By Donald Ifenna
Lest Governor Chukwuma Soludo be adjudged impudent or accused of outright arrogance upon his obvious late entry into the fray of political parties’ campaigns towards 2025 Anambra governorship election; his preoccupation has remained diligent response to the clamours of Anambra people for the maintenance of the exponential development that he has strategically provoked in driving the affairs of state over the past years of his stewardship. His hesitance from suffering unnecessary prolonged distractions from those who seek hold of his office is therefore implicated in the choice he needed to make.
Democracy is essentially about government service to the citizens. Constitutional democracy gives room for the citizens to interrogate those into whose hands they subsume their sovereignty. For this, the surest way an elected governor will stimulate (re)validation from the people is diligent commitment to their common good. It behooves a wise person who is holding the people’s mandate on trust, and who is conscious of the speed of passing time, to rise to the cogent developmental demands of the people, the success or failure upon which the present and posterity would judge him. Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo has surely proven to fit the bill for such wise leader.
While not dismissive of the oppositions’ inclination to coarse politicking (for he duly serves them their course), Soludo commits himself more to instructive communal interactions with Ndi-Anambra wherein he points the achievements of his administration and presents himself as eminently favoured for a renewed mandate. He does not fail to do that at any relevant platform given.
But let no one be deceived; contests of consequential essence such as gubernatorial polls provoke emotions that could often run awry. They generate tantrums that negate the ethos of civilised engagements; and very often momentarily foul the atmosphere of friendship and communality. But those are for fleeting moments only; frayed nerves soon get soothed. Remember the fabled “Mbe agaba, ajambene…” and all the other hilarious electioneering verbal stunts of the ’80s when Governor Jim Nwobodo of the Nigeria People’s Party (NPP), then ruling the old Anambra State, mocked big names like Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief C.C. Onoh etc. of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which, though the national ruling party, was in opposition in the state. Electoral victory has never been known to come in any cheap platter. The counsel has always been eternal vigilance.
So, for Governor Soludo who, by the way, has maintained affinity with the politics of his state from the years of yore as a student in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the prevailing rough edges of politicking are not likely to ruffle him unduly; not when he is occupying the coveted seat that exposes him as the chief target of all kinds of attack. He would rather dedicate little time to the usual political tidbits and dwell on the achievements that put him ahead of others in the gubernatorial competition. The quality, relevance and vast spread of these attainments stifle the capacity of the opposition to present valid arguments supportive of their mission. Ndi-Anambra would neither be deceived, nor be bullied by phantom claims and suppositions from the opposition.
How can the Anambra electorates fault the fact of good roads crisscrossing the length and breadth of the state? How can they contradict the fact that their children enjoy free primary and secondary education under the care of qualified teachers employed by Mr. Governor? How can families gloss over the import of free antenatal care for pregnant women, and free delivery that includes freeing homes from cost of cesarean sections? Who takes the upgrading of the primary and secondary health care facilities in the state, and the employment of doctors, nurses and other relevant health workers in their thousands for granted? How about Soludo’s demonstration of the political will to confront the unwieldy structures that for long supported the misplaced allurement of youths to wealth without genuine work? Not to talk of the strategic handling of the chaotic security situation the governor met on assuming office. It has remained increasing successes across the sectors of government interests.
Governor Chukwuma Soludo has defied the bizarre culture of politicians abandoning governance for electioneering at election season. No aspect of his commission is allowed to suffer any deficit in operation despite the approach of the election. For these, the people do not give any room for the opposition to intrude into their Soludo-support consciousness. And what looks like the impregnable seal for Soludo’s victory is the unbroken, if not unbreakable, affiliation the people have with the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA – a political party they see as an echo of their unmitigated quest for unconditional reintegration into Project-Nigeria. The welcome combination of Professor Soludo’s essence and stellar attainments in office, added to the people’s uncompromised APGA stance, firmly shut the opposition out of any chance of making any significant impression at the November 8, 2025 Anambra gubernatorial election. This verdict is clear to everyone, hence furthering the opposition’s evident lethargic fronts and Soludo glorious march to victory.
Ifenna, a socio-political analyst, writes from Abuja.
