By Ayodele Oni
Olalekan Festus Ojo, a Lagos-based Lawyer/human rights activist, has noted that Governor Charles Soludo’s recent allegation against Peter Obi is driven by his support for the second term ambition of President Bola Tinubu.
The activist urged Obi, Presidential Candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress, (NDC) not to be distracted by the political calculation, rather than genuine governance accountability.
Ojo, an advocate of social justice, declared that what is going on between the two must be assessed not merely as a historical governance dispute, but as a calculated political intervention that deserves the most honest public scrutiny.
Ojo, Managing Partner, Platinum & Taylor Hill LP, asserted that the facts, as attested by witnesses of unimpeachable credibility, are difficult to dismiss.
According to him, “Governor Alex Otti, then Chief Executive Officer of a major Nigerian bank with direct institutional knowledge of Anambra State’s financial position, has publicly affirmed Peter Obi’s positive financial legacy.
“Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, then Nigeria’s Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, arguably the most credible economic witness available in Nigeria, has similarly attested to Obi’s responsible stewardship of Anambra State’s finances.
“When two witnesses of this calibre independently corroborate a former governor’s financial legacy, their testimony carries an evidentiary weight that political allegations from a sitting governor with demonstrable partisan motivations simply cannot overcome.”
He maintained that Governor Soludo’s well-publicised support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election creates an irresistible inference that his persistent campaign against Obi’s legacy is motivated by political calculation, rather than genuine governance accountability.
Ojo stressed that a governor genuinely concerned about inherited debts had 11 years and multiple platforms to raise these concerns before Peter Obi became a presidential candidate of national significance.
“The timing of these allegations, intensifying precisely as Obi’s 2027 candidacy gains momentum, speaks louder than their content.
“My advice to Governor Soludo is direct and fraternal: the most powerful legacy any governor can build is one that speaks for itself through measurable development outcomes in Anambra State.
“Deploy that energy toward Anambra’s present challenges, rather than relitigating a predecessor’s record that eminent Nigerians have already credibly validated.
History will judge the motives behind these allegations as clearly as it will judge Peter Obi’s actual gubernatorial record.
“My advice to Peter Obi is to allow the testimonies of Otti and Okonjo-Iweala to speak with the authority they command, present his documented legacy with facts and figures, and resist the temptation to engage in a prolonged public altercation that distracts from the substantive policy conversation that his presidential campaign deserves to centre.
“My advice to Anambra people is to exercise the critical discernment that the Igbo intellectual tradition demands, evaluate these competing claims against documented evidence, rather than political loyalty, and refuse to allow their state’s proud democratic narrative to be weaponised for federal political purposes.
“My advice to Nigerians is the most important of all: demand that the 2027 presidential contest be fought on ideas, policies, and visions for national recovery, not on 11-year-old gubernatorial accounting disputes, whose resurrection serves no purpose, except the political diminishment of a candidate whom millions of Nigerians have invested genuine democratic hope in.
“Nigeria’s problems are too urgent and too severe for its political discourse to be consumed by manufactured controversies when credible witnesses have already provided authoritative answers,” he added.
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