By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
In almost four years, the governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo, has gone the full cycle. From a revered professor of economics, to a people’s governor who mounted the saddle of Anambra’s governance on the back of high expectations, amidst popular support, which has suffered backlash from time to time. Being the governor of Anambra State, Professor Soludo has come face-to-face with the realities of public service. Armed with more than a handful of uncomfortable truths, the people have had to contend with a Soludo they did not know was wrapped in the man they thought they knew.
About three days ago, speaking during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day, Governor Soludo so casually and bluntly rebuked the people of Southeast and specifically, Anambra youths, for their lack of interest in joining the Nigerian Armed Forces. He equally expressed disappointment that a lot of Southeasterners have not moved on from the Nigeria-Biafra civil war. I have carefully weighed Soludo’s speech and concluded that, indeed, Governor Soludo’s pattern of public rebuke against what might seem like a popular order, as against the typical diplomatic maneuver or moral suasion, is a deliberate trademark he has forged for himself. This is not arrogance in itself; the governor has simply chosen his own identity as one who speaks the hard truth. While it might hurt, it is still the truth, and I guess he is modeling himself as a leader with the courage to confront the people with a disquieting opinion. The reality of the Nigerian situation is that the people and the leaders must be forced to deal with some uncomfortable truths relating to our experience as a people. However, no politician wants to gamble with the wrath of the people whom he believes are capable of advancing his interests. Certainly, no one wants to upset the masses. But Soludo? He has continued to test the limits of his courageous views against several individuals, including his friend, Chief Augustine Ndigwe, whom he cautioned to his face to stop parading himself as the Eze Uzu of Awka. He has also confronted IPOB apologists and has extended the same favour to Obidients, Peter Obi’s foot soldiers. Before the 2023 Presidential Election, he confronted Peter Obi with a personal letter. The list is very long. At first, these might appear as mere oversights or innocent mistakes. But they are consistent and leave traces of a man who has chosen a path for his political journey.
In that instance, it then would appear that one of the most outstanding qualities of Governor Soludo has materialized as his ability to speak truth to power. Only that this time, he is speaking to the power of the people, not the powers that be, like he once did with his iconic letter to a former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan. Unfortunately, no power, be it the powers of the state or that of the masses, can stand the truth. The irony, however, is that while Professor Soludo’s quality to speak without recourse to feelings, or without due consideration to fleeting preferences of the masses, it does appear that the same quality which ordinarily should have distinguished him as a leader among his people, has instead diminished him. He is seen as a leader who is tactless to the sensibilities of his own people, instead of being seen as one who speaks an uncomfortable truth or at least one worthy of forcing a people into a rethink. Unable to admit or even engage, many of the people at the receiving end of Soludo’s razor-sharp opinions have simply dismissed Soludo as conceited or an impossible character. But in truth, Soludo knows what he is doing, and he has seen that being who he is has not stopped him from retaining his office. The implication is that whether he is liked or not, it just wouldn’t make any sense to change his pattern because it did not stop him from getting reelected last November. Earlier, it also did not stop him from getting his party to fill the two vacant legislative seats in the State. In other words, this Soludo, as he is now known, cannot be any less of what has been known.
I must now admit that for anyone to look at the Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, and then explain the consistency of his sharp rebuke or precise stand, in terms of being merely egotistical or acting as if he knows it all, that is a clear misdiagnosis or at best an inadequate explanation of a deliberate behvioural pattern of a man in Soludo’s mold. The bottom line is that Soludo has successfully demystified the political code that one who seeks power in a democracy should not offend the people who would assist him in reaching his goal. Whatever it is, Soludo is not playing the conventional political card, and it is not accidental or an error of omission.
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