Immediately upon retirement as CBN Governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo in his quest to become the Governor of Anambra State joined the then ruling party at the Federal level PDP where he emerged third in the 2010 Anambra Guber election won by Peter Obi.
Realising APGA had Anambra as the ruling Party,a fter the 2010 election he joined APGA. In all these he was careful and never mistaken. He declared and ran for the APGA Gubernatorial primaries in 2013 seeking the flag of the party to run and replace then outgoing Government Peter Obi.
He failed to get the anointing and blessing of Peter Obi as preferred candidate or gain his sponsorship. Peter Obama chose a relatively unknown Willie Obiano and a fellow JJC, and first timer, in politics.
Prof. Soludo ran on his personal merit against Peter Obi’s anointed candidate. As JJC, he was served the usual political algebra.
He was served a dose of the Nigerian political jiggry-pokkery
. Obiano emerged APGA candidate and the rest today is history.But there is a serious lesson here. Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo did not go to Court to challenge Obiano. He did not become toxic and try to instigate bad blood within APGA.
He did not threaten hell and brimestone. He did not run to ChannelsTV and AIT to demolish his party and tell the world all the ills about his party. He did nothing to whittle down APGA’s strength to benefit other parties. While most of the PDP leaders and aspirants betrayed their party, Soludo gave Obiano all the support, even when he knew he was better qualified than Obiano and deserved the APGA guber ticket in the 2013 primaries.
He went underground, was humble, submitted to Willy Obiano. More importantly he submitted to APGA leadership and Obiano as leader of APGA. He began to learn party loyalty, ibu akpa, and izu okwe politiksi. Soludo bent down and began to see Aba. But that’s not all. In pre-2017 Obiano was to finish his first term.
Anambra Governorship was thrown open again. Soludo subsumed his interest into Obiano’s ambition. Soludo humbled himself despite being highly qualified. He didn’t run for Anambra Guber 2017. He supported Obiano. He served Obiano. He was loyal to APGA and contributed to the growth of the party.
So when 2021 came and Obiano was to choose a favorite candidate, he chose Soludo. Against the war by Umeoji and the rest, Obiano stood by him.Serious lessons to learn from Soludo.
1. If you want to run for election, research Nigeria Politics. Work to break in through the established political parties. It gives you 50% ahead mileage over others.
2. Join the ruling party, learn their ways and plan to change the system from within. Stop fighting from outside.
3. Don’t be toxic when you run and lose. Dont go fighting the political party. It didn’t favor you today, doesnt mean it won’t favor you tomorrow. Soludo was patient and today, he got his dream to become the front line APGA Governorship candidate and coasting home to becoming the Governor. Not by fighting APGA and Obiano, but because he was graceful and humble in the face of adversity within the party.
4. Stop jumping from one party to another party. Being inconsistent doesn’t pay. Nuhu Ribadu moved from APC to PDP, from PDP to APC all in search of Adamawa Governorship. Governor Fintiri stayed in PDP and today he became Governor over the popular acclaimed Ribadu. Respect party leadership. In Nigeria party loyalty is key to benefitting from party.
5. Finally, _ayaghara party, ntonto party_ can finish your political career. If Soludo ran with all these small parties, even with all his credentials, may be he would have ended up garnering 100 votes in most of the LGAs in Anambra. In Nigeria politics, two strong political parties has evolved, with few other parties like APGA polling strong in some corners as regional parties. If you want to change the system, join the big parties and softly start working to engender change from within.
If you vex go join ayaghara party, you go blow grammar tire and still lose woefully at the elections.Soludo spent 8 solid years serving Obiano, even when he ran against his boss, predecessor and benefactor and came 3rd in 2010.
Did you learn anything from Soludo’s APGA experience? Me I learnt big time. Patience, consistency, loyalty, humility, team spirit, good followership can be rewarding in the long run.
Life is about learning and continuous learning.
Ndewonu
By: Kissinger Ikeokwu