WHY ANAMBRA YOUTHS ARE WAITING FOR SOLUDO by Joe C Anatune (PART ONE)
Prof Charles Soludo
Ikechukwu Amechi needs no introduction as one of our leading newspaper columnists and ace reporters. Recently, he pulled a scoop. Amechi brought out indomitable Festus Odimegwu from his cocoon to bare his prodigious mind on the state of the nation. Festus, ever blunt, prescribed “informed leadership” as the elixir for our challenges as a country.
I hope Ndi Anambra would be guided by his well thought-out solution in our search for who will take over and build on Governor Willie Obiano’s achievements and those of his predecessors. The profundity of Odimegwu’s thesis is definitely not in doubt.
We assured weeks back, that we will research and report on why Anambra youths are clamouring for Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, not just to join the race for the Anambra 2021 governorship election but to be Governor Obiano’s successor. In the course of the assignment in the 21 local government areas of the state, we sampled opinions of youths using a combination of questionnaires, oral interviews, voters’ panel discussions and observation.
And like Ikechukwu Amechi, we pulled a scoop.
We ran into Nelson Omenugha among thousands of like-minded youths. Nelson is as smart as they come. With a Ph.D in waiting, his interests cover good governance, development studies and marketing. His insights were quite revealing and we have chosen to present his responses to our questions unedited and verbatim for our readers in three parts. So hear what Nelson said about why he and other teeming Anambra Youths are proudly proclaiming: ” YESS SOLUDO.”
Nelson: “Growing up and as a college student, I first heard of Prof. Charles Soludo from my social studies auxiliary teacher. She was excitedly telling us how the Governor of Central Bank, Prof. Charles Soludo was all out to secure monies in banks through his banking consolidation initiative. She recounted how her parents were unable to train her in a college of education because they lost all their savings to a failed bank. The shock from the loss also came with sickness on the father, who never recovered from it.
We all felt sorry for our teacher but for me, it was a journey to understand better, the Man – Soludo – who was out to restore the hope of the common man on the banking industry. Therefore, when I went home, I shared my teacher’s ordeal with my mum and informed her on how the Soludo banking consolidation is set to save people’s money, lives and careers. My mum, who was visibly impressed with my narrative, went on to say that she knew Soludo from University of Nigeria and not surprised about the audacious steps he was taking to transform the banking sector. SOLUDO was actually a Postgraduate student during her undergraduate studies. His intelligence was legendary then, and they all held him in awe. He graduated with First Class from University of Nigeria. That was how, without even meeting the man, Soludo, I came to greatly admire and look up to him as a role model.
My admiration for him had inspired my further inquiry into his life trajectories. Soludo’s life trajectory defines possibilities. Here is a village boy, who through dint of hard work steadily excelled and rose to stardom. He never allowed his background to limit and define what he could achieve. It’s easy to become super nostalgic about his time and audacious achievements as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria. He accomplished a lot at the Central Bank, principally transforming the once rickety banking sector to one of competitive world class that restored the hope, gave life to the common man and businesses. Indeed, from personal to academic and public service trajectories, the Soludo story is an eloquent one that inspires some of the giant steps I have taken and still take, including one of the motivations for my graduating top and best in the university.
In Soludo, everyone can see an aspect of him or her – the poor and the rich; the young and the old; the village boy and the global citizen; the humble and the confident. I can mirror some aspects of my life in Soludo and that makes me passionate about him.”
Anatune reports from Awa, Orumba North LGA.
