WHY SOLUDO CANNOT RULE ANAMBRA STATE NOW.

Not minding whose ox is gored, I make bold to say that there are thousand and one compelling reasons why Professor Chukwuma Soludo will never rule Anambra State, the land of my birth, for now. Anambra State is one of the most sophisticated in Nigeria, the home of many of Nigeria’s greatest and finest souls; a state where the sons and daughters have scored many firsts in whatever fields they find themselves.

At Chief Anyaegbu’s (Chisco) book launch (YOU TOO CAN DO IT) recently in Lagos, Governor Peter Obi took time out to celebrate the many firsts Anambrans have scored in Nigeria’s political landscape. The list was almost endless as time failed him to complete the chronicle. Because of the huge success of our big time traders, other Nigerians think Anambra people are foolish money bags and traders who do not know their left and right. But the truth of matter is that Anambra people have succeeded well in businesses as in politics. We have not been cheated politically since the inception of that state in Nigeria. Anambra people have always known their rights and have always fought for it. Anambra people have never been conquered politically.

The National Party of Nigeria, NPN tried to do it but failed. The People’s Democratic Party,  PDP cheated Anambra people  between 1999 and 2003 and in 2003 elections, our people rejected PDP. Even though they stole our people’s mandate for three years, our people fought and retrieved it. PDP used the stolen mandate in the State Assembly to illegally impeach Governor Obi, but Anambra people resisted the criminal impeachment. Today, PDP is returning to Anambra State, a state that has totally rejected it by trying to impose Professor Soludo on the people of my beloved state. But this cannot work in the 21st century in Anambra State, the land of the wise.

Anambra people do not want PDP and their so-called candidate, Professor Chukwuma Soludo. I just came back from the East on 19th October 2009 and I saw motorcycles, rice, hollandis clothes, and huge sums of money being distributed to our people at the instance of Chukwuma Soludo. But the truth must be told that Anambra State is not for sale. The state has been in the news for years now for the wrong reasons, and this must stop. If Soludo gives you cloth, motorcycle, or money, take it because it does not belong to him. It is the people’s stolen money.

We saw the process that produced Soludo as PDP candidate in Anambra. We saw how the invaders led by Chief Tony Anenih stormed the state to rob our people. Tony Anenih, the PDP’s ‘Mr fix it’ which is another name for stealing people’s votes for his party, PDP has relocated to Anambra State. Having been disgraced, humiliated and politically routed in his home State, Edo State by the big boy, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, Tony Anenih has shifted base to Anambra State but he will fail. This man who sold the mandate of his party, SDP to IBB and Abacha in 1993 and caused the deaths of 5,000 Nigerians including Chief MKO Abiola and his wife, Kudirat thinks Nigerians are fools. Now, Chief Tony Anenih must hear this: Mr Tony Anenih please in the name of God quit politics now! Tony Anenih quit now!! Tony Anenih quit politics now in your own interest!!!

As I write this Soludo is chasing his fellow contestants (46 of them) with 35 million each (some are getting more, depending on their capacity) to step down and accept him. Now, where is all that money coming from? This was the kind of money circulated during Soludo’s failed bid to seek a second term as CBN Governor. And part of the reason why he failed was that President Yar’Adua was stunned by the volume of money Soludo was throwing around to seek a second term and decided to close his chapter as CBN Governor. I swear the huge sums of money came from the fraudulent and disgraced bank CEOs.

I challenge Nigerian security agencies to investigate Chief Tony Anenih’s accounts. He cannot come to Anambra State to rig Soludo to power without having collected millions. As Soludo is distributing his stolen funds (Nigerian people’s money) the new CBN Governor Mr Lamido Sanusi is releasing a gamut of information on a daily basis that continuously indicts Soludo as the former CBN Governor who came, saw and failed to conquer.

If Soludo is wise he would have withdrawn from this race to go and clear his soiled and discredited name. Shakespeare in Othello says; ‘he who steals my purse steals nothing but he who tries to steal my good name robs me of the immediate jewel of my soul’ Meat sellers, groundnut sellers, pepper seller, drivers, conductors, farmers’ hard-earned money was stolen by the bank chiefs and a huge sum of them released to Soludo to look the other way while the rot continued. Now Soludo thinks that these monumental revelations will just be swept under the carpet and he will just be rewarded with the governorship of Anambra State? No, no, my brother, it will never, never happen. Go and clear your name as the former CBN Governor first!

Lamido Sanusi has been doing his job without saying anything about his predecessor, but his silence on Soludo speaks volumes. Professor Soludo has been keeping quiet on the huge and mind-boggling revelations about his tenure at CBN but silence is not golden at this point in time. If Soludo fails to understand that the trouble in the banking industry today in Nigeria is an indictment on his person, he is the biggest fool of the century. If Soludo thinks that he can ignore Sanusi’s revelations and pretend as if nothing is happening, I pity him and his ambition to rule Anambra State. I implore Lamido Sanusi to extend his investigations to the stock market scam Professor Soludo presided over in the years of the locust. The banks CEOs, stock brokers, and their cronies criminally worked together to rob Nigerians, including this writer of their hard-earned money.

They connived, schemed and fraudulently manipulated the stock prices just to rob Nigerians and after they brought the prices of the stocks down and put the blame on global meltdown. And I ask; which global meltdown? Do we manufacture anything in this country? I mean, do we manufacture cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, electronics, aircrafts, industrial machines etc? So, what concerns Nigeria with global meltdown? They just stole our money with Soludo presiding. Please, Sanusi investigate the stock, market scam!

As I write this in the morning of Tuesday October 20 2009, my vendor brought in the papers and I saw the front page story with the caption, ‘Soludo: I am ready for probe.’ I said; good, the man is thinking. Soludo must go the whole hog. Reveal everything; tell the truth and nothing but the truth. This is the path of sanity. This is the path to redeem your battered image. This is the path to reclaim your terrible and badly rubbished name.

Joe Igbokwe wrote from Lagos, Nigeria.