This Soludo Sef!

Professor Charels Soludo

By Ignatius Anyaora
Professor Charles Soludo in Nigeria reminds one of Professor Oserheimen Osunbor, who was the Governor of Edo State, but was removed by the courts. Osunbor was a first class brain who made distinction in all his academic pursuits. He made a first class in law at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He was the best Masters and Phd student in his classes overseas. He made a first class at the law school. He was decent and cultured. What else can we demand of a man? Like him, Soludo is academically brilliant.
Prof. Osunbor was my Dean at the Lagos State University. I can claim to know him sufficiently. I have never heard him brag about having made a first class. I can reel the names of my friends everywhere, including this writer, that made a first class. My good friend, Dr. Okey Ikechukwu, beyond this, did not do Masters. The research he produced for his Masters degree was automatically used to award him a Phd in Metaphysics on the strength of its quality.
I have said the foregoing to demonstrate how repulsive it is for Soludo to prance all over the place bragging about having made a first class. Seeing or listening to him, you will think nobody made it until he did. This is exactly what he did at the Onitsha Bar Dinner on the 27th of November, 2009. As he was thumping his chest, one lawyer came outside where we were seated and said: “Look at this failed former Central Bank Governor bragging about his qualifications, forgetting that he was not even qualified to speak to learned men not to talk about blowing a discredited trumpet.”
At that Bar dinner, the mood was that of anger. Members of the Bench and Bar were unhappy that Soludo attended the Bar dinner in the first place. This explains the reason why most lawyers, including Justices Peter Umeadi and Iguh had to walk out of the dinner hall. They were right, for Soludo who sees everything, including the food he eats, as object of politics, saw the gathering as a place to play politics. He does not even play civilised politics, but that of name-calling.
Besides bragging about his appointment, he said he was awarded the best Central Bank Governor in the World. He also pontificated on how he was the best Economic Adviser the nation had produced. The man also told us that he rejected three international appointments because he was eager to serve Anambra. Waxing spiritual, he said the call to serve and save Anambra was divine as Jesus came from his cozy heaven to suffer so that humanity would be saved. What can you make out of Soludo’s pontification? As for me, I can summarise it thus: “Intellectual pomposity with a tinge of arrogance and pride.”
Soludo is without shame, otherwise he would avoid referring to his tenure at the Central Bank as a glorious one in view of the revelation going on in that institution, about how he almost collapsed the banking sector in Nigeria. By telling us he was awarded the best Central Bank Governor in the world is at best playing to the gallery. Look at the banks in a mess in Nigeria today, Oceanic, Union Bank, Fin bank, Afribank, among others, and you will observe that shortly before Sanusi, the magicians that were the Chief Executives of those banks harvested awards. Mrs. Cecilia Ibru and her Oceanic Bank Plc for three consecutive years, was the “best” Bank in the country. But today, after real studies, we know that First Bank, Fidelity (Gov. Obi was the immediate past Chairman) and GTB are the best banks in the country, but they never won awards. It is only through this that we may understand Soludo’s awards.
As to his rejecting three international appointments, it is a pity that he did not name those organisations. I too can brag about rejecting five international appointments. But even elementary logic will tell one that not even local organisations can today offer appointments to Soludo in view of the banking mess he led the country into.
In Nigeria today, I can put Dr. Oby Ezekwesili and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala side by side and compare them with the best in the world. Though I do not know whether they made first class, but as lawyers say, res ipsa loguitor, a thing speaks about itself. Their records speak for them. They are good examples of differences between being brilliant and skillful/intelligent. One can be brilliant without being intelligent, skillful or ingenious. Today, who do I compare Soludo with? Chris Uba!
There is something fundamentally wrong with the way we evaluate people in Nigeria. If you look far, you will notice that people like Bill Gates and other great men that contributed to civilisation did not make first class. Some were dropouts, but are rated very highly on the rational supposition that given the same conditions, they will do better than those that made first class. Most of them were troubled by one conception or the other. When Bill dropped out of school, he gave birth to Microsoft which conception disturbed the normal academic life. We have many differences between brilliance and intelligence. I hope Soludo gets this.
Today there is a subtle political war in Anambra State. Soludo, disregarding his failures, thinks he can fly on the wings of his first class, even when his actual performance renders that wing so weak for such a gubernatorial flight.
When Soludo says Anambra should never again be governed by third class brains, I laughed. Is he telling us that other aspirants made passes? I know Governor Obi made a second. But from records, the man is brilliant, skillful and intelligent. This is neither sentiment, nor unreasoned support for him; after all we have not met in person. The test is a simple. One: Soludo was one of those that founded Transcorp, where is the company today? Before its foundation, he talked in terms of a Mega Company comparable with the best in the world. Two: As the Governor of Central Bank, where is Nigeria’s Banking Industry today? Three: where is the NEEDS document he helped to craft? In fact, what legacy can we say Soludo has left? Among his people, is it the uncompleted two-story Central Bank office in Anambra State? Having travelled to over 50 countries cannot be a substitute for practical success.
On the contrary, Obi is known to have presided over the resuscitation of failed companies and to increase the fortunes of good ones. His records in Charms, Fidelity bank, Next International, Futureviews, Datacorps, Paymaster, Guardian Express, among others speak for him.
Between these two men, who will you employ to manage your company? The foregoing is the summary of argument we engaged in after having worked out of the hall where Soludo was addressing lawyers. As Anambra people go to polls on February 6, 2010. Between Soludo and Obi, who merits to preside over our affairs? We concluded by giving it to Obi in view of the wonders he has done and promises to continue doing in the State. We insisted that in a country where things are done properly that the likes of Soludo should really be on their ways to prisons for the mess at Central Bank is very repulsive?
Ignatius Anyaora is an Onitsha-based legal practitioner.