Soludo’s Peter Obi Obsession Has Become a Political Misadventure

By Fred Chukwuelobe
If Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s adventure was to pull Peter Obi down for whatever reason, it has gradually turned into a political misadventure. The “Solution is Here” exponent is still searching for a real solution to his misadventure in government.
The latest episode began with what the Anambra government apparently thought was a financial bombshell designed to convince even the progressives working with Soludo that the former governor and 2027 presidential candidate was not as financially prudent as he claims.
Pronto, the government released a hurriedly worded statement alleging that Peter Obi left behind a staggering $123.77billion external debt, which the Soludo administration was still servicing. Within minutes, the figure was adjusted to $123.77million, blamed on a typographical error.
As expected, the Presidency and Peter Obi’s traducers immediately latched onto the original figure and began demanding that Obi step down from the presidential race.
Because the claim came from a first-class professor of economics, they apparently assumed it was cast in stone.
Then the forensic examination began.
Experts picked through the figures and the claims and exposed serious problems with the presentation. The Anambra government subsequently dispatched its Commissioner for Information, Dr. Law Mefor, to defend the figures.
He appeared on Arise Television opposite the irrepressible Rufai Oseni. Oseni, who studied animal husbandry but has demonstrated an impressive grasp of issues far beyond his academic discipline, subjected the commissioner to a few straightforward questions.
The result was revealing.
The commissioner struggled to defend the figures and eventually acknowledged that the figures released by the government had not been properly checked. He promised to go back to the Debt Management Office, DMO, to verify them.
In the course of the interview, it also became clear that the much-publicised $123.77 million was a Federal Government borrowing facility, not a debt contracted by the Peter Obi administration. More importantly, only about $30 million had been drawn down during Obi’s tenure, according to the explanation given during the exchange.
So much for the $123.77 billion debt narrative.
But this is only one episode in what increasingly looks like an unhealthy obsession with Peter Obi.
Soludo came into office with grand promises to Ndi Anambra. He promised to make the state the Dubai and Taiwan of our time. People believed him. He has completed his first term, during which his administration constructed roads, a new Government House, the Solution Fun City and the controversial Ekwulobia flyover, among other projects.
Now, into his second term, the administration has embarked on another airport project at Ndikelionwu, even as the airport initiated by his predecessor, Willie Obiano, at Umueri remains unfinished.
He has also turned his attention to fake pastors and native doctors, apparently convinced that they are among the obstacles standing between Anambra and the Dubai-Taiwan destination he promised.
But of all Soludo’s adventures in government, his persistent attacks on Peter Obi may yet prove to be his biggest misadventure.
The more he tries to diminish Peter Obi, the more attention he draws to himself. The more he attempts to discredit his predecessor, the more Nigerians scrutinise his own record.
And that is where the danger lies.
A governor should be judged by what he is doing with the mandate he holds—not by how successfully he can discredit the man who occupied the office before him.
Soludo may be a first-class professor of economics. But politics is not an economics classroom, and government is not an academic experiment. It requires judgement, restraint, priorities and the ability to distinguish between political competition and personal obsession.
His repeated attempts to pull Peter Obi down are increasingly becoming a distraction from the business of governing Anambra.
The irony is that Peter Obi does not need Soludo to make him relevant. Every fresh attempt to drag him into another controversy simply keeps his name in the national conversation.

Soludo promised Ndi Anambra a Dubai and a Taiwan.
Instead, his adventure in government is increasingly being overshadowed by one recurring mission: Peter Obi.
And that mission, rather than diminishing Obi, may ultimately become Soludo’s biggest political misadventure.
He came with the promise that “Solution is Here.”
But after all these years, he may discover that the one solution he has been unable to find is a solution to his own misadventure.

NB: Fred Chukwuelobe, was a Special Assistant to former Governor of Anambra, Chris Ngige on Media and Publicity.