By Emmanuel Aziken
Governor Chukwuma Soludo stirred not a little controversy when he received Atiku Abubakar on Thursday and dubbed him one of two serious contenders in the presidential contest.
Soludo’s decision to narrow down the presidential contest to two persons left many wandering as to who besides his assumed favourite, that is Atiku, was the other serious contender.
Given his blistering last epistle many were quick to assume that the Anambra governor had again rekindled his cantankerous dispute with supporters of the penultimate governor of the state, Peter Obi who is the Labour Party’s presidential candidate.
Your correspondent recalls that Soludo had about a month ago in that article dismissed Obi as an inconsequential factor in the contest. That was despite the fact that all neutral opinion polls had put Obi as the leading contender in the contest with dominant support in the Southeast, South-South and increasingly in the North-Central.
Obi and Soludo as evidenced by that epistle are known not to be political soul mates in Anambra. When Soludo was in the PDP, Obi held sway in APGA. Obi defeated Soludo who flew the PDP governorship ticket in the 2010 Anambra election.
Even when Soludo joined APGA and sought the governorship ticket of the party in 2013, Obi passed him over and imported Chief Willy Obiano from America.
Soludo was eventually disqualified from the APGA primaries that produced Obiano. Indeed, some assume that that particular incident ahead of the 2013 governorship election as the root of the enmity that Soludo has for Peter Obi.
Of course, both Obi and Soludo are viewed by almost every political actor in Anambra State with about the same prism of arrogance. While Obi is perceived as emitting the arrogance of holy-holy against sinners in the political class, Soludo airs an intellectual arrogance of knowing it all.
So, it is no shock that the two men hardly see eye to eye.
With his summations in his article and his words last Thursday, it is now assumed that Soludo may believe that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu despite all his foibles may have a better chance than Obi. However, that may not assume that Soludo believes that Tinubu is a better or more competent presidential candidate than Obi.
Whatever Soludo may think, it is doubtful that the Tinubu camp would even consider it of any value. Ahead of the APC presidential primary, Tinubu did not think much of that geopolitical zone to the extent that he did not visit the region to seek for votes. One APC chief from the region told your correspondent that the delegates were summoned to meet Tinubu in Abuja where the same ‘package’ given to other delegates was assumed to have been given to them.
The warm reception Soludo held for Atiku Abubakar last Thursday only rekindled suspicions as to other alleged ulterior motives for the bellicosity of the governor towards Obi.
The continued reference by the Atiku camp that he would handover to an Igbo politician should he emerge president is something that some believe may be stoking Soludo’s fire against Obi.
Soludo who is believed to have nurtured a presidential ambition since his time as Central Bank governor, when he was alleged to have been one of those narrowed down by President Olusegun Obasanjo as a 2007 running mate, is said to be looking towards the direction of succeeding Atiku.
It is in that direction that it is alleged that stopping Obi would be to his favour. Were Atiku to win and run for two terms, Obi would just have finished his second term in 2030 in the event he wins a second term from 2026. He would step down a year before Atiku would have stepped down for a second term in 2031.
On the other hand, it is also alleged that just as some people pushed for President Obasanjo to serve only one term that there is also a growing call on Atiku to serve only one term should he win in 2023. Atiku who would be 80 at the end of his first term it is alleged could be looking towards Soludo as a possible successor.
It is perhaps because of these political permutations that Soludo is said to be viciously tackling the Obidient phenomenon with his unhidden despise of Peter Obi.
If Governor Soludo is treating Peter Obi with such hatred, what then of the APGA presidential candidate, Prof Peter Umeadi?
Incidentally, Umeadi like Obi is also from Anambra State. Obi according to sources, fares far better than Umeadi in the estimation of Governor Obi. The APGA candidate according to one source is treated with a kind of contempt that some say that visiting the Anambra Government House, Awka emits a trauma for his entourage.
If truly Soludo’s perspective
towards Obi is because of the Atiku succession he surely has many battles ahead
of him as he also has a neighbouring governor and possible vice-president
Ifeanyi Okowa to also contend with. That is a man who has fallen political
giants and recently silenced an oil sheik in the person of Chief James Ibori.
Soludo would be mincemeat.
* Aziken is a commentator on public issues
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