By Chidiebere Onyemaizu

The mission of the other candidates for the election, particularly candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC and billionaire businessman, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, popularly known as Ikukuoma (beautiful breeze) is clear: To end the All Progressives Grand Alliance’s (APGA) 19 years uninterrupted grip on the state.

Followers of Anambra politics identify Prince Ukachukwu, a former Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) and former member of the House of Representatives, representing the Orumba North/South Federal constituency of Anambra State, as Soludo’s main opponent. But the governor’s camp has dismissed him as a paperweight politician, a serial governorship aspirant and a serial loser who has consistently lost his bid to govern Anambra. They insist that the APC candidate is merely wasting his resources and time as Soludo will roundly trounce him come, November.

Interestingly, no sooner had UKachukwu returned from Abuja with the claim that President Bola Tinubu mandated him to “go and get me Anambra State and connect Anambra to the centre” than an old video where Kenneth Emeakayi, a former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state and now Special Adviser to Governor Soludo on Community Security, criticised the governor went viral.

Sources told Daily Sun that those behind the circulation of the old video want it to appear as if appointees of Soludo have started speaking out against him and distancing themselves from him as the November election approaches.

“Those behind the circulation of Emeakayi’s old video when he was not yet a critical member and stakeholder of the Soludo administration intended it to appear as if Emeakayi has broken ranks with his principal and now on the side of the opposition, but Anambrarians are not deceived, they know the antics of enemies of progress who are bound to kiss defeat in November”, an APGA chieftain who craved anonymity told Daily Sun.

Also speaking on the viral video, a former House of Assembly aspirant in the state, Hon. Timothy Okoli said no amount of blackmail, disinformation and misinformation would stop Governor Chukwuma Soludo from emerging victorious in the November governorship election in the state.

Okoli who is also a business mogul told Daily Sun that a desperate opposition candidate he refused to name was behind what he described as a “cheap blackmail.”

“This is a cheap blackmail. One million of such videos will not stop our governor’s re-election, Anambrarians know who they want and that person is Governor Soludo. Please note that the video in circulation is an old video. It is not recent video. Emeakayai made that video when he was actively in the opposition but he has now keyed into His Excellency, Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s beautiful vision for Ndi Anambra; he is now helping to pull the state from the doldrums of insecurity in line with the Governor’s vision of a secure, peaceful and prosperous Anambra and he is doing a wonderful job”, Hon. Okoli said.

A source close to Governor Soludo  told Daily Sun that if the anti- Soludo elements push further with the old Emeakayi video, the governor’s camp will respond with an old video of one of the deputy governorship candidates praising Soludo to heavens during an AIT News. In the said video, the deputy governorship candidate was seen speaking interchangeably in Igbo and English telling Anambrarians that Soludo was doing well, has done well and will do more, while urging them not to listen to rumours but go see with their eyes the achievements of the governor.

And in what observers of the unfolding governorship race in Anambra have interpreted as inciting traders against Soludo, Prince Ukachukwu recently accused the governor of inaction while at the popular Ogbo Ogwu (drug mart) in the sprawling Onitsha main market. The market had remained sealed by NAFDAC.

Speaking recently after a Thanksgiving Mass at the Holy Trinity Catholic Cathedral, Onitsha, Ukachukwu said: “Governor Soludo has once again shown that he does not understand the heartbeat of commerce in Anambra…His handling of the Ogbo Ogwu market closure reveals a disturbing detachment from the realities our people face daily, he demonstrated a troubling lack of business empathy and a sign of disconnect from the struggles of the average Anambra trader.”

However, an aide of the governor has described as hogwash the APC candidate’s assertion, saying that “there is something called working behind the scene. His Excellency owes Ukachukwu no explanation as to his behind the scene efforts to get the Ogbo Ogwo reopened.”

Daily Sun recalls that while addressing his supporters upon arriving Anambra from Abuja where President Tinubu symbolically handed him the APC flag, Ukachukwu had told them that “we (he and Senator Uche Ekwunife, his running mate) met with the president in Abuja, and he said to us “go and get me Anambra State and connect Anambra to the centre.”

Continuing, the APC candidate further declared that “APC is Tinubu, and Tinubu is APC. There is no alliance with APGA or Governor Soludo. Anyone claiming such is simply spreading falsehood. If APC isn’t strong in Anambra, why are they using our name to campaign?”.

But to Chinedu Obidigwe, the National Coordinator, APGA Media Warriors Forum, Ukachukwu and his loyalists are hallucinating, and daydreaming. He said President Tinubu never gave Ukachukwu any charge to get Anambra for him, arguing that that the APC candidate is not the spokesman of the President and was not in a position to relay such message to Nigerians.

“Delivering Anambra to the APC is an impossible mission that cannot be accomplished by Ukachukwu because the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo will defeat him by a wide margin during the election on November 8, 2025, “ Obidigwe said.

Similarly, Christian Aburime, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Soludo told Daily Sun that his principal’s rivals in the November election are no threat to his re- election. According to him, Governor Soludo came prepared and enjoys organic support from Ndi Anambra due to his sterling performance in the last three years.

“In the coming election, His Excellency has no opponents, no rivals and his re-election is not under threat. In fact, his re-election in November is fait accompli. He enjoys massive, organic support and the Ndi Anambra will not trade him for serial election losers who have no vision for the state.

“The governor came prepared. He has performed creditably well to the admiration and applause of Ndi Anambra who are now waiting patiently for November 8 to show gratitude and reward him with their votes,” Aburime said.

Continuing, he said, “even Mr. President has acknowledged the governor’s unprecedented performance in office and has virtually endorsed him for another term. I’m sure you heard the president during his visit to Anambra when he told Ndi Anambra: ‘your son, Soludo is my very good friend. He remains my friend and we will keep working together.’ This was clearly a presidential endorsement of a performing governor. I advise the pretenders to the governorship race to stop dissipating energy, wasting their time and resources and instead team up with the governor in his push to reinvent Anambra because, Ndi Anambra have made up their minds not to change a performing governor.”

Meanwhile, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) releases final list of the candidates for the election, some political analysts and party stalwarts say two factors could derail Ukachukwu’s dream of dislodging Soludo from office. These are: Divisions within the Anambra APC and rotational principle. Some Chieftains of the party in the state, including former Minister for Labour, Chris Ngige, are reportedly not enthusiastic about Ukachukwu’s candidacy and are therefore, not mobilising for him.

Similarly, a faction of the party led by Valentine Ozigbo who was defeated at the primary by Ukachukwu, Daily Sun learnt, is also not working with the APC candidate. In fact, Ozigbo is in court seeking Ukachukwu’s disqualification from the race and his removal as the APC candidate on the grounds that the process that threw him up was flawed. Ozigbo insists Ukachukwu’s candidacy is the product of a brazenly rigged process.

Given the disquiet in the Anambra APC, some stalwarts of the party in Anambra fear that Ukachukwu could suffer internal sabotage. “Some of our members could be working against him, and for Soludo”, a party source told Daily Sun.

Essentially, the rotational governorship factor is in favour of Governor Soludo and could jeopardise Ukachukwu’s ambition if the Anambra Central Senatorial district of the state where Senator Ekwunife comes from insists on succeeding the incumbent governor. This is so because Daily Sun’s findings indicate that Anambra Central is eagerly waiting for Soludo to finish his two terms so that power will rotate to the zone.

Observers believe that the people of Anambra North and Central will not want to vote another candidate from the South, where Ukachukwu and Soludo hail from, because they know that in the next four years, Soludo will finish and power will rotate back to Central.

Hon. Achife  Ifediogu, a former APGA ward chairman, while weighing in, said “People may be seeing him (Soludo) as a banker, former Central Bank Governor but the truth is that Charlie Nwa mgbafor (Governor Soludo’s moniker) is a master strategist and he will have no problem retaining his seat. For one, he has more things in common with President Tinubu than other aspirants. Tinubu’s visit to Anambra State some weeks ago was like a formal endorsement for APGA. No politician jokes with votes; as the governor of Anambra State and APGA’s only governor, Soludo is the party’s leader and he has told Tinubu that APGA will not field a presidential candidate. This is the only Makossa or Calypso that Tinubu wants to hear.

“Presenting a flag to Nicholas Ukachukwu and Uche Ekwunife is just a normal formality for a national leader of a party. Soludo is on the ground and firmly in charge of the situation. And beyond his campaign, Soludo has done so much in the almost four years of assumption of office to justify re- election and this he did without bowing to any godfather or borrowing a dime. So, when it comes to sound fiscal and financial policy and infrastructural development, he has done so well,” Ifediogu said.

Daily Sun recalls that apart from Soludo and Ukachukwu, some other candidates for the November election include Eze Nwafo Jude of PDP, Nwosu John of ADC and George Mogbalu of LP.