naijaXclusive: soludo

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Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 
Governor and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the 2010 
governorship election in Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, has 
formally resigned his membership of PDP. 
 
He has subsequently 
joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), where he had already 
been registered as a member in his Isuofia ward, Aguata Local Government
 Area of the state. But his candidacy as PDP standard bearer in 
the last governorship election in the state was revisited Wednesday by 
one of his rivals for the party’s ticket in 2009, Senator Andy Ubah, who
 described the process of his emergence as undemocratic.  His new 
party, Soludo said after being registered in his ward Wednesday, by the 
ward chairman, Okeke Anthony, is a party with sound and progressive 
ideology on which platform one could offer himself to the service of his
 people and try to express those ideas that will make for growth and 
transform Anambra into the “African Dubai-Taiwan” of his dream.In
 his July 17 resignation letter addressed to the PDP National Chairman,
 Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, a copy of which was made available to THISDAY in 
Isuofia Wednesday, Soludo said his resignation took effect from that 
date and used the opportunity to thank the party for the opportunity 
given to him to serve in some capacity.The resignation, he said,
 was “without prejudice to the possibility of future collaboration with 
the party in any areas of common interest designed to advance the course
 of nation-building.” 
 
But shortly after being registered as a 
member of APGA in his Isuofia ward Wednesday, the former CBN governor, 
who granted interview to some journalists, while responding to 
speculations that he had joined APGA, said: “The short answer to that is
 that it is true.” “I have resigned my membership of PDP. I have 
formally written to the national chairman of PDP a letter dated July 17 
of this year. It is quite fortuitous that you people arrived at a time 
when you saw the ward chairman of APGA register and issue me with a 
membership card. I registered at Isuofia ward.” 
 
He explained that
 the process of deciding to join APGA is a product of long months of 
consultation among his people and in fact a personal conviction. “I
 started over a year ago a process of consultation on our political 
future, what next and the political arena. I remain convinced that the 
greatness of this country is not in doubt and that it is through 
participation in the political process that one can contribute to its 
development. 
<div class="narrow">
<blockquote>
 “Everybody who has something to offer must get 
involved. It is during this wide consultation and during which I asked 
my people wide ranging questions that made me get involved. “The 
question centred on if they thought it was not worst to have gotten into
 the terrain and just kiss it goodbye or do we remain engaged and if we 
are to be engaged in which party. This formed the fulcrum of my 
consultation,” he said. Soludo said though he had been a member 
of PDP on whose platform he made his unsuccessful bid to govern the 
state, there is always time for sober reflection, adding, “The result of
 the consultation is the decision we have taken”. “The first 
is that there is an overwhelming demand by Anambra people for me to 
remain engaged in the political process. After more than a year of 
consultation, I came to the conviction that I should remain in the 
process. “Secondly, by even a greater conviction, that I should 
also run for the governorship of Anambra State building on the legacies 
of Governor Peter Obi. We need continuity, transformation and to 
consolidate on the gains of the past eight years. “There is this 
demand by my people that I should once offer myself for service. There 
is also a demand by our people that I should join the party that our 
people call their own which represents the essence, the aspirations and 
hopes of all Nigerians in general and the Igbos in particular. “It is a party that is a mass movement and lives in the consciousness of the people. “I
 am not joining APGA simply as a vehicle to contest for governorship of 
Anambra State. I am joining it because I want to breathe it, drink it, 
and exude it because in totality I agree with the trust and objectives 
of APGA,” Soludo said in defence of his choice of APGA. Soludo 
who hails from Anambra South zone joined APGA to actualise his ambition 
at a time the state Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, also of the same party, 
said he was looking towards the state’s north zone for his successor. But he said he was not aware of any zoning or rotation of positions in APGA as it is not anywhere in the party’s constitution. Meanwhile,
 the senator representing Anambra South in the National Assembly, Ubah, 
 Wednesday attributed PDP’s defeat in the last governorship election in 
the state to the crisis that followed the "hand-picking” of Soludo as 
the party’s candidate. Ubah, a PDP aspirant in the November 
election in the state, told journalists Wednesday, during an interactive
 session with indigenes of the state in Abuja, that internal party 
wrangling, lack of cohesion, perceived wrongdoing and extortion of 
money from aspirants forced most of them out of the party to seek 
alternative platforms to actualise their ambitions. He said: 
“PDP would have won that election, going by the number of votes all the 
56 aspirants that eventually defected to other political parties were 
able to garner, which surpassed the total votes gathered by the state 
Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, who won the state election. “First, 
there was clear case of injustice on my side. As I said, there was a 
precedent that any candidate that his election was nullified by the 
court should be the party’s automatic candidate in the next election. "All
 the governors that their elections were nullified were all made the 
party’s candidates. When it was my turn to be made the party’s 
candidate, following the nullification of my election in 2007, the party
 chose to hand-pick Chukwuma Soludo. This singular action made me to 
look for an alternative platform,” he said</blockquote>
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Xclusive: Former CBN Governor Prof. Soludo Defects From PDP To APGA

Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the 2010 governorship election in Ana...