Editorial
Soludo’s endorsement of Tinubu: A road fraught with deceit and danger!
Ordinarily no one in Nigeria, particularly from the South East and more particularly Anambra, would have batted an eyelid when Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Governor of Anambra State, announced on Thursday, May 8, 2025 that he and his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), had signed in to the re-election bid of President Bola Tinubu in 2025 in preference to Peter Obi, his brother.
This is because anyone who has a bit of matter in his brain knows that such a gambit is useless. Not even a complete imbecile or those struck with Mongolian idiocy, would believe that such a puerile undertaking would add anything to the political fortunes of the President or diminish the latter, ceteris paribus. Not even Tinubu, reputed to be the wise man of Nigerian politics would.
If indeed, it is all about the votes of Anambra people, Tinubu ought to know that Soludo’s outing is nothing but pure deceit. If it is about people going to the polling booths in 2027 to cast their votes, Tinubu would lose in the governor’s immediate family, not to talk about his kindred, Isuofia town, Aguata Local Government Area and Anambra. What would he tell an Anambra man to cast his vote for Tinubu?
This was tested in 2023, with the profile of the presidential election of that year, when the governor, who had donated the Anambra Government House for Obi to flag off his campaign, wrote those serial letters, many had considered not only strange but evil against then candidate of the Labour Party (LP). Obi’s outing was enough proof that Soludo, was at best mis-yarning, as some people would say.
That the governor, has continued on this route ever since, in a manner said to be consistent and symptomatic of many see as pure jealousy seems not surprising. Those tracking his his behavioural trajectory in politics and elsewhere accuse him of being afflicted with the debilitating Pull Him Down (PHD), especially against other Igbo icons. They recall similar beefs with the late Dora Akunyili and even Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, which depicted same unwarranted pattern to that of Obi.
This therefore leads to the second issue, which is the dangerous part – ceteris paribus – all things being equal. What if Soludo decides to prove that he really has Anambra votes in his palms? What if he wants to keep to the apparent deal he must have made with the President to deliver Anambra to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election. How would he achieve it?
Surely, Soludo’s move is seen as aimed towards achieving two purposes – to further diminish, undercut, and subvert Obi, his last but one predecessor, whom he obviously loves to hate and of course to serenade Tinubu into supporting him in the November 8 governorship election where he hopes to secure his own second term.
Ordinarily, pundits believe that the election would be a walk in the park for the governor, not really because he has delivered on his electoral promise of transforming Anambra to the Dubai-Taiwan of Nigeria – he has failed woefully on that score – but because the alternative is most probably the APC, which, to his people, is akin to the axiomatic frying pan to fire.
But the caveat here is the true intent of either Tinubu or the APC. Should they decree that Anambra must be captured as Umaru Ganduje, the National Chairman of the party, once said, it would then mean that even if the entire votes on election day were emptied into the APGA box Soludo would still lose. The votes would simply be donated to the APC to produce a different outcome and the heavens would not fall. Anambra would not be the first example.
That the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has become so useless that it has donated itself as the electoral arm of the APC is a sad development, known to the goat and fowl – a point Tunde Bakare, the bold, indomitable, fire-eating Pastor and Serving Overseer of The Citadel Global Community Church, was only too quick to make only recently. On the other hand the Nigerian judiciary, which could have saved the governor otherwise as it saved Obi on different occasions, is today, in a class of its own in terms of independence or lack of it.
So, nobody would actually blame Soludo for harbouring a legitimate fear, especially in a political milieu peopled with politicians with scant regard for personal integrity, courage of conviction and determination spirit to doing the right thing and fail rather succeeding on the wrong path – where university professors, hitherto known for maintaining the strict pathways of societal integrity and iron-cast philosophy of whistle-clean lifestyle – have now become Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for rigging elections – something unthinkable in the past.
Again, the issue is what happens if the governor gets the help, he appears so desperate about? Would he take the route of allowing the will of his people prevail in 2027, which would naturally conduce a known outcome of failure for Tinubu, that would in turn be interpreted as betrayal or would he pursue the path of assisting the President capture Anambra willy-nilly? Again, what if he takes the second option.
That is our major concern in this obvious political macabre dance. In its political history, the state had had its own share of politically-induce turmoil. The historic Mkpo junction battle between the Ikemba Front and Jim’s Vanguard in the second republic, one of the sad episodes, which darkened the people’s political history, took place in the present Anambra.
Even in its current dispensation, the state also became a broiling arena for political absurdities, when some renegades practically set it on fire in several desperate moves to enforce their evil will on the people. It included physically springing a sitting governor from his seat in broad daylight to up the ante on the limitless level the anti-democratic forces could go.
This is what must not be allowed to repeat. Anambra must not be allowed to descend into a theatre of war again. Soludo, in his pitch, had explained that it was the tradition of APGA to support any government in power at the national level, obviously pointing to Obi’s government, which supported then President Goodluck Jonathan.
This is pure deceit decorated as fact. It is stranger than comparing apples to oranges. Before the 2011 presidential election, Jonathan had stayed close to two years in office, within which he showed manifest love for Ndigbo in general and Anambra in particular, such that his middle name Ebele, was interpreted as Igbo. Obi simply keyed in to the singular sentiments and flowed with the prevailing tidal political sentiments at the time. This shared relationship which endured till he left office in 2015, was crowned with such iconic events like the full national honours burial given to the late Ikemeba Nnewi, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Comparing the two scenarios, is not only fraudulent and immoral, but an insult to the feeling of Anambra people and to wit, entire Ndigbo, to whom Tinubu and his cohorts at the APC have dealt the harshest, cruelest and most sadistic hands, post-civil war. Were Ojukwu to have died today, he would have been buried like any other person. The Humphrey Nwosu case is ample evidence.
From Ben Nwabueze to Mbazulike Amaechi, from George Obiozo to Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and Chukwuemeka Ezeife, countless iconic Igbo leaders, including the selfsame Soludo had at one point or the other pleaded for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), some of them leading delegations to the Presidential Villa to prostrate in supplication, all to no avail.
This is at the time when other agitating contemporaries of Kanu, similarly incarcerated, have since regained their freedom – at the time when hundreds of known terrorists arrested for slaughtering their victims like animals and taking videos of the bestial acts were not only set free, but handed handsome packages to boot.
This is what Soludo is comparing with the Jonathan times. What a shame! What inconsiderate, thoughtless and insensitive gambit! What unkind cut. Even Willie Obiano, his predecessor, had the presence of mind to avoid this uncanny, if not fatal move his successor is making today, in the face of a similar scenario in 2019.
We must warn for the umpteenth time, when the water is still at the toe level, Soludo must not toy with the idea of truncating the will of the people in 2027. That year is two years ahead. So, it is enough time for him to plan another strategy to thank Tinubu. That he has hurt the feelings of the people in his unwarranted attacks on Obi remains apparent. He must not stretch it to leave their blood on the floor.
As for his recompence, it may not come in November. Provided that INEC is there to take care and do the needful, his return, this time to the glittering multi-billion naira government house he has just completed is guaranteed, particularly with the assurance he received from his august visitor last Thursday.
But surely, it is said that the wind of justice grinds slowly, but surely grinds. When Zik was complaining about the charade that was the 1983 presidential election and the late Chuba Okadigbo described it as the ranting of an ant, the late Owelle was credited to have left these words: “History shall vindicate the just and God shall punish the wicked and confine them to the scrapheap of unforgotten tyrants!”
Last December, Emmanuel Obimma, the popular Catholic priest, of the Ebubemuonso fame, described Soludo as possessing a reprobate spirit. It is one of the most damning verdicts of the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, especially coming from a cleric of such high standing. It is up to the governor to totally earn that tag or erase it. Need more be said?
It began less than 10 minutes after taking the oath of office. In his address to the nation, he uttered those three-letter words – subsidy is gone. The ink with which he signed the documents declaring him President was yet to dry.
That was it. From that moment, Nigerians have known nothing but poverty, tears and death. It was a declaration that came out of impulse rather than articulacy. It was not even contained in his original speech prepared for the occasion. But it sprouted out – from a rash, unthinking and impetuous mental construct.
But the effect was instant, the impact direct. From that moment, Nigerians have never known peace. Every thing took a cue. Minutes after, the news broke that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol had jumped from N189 to N550. It was that instant. Today, it hovers around N1,500.
The effect: Within minutes, transportation cost quadrupled. So too, commodity prices. Caught unawares, marketers, who had earlier thought it was a day of the rains as customers rushed to their shops, soon became suspicious and then got wiser – these were not ordinary customers but smart alecs playing a fast one on them.
They stopped selling, retrieved the items they could from those who had not disappeared with their goods and closed shop to study the situation properly. Hours after, they responded. A plate of eba and soup, went up from N200 to N1,000. Prices hit the rooftops.
In fact, the vehicle transporting what used to be Nigeria, which had been moving at a horse and buggy pace in the days of Muhammadu Buhari, stopped abruptly, engaged the reverse gear and began galloping backwards. That has remained the ugly, parlous tale of the Tinubu days, since May 29, 2023.
Now, the expectation would be that the President and his government that wrought such a horrendous punishment on the polity, would themselves take some blows. But nada! Instead, the opposite was the case. Within months of plunging the citizens into the untold hardship Tinubu went on a binge, spending money – in the words of Olusegun Obasanjo, former President – like a drunken sailor.
Few weeks after, as Nigerians were reeling and gasping in pain from the impact of their new situation, 469 newly-minted Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), rolled out from factories in Japan, where they were produced into the premises of the National Assembly for the just inaugurated members.
Put the cost at N100billion – that is N160million for each unit, plus other charges. Reason: The lawmakers needed the vehicles because of their good suspension system, to navigate the so many bad roads in Nigeria. Yes, you heard right. How could they think well and make good laws after the hassles of the bad roads? Tinubu saw reasons, acquiesced and voila!
But it did not end there. Tinubu suddenly realised that Kashim Shettima, his deputy, needed a new home “befitting” his new office. Pronto! A voucher of N21billion was raised and he had it. Till date a haze still hovers over the project.
The last news that was heard was that Number Two refused to take residence because the entire environment, including the toilets was wired to the teeth to monitor him. And Number Two needed privacy.
Again, in the same weeks, Oga Patapata, also realised that Madam needed to transport more comfortably. Pronto! It was arranged. Another voucher was raised for cars for the Office of the First Lady. Cost N1.2billion. Of course, madam needed the comfort for peace at home.
Naturally, since transportation is not done by land alone, he also took care of that. For the sea, a yacht was procured. Cost N5billion. Because the birds in the presidential fleet were not good enough, Tinubu did the needful.
He enriched the fleet with the one befitting of his status and had it transformed to mimic the US Air Force One. To complete the status symbol project, he also added a replica of The Beast, the US presidential automobile.
Ironically, the funds used in procuring these luxury lifestyle, came, not out of productive ventures of Nigeria, but through borrowing. Today, Tinubu has practically borrowed Nigeria blind, doubling or even tripling that of his predecessors.
Meanwhile Nigerians had upped the ante from mere groaning and skreiching. Citizens, unable to take it anymore, now stop their hitherto sleek vehicles on the Third Mainland Bridge and plunge into the Lagos lagoon to end it all. The option is now more rampant than remote and occasional.
Many others, taking the Socrates option, now drink hemlock and many more simply sleep off without any intention of waking up. That is where we are. That is the new Nigeria – the Tinubu Nigeria. But there is more.
Terrorists and the landlords of the forest, having now discovered that the Commander-in-Chief has other fancies than security and welfare of the people – the constitutionally-declared primary purpose of government and scant regard for the citizens, have practically gone haywire. They have taken over and established their authority.
Presently, outside those wantonly slaughtered or butchered in their homes like animals at the abattoir, incinerated alive while sleeping on their beds, among other forms of decimation, many more citizens are now spending months, going to years as victims of captivity with them in various forests in Nigeria.
In their rampage, the terrorists have since broken all barriers considered out of place hitherto. One of their escapades is the present videos of the school children and teachers taken from Oyo State. The gory imagery captures the current Nigerian story.
For instance, on Thursday, just as the sound of heavy celebration was going on in neighbouring Ogun State as the world marked the Ojude Oba yearly carnival, two of the victims, one of them with a toddler on her back, were pleading for their lives, as others went through various forms of torture, including heavy whipping like beasts.
Don’t forget that the terrorists had earlier slaughtered one of their colleagues. In the new video, the totally terrified women, informed that they had chosen another victim to be similarly eliminated. Yet, no word about rescue! Terrible!
Interestingly, if not painfully, Tinubu’s response, in the few cases he bothered, was to see the crisis through the politics lens. His most recent reaction was to tell the world that the harvest of attacks and carnages ravaging the country, were sponsored by his political enemies, intent on shoving him out of power. That to him was all that mattered.
Now, where are your powers as C-in-C? They are mostly found in the most disgraceful economic and political acts of impunity. Nigerians now waking up to hear of the award of brain-dazing contracts such as the N15trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Badagry-Maiduguri Highway – with scant regard for official regulations, is now becoming more common than rare.
Few days after one of the teachers was beheaded and the video of the hideous act made to circulate on the social media, the President and his All Progressives Congress (APC), party, rolled out the drums of his winning the party’s ticket to contest the 2027 presidential election.
To say that it has been three years of weeping, wailing, mourning and gnashing of the teeth, is a clear euphemism. There is no starker way of putting it than calamity – pure, unmitigated catastrophe – disaster.
Then comes the big question. Nigeria is already breasting the tape of these ruinous years of the first term. Suppose Tinubu succeeds in renewing his tenure by January next year? Will Nigeria survive five more years of a life like the last three? What will be left of Nigeria? Is there a way out, outside shouting – God forbid!?
Now that Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has fully executed his plot against Siminalayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State, where would it be placed in terms of identity, nuances, ethos and history? Where would it be placed in democratic arrangement and value? In other word, by what name would it be called?
So, this is what President Bola Tinubu’s much-advertised democratic credentials is all about? This is what being listed among the arrowheads in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the body that fought relentlessly against the late Sani Abacha and his henchmen has finally come to?
Is this where “The Last Man Standing” – apologies Tony Elumelu – has ended up? So, after wedging an epic battle for and through Lagos State, against then President Obasanjo and practically defeating him, even if perceptibly, in all the struggles – such as running government without federal allocation for years and surviving the political onslaught that took away other South West states like a tsunami, it has come to this?
Don’t forget that it was this selfsame Tinubu that served as the bastion of opposition in Nigerian politics from when he was Governor of Lagos State, not only standing up against Obasanjo, but undertaking the relentless battles that led to the All Progressives Congress (APC), winning the war eventually in 2015.
So, this is what all the struggles, the speeches, the colloquia, the meetings and the strategies have come to – the end result? So, the definition of democracy, to Tinubu, is selling the dog to buy a monkey – replacing democratic bad-behaviour with democratic-heist? So, this is it?!
Make no mistake about it. What you saw play out in Rivers is nothing but Tinubu at work. It is all about him, it is for him. Never make the mistake of adorning Wike in the toga of a powerful man. That would be a fatal error of judgement. Every power he exercises, real, imagined, inferred or contingent belong to and are exclusive to Tinubu.
Take away the President and Wike would turn to a political meek-lamb or a jellyfish. Fubara would have eaten him for lunch a long time ago. So, Tinubu it is – the reason the klieglights must be beamed on him. That is why he must carry the can in this odious construct in Rivers in particular and the entire Nigerian political scenario in general.
With the picture that assaulted Nigeria regarding the APC primaries that have just held, what is different from the edition we saw in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of old? Is it not worse or the worst in real and imagined terms? What then has Tinubu been fighting all these years?
Incidentally, where we have Wike today, we had Lamidi Adedibu, the Amala Politics exponent, Tony Aneni of the Mr. Fix-it fame and the Uba brothers in Anambra to whom the political firmament in Nigeria once bowed, among many plethora of examples.
So, there is nothing really new about the development, but for the fresh dimension that has been introduced into the narrative by the Wike phenomenon, which is totally novel. Before now it was a case of one behemoth in a political party rampaging the system.
But today, it has gone beyond that. Wike has developed the penchant for taking no prisoners. In his own strange construct, he has now coalesced the entire APC and PDP structure into his shoulder basket, from where he dispenses favours.
Imagine Kingsley Chinda, purchasing APC governorship election form, as a PDP federal lawmaker without first resigning from his original party. That is how wacky it has become. Wackier still is that nobody – not even the APC apparatchik has been able to raise a finger. Why? Obvious answer – the Tinubu factor.
Now, here is the danger. By the heist in Port Harcourt adding to the sequence of political oddities and absurdities since the Tinubu years, it has become obvious that Nigeria is headed towards a Paul Biya’s Cameroun, a Yoweri Musaveni’s Uganda and Zimbabwe under the late Robert Mugabe.
Tinubu, has shown obvious incapacity to tackle the parlous economic crisis in the country with 150 million Nigerians plunged into multidimensional poverty and many more growing the list daily, while also displaying uncommon powerlessness towards addressing the debilitating state of insecurity.
Under his nose citizens are daily being forced from their homes into the forests by terrorists, with some of them taken from their crutching positions, positioned before the camera and slaughtered – heads cut off like animals at an abattoir and video images freely displayed on social media.
Yet, by what has now happened in Rivers State, it has become obvious that Nigerians are not being factored into the whole equation and if they were, scant regard is paid to their opinion, ending in their powerlessness to change the situation. That is the tragedy!
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