Whatever his shortcomings, or grudge anyone may hold against former President Olusegun Obasanjo, there is one good quality that his legion of critics never gave him credit: he knew how to identify talents, and he recruited a Cabinet of fine quality, made up of strong, smart, principled and competent managers who would control the career bureaucrats and not become their captives. These are people who knew how to build support across the country. Despite the fact that as a President, Obasanjo was seen as strong-willed, he wasn’t willful. To a large extent, any Administration’s success depends on the ability of the President to work harmoniously with his Cabinet.
To some extent, he left the details of administration to them and concentrated on determining national priorities and directions himself. Few examples of Obasanjo’s picks will suffice: They included Lt-Gen. TY Danjuma (retd), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, (fondly called “Madam Due Process”), Prof. ABC Nwosu, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Dr. Kema Chikwe, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, and many more. These were men and women who would always give you unvarnished truth because they understood what public office entails. Almost all of them excelled, and most Nigerians garlanded their accomplishments in government. Perhaps the best and brightest that Obasanjo recruited was Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo. Until Obasanjo first appointed him the boss of the National Planning Commission, few people knew Prof.Soludo outside the rarefied community of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka(UNN) where Soludo excelled as an outstanding student, the best in his class, later a lecturer and Professor of Economics. Once he took government appointment, his superb intelligence and mastery of both fiscal and macroeconomic issues were not in doubt. His footprints were everywhere. His name became a ‘solution’ to complex problems that the government had been grapping with for years.
Everybody, it seems, has a Soludo story to tell, both credible and jaundiced. It’s not for nothing. But none will disagree with his obvious intelligence and desire for public service. He has this Corinthian spirit that he brings to bear on his job. As many bankers and policymakers will tell you, there’s something in his personality that is visionary. This was evident in the most important job he had occupied yet, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), from 2004-2009. The capstone achievements he made were unparalleled, arguably more than any of his predecessors. It makes sense to restate the critical elements of these accomplishments: they are steeled in leadership and vision. One which even an incurable critic would not forget was the banking Consolidation exercise which reduced the number of Money Deposit Banks in the country from 89 to 24.
At the end of the exercise, which was initially considered crazy and a terrifying risk that scared the bejesus out of many shareholders and bank CEOs, bank’s capitalisation was raised from N2 billion to N25bn. The truth is that Soludo is somewhat a genius for spotting innovations. You need to have that commanding self-confidence as he did to know what the next big thing is and the sheer nerve to pull the trigger on it. And, in hindsight, Soludo was prescient to do what he did through the Consolidation of the banking sector.
Looking back now, one is persuaded to ask: what will Nigerian banks be today without the consolidation, especially when the financial meltdown hit the global economy soon after the exercise? That’s the burden of a visionary. Capitalisation did put every bank where it belonged, in both assets and profitability. The streamlining of interest rate, the first time that would happen in the sector, was the footprint of Soludo, no doubt, particularly now that the global economy is caught up in the maelstrom of uncertainty. Surely, things would have been much worse for the banking industry if Soludo had not come on the driving seat at CBN and steered the course.
I have gone this far to paint his canvas at CBN to show what it takes to have a superb idea’s man at the helm of the financial sector of the economy. It was unfortunate that he was not reappointed for a second term as Governor of the CBN. Now, fast forward to Soludo foray into the murky waters of politics. It was something of a surprise to many, including this writer, when five months after President Umaru Yar’Adua declined to reappoint for another five-year term, Soludo threw his hat into the ring to context the 2010 governorship election in his home state of Anambra, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Considering his accomplishments as CBN Governor, many, like Senator Jonathan Zwingina had asked, out of sheer curiosity, if being a governor of a state was not beneath him. Others had expressed fear he was about to commit political suicide. But, the man in the mirror, explained his reasons for his gubernatorial ambition in a backpage article in ThisDay Newspaper of September 21, 2009, titled:” Anambra and the Road to Dubai”. He claimed to be the Ijele (the big masquerade Ndi-Anambra were waiting for.
After analysing his reasons, I expressed my fear for him in this column of September 29, 2009, giving reasons why he might not make it in that election, especially when the incumbent Governor then, Mr. Peter Obi, had done so well that unseating him would be a tough call for a first-timer like Soludo. You see, Soludo was perhaps the brightest and smartest of all the candidates in that election, but sometimes, politics does not favour subtlety. I was proved right as Soludo came a distant third with 59,335 votes , behind Dr. Chris Ngige. A total of 301,232 votes were cast in that election. Eleven years have come full circle since 2010, and quite a lot have happened. Realignments have also taken place. And it’s crunch time in Anambra as the Nov 6 election approaches. Soludo is now the standard bearer of APGA, having won the primaries in a landslide. APGA is the governing party in the state. But make no mistake about it: it’s not the same again of “Nke a bu N’anyi”. APGA of today comes with some grunts and wheezes.
As they say it in politics, the lessons of last election are crucial for the next one. And to do better, you have to deploy the hard lessons of the last one to serve the purpose of the present. I don’t know how far Soludo had learnt from the 2010 election. His knowledge of the public and private sector, not withstanding. Anambra has the most sophisticated electorate in the South East. I don’t know how far he has been able to mend fences with the elite in the state who see him as arrogant and possessed of too-big-to-fail mentality.
There is no doubt he’s one candidate, together with the PDP standard bearer, Val Ozigbo, who has a blueprint with a realistic chance of making things happen in Anambra. But, as some political pundits have said, Soludo must, first cure himself of the occupational disease of “I alone is the solution”. Politics doesn’t work that way. He must also know when to talk, what to talk about, and when to put his tongue in check. He shouldn’t disparage other candidates as he did in 2010. But, overall, Anambra needs a man of his knowledge, expertise and influence.