The campaign trails have become an avenue to launch distasteful diatribes and ad hominem personal attacks on political opponents.
Nigeria’s politics, especially in the fourth republic, isn’t known for its ideological richness. Politics is not rooted in quality exchange of ideas and power is not attained through riveting intellectual discourse and superiority of knowledge. Manifestoes are nothing more than a schiff of inconsequential documents that hardly matter in the grand scheme.
Politics and power, for the most part, are for those who pack enough punch to bludgeon their political rival and opponents on their treacherous road to power. Politics here is a byword for violence. It’s a dog-eat-dog contest. People who seek to do the right thing and toe the path of honour are soon to realise that the system is not designed to entrench legality and deepen the rule of law.
This disconcerting and viscerally repulsive makeup and disposition of Nigeria’s politics is often underscored during electioneering and campaign trails. Events in Anambra state in the past week have brought these uncomfortable realities to the fore again. The state governorship election is less than two months away and candidates and major political actors are campaigning intensely to be the next man to lead the state.
However, the campaign rhetoric has left much to be desired. They are as appalling as they are abhorrent. The campaign trails have become an avenue to launch distasteful diatribes and ad hominem personal attacks on political opponents.
Governor Charles Soludo has earned somewhat of a reputation as a clumsy, tactless and bullish politician who lacks civility and decorum. Being a former governor of the central banks of Nigeria, many had high hopes for his government when he became the governor of the South-East state. His sterling and enviable academic excellence has not translated into impactful and efficient governance for Anambra. However, he has taken things a notch higher with his recent remarks on his campaign.
His traducer on the other side of the political divide is the deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the forthcoming governorship election, Senator Uche Ekwunife. The duo have been having a go at each other. Their political face-off is not ringfenced by wits and intelligence but by an unabashed display of crude indiscretion.
What started as a debate on academic qualification and intelligence quickly morphed into name-calling, criticism of personal hygiene and allegation of paternal fraud. Trouble began after Soludo questioned the authenticity of Ekwunife’s PhD and her intelligence. He stated that both the APC gubernatorial candidate (Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu) and his Deputy (Ekwunife) are semi-illiterates and that the worst/fake credentials for the office of governor of Anambra in history
Responding to Soludo’s statement, Ekwunife went for the governor’s personality and did not bother to refute the claims regarding her academic credentials. She claimed he oozes bad odour, his breath stinks and he generally lacks good personal hygiene. She also alleged that Soludo’s wife, Mrs Nonye Soludo, had an affair with former governor of Anambra State, Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju. She also called her a hermaphrodite. Mrs Soludo has since refuted the allegations of the senator and challenged him to an oath of fidelity before the Blessed Virgin Mary and to subject their children to paternity tests.
Anambra is an important state not just to the southeast but to Nigeria. It is the state with the most millionaires per capita. It has two commercial towns, Onitsha and Nnewi. It is the only State in the region with a river port and airport, the economic capital of the East of Nigeria. It hosts the only Federal steel investment in the whole of the South East. With all these human and natural endowments and potential, the quality of debate and discourse among those vying to lead the state has left many in shock.
One would have believed that the engagements and conversations among major political actors would revolve around how they would harness the massive potential of the State for its growth and betterment of its people. Politics in 2025 cannot be reduced to a vituperation fest. Political campaign and debate, especially in a State like Anambra, should be issue-based, not personality-based. Politicians should communicate their ideas and articulate their plans for the state and how they intend to achieve them.
It is even more worrisome when the incumbent governor, who is also engaging in this embarrassing and undignifying show of shame, is a professor of economics. He needs to face the issue of governance frontally and leave gutter politics. He needs to focus on governance and long-term economic development of the State and region. The review of his performance in office so far, after nearly three years, is not woeful and uninspiring. He can still change that if he focuses on real governance instead of infantile politicking.
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