Soludo’ll give Anambra very strong economy – Emecheta

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency (ANSAA), Chief Jude Emecheta is the Chairman, Anambra Demand for Soludo. In this Interview with CHINWENDU UZOATU and BLESSING NNABUIFE, he expressed happiness over Soludo’s victory as the APGA candidate and explained why he believes in Soludo. Excerpt:

YOU are one of those clamouring for Soludo to contest for Anambra State governor under APGA, how do you feel today having realised the dream?

  I feel thankful and grateful to God for answered prayers because it’s not every time that we wish things that they come to fruition and I pray that God that answered us now will keep answering till the end of the election.

What specific qualities make you believe that he is best suited for the job even before he declared interest to contest?

   As a politician, I look at people who are loyal to the party –  qualities of the man who we think should run in All Progressive Grand Alliance [APGA]. In 2013, when Soludo wanted to contest, he failed but never relented. He stayed all through and in that election, he worked for APGA. Four years after, he followed the governor to every local government, campaigning for the governor. Nobody paid him and that shows he is a real APGA member and also, when you look at what he has done before, you will think of what he can do tomorrow.

  Earlier in 2005, when he was the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), he showed no small pro-activeness in terms of regenerating our banks and economy across the world and we thought that now the oil is going away in Nigeria as a revenue generating source, we need somebody who will think and tell us what next to do. I am looking at his quality as an economic development expert and I think that in Anambra, we have the materials and human resources; we need somebody who can motivate our structure to give us a very strong economy.

  Anambra can be a state-sustaining nation of its own if we have somebody who builds on what our governor; Dr Willie Obiano has done, because what he just did now is to give us a complete platform on what to build an economy- an airport, international conference center, among others. He improved on tourism, general commerce, industry and agriculture. So, we need somebody who will harmonise and use it to build the economy of Anambra State.

  Since the party had a good number of aspirants that were either disqualified or lost to Soludo, don’t you think it will affect the party’s success in the forthcoming election?

  While I think it will not affect the party in the coming election is that two of the aspirants who contested with him are back in the party and also supporting him. There are some who will agree naturally but the party will still reach out to them, letting them know that if they don’t get, now they can get it later. Like the Igbo’s will say, “Chi na-eme eze” but you know, anybody who doesn’t accept that is not a member of the party and that means he is not contributing  to the growth of the party; so we don’t need such people in our party.

  What about the problem being created by other factions of the party and even the purported disqualification of Soludo?

  There is no disqualification of Soludo and we don’t have factions in APGA.

  How do you think the intra party problems will be solved to ensure success in the election?

  Intra party problems are natural things. That’s why we have conflicts management. If there’s no conflicts management, there would be intra party problem. It will be solved by trying to manage what the problems are – some you cannot manage because there are some people who are stubborn and selfish. There are some people in this government now who are SSAs and SAs.

They get paid at the end of every month, yet, they are not happy because they want to be governors, deputy governors, commissioners, among others, which is not possible. So, I will advise that whatever you get, you should keep it and keep praying to God either to move you up or give you something else. It must not come from the party but you can get something outside the party through the influence of the party.

What’s your advice to disgruntled party members?

  You have the right to be angry but when you get angry, you look up and down and you remember that there’s God. If somebody did anything to you and you believe in God, God will also redeem whatever he wants to do for you. So, I will ask them to keep calm and come back to the party. You can’t build and run away from the house you have built, so I will ask them to come back to the party. Don’t get too angry because there is no way everybody in the party can get everything. It’s not possible. We just have one governor and one deputy. They can’t be two.