From Chidiebere Onyemaizu
To those who do not understand the nitty-gritty of the undercurrents of President Bola Tinubu’s forging of alliances across regional cleavages and political spectrums ahead of the 2027 presidential election, his recent visit to Anambra State was a mere trip to ceremoniously inaugurate projects executed by the Governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo.
But it was not. The visit was more than projects commissioning. Observers insist that ingrained in the visit was a pragmatic building of alliances, fellowship and support base ahead of the next round of elections.
Apparently determined to prevent in 2027 a repeat of the 2023 disastrous performance of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the South-East, the President, observers say, appears to have started in earnest to build bridges of friendship in the region, smoothening rough edges and marketing the imperativeness of his re-election to Ndigbo (Igbo race), using Anambra as a springboard.
Watchers of South-East politics posit that President Tinubu aims for a mutually beneficial alliance and fraternity with the region, a sort of, to use a common Nigerian parlance, “I scratch your back, your scratch my back” kind of relationship that guarantees a win-win situation. In essence, President Tinubu is expected to attend to myriads of economic and infrastructural needs of Ndigbo while they in turn reciprocate with their votes in 2027.
This, according to pundits is expected to solidify the president’s chances for overwhelming victory in the region in the next election.
Instructively, upon touching down at the Chinua Achebe Airport, Umueri, President Tinubu was enthusiastically received by Governor Soludo and the people of the state. The trademark hospitality of Ndigbo was handy as Anambra Traditional Rulers led by the Chairman of the State Traditional Rulers Council, Igwe Chidubem Iweka of Obosi, conferred on the President, the title of “Dike Si Mba’, which loosely translates to ‘Hero from another land’
And in rare display of a pragmatism and paradigm shift in party politics, the president not only lauded Soludo’s performance in office but tacitly endorsed his re-election, despite the APC having a candidate in the person of a multi-billionaire businessman, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, for the November Anambra governorship election.
“Your son, Soludo is my very good friend. He remains my friend and we will keep working together”, the President had told Ndi Anambra during a Town Hall meeting featuring prominent indigenes of the state, including former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku in whose honour he had earlier commissioned a building project at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, housing the Emeka Anyaoku Institute for International Studies and Diplomacy.
In what analysts say could significantly reconfigure Anambra’s voting pattern in 2027, Governor Soludo was swift in announcing President Tinubu’s adoption as presidential candidate for the 2027 election by his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). This implies that APGA will not field a presidential candidate in 2027.
According to Soludo “In 2011, before I joined APGA in 2013, the party took an official position to support and collaborate with the ruling political party and government at the centre. That year, APGA adopted the then-sitting president as its presidential candidate. That policy has not changed.
“Coincidentally, Mr. President, the current government at the centre, also professes progressivism. As Nigeria’s foremost progressive party, APGA is ideologically and strategically aligned with the centre. Those in the APC are our brothers and sisters.
“In preparation for this visit, some raised concerns about making it a partisan event. But I insisted the APC in Anambra be allowed to come out in their colours and welcome the president, all in the spirit of progressivism. We are progressives together. Here in Anambra, we know who leads the progressive movement,” he added.
In what looked like an endorsement of Soludo’s position, elder statesman, Chief Anyaoku, said “I have strong confidence in President Tinubu’s ability to navigate Nigeria through its current socio-economic and security challenges. Your Excellency’s records as a NADECO champion of the return of democracy to our country in 1999 inspire my confidence that you will successfully steer the ship of our country through its present serious challenges, including the underperforming economy, which breeds massive poverty and widespread insecurity, to the destination that we all desire.”
Political analysts point out that in endorsing Soludo’s second term, the president was forthright in his assessment of the strength of the APC in Anambra and the marketability of its candidate in the November election when juxtaposed with Governor Soludo’s performance and popularity.
“This game is called politics and only the deft and calculative get it right. Putting party politics aside, what Soludo’s endorsement of Mr. President’s second term and Mr President’s endorsement of the Governor’s second term translate to is that the Governor will be partnering with the president to deliver federal projects to Anambra in addition to staving off the deployment of so- called federal might in the November gubernatorial election in the state, while in return, President Tinubu will benefit from Governor Soludo’s popularity in terms of securing re- election votes in Anambra in 2027,” Dr Ifeadi Umeofor, an indigene of Anambra and a social affairs commentator told Daily Sun.
Chukwuemerie Uduchukwu, an Abuja- based writer shares Dr. Umeofor’s sentiment. According to him, “Tinubu, with his eyes firmly set on securing a second term in 2027, understands the strategic importance of aligning with a party and a governor who can deliver votes. Anambra’s electoral weight in the South-East, a region where the APC struggles to gain traction, makes this alignment even more critical.”
Following Tinubu’s Anambra visit, and an earlier one to Enugu, reliable sources told Daily Sun that governments of the remaining South-East states are working out arrangements for presidential visits for projects commissioning where the Anambra scenario- the governors endorsements of Tinubu’s re-election and the President’s reciprocal endorsement of their own re-election, irrespective of parties, as well as his announcement of federal projects for the states- will be re-enacted.
Daily Sun equally gathered that, using the president’s Anambra visit as a template- in that Tinubu acceded to virtually all of Governor Soludo’s demands-a delegation of Igbo leaders would in the coming weeks pay the president a visit with a shopping list which would include demand to revive the long-abandoned plans for two strategic seaports in the region—the Obeaku Ndoki Port in Abia State and the Oseakwa Seaport in Ihiala, Anambra State.
Among the projects the president inaugurated during his visit to Anambra were the new Anambra Government House, the Solution Fun City, the eight-lane dual highway leading to the new government building, and the Light of the Nation Tower.
Daily Sun recalls that President Tinubu, had, in a speech at a town hall meeting at Alex Ekwueme Square in Awka, the Anambra State capital, after inaugurating the projects, made a firm promise of tackling erosion menace in the state. He also pledged to link Kogi and Anambra states through a road infrastructure to facilitate access and shorten travel time from Anambra State to the South-South and Abuja.
President Tinubu equally announced the reintegration of Anambra State into the national railway system, and restoring the state to the nation’s gas master plan.
Whether the promises, President Tinubu, the Dike Si Mba 1 of Ndigbo, made to Ndi Anambra nay Ndigbo during his visit will eventually berth on the shores of reality and whether the political alliance he appears to be forging with them will indeed endure and be mutually beneficial will be open in the public domain in the coming months.