Barrister Olalekan Festus Ojo, a Lagos-based human rights advocate, has stated that the ongoing altercations between Anambra State governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, and Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), are politically motivated. Ojo asserted that the facts, as attested by witnesses of unimpeachable credibility, are difficult to dismiss. He made this statement in response to the public altercations between the two.
According to Ojo, Governor Alex Otti, then Chief Executive Officer of a major Nigerian bank with direct institutional knowledge of Anambra State's financial position, has publicly affirmed Peter Obi's positive financial legacy. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, then Nigeria's Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, has similarly attested to Obi's responsible stewardship of Anambra State's finances. Their testimonies carry an evidentiary weight that political allegations from a sitting governor with demonstrable partisan motivations simply cannot overcome.
Ojo maintained that Governor Soludo's well-publicised support for President Bola Tinubu's re-election creates an irresistible inference that his persistent campaign against Obi's legacy is motivated by political calculation, rather than genuine governance accountability. A governor genuinely concerned about inherited debts had 11 years and multiple platforms to raise these concerns before Peter Obi became a presidential candidate of national significance.
The timing of these allegations, intensifying precisely as Obi's 2027 candidacy gains momentum, speaks louder than their content. Ojo advised Governor Soludo to deploy his energy toward Anambra's present challenges, rather than relitigating a predecessor's record that eminent Nigerians have already credibly validated. History will judge the motives behind these allegations as clearly as it will judge Peter Obi's actual gubernatorial record.
Ojo advised Peter Obi to allow the testimonies of Otti and Okonjo-Iweala to speak with the authority they command, present his documented legacy with facts and figures, and resist the temptation to engage in a prolonged public altercation that distracts from the substantive policy conversation that his presidential campaign deserves to centre. He also urged Anambra people to exercise critical discernment and evaluate competing claims against documented evidence.
Ojo's advice to Nigerians is to demand that the 2027 presidential contest be fought on ideas, policies, and visions for national recovery, not on 11-year-old gubernatorial accounting disputes whose resurrection serves no purpose except the political diminishment of a candidate whom millions of Nigerians have invested genuine democratic hope in. Nigeria's problems are too urgent and too severe for its political discourse to be consumed by manufactured controversies.
The public altercations between Soludo and Obi have been a subject of interest in the country, with many Nigerians calling for a policy-based campaign. The 2027 presidential election is expected to be a major contest, with various candidates vying for the top seat.
Key points
- Soludo's attacks on Peter Obi are politically motivated.
- Ojo advises Soludo to focus on Anambra's present challenges.
- The 2027 presidential contest should be fought on ideas, policies, and visions for national recovery.
