What Soludo Got Wrong on Peter Obi’s Investment and Development

To Anambra State People: some Abians have mobilized here to buy-out all the next to nothing investments Governor Soludo said Governor Peter Obi made as a governor. At least, Anambra is lucky that the governors there make investments. In my own state, the governor has bragged about attracting KFC and Domino’s pizzas as signs of strategic investments in the state!

Prof Soludo underwhelmed and I am extremely disappointed reading his recent comments on Peter Obi. It was offensive and extremely unfortunate. He wrote and spoke like a lost intellectual, not a professor of economics.  In Southeast Nigeria, we used to mock Anambra state that its young people were not going to school, always moving into trading. It was ranked 27th out of 36 in the nation in WAEC and nearly 30th in JAMB.

Magically, within years, Anambra was ranked #1 in WAEC and top-3 in JAMB. For a professor to say that was not an investment must be repudiated. That effort boosted Anambra state literacy rate to 92.11% from less than 60%. All done within 8 years, according to NBS data.

Prof Soludo, you need to understand that you are a teacher even as you live in the government mansion. Development is not just about building houses, roads and companies. The biggest investment remains the people. Your state is ranked #1 in the Southeast in education attainment & development today, and that happened because Obi invested in young people when others did not care. Make your point but do not use your position to confuse; certain things should be off politics. You are free to attack Obi, Tinubu, Atiku, etc while promoting your party candidate, but be decent with facts!

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Comment:  Prof i will expect you to criticise Prof Soludo and make your points. I will not subscribe to those derogatory and insultive words outlined here.

A Prof like you should not use those words either.

Two wrongs won’t make a right.

Referring to Prof Soludo as a lost intellectual is too ambiguous, colloquial.

Prof, you are a model many of us are following.

I will expect you use your strong influence to mend the gaps and not allow opponents to explore the weak link. This is becoming own goal.

If the South-East doesnt quickly intervene to precent this trending gaps, it is going to mirror the chances of Peter Obi and it will be a major minus.

Use your influence to unite the warring parties and let unity prevail in the South-East.

House dividing against itself may be dangerous.

God bless you sir.

My Response: “Referring to Prof Soludo as a lost intellectual is too ambiguous, colloquial.” – there is no better way to explain when a professor said that investing in young people is meaningless. Possibly, he expected Obi to invest in Google, Dangote Cement, etc. Before Obi became governor,  Anambra was nowhere in basic education (the school was spare parts). For him to posit that investment on policy ground must be buying shares, he is lost. My kinsman Prof MN Ogbonna who taught Soludo and  who is 93 years old could not understand his extrapolation. Unless he explains how human development is not investment, I will not change my conclusion.

Comment 2: You simply put it as it should be…With a verification link. The biggest investment is not just people but in educating the people. When people are well educated and informed, the assurance of an economic transformation will happen and that PO succeeded in doing. I am from Anambra State and we know that the education sector in Anambra improved tremendously under Peter Obi amidst other economic investment.

Comment 3: Prof, I’m always in a haste to read your comments on certain issues. Your objective opinions are always apt. You have shown that you’re polymath with the way you analyse issues despite being a scientist. I learn new things each time I read your articles.

My Response: This is not Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba thing. Afenifere leader is supporting Obi, not Tinubu. It would be bad if every Igbo person is supporting Obi (do not wish for that). My senator (Orji Uzor Kalu) is supporting Tinubu, that is fine. That is democracy. Obi’s campaign lead is Okupe, a Yoruba man. Soludo can support anyone he wants. But I am asking him to avoid disinformation with his pulpit. That is all. Obi, Atiku, Tinubu, etc should win and lose based on facts and not fake news. Soludo was re-writing history in Anambra and we need to challenge him. It has nothing to do with voting for anyone. We are in the same group of eminent Igbos; he left. He cannot even defend his position.

Comment 4: One would think Obi transformed Anambra from a 3rd World State to a globally enviable commercial hub with the way you lot are moving mad about him. Constantly keen to attack any personality that gives a constructive assessment either of his person, claimed achievements and overall chances at the elections, rather than take a step back and objectively appraise his candidacy.

Chukwuma Charles Soludo remains a leading unbiased voice from the southeast. But even Prof’s leaning towards Obi won’t let him do any objective assessment of his candidacy.

My Response: This is not really about politics. As I noted, Soludo was fact-free. He based everything on investing in a beer company. The shares crashed (just like all companies in Nigeria since 2009, none has recovered). But that was not the only investment. There is the education investment. No one is attacking Soludo, we are asking him to be a better teacher.  I provided stats; you can conclude as you want. Anambra before Obi was the least educated state in Southeast with Ebonyi. Today, it is ranked #1 on education and development and that happened because they moved from 20s to top 3 in WAEC and JAMB. Is that not what we hope to happen? Leave elections from this – focus on development. 

Comment 5: Soludo goofed big time, he did not represent those that hold the title of ‘professor’ well, I do not even have a PhD, but intellectual masturbation is not what I forgive easily. He’s from a place where there are army of intellectuals who have distinguished themselves in every aspect of human endeavour, yet he chose to be petty. Soludo is a professor, but Peter Obi is more educated than him, Obi has studied more than Soludo. Titles don’t move my kind of person, but intellectual capital is always self-evident, it is not everyone that can be bamboozled with big words.

Both of Soludo and Obi, I know their histories and accomplishments, Obi is an investor, Soludo is not, but the latter somewhat believes that he knows a lot, even when he’s currently overwhelmed by simplest of tasks, such as keeping Onitsha clean…

This feud started in 2009, and I witnessed firsthand the rascality on display during the governorship campaign, you would think the trader was the professor while the professor was the trader; decency and civility aren’t what you acquire via titles, if you lack good moral character, then you are essentially empty.

Peter Obi is sacred in Anambra State, Soludo is just struggling for acceptance, so let him work harder.

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi on Tuesday, said he did his little as governor of Anambra State and urged the incumbent governor, Chukwuma Soludo to do his best in the state as an economics professor.

Obi stated this at the 2022 Lagos Business School (LBS) Alumni Conference in Lagos.

The Anambra governor between 2006 and 2014 was reacting to Soludo’s comments that the investment he (Obi) left in government is worth close to nothing.

Also, Soludo on Monday had tackled Obi, saying he can’t win the 2023 presidential election.

‘Soludo Remains My Brother’

Reacting on Tuesday in Lagos, Obi described Soludo as his brother.

“He (Soludo) remains my brother, we are very close. I remain prayerful for him. For other things which I didn’t succeed at, God has given him opportunity to do it and succeed.

“So, if there is anything pending, governance doesn’t finish, people are still in government in America, so you stop where you will stop, other people will continue from there,” Obi said.

“He is the governor of the state; he is my senior brother, he is even more intelligent than me because he is a professor, I am a trader, so he knows more and will be able to do things better than I am doing it.

“I have done my little own as a trader, now the professor is there he will do his own as a professor, the schools I didn’t roof he will roof them, that’s how government goes.”

The former governor said he left the office with the savings of 75 Billion Naira, adding that his administration saved 50 million dollars each in Access, Diamond and Fidelity banks with an interest rate of 6.5%.

He further clarifies, “The one they said is worthless, we invested 3.5 billion naira in International Breweries…that facility is there employing directly and indirectly over 10,000 Anambarians. The shares was at a time being sold at N50, today the shares is about N5 or so.

“When you spread your investment some will go up some will come down but overall the company is still there, the company is still doing well, it is still part of the global chain and everything. I needed to explain it not because I am defending comments by my brother,” the LP candidate said.

He said he left the office without owing any contractor, supplier who had executed their job, citing the examples of Innoson Motors and Zinos Computers.

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