Peoples Gazette
I desperately tried to reach Gov. Charles Soludo of Anambra State the day after his infamous Channel’s TV interview. I called his Nigerian and UK numbers to no avail. I wish I had spoken to him before he published that epistle to Peter Obi and the ‘Obedients.’
With the possible exception of his wife, I may be the only person that knows Gov. Charles Soludo. With all modesty, I understand Soludo more than he understands himself.
Unfortunately, Soludo has not taken my call since his swearing-in as the governor of Anambra State. This unavailability is the opposite of what he promised the citizens of Anambra State after winning the election. And I also tried to reach him through his commissioners and protocol officers but failed.
Reading Soludo’s epistle, I was smiling at places where others were fuming. I understood the spirits of agwu that led him one paragraph after another.
People expected my governor to explain why he said Peter Obi’s investments were worth nothing, and he wrote a term paper on poverty in Anambra State from 1900 to 2000. If his epistle were an English composition in the WASC examination, he would have received an F9 for writing off point and wasting the teacher’s time.
I have been there. There were spots where I saw myself writing precisely as Soludo. We could forgive any undiscerning reader if he thinks some lines of his epistle came straight out of my often-erratic writing temperament.
A good Christian would not have gone as low as Soludo did. A good politician would not have allowed Internet trolls to provoke him this much and expose his thin skin. Soludo brought out a sledgehammer to fight tiny ants that cannot bite. Even when he invoked Zik, Awolowo, and MI Okpala to give himself cover, he yanked the cover away in another paragraph of an unrestrained inferno.
It was sad in some spots. Like when Soludo reminded his readers about his friends and accomplishments in contrast with Peter Obi’s. And then, it got sadder at other spots. Like when he wished Peter Obi well. The whole essay was suffering from a kind of bipolar paralysis.
But I understand. I have been there. The agwu is real and vicious.
I must say that Soludo got a few things right. But saying that Peter Obi can and must control his supporters is not one of them.
