A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Comrade Adolphus Ude, has lambasted Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, for hyping the proposed road projects of the President Bola Tinubu administration in the South-East.
Soludo had on Thursday thanked Tinubu for approving the design and procurement of two major South-East roads. The roads are the 108km Otuocha-Anam-Abaji (Kogi) Road and the 150km Oba-Nnewi-Uga-Ihube (Okigwe Junction) Road, which connect Anambra and Imo states to the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road from Abia State.
The Anambra governor, in his statement titled, ‘History Will Be Kind to You,’ described the approval of the design and procurement of the two roads as part of Tinubu’s deliberate effort to rebuild the South-East.
However, Ude, leader of the ADC Like-Minds, a support group within the ADC, challenged Soludo to list the road projects executed by Tinubu in the South-East that would make history kind to the President.
Ude, who is also the Secretary of the Enugu ADC Caretaker Committee, condemned what he described as the “sycophantic disposition” of Governor Soludo and other South-East governors towards the President, lamenting that their behaviour belittles Ndigbo before other Nigerians.
He blasted Soludo for lavishing praise on the President for the mere approval of the design and procurement of the two South-East roads, rather than the actual award of contracts for the projects. According to him, Soludo has reduced the “exalted position of Governor of Anambra State” to that of a presidential spokesman who announces contracts and other approvals by his principal.
Ude stressed that the sycophantic behaviour of Governor Soludo and other South-East governors not only diminishes their own self-worth but also that of Ndigbo before other Nigerians.
He said, “It is embarrassing to see Governor Soludo, in spite of his academic standing as a professor, join presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga in spreading the unfounded propaganda that no President has made a more deliberate effort to rebuild the South-East than President Tinubu. Beneath this excessive praise of the President always lies a fragile self-worth.
“Across Nigeria, Ndigbo are now regarded as bootlickers because of the tendency of South-East governors to prioritise gaining favour, promotions or protection from the Federal Government through insincere flattery and servile behaviour towards the President.
“Nobody is against Governor Soludo or his village party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), supporting President Bola Tinubu. It is their choice to support whomever they wish. We are practising democracy in Nigeria. However, they should desist from dragging the entire South-East along with them in their support for President Tinubu.
“Tinubu has not executed any new road project or significant reconstruction work on any existing highway in the South-East to warrant anybody singing his praises the way Governor Soludo and other South-East governors are doing. No part of the South-East was considered, even as a bypass, for Tinubu’s two legacy greenfield road projects, namely the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, costing the Federal Government over N17 trillion ($13 billion), and the N1.8 trillion Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway, for which the Federal Government has secured a $516.3 million syndicated loan to help fund specific sections of the multi-state corridor.
“The media reported the other day that Federal Government projects in Lagos State alone were worth over N3 trillion. Recently, Tinubu secured a 746 million pounds ($1 billion) loan financing agreement from the UK for the redevelopment and modernisation of the Apapa and Tin Can Port complexes in Lagos. Let Soludo and his fellow praise singers tell us how much the entire South-East region has received.”
The ADC chieftain said Soludo should have listed the South-East road projects executed by Tinubu in his statement but did not mention a single one apart from thanking the President for approving the design and procurement of two road projects, which is not even the actual award of the contracts.
Contrary to Soludo’s assertion that the President continues to demonstrate a deliberate focus on the South-East region, the opposition politician maintained that the five states of the region remain off the radar of the Tinubu administration.
He described Soludo’s claim that a foundational infrastructural rebirth is taking place in the South-East under the Tinubu administration as a “manufactured consensus” being peddled by South-East governors for their personal aggrandisement.
Ude insisted that the exclusion of the South-East from infrastructure development in Nigeria has worsened under the Tinubu administration, citing as an example the concession of the region’s only international airport, the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, to a private company.
According to him, while the Tinubu administration signed off the Enugu International Airport to a private company, the same government cancelled the concession bidding programme for the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, and opted instead to fund a N712 billion structural rebuild through the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund.
The ADC chieftain urged Soludo and other South-East governors to focus on delivering the dividends of democracy to the people of the region rather than engaging in what he described as praise-singing for the President, which, according to him, makes a mockery of Ndigbo in Nigeria.
Ude also assured that an ADC government, which he said would emerge in 2027, would ensure equity, fairness and justice in the allocation of federal projects and political appointments across all parts of the country.
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