Anambra State governor, Charles Soludo, has again thumbed down the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, while hosting Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Atiku was in the state on Thursday to continue his presidential rally but was hosted in the Anambra State government house in Awka by Soludo, who was governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria when Atiku was Vice president.
The pair formed a close working relationship as Atiku was head of the economic team while Soludo presided over the CBN.
The former CBN governor failed his governorship bid on the platform of the PDP in 2010 before defecting to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in 2013.
He successfully emerged APGA governorship candidate in 2021 and won the election. He was sworn in in 2022.
Although APGA has a presidential candidate, Peter Umeadi, Soludo sees only two candidates as contenders.
He believes Atiku of the PDP and the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, are the two front runners with the structure and resources to win next year’s presidential election.
On Thursday while hosting Atiku, he restated his earlier stance that Obi was not in the running to win as he had stated in his letter dated 14th November, 2022.
He had mocked the Labour Party as “a political party known as a transit camp for aspirants who lost primaries in APC, PDP and APGA,” in the letter.
He further stated in the letter which was not well received in the Obi camp that, “Peter Obi knows that he can’t and won’t win. He knows the game he is playing, and we know too; and he knows that we know.
“The game he is playing is the main reason he didn’t return to APGA. The brutal truth (and some will say, God forbid) is that there are two persons/parties seriously contesting for president: the rest is exciting drama!”
While not providing details during Atiku’s stopover, Soludo said, “As have been said, of course you know you are one of the two front runners for the presidency of Nigeria,” with reference to Atiku and Tinubu.
Soludo added that, “And in the fullness of time we are going to have a conversation,” he said.
He stressed that, “I said it as it is, for the sake of this country, for the sake of Nigeria, let me on behalf of the government of the good people of Anambra, the light of the nation welcome you.”
Atiku later revealed during his rally that the governor had solicited for “reconstruction of federal roads in the state, erosion control” and “dredge the River Niger,” if he wins the 2023 presidential election in February.
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