Governor Soludo’s two-hour live broadcast interview on Friday has continued to generate responses from diverse quarters. Till Sunday afternoon, the debate was still on. Unfortunately, the discussions are not on Professor Soludo’s plans for Anambra, but on the specific call for Southeasterners to embrace national politics. This part constituted the minutest part of the two-hour interview, yet that is where the focus has been. The call made by Soludo was followed up by his assertion that his position was beyond anything personal because of his decades of friendship with the president. Yet, this, he said, was not about him because with or without Southeast’s support, President Tinubu would still win in 2027 and thereafter, what becomes of the zone’s collective interest. Ordinarily, this ought to call for a deep reflection and maybe further debate on the merits or otherwise of Soludo’s comments. However, Professor Soludo’s honest, bold, and realistic response in that conversation has been turned on its head to serve other political purposes. Some are saying that he is not supporting his brother when the question should be, is that the support required for his brother to win? Some say he is jealous, but the question is, jealous of what? It is often sad to witness how what could form a serious conversation is often flipped and reduced to small talk.
For clarity, let me attempt to buttress Soludo’s point. The ruling APC has a unique route to electoral victory that was paved through an alliance between the Southwest and Northwest geopolitical zones and cemented by support from the Northeast and Northcentral zones. Since 2015, the APC has been consistent in its dominance of the presidential election in these four zones. In addition to that, there is no state across the four zones where the APC has failed to secure more than 25% of the valid votes cast since 2015. Additionally, Northwest, Southwest, and Northcentral have the highest voting strength in Nigeria. In other words, the APC has the numbers even by a simple majority. In all, what this means is that the APC can win Nigeria’s presidential election without a single vote from the Southeast and the South-South geopolitical zones. Worst still, from 2019, the South-South geopolitical zone, Nigeria’s fourth biggest voting bloc, has increased its stake in the APC alliance network. Today, there is no single state out of the six South-South states that is not an APC state. Yet, for the Southeast, it is taking a longer time. In 2019, Southeast was aligned with the PDP, and in 2023, it went to the LP. In 2027, because Peter Obi, who has been a constant in the past two elections, is likely to be on the ballot as a candidate or vice candidate, this raises suspicion that, once more, the Southeast might be left behind. Again in 2019, while Bayelsa gave APC over 30% of valid votes, Anambra gave a paltry 5%. Akwa Ibom gave over 30%, but Enugu gave about 12%. Although the APC is now the majority party in the Southeast with three states, given the republican nature of many Southeasterners, it is important that the people appreciate the need for national politics and engage in it. Therefore, Soludo’s take on the 2027 Presidential Election has no grounds to be faulted because it is an honest forecast and an admonition that ought to help people act in their own best collective political interests.
Responses to Soludo’s comments have brought to the fore a clear indication; some Southeasterners are not willing to look at other viable alternatives in any conversation about Nigeria’s president of Igbo extraction. But the truth is that it is easier with the mainstream. Former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, is well informed and convinced that the easiest route to the presidency for an Igbo man is through the instrumentality of the ruling party. This was why Obi left APGA after his tenure as Governor and joined the ruling PDP at the time. Today, circumstances have made him an opposition figure, which is still plausible, only that the opposition route is not the sole option. This point must be adequately refined because support for Peter Obi should not foreclose support for others and must not be used to foreclose others willing to go through the route of mainstream national politics to achieve the dream of having a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction.
The goal should be considered big and above any particular individual. Therefore, to make Professor Charles Soludo an object of criticism over how to realize a collective political aspiration, by any imagination, misses the point. In the first place, Governor Charles Soludo in 2022 gave Peter Obi the honour to declare his presidential ambition for the very first time inside the Government House of Anambra State, where Obi met with Anambra State traditional rulers and others and conveyed his presidential aspiration to them. In this regard, Soludo showed support and sportsmanship. However, this does not erase the bare fact that even if Obi wins 100% of the votes in the Southeast, that will still be far insufficient to make him Nigeria’s president.
In fairness, Soludo is entitled to his politics, and no Igbo man is more Igbo than another. In the same way that people have chosen their preferred aspirant for 2027, is the same way Soludo has chosen Tinubu. In the same way we expect many people from different parts of Nigeria to support one of our own, is the same way we must be willing to deal with the fact that not all of us must support one of us. Anything less, then, it is no longer politics, perhaps some kindred affair with our emotions running above our heads.
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