TheCable

Democracy can only succeed when the opposition holds incumbent governments accountable and not when the opposition spews falsehoods. By spreading lies, paying social media influencers and distracting the government, some members of the opposition are doing a disservice to the people of Anambra State. This has to stop.

The commissioning of landmark projects by Governor Chukwuma Soludo in the last few days seemed not to have gone down well with some elements of the opposition. In their minds, they believe that the more Governor Soludo performs well the lesser they become popular. This should not be the mindset of a genuine opposition leader.

Last Tuesday, a 22-second video which was intended to portray Governor Soludo’s Road Revolution Projects as inferior projects went viral. The originator, who definitely knew nothing about construction, claimed that the road was less than one week old and had been washed out. It was later found out that this road was still under construction and that the heavy rains of the previous day just distorted a 2-feet portion from the over 2.3km road being constructed. The originator of that video intended to deceive people and cast the Soludo-led government in a bad light. This is definitely not the best way to criticize a government. Lying to citizens in a democracy is a big disservice.

In order to escalate this falsehood, one social media influencer, who goes by the name Jack the Builder tweeted: ‘’Nothing Soludo built in Anambra will even last time his four years tenure… Omo, I just weak’’. A cursory look at Jack the Builder’s social media pages shows that he is sympathetic to the Labour Party. It also shows that he has tweeted so many false stories about Governor Soludo. By not verifying stories before re-tweeting, this commentator is not only doing a disservice to his 132,000 social media followers on X (formerly Twitter), he is also doing a disservice to Ndi Anambra. Jack the Builder is not alone in this journey. This has to stop!

One of the greatest forms of disservice to the millions of Ndi Anambra who look up to Governor Soludo to change their lives is to aggressively post fake news online. Fake news can even destabilize a democracy! Many research works have shown the devastating impact of fake news in a democracy.

Despite the massive infrastructural and economic revolution going-on in Anambra, some commentators have come out openly to say that they will never say anything good about Governor Soludo. They claim Governor Soludo erred by not supporting their preferred candidate in the last presidential election.

Let us be clear: it is the job of the opposition to engage incumbent governments with alternative ideas and to critic government policies with facts and data. But this is not the case in Anambra State.
Despite the fact that 2024 is a non-election year in Anambra, politicians have started aggressively campaigning for the next elections.

The former PDP gubernatorial candidate, Valentine Ozigbo, has declared his interest to run for office next year. The current senator representing Anambra South, Ifeanyi Ubah, has also declared his interest to run for governorship. Unfortunately, instead of addressing issues related to governance and proposing alternative policies to government, these politicians are heating up the polity. The people of Anambra would be the greatest losers if politicians start distracting Soludo’s administration two years before the election with political gimmicks.

Make no mistake about this: it is within the constitutional rights of these candidates to run for any office in Nigeria. But so far, the level of public discourse has been abysmal and filled with falsehoods. Their public profiles do not even suggest they have the capacity required to govern a state as complex as Anambra.

Valentine Ozigbo says he is not impressed with the ‘few kilometers of roads’’ constructed by Governor Soludo in the last 2 years. But this is jealousy, as it were. So far, Soludo is constructing over 450km of brand-new roads and this is exclusive of the over 392km of road repairs executed in the last 2 years. This is outside the flyovers being constructed in the state. To put Governor Soludo’s Road Revolution in context, the former Governor of Ebonyi and current minister of works celebrated 500km of constructed roads in his first 3 years in office as governor of Ebonyi State. Engr David Umahi is one of the most respected former governors in Nigeria in terms of road construction.

Mr. Valentine Ozigbo – who seems to be jobless at the moment – tried to paint false pictures of Anambra’s security situation and economy in order to propagate his candidature but one worries about his honesty. He says the rains have swept off all the roads Governor Soludo has built. He says businesses are leaving Anambra for Abia State in droves.

In trying to politicize insecurity, talk down the massive progress made in Anambra State in the last 2 years and de-market the state because of his political ambition while at the same time projecting an image of a ‘humble’ politician, Mr. Ozigbo comes across as a manipulative character.
Since lying is a common trait of some politicians, one is not worried with Mr. Ozigbo’s recent comments. But the problem is that the two main candidates that have shown interest for Soludo’s job have not been tested. They are going around making promises that they will serve only one term as governors. But citizens know that no politician keeps this kind of promise.
Mr. Valentine Ozigbo does not seem to have the experience to lead over 8.5 million people. Mr. Ozigbo’s last job was as an employee in Transcorp. For readers who might not know, Governor Soludo was among the eggheads that conceptualized the Transcorp vision when he was the governor of the Central Bank.

Mr. Cosmos Maduka’s story of how Ifeanyi Ubah defrauded him is still fresh in peoples’ minds. This column is not aware that the Coscharis Motors boss has recanted his 2012 story of how Ifeanyi Ubah defrauded him of billions of naira.

2024 is supposed to be a non-election year in Anambra but politicians are bent on shortchanging the good people of Anambra with the commencement of their campaigns.

This is the time for governance and not campaigns. An opposition leader that has any idea on how to better the lives of the millions of residents of Anambra State should present such idea. For now, we are not in an election season!