CHANNELS INTERVIEW: DON’T CRUCIFY GOV. SOLUDO, HE DIDN’T COMMIT ANY CRIME
Amb Chibuzo Sunday Okereke
I know that most Nigerians are tired and demand change, but that change cannot come through emotions nor compulsion but through hard work, negotiations and superior argument that transcend traditional politics.p
Every politician wants to survive politically, and enthrone a legacy to his or her credit without the brooding influence of another politician.
Gov Soludo has done nothing wrong.This is how politics works in Nigeria. It is all about political survival.
Soludo is the current Governor of Anambra today, not Governor Peter Obi. Soludo is of APGA, while Mr Peter Obi is of Labour Party. Soludo has candidates for State Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate from his party running for the 2023 general elections and needs to deliver them.
When Governor Soludo was running for Governor, Mr Peter Obi who was of PDP at the time supported Mr Valentine not him. In the past, Gov. Soludo sort for the APGA Governorship ticket from Mr Peter Obi, but Mr Obi chose the immediate past Governor, Mr Obiano. So it is all politics and nobody should take the Governor of Anambra to the slaughterhouse for standing against Obi legacy. He is simply playing Nigeria’s traditional politics of survival and protectionism. It is within his right to do so.
Everybody cannot support Obi, imagine the number of Yoruba people who abandoned Tinubu and they are openly supporting Obi, if you are against Soludo, ùu are indirectly asking others to take their support home and stop supporting outsiders. Democracy and politics don’t work that way. A lot of people from the North Central and far North are supporting Peter Obi openly, should they withdraw their support and give it to Atiku who is from their place?
I listened to Soludo saying that Obi’s savings may not be necessary if there are things to do with money. He didn’t say Obi was wrong. He was answering the question in both contests and comparisons to different eras. Obi was Governor when there was a global economic meltdown and therefore, it made sense for him not to borrow but rather saved to cushion the effect of the economic downturn on the state’s liquidity, and also made investments in businesses to improve the capacity of local industries for productivity etc. Both his savings in the bank and investments in companies on behalf of the state were investments assets that yielded profits that were also subject to inflation, exchange rate crisis and other time value of money variables.
If anything, the current Governor of Taraba state told the whole world that former Governor Obiano confided in him that a greater part of the money he used to build the Anambra airport came from the savings made by Governor Peter Obi. That is enough success story of the power of savings. Investments made by Peter Obi that are said to be worth next to nothing now were done more than 8 years ago. Between then and now, there has been drastic negative change in economic ecosystem of the country and State for the worse.
Also, in the last over 8 years, Obi wasn’t the Governor of Anambra state and had no power to appraise the investments. The government in charge could have carried out an investment appraisal and divested the assets if it was no longer profitable. So, my point is that it wasn’t Peter Obi’s fault that the investment today amounts to next to nothing except anybody can show evidence that at the time the investment decision was made by Peter Obi that it wasn’t properly thought through.
Let’s play the politics cautiously bearing in mind that it is for service but very competitive. It is not straight-jacketed.
Let Soludo be in peace!
Let Obi continue his campaign in high spirits!
Nigerians will decide.
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