The making of tsunami Soludo

Governor Chukwuma Soludo is a political strategist, tactician and disruptor. The just concluded Anambra guber election, in which, much like a tsunami, he won with a landslide, proved this assertion beyond any doubt. History was made in Anambra state on Saturday, November 8, 2025, when Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, won re-election by trouncing 15 challengers via an unprecedented landslide. Soludo won a landmark 73 percent of the votes cast, while the overmatched 15 other contestants had to make do with less than a paltry 28 percent.

It was indeed a masterclass of electioneering campaign delivered by Governor Soludo and his political party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). It is a known fact that APGA is Anambra, while Anambra is APGA – bound together like needle and thread. They are an inseparable twosome.

Soludo’s strategy was to secure 100 votes in the 5720 polling units before the election. The novel method was the setting up of a three-man polling unit executive, whose primary responsibility was ensuring this number in the unprecedented Operation Know Your Voter (KYV). So, while his opponents focused on the traditional methods of campaigning, Soludo targeted the polling units and ensured that the party was solidly structured from the polling unit to the ward, to the local government and the three senatorial zones, up to the state structure strategy. APGA worked as a movement of the people. Ndi Anambra owned the party, and they had a massively beloved governor in Soludo, who was hailed as Oluatuegwu or Charlie Nwangbafor. There are so many terms of endearment for the performing governor whose campaign the people undertook to sponsor as a first in history.

The tenets of Soludo and APGA ran counter to the dwelling of the opposition on old strategies. Nothing could be more disorganised than the Anambra opposition. The primaries of the opposition parties were crudely hijacked by devil-may-care goons and moneybags. Some of the aspirants claimed they could write the results of the elections all by themselves ahead of INEC. Some boasted of being adept in the art and science of rigging elections. Some did not campaign at all and only reserved their money for vote buying. Some of the candidates depended on thuggery.

Soludo replied to them with the saying that a rat can only steal from a man who is sleeping. Soludo and Ndi Anambra were wide awake like fish. Soludo’s sterling performance in all spheres made him so re-electable as to leave no quarter for any other wannabe candidate. Ndi Anambra ended up collecting the money offered by opposition candidates and still voted for APGA’s Soludo.

Recall that along with the avalanche of endorsements, the groups and communities in Anambra were also falling over themselves to donate money to Soludo’s re-election fund. The communities practically took over his campaign in organisation and funding. It was the first sign that Soludo was returning with a landslide. It was therefore not surprising that Soludo polled 422,664 (73%) votes. The second-placed candidate, Evangelist Nicholas Ukachukwu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), polled only a very distant 99,445 (17%) votes. The third-placed candidate was the Labour Party’s (LP) George Moghalu, who polled a further distant 10,576 (7%) votes. The candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), John Chuma-Nwosu, polled 8,208 votes. The rest paled into insignificance and oblivion.

The INEC returning officer, Prof. Edoma Omoregie, who doubles as the vice-chancellor of the University of Benin and senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), stated that a total of 2,788,864 voters registered for the election, but only 598,229 of the registered voters were accredited during the poll. At last, a total of 584,054 valid votes were recorded in the poll, while 11,244 votes were voided out of the 595,298 total votes cast. The voter apathy that Soludo fought against has thus remarkably improved.

It was a tsunami for Soludo, winning in all 21 local government areas of the state. Mr Governor only lost in 6 wards out of the 362 wards. Mark it indeed as historic that Soludo won 73 per cent of the valid votes! APC’s Nicholas Ukachukwu and LP’s Moghalu took 17 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively.

Even as Governor Soludo comprehensively thrashed his opponents, he was magnanimous in victory. It was a joy to see as he called on all his opponents to join him in unity to develop Anambra State. Soludo harped on the “Anambra Way” and the “Anambra Spirit”, a remarkable style of fighting in the battlefield and then coming together in partnership to share drinks like brothers and sisters.

Tsunami Soludo is real. Anambra is on a new gear, going from Gear 3 to Gear 4. There is no stopping the moving train of Solution! Tsunami Soludo leads the way as the governor fundamentally resets Anambra State as one smart mega-city and a destination of choice, where people can visit, live, learn, work, relax, and enjoy!

Law Mefor, PhD, is the Anambra state commissioner for information.