Anambra State Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, has strongly defended his controversial assertion that any politician promising to serve only one term should undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Speaking on Wednesday during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time programme, Soludo said his statement was made within the context of ongoing debates about zoning in Anambra politics.
According to him, one-term pledges are nothing but deceptive tactics used to manipulate voters, despite manifestos that often outline long-term plans.
“You see, I said that in the context of the debate going on in my state, in a context where you have established a process of zoning, and somebody wants to cut short that particular zoning.
“They come with this sweetener, ‘Oh, if you give me this, and then I will only spend this time.’ They know they were being disingenuous,” Soludo said.
He recalled a similar scenario in 2017, when his predecessor sought a second term. At the time, some politicians attempted to sway voters with the same argument, but the people rejected it outright.
“They came with that argument in 2017 when my predecessor was running for a second time. They came here and telling Anambra, or some people promising us, including some people on the terrain today, Anambra people were quick to see through the disingenuity of that kind of promise, and of course, voted massively. The fact is that we won 21 over 21 local governments in that election. Nobody bought that crap, as it were,” he added.
The governor stressed that with the zoning arrangement already in place, rotating power between the North, South, and Central senatorial districts, politicians from the South making such one-term promises ahead of the next election are only insulting the intelligence of the people.
“And now again, we are in for another election, and some people are again, imagine in the same state I am from, the South and the North just finished, handed over to the South, and the South will serve its time, and then it will go to central. And now some people from the South senatorial zone are showing up… ‘If you vote for me, I will spend only one term’,” he said.
Condemning the promise as dishonest, Soludo described it as both deceitful and a sign of poor judgment.
“Meanwhile, you see the manifesto that they are rolling out. You realise that even if they were to spend 20 years, they wouldn’t even scratch it. I mean, it’s just, I don’t know how to describe it. So you’re just taking the people to be…you’re just playing at the people’s intelligence. You just think everybody is a fool.
“If anybody’s saying that it’s either he is just being deliberately deceitful or there is probably something not working right upstairs to take the entire people of Anambra State as fools… then the person must have a mental issue,” Soludo declared.
He maintained that such promises are either deliberate deceit or evidence of unfitness to hold public office.
