Soludo in Survival Battle for Anambra Assembly Seats

Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State should be unruffled, knowing that his seat is not in contest in the rescheduled poll on Saturday, March 18 but that is not the case, as he is currently fighting a battle of survival for state Assembly seats, reports David-Chyddy Eleke.

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof Chukwuma Soludo, won his election as Anambra Governor in November 2021, and was sworn into office on March 29, 2022.

He should be preparing for his first year anniversary now, and should have no problems with Saturday’s election, as the state will only be having House of Assembly election, but the future of his tenure in office seems to depend on the legislators elected into the Anambra State House of Assembly this Saturday, and the governor is fighting hard to get candidates of his party elected into the house.

The governor is already in a fix, and is working hard already to ensure that he gets candidates of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) elected into the Assembly. As much as he tries, many are already seeing this as an attempt to clean up his own mess.

Last year, Soludo attacked the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, with a long write up, in which he dismissed his chances in the election, insisting Obi was a featherweight.

Also in some fora, the governor had insisted that Obi was practically not in the race, insisting that only two candidates had the capacity to win.

During a meeting with the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Soludo insisted that only he (Atiku) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu were in the presidential race.

The permutations of the governor came to pass, as Tinubu was declared winner, while Atiku came second. But from happenings around the country, and the hard fight Obi and his Labour Party were able to put up during the election, it has become obvious that the OBIdient family as Obi’s supporters are known cannot be ignored.

In Lagos, Kaduna, Cross River, Enugu and even Abia States, the governors are making frantic efforts to woo members of the OBIdient family, as a way to help their governorship candidates win election.

In Lagos, the capacity of Obi’s supporters have been acknowledged, and the APC is also making frantic efforts to take into reckoning, the fact that Obi’s supporters hold block votes in the coming election, especially after Obi won Lagos, during the presidential election.

In Anambra too, there are fears that the Labour Party candidates for House of Assembly may sweep votes in the state, and this may cause trouble for Soludo, who many of Obi’s supporters already see as enemies, for not supporting their candidate for the presidential seat.

The huge biases against the assembly candidates of APGA can be attributed to the many utterances of the governor.

In the last presidential poll, Obi’s Labour Party swept over 90 percent of the total votes cast in the state, while in the National Assembly elections, Labour Party candidates, even the rookie politicians among them had a smooth sail to victory, beating more established politicians in APGA.

The Labour Party got two out of the three senatorial zones, leaving one for Young Progressives Party (YPP) only Senator, Ifeanyi Ubah.

In the House of Representatives, LP got six out of the total 11 federal constituencies, while APGA the ruling party in the state was able to trail behind with just four.

As Saturday’s election draws near, the fear of Labour Party has become the begining of wisdom. The governor is not unaware of this, as he has currently deployed everything in his arsenal to commence fence-mending between the party and the people.

THISDAY gathered that there is a standing instruction for all appointees of government to go home and work towards the election of APGA candidates. This has also been evident in the social media posts of the appointees, who have gone all out, using all channels to try to woo Anambra electorates.

Some of the postings on social media have also portrayed Soludo and Obi as brothers who have no axe to grind amongst them, adding that even  Obi will be happy for Soludo to develop Anambra very well, and that would only be possible if Soludo gets House of Assembly members who are loyal to him, and desist from distracting him.

An appointee of the Governor, Mr Chidiebele Obika in a social media post wrote: “Vote APGA candidates in Saturday’s election for seamless execution of government policies. Ndi  Anambra can’t afford going (sic) backwards.”

Reacting to the aggressive campaign, and the quest to woo Obi’s supporters, Mr Eze Nwobi, an Anambra resident, said: “It is a surprise that Soludo’s media aides that used the whole campaign period to write all sorts of negative things about Peter Obi have suddenly remembered that Obi and Soludo are brothers. Interesting days ahead.

“All these is a plan to sound nice and garner sympathy. The people they called headless mob are now their friends. Dear headless mob, it’s a plan deal, don’t fall for it. They told us emotion has no business in politics, today they are imputing emotions and telling you about brothers.”

Meanwhile, the Labour Party doesn’t seem to be relenting, as they are also galvanizing support for their candidates for the House of Assembly seats, to form majority in the house.

Former governorship candidate and now special adviser on technology and strategic alliance to  Obi, Mr Val Ozigbo, has hosted all House of Assembly candidates of Labour Party.

At the meeting, Ozigbo commended the party’s achievements in the February 25 elections, and urged them to re-strategise to garner more seats in the state assembly. He said penultimate Saturday’s election has provided a perfect opportunity to drive the message of a new Nigeria home in the state, insisting that it has boosted the morale of candidates for Saturday’s election.

According to him: “Now is the time to consolidate and ensure that we secure majority of Anambra House of Assembly seats. The people of Anambra spoke with one voice on February 25, and that voice must echo in our state legislature. You all represent the hope of millions of Nigerians, and we must prove to the people that they made the right choice by sticking with Labour Party. Few months ago, no one gave our party a chance, but through the power of God, the will of the people and the leadership of Peter Obi, we have shaken the foundation of Nigeria’s corrupt political system and made Nigerians believe in the actualisation of a new Nigeria”.

Though many believe that APGA may eventually secure the highest number of seats in the state house of assembly, but some are of the view that if the Labour Party pulls a surprise as it did on February 25, the assembly may be dominated by Labour Party lawmakers, and this they believe will deal a blow on Soludo’s ability to deliver as he promised, and may also cost him a second term by 2026, when he gears up for re-election.