Editor,

Whoever advised Mr. Soludo to venture into the turbulent field of political governance did him a great disservice and for him to accept remains his own mistake. He is quite an intellectual but the murky water of politics does not respect such.  Lamido Sanusi’s actions revealed some inadequacies in Soludo and that should have given him first signal. The situation has thrown to the fore Soludo’s sin; anyone concluding that he hobnobbed with the disgraced bank chief executives cannot be faulted. He has not acquitted himself properly on this. 

Staring at Soludo now is the bribery scandal that is rocking the past administration at the CBN while he held sway; referring to the millions of Naira bribe for the printing of the polymer N20 Nigerian currency which involved a company in Australia.
 

Furthermore, there are other allegations against him that may not be known to many. Unconfirmed security reports had it that while Soludo remained the CBN governor he claimed upfront the sum of US$5million covering five years at US$1million per annum, as his entitled dress allowance. The report also had it that the campaign of “Handle Naira with care” was executed by a company that his brother is the owner; the
campaign cost a sum in excess of N700m. 

Another obstacle comes from his hometown level; I have a close friend of mine who hails from the same town as Soludo. He explained that Soludo’s village is called
Umueze. The village has been at loggerheads with other villages as it wanted to be an autonomous community different from the rest. While the controversy raged, my friend said that Soludo took side with Umueze, his village; and this has thrown up the question of how someone with such parochial stance could manage larger Anambra State.  The bottom line now is that Soludo has the serious mistake of allowing himself
dragged into the political arena.
 

Obong Steve Udeme,
189 Bende Street,
Umuahia, Abia State.