2023 polls: Soludo attacks Obi again, says ex-gov cannot win

The Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, has attacked the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, saying he cannot win the 2023 presidential election.

Soludo said the LP candidate was playing a sport with his election bid, including that Obi did not have the necessary structure in vicinity to win the Presidency at the Labour Party platform.

The governor stated these in an editorial on Monday, titled, ‘History Beckons and I Will Not Be Silent (Part 1).’

Soludo had final Thursday during an interview on Channels TV ‘Politics Today’ stated the investments in Anambra State credited to Obi, an ex-Anambra State governor, had been well worth ‘’subsequent to not anything.’’

The former Central Bank of Nigeria governor’s complaint of his predecessor in Anambra State caused a sequence of backlashes from Obi’s supporters, especially on social media.

Obi dominated Anambra State between 2006 and 2014 at the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance before he defected to the Peoples Democratic Party, and later the Labour Party.

Soludo alleged that some people, who were angered by his remarks, had launched assaults on him and his own family.

He claimed there were hints that the Saturday attack in which five security personnel died in his network, Isuofia, in the Aguata Local Government Area of the country, have been accomplished by using the ones provoked through his comment on the LP candidate.

While describing the assaults on him as an exhibition of desperation, intolerance, he stated that the attempt to bully all people who expresses the slightest of dissent changed into reprehensible.

Soludo further stated the attack on the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Enugu Ecclesiastical Province, Dr. Emmanuel Chukwuma, by using Obi’s supporters usually referred to as ‘Obidients.’

He described as tyranny the try and muscle out folks who were not in guide of Obi’s presidential ambition, stressing that this attitude may endanger the future political and economic interests of the Igbos, if now not checked.

While acknowledging the anger of a few youths in city towns and the Diaspora over the trajectory of the u . S . A . Or with the applicants of the predominant events, the governor lectured his adversaries at the tenets of democracy, pointing out that the minority would have their say, but the majority their manner.

According to him, translating anger and social media agitation into political outcomes calls for humongous paintings.

Weighing the LP general bearer’s possibilities in the drawing close ballot , the governor said, “Let’s be clean: Peter Obi is aware of that he can’t and won’t win. He is aware of the sport he is gambling, and we know too; and he is aware of that we understand.

“The game he is playing is the principle purpose he didn’t return to APGA. The brutal reality (and some will say, God forbid) is that there are folks/parties critically contesting for president: the rest is thrilling drama!

“That many Americans might not like the reality that Joe Biden (seventy nine years) and Donald Trump (seventy six years) are frontrunners for president of their parties does not eliminate the reality that if both of them become applicants, simply one in every of them could be president in 2024.

“As my brother, I want him nicely or even pray for him. I instructed him at some stage in his courtesy name that my prayer is that himself or Prof Umeadi of APGA would win, why no longer?

“That is from my coronary heart, however I also advised him that my head and data at the ground led me to recognise that it’s opportunity is next to 0 (what I cannot say before you, I gained’t say in the back of you).’’

Stating that Obi might not come third within the race, Soludo contended that the LP lacked the shape to win the presidential election in 2023.

He introduced, “So, I already told him my opinion. As my brother, I want him well and even pray for him. Indeed, there’s no credible pathway for him close to the first two positions, and if care isn’t always taken, he won’t even near the 1/3 function.

‘’Analysts tell him you don’t need “shape” to win. Fantasy! Of path, LP won governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun on social media and through phantom polls, at the same time as getting barely 2,000 votes on floor.’’

The governor conceded that the LP candidate might get some votes in his home country of Anambra, however noted that this would not take him everywhere.

“Of direction, Peter Obi will get a few votes, and can probable win in Anambra State— as “home boy”. But Anambra is not Nigeria. If he likes, I can even campaign for him but that gained’t exchange lots. From internal nation-by way of-country polling available to me, he became on route to get 25 in step with cent in 5 states as of August this yr. The today’s polling shows that it’s miles all the way down to 4 states, and declining,’’ he submitted.

Dismissing claims that he was green with envy of his predecessor, Soludo stated he and Obi were buddies for a long term, adding that he vowed in no way to leave APGA for another party.

The governor added, ‘’The same Peter Obi was one of those who told Ndigbo that APGA was the vehicle through which Igbos would organise to engage the rest of Nigeria politically. He was said to have sworn to Ojukwu and publicly that he would quit politics the day he leaves APGA. The rest is history. When he was the vice-presidential candidate under PDP in 2019, the emotive train then dubbed the ticket “the Igbo project”. As then chairman of planning and strategy committee of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, I cautioned for a more pragmatic approach but the emotive blaze of the time held sway. We were vindicated afterwards.

‘’By the way, in 2016, he visited and proposed that I defect to the PDP and contest the 2017 election against the incumbent Willie Obiano, but I declined. After my victory in November 2021, he called to congratulate me as I did to him in 2010. That is the Anambra way: we fight fiercely during campaigns but share drinks at the next social events. After all, it was the great Zik of Africa who taught us that in politics, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies but only permanent interests.’’

The governor noted the failure of the LP to field candidates for the two chambers of the National Assembly in Lagos, adding sarcastically that he would have given Obi money if he were the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, for making his victory easier.

He stated, ‘’Not even in Lagos State (supposed headquarters of urban youths) where the Labour Party could not find candidates to contest for House of Reps or Senate.

“The polls also show that he is taking votes away mostly from the PDP. Indeed, if I were Asiwaju Tinubu, I would even give Peter Obi money as someone heading one of the departments of his campaign because Obi is making Tinubu’s pathway to victory much easier by indirectly pulling down.’’

Partner APC, PDP

Soludo urged South-East leaders to strategise and bargain with the two candidates likely to win the 2023 general elections to bring an end to the problem facing the South-East region.

The Economics professor argued that the bargaining was necessary to bring lasting peace to the region as well as secure the release of the detained Indigenous People of Biafra leader, Nnamdi Kanu; South East economic transformation and restructuring, among others.

He noted, ‘’For starters, Ohanaeze should study the report of my committee (planning and strategy) in 2019. It may still be relevant today. Second, Ndigbo should seriously study the MoU signed at the Yar’Adua Centre in 2010. The leader of the Igbo Political Association, Chief Simon Okeke, and our members are still there.

“Thirdly and for me, Ndigbo should strategise and bargain, especially with the two candidates likely to be president on at least four central issues: Lasting peace and security in the South-East, including the release and engagement with Nnamdi Kanu.

“South-East Economic transformation agenda and the FGN’s Marshall Plan for the South East as promised since the end of the Civil War (the post-war ‘reconstruction’). We appreciate the Second Niger Bridge and the recent contract for MTN to reconstruct the Onitsha-Enugu expressway.

‘’But the rail lines to the five state capitals, speedy access to the sea, highways linking South East to the North and South-South, addressing our existential threat as gully erosion capital of Africa, Free Trade and Export Processing Zones, etc.

“Restructuring Agenda for Nigeria that devolves powers/resources to the subnational entities and in which it would no longer matter where the President comes from.

“Leveling the playing field for the unleashing of the private sector and the full participation of Ndigbo in the economic and governance space, etc.’’

Soludo wished Obi goodluck, but cautioned against social media mob action, noting that ‘’a mob action often reflects the character of its leader.’’

‘’No one has a monopoly on social media violence, and no one should play God. Life won’t end by February/March 2023,’’ he concluded.

Obi’s camp reacts

Reacting to Soludo’s article, the spokesman for Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, accused him of being used by the opposition to scuttle Obi’s presidential ambition.

He said, “Soludo feels he is larger than life and that if it is not him, it should not be anybody. But God has chosen Obi and there is nothing he can do about it. He should just go and lick his wounds.

“The fact still remains that it is Obi on the ballot. He does not have the capacity to determine whether Obi will win or not. As we are seeing it, Obi is winning a landslide victory.”

On whether Soludo has an axe to grind to Obi in the build-up to the 2023 elections, Tanko dismissed the thought, saying the target was to suppress the LP’s growing profile in the region.

“Soludo is just allowing himself to be used. It is an orchestrated attempt to weaken our own base starting from Anambra to other states in the South East. That was the strategy.

“I don’t know why he is trying to risk everything he has for this particular negative cause. But we will rely on the love that would be shown by Obi’s people to triumph during our campaign there,” he said.

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Victor Oye, declined comment, saying he didn’t want to be involved in the issue.