APC-led federal government.
He argued that there were advantages of having a governor from the APC in the current regime, as according to him there were many decision making gatherings that governors that were not of APC stock might not be aware of, including Anambra governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo who is of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
He said: “Go and look at the two states in the South East that are being governed by APC; Ebonyi and Imo, and compare them with other states that are governed by other political parties, and you will see the difference.
“In Ebonyi, the past and present governors have used the platform to attract the goodwill of the federal government, and if you go there, you will see the quality of their projects.
“Go to Imo, you will see massive projects there. As I speak to you now, Orashi River is being dredged, courtesy of the federal government. Hope Uzodinma has used the opportunity of his closeness to the federal government to attract projects. Right now, Federal University of Technology (FUTO) is being turned into a full conventional university. They are building a teaching hospital there now.
“What Governor Hope Uzodinma is doing there, we have never seen it here. Those who are criticizing Hope are just doing so to get at him, not because he is not performing.
“Coming to Anambra, all the erosion sites we have everywhere here, we can not tackle it. We need federal government funds to be able to do so. That is why I’m saying that the problem is not with those who are governors today, but the party they come from.”
The businessman said he would be ready to throw his hat in the ring for the election next year, adding that coming from APC, he would leverage his closeness to the government at the centre to fix most problems in the state, which he said were beyond the capacity of the state government.
The senator representing Anambra South senatorial District, Chief Ifeanyi Ubah, had about two weeks ago declared his intention to contest the election, describing Governor Chukwuma Soludo as an under-performing governor.
Reacting to the story of Soludo’s possible defection to APC, the National Publicity Secretary of APGA, Mazi Ejimofor Opara said it was not true.
Opara said,” It’s not true. It’s the figment of their own imagination. Soludo is not somebody you can be pressured to take decisions. So anybody talking about the governor’s defection to APC is just concocting stories.
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