It is amazing that Peter Obi could be so nice, calm and collected in the face of obvious and mischievous provocation. Professor Chukwuma Soludo began his unwarranted attack with the following words: “My attention has been drawn to some tirades on social media following my frank response during an interview on Channels TV regarding the ‘investments’ Mr. Peter Obi claimed to have made with Anambra revenues…” The first thing a critical reader would notice is the use of inverted commas over the word ‘investment’. The use of the word ‘claims’ cannot be ignored either. The professor says that his traducers left the kernel of the interview to speculate on motives. Most commentators believe that Governor Soludo is driven by envy and jealousy in his submissions in that particular interview. The governor alleges harassment of his person and family. Governor Soludo goes ahead to pontificate on his Christian virtues of truth telling. He subtly equates himself to Jesus Christ. He said he does not tell lies to his people. He asserts that rather than exhibit the usual deceitful character of politicians, he would quit.
For the first time in his long essay, he mentioned the Obidient group by reminding the readers how they bullied Bishop Chukwuma for renouncing ‘Obidience’. He scoffs at the insinuation that he is envious of Peter Obi by revealing that he tried to lure Peter Obi to APGA in March 2022 to contest for president.
But it now appears Peter Obi declined. In his deliberate mischief, Professor Soludo tried to reduce the Obidient Movement as an Igbo affair. He said they insult and denigrate other ethnic groups and religions and warns that it will endanger the future political and economic interests of Ndi Igbo. Here it is not difficult to see that Professor Chukwuma Soludo is only talking about himself. The suggestion of envy might not have been unfounded after all.
The Obidient Movement has been called Obi-tuary, Obidiots, and many other demeaning names by the fans of other politicians, and even their principals are known to have condescended to using such expressions as ‘giringori’ and ‘ice cream seller’ and no one has ever heard Professor Soludo raise his professorial voice in condemnation.
Professor Soludo who claims in one paragraph that he does not tell lies turned around in just a few paragraphs afterwards and barefaced lied that no one is accusing Afenifere or other presidential candidates from the Southwest of being anti-Yoruba. It is either that Professor Soludo no longer reads newspapers or is not at all on social media where people are calling out people on a daily basis. But we know Soludo reads. So he deliberately lied! The big question for Soludo is, were those who challenged Nnamdi Azikiwe in the East not maligned at the time. Why has Professor Soludo chosen this path of blackmail?
He insinuates his readiness to pay the supreme price for speaking the truth rather than submit to the culture of telling lies to the citizens. He surreptitiously joined Peter Obi with those attacking him by cowardly bringing in an unnamed ‘respected Igbo elder-statesman’ who, according to him, described his traducers as “Peter Obi and his social media mob”. And he said this unknown ‘elder’ told him that “everyone knows that he (Peter Obi) is not going anywhere…” Then this strange elder who told him to ignore the ‘mob’ turns around to advise him to “author a response”.
He suddenly allows his sense of self-importance to take control of him and begins to boast about how he does not run away from a fight and how Chief Obasanjo taught him how not to sit on the fence. He said he had been commended for “tactfully avoiding being drawn into the Peter Obi issue”. And now having found a convenient excuse he could no longer resist the temptation of exhibiting his bolekaja tendency. He promised not to divulge everything for the sake of life after 2023. He has now prepared the ground for these his imaginary antagonists. He goes ahead to allude to an evolving Hitler who exhibits desperation, intolerance, and bully people with dissenting views.
Professor Soludo keeps up the refrain that a mob does not reason. He does not realize that he has become like that man in Chinua Achebe’s short story who was bathing and a mad man took his clothing and ran towards the market square. Professor Soludo is now chasing ‘mad’ men, naked, and heading towards the square. We love him and we are only pleading with people to restrain him from entering the square. Chinua Achebe said that any madness that enters the market square cannot be cured.
People have asked Kwankwaso to step down for Peter Obi and Kwankwaso’s people have asked Peter Obi to step down for their principal. What is the big deal in people suggesting that Professor Umeadi steps down for Peter Obi? Nothing stops the professor from making the same request. Is it not ludicrous that Professor Soludo is getting so worked up over such trivial matters as people asking people to step down for others in a political campaign season?
There is nothing the Obidients are doing that the supporters of other presidential hopefuls are not doing and even worse. Professor Soludo accepted to be a member of President Buhari’s economic team in spite of the fact that the APC government rode on the wings of hate speeches and ethnic and religious sentiments to power. Yet he has the effrontery to accuse Obi’s supporters of intemperate language. If that is not hypocrisy, then I do not know what qualifies. He claims he understands the anger of the youths, yet he appears to be blaming Peter Obi for the conduct of his followers. Professor Chukwuma Soludo told us how Peter Obi has been jumping from one party to another and how himself had remained in APGA since 2013.
But he was conveniently silent on where he was before 2013. Peter Obi is his friend, in fact, his brother. But Professor Soludo possesses such great brotherly virtues that he doesn’t have any problem divulging to the public without provocation a private request he made to him. What a great brother he is! Well, I think Soludo is right on the point that he is pursuing an interest… A selfish political interest. Perhaps Professor Soludo is not happy that Mr Peter Obi didn’t fall into his political booby trap. He wanted to lure him to APGA, mess him up politically to the extent that by 2027 or even 2031 he would be the last Igbo man standing. Peter Obi didn’t fall for that and therefore must be demolished. The professor has a fellow professor as the presidential candidate of APGA, his own political party, yet he is bothered about Peter Obi weakening the PDP. Shouldn’t that be to the advantage of his APGA if indeed he is taking Professor Umeadi’s candidature as anything serious? Professor Chukwuma Soludo does not care about any other person but himself. He said being petty is not one of his shortcomings but it appears to be his primary shortcoming. This essay is a perfect example of pettiness. It is unwarranted. It is uncalled for. Peter Obi did not go to Channels TV, Soludo did. Peter Obi has not commented on Soludo’s Channels TV interview. He did not write a petty essay, Soludo did.
Soludo is a professor of international standing, a supposed modern democrat; yet he talks about granting level playing ground for political campaigns as if it’s a favour. He says he allowed the Labour Party to operate without molestation? So to him democratic principles are only allowed as tokenism?
Soludo tells us that Peter Obi told Ndi Igbo that APGA was the vehicle for Igbo engagement with the rest of Nigeria. He even went further to remind us of the vow Obi made to Ikemba Ojukwu. But it has long been argued that even Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu himself joined NPN when the entire Igbo was NPP. How could a professor in one paragraph of an essay tell his readers that in politics what is important is ‘interest’, and in another paragraph of the same essay demonize someone pursuing his own understanding of political interest? That’s absurd.
When Professor Soludo asks the rhetorical question, “When will Ndi Igbo understand and learn politics, especially of Nigeria?”, he comes off to the Igbo youths as very pretentious. He and his likes bandy the Tinubu experiment as a political template for Ndi Igbo and make all of us look stupid as though we lack knowledge of history. Was there no time in history the Eastern states had one dominating political party, particularly Igbo land? How much were Ndi Igbo able to negotiate power with it at the centre? Politicians are very insincere in Nigeria and the likes of Professor Soludo take the rest of us for fools. Obasanjo, before our eyes, was anointed by the military bloc that was not happy with Abacha. Even though Olu Falae was the preferred candidate by the citizens, after they shoved Obasanjo down the throat of Nigerians by all means at the Jos convention of the PDP, the ex-generals used one of their own to compensate the Yoruba for the death of Abiola. Jonathan only succeeded because he inherited Yar’Adua’s office via the hand of death. He returned by force of incumbency. He could still have returned again, perhaps with bloody consequences, if he had wanted. But he chose otherwise. He removed the then CBN governor and heaven didn’t fall, so if he wanted he could have still removed the INEC chairman. Professor Soludo is quoting Nasir El Rufai as supporting the power shift because they asked what their founding fathers would wish… And he believed El Rufai? It is time for me to laugh at our revered professor. Let El Rufai first support a Southern Kaduna Christian candidate for the Kaduna State governorship before you celebrate the political statement of a hardline born-to-rule Fulani elite. Professor Soludo derides the Igbo political struggle, in spite of its numerous challenges, and tags it Nzogbu Nzogbu politics. Yes. There’s really nothing to say except that he is involved. Ndi Igbo are patiently waiting to see what he will do with his own opportunities. Let Professor Soludo not delude himself that the Igbo youths are not aware that one more Igbo political elite has as usual been ‘promised’ to be made president after ‘their’ (I mean the supposed owners of Nigeria) tenure. There’s a common joke among Igbo youths about useful idiots…
It is funny that Professor Soludo is saying that Ndi Igbo are in a political cul de sac just because they chose to vote according to their conscience? And there is that sentence about being vindicated. No. Professor Soludo, you are not the one vindicated. It is Ndi Igbo who roundly rejected Buhari that is vindicated. We do not all need to be professors of economics like you to know that the boat of standard of living has capsized and the river of cost of living is submerging the citizens under the APC-led government of President Buhari.
Governor Soludo says that Peter Obi is toying with the collective destiny of 60 million Igbos and I ask, how? Is it a crime for an Igbo to aspire to be president? Is it better that no Igbo person emerges for the contest? Soludo’s party is projecting Professor Umeadi and Soludo does not see him as toying with the destiny of 60 million Igbos. So where did Peter Obi err? Is it because youths are following him? Why does Professor Soludo with all his learning live in denial? Every Igbo person knows the Igbo question. So long as no Igbo soldier takes over government by force and with the force of the gun restructures Nigeria by fiat, so long as Ndi Igbo do not start another war to leave Nigeria and perhaps manage to get the rest of the country to renegotiate the formula for coexistence, the Igbo are only left with this slim hope that Peter Obi wins… If he does not, we are back to square one. No amount of Soludo’s political daydreaming can alter that situation. Since Professor Soludo wants the truth, then let it be said exactly the way it is.
But Peter Obi can win if only the likes of Professor Soludo who have influence and capacity decide to jettison their petty envy and encourage Ndi Igbo in all parts of Nigeria to participate actively in the electoral process. The question may be asked that as a sitting governor and someone who has been in the corridors of power for a long time, what contributions has Professor Soludo made towards balancing the inequities in the polity that keep his people at a disadvantage?
Professor Soludo, you were the governor of the Central Bank and banks were failing which necessitated your recapitalization policy. It is not in your place to tell us what you did in office, you are not running for office now. And Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had already allowed the public a little peep into the quality of your character. I don’t think her views of you are very complimentary. But then, Prof, you are only human like all of us. It’s good you have admitted that the logic of the quality of Peter Obi’s investment is debatable. You said a pastor told you Peter Obi’s roads have all washed away. It appears that whenever Professor Soludo wants to tell a lie, he says ‘someone told him’. As a supposedly respected professor, those who admire him from a distance did not expect him to degenerate to petty gossips.
Dear Professor, your bogus claims of how you built foreign reserves from $10 billion you inherited to $63 billion and how you paid off $12 billion of Nigeria’s external debt all sound good to the ear. But as you know, it doesn’t appear Dr Okonjo-Iweala totally agrees with these claims. It appears you always blow your own trumpet a note higher than you deserve. We shall leave it to Sanusi, Emefiele, and perhaps Okonjo-Iweala to verify.
Many people would be shocked reading Professor Soludo talking as ordinary citizens like us. He doesn’t seem to realize that power is now in his hands. The destiny of a significant Igbo demographic is under his care. He can mobilize other Southeast governors. If Soludo seeks permission to build modern rails across Anambra State for ease of business, it is not a crime. Some of the things for which Soludo needs Ohaneze to negotiate with Tinubu and Atiku are things he can start small as the executive governor. Professor Soludo, it would appear, knows for certain that the 2023 election will be rigged. That’s the only credible explanation for his seeming derision. Soludo prays for Peter Obi to win, yet he is very sure Peter Obi will not win. He finally extends an invitation to Obi to, after the elections and he has failed, join hands with him and others to build an Igbo political dynasty with which Soludo will negotiate power with the rest of Nigeria.
You claim Peter Obi cannot win. You say he knows you know the game he is playing and that game is why he didn’t return to APGA… Dear professor, you only ended up saying nothing. You might have made a deal with Tinubu to deflate Mr Peter Obi’s soaring profile. How much you succeeded in that ignominious enterprise is yet to be seen. Your allusion to Joe Biden and Trump are but weak efforts to convince no other person but yourself that Peter Obi is not making an impact. I have very good reason to believe you are doing a hatchet job, perhaps for another empty promise of being made president after ‘them’. If not, how else do we explain your unwarranted outbursts just hours after Obi was treated to an intimidating reception in Edo State.
Professor Chukwuma Soludo is a governor surrounded by sycophants, who probably would not tell him the truth most of the time. They only tell him what he wants to hear. Even good people like him underestimate the Labour Party. He may not have known the volume of mobilization Labour Party has been doing in the grassroots between the Osun governorship election and now. That your interview outbursts were borne out of envy and jealousy is not at all in doubt.
It is important to tell Professor Soludo that if social media had come out at the time of Zik and Okpara, they would have made maximum use of it. The Zikist Movement is not unlike the Obidient Movement, no matter how you want to deny it. Obi is struggling so hard to build alliances across Nigeria and the only thing someone who calls himself his brother could do was to denigrate his efforts?
It is a mark of honour for a man, the one you have acknowledged you call brother, to meet you privately and did not seek that you gave him advantage over others but that you give everybody a level playing ground. Professor Soludo, this is what you are telling the public in your essay and that alone is enough for voters to conclude that Mr Peter Obi is an honourable man. Peter Obi has always used every opportunity he is given to plead with his fans to be civil and Professor Soludo never acknowledged that, but is rather making puerile attempts to link Peter Obi with the excesses of his fans. In one sentence he says a mob has no brain and in another he says a mob reflects the character of its leadership. For one thing, a brainless entity does not have the capacity to appreciate leadership. Again, Peter Obi is not the leader of the Obidient Movement. He may be their hero but he does not control them. He didn’t choose them, they chose him. As a professor, I thought you would have appreciated these little facts before going public with ignorance.
During the recent Anambra Governorship Debate, Professor Soludo lied against Andy Uba’s claims concerning his introduction to Obasanjo. Even when a witness, an elder-statesman, went on air to testify to that fact, he still stuck to his lies.
In conclusion, Professor Soludo is obviously not new to writing very long essays at the expense of his office. The other time it was an essay attacking Dr. Okonjo-Iweala. It is evident in Professor Soludo’s texts and subtexts that he always feels entitled and insecure. He is like that woman in the Bible who would rather want the child cut in two than let another have it. He is usually threatened by the rising profiles of others around him. Everybody knows that APC is doing everything possible to compromise the process and they need people like Soludo to plant doubts in the minds of the people. This is a standard APC practice. They did it with Father Mbaka and it worked for them. What they do not know, however, is that this time they are toying with the wrong generation. The Obidients, in street parlance, will put on a film for them to watch… An action film for that matter.
Chukwubuike, a former chairman of Association of Nigerian Authors, Imo State chapter, writes from Owerri
