By Law Mefor
You can best describe Dr Amanze Obi’s column from February 2, 2026, in the Sun, entitled “Soludo in Onitsha Market Square”, as a pathetic piece of jaundiced journalism. The reopening of Onitsha Main Market for business every Monday by Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, has been hailed in many enlightened quarters as a stellar mark of courageous leadership to end the ruinous five-year sit-at-home shutdown enforced by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPoB) across the Southeast.
One doesn’t have to read far between the lines of the diatribe to see why Amanze Obi wanted Anambra State’s Monday lockdown to run ad infinitum despite the huge economic losses running into trillions and the de-marketing of the state and region that has gone on for almost five years.
To give him his due, let’s just read Amanze Obi’s concluding argument thus: “Maybe someone should remind Soludo that the sit-at-home syndrome is not about Anambra State alone. The entire Southeast is involved. Soludo cannot possibly extricate Anambra from the entanglement. The sit-at-home syndrome will end at the appropriate time. The conditions for that will come, sooner or later. No manner of enforcement by the Soludos (sic) of this world will work. Someone is telling me that the acrobatics going on in Onitsha market square are part of the Soludo Solution. Is it?”
This submission by Amanze Obi is indeed warped as it is embarrassing, to say the least. Dr Obi has staked the claim that sit-at-home is all over Southeast, which is a lie. There is no sit-at-home in Enugu, Ebonyi or in Umuahia. Right-thinking people are being asked to accept the tosh that because sit-at-home is not about Anambra State alone, as it involves the entire Southeast, Soludo ought not to tackle the problem. As though possessing some occult powers, Amanze Obi posits this shamanistic judgement: “Soludo cannot possibly extricate Anambra from the entanglement.” Amanze Obi makes his very bad case worse when he writes, “The sit-at-home syndrome will end at the appropriate time. The conditions for that will come, sooner or later.” When, if ever, is this Amanze Obi’s nebulous “appropriate time”? His postulation that the conditions will come sooner or later adds to the endless waffle unto infinity and infamy. So, should the leaders and followers in the Southeast simply give up and do nothing while waiting for a magical solution to end the sit-at-home? Amanze Obi’s postulations belong to what in popular parlance is known as “Akuko Mama Ngozi na ndi yard”, that is, “the banter of Ngozi’s mother and her mates in the yard”.
In this day and age of science and solutions, a modern leader ought to take charge to solve problems like sit-at-home enforced by non-state actors, and that’s what Governor Soludo has astutely done by getting the Onitsha market traders to reopen the market on Monday and thus end the nagging sit-at-home imbroglio.
Amanze Obi actually started his article on a wrong footing, as he writes at the beginning: “Whenever Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, indulges in his now accustomed fits and starts, I am usually compelled to take another look at the postulation of English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon, to the effect that ‘reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.’ Bacon wrote in recognition of the centrality of learning in human endeavours. Soludo, a professor of economics, is supposed to encapsulate the three layers of Bacon’s thesis. His level of exposure in the academe qualifies him for this. But was Bacon necessarily right? I do not think so. My doubt is reinforced by the likes of Soludo. His intemperance and intemperateness make nonsense of whatever Bacon set out to achieve. In fact, his entire disposition since he assumed office as governor is a complete negation of Bacon’s postulation. Perhaps Soludo, the governor, may have been corrupted by power. After all, Lord Acton, an English historian and moralist, warned us that ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’
I have included a lengthy quote from Amanze Obi to emphasise his openness about his personal grudge against Soludo. Contrarians are quite welcome, but they must not come armed only with sophomoric arguments like Amanze Obi, who offers this woolly confession: “Until Soludo became governor, some of us thought we knew him.”
According to Amanze Obi, he “held Soludo in high esteem” when he was Economic Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. He even had cause to celebrate Soludo when he was elected the Governor of Anambra State in an article entitled “Soludo Breaks the Ice” on November 15, 2021, with these words: “The man has always brimmed with ideas. We have heard him talk about the Soludo Solution. He has talked about ADT (African Dubai, Taiwan). He has always had a burning vision. He has had to espouse all those goals through his governorship quest. He has been desirous of making a difference. And now, the opportunity has come. That is Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, the man who has just been elected as the next governor of Anambra State. Since he emerged as governor-elect last week, the entire Nigerian polity has gone torrent.”
Given this context, it is therefore perplexing for Amanze Obi to claim that Soludo “has fallen from Olympian heights into the abyss of disrepute.” In essence, Amanze Obi is irritated because of what he termed Soludo’s “usually unprovoked hostility toward Peter Obi. ” Amanze Obi believes that Soludo has always escaped consequences for his unwarranted attacks on Peter Obi because Obi is a man of peace who does not use abusive language.
For now, we have to leave Peter Obi (no relation to Amanze Obi) out of the matter so that we can concentrate on the Onitsha market matter and the end of Monday’s sit-at-home.
Putting the distraction aside, it is comical for Amanze Obi to state that Soludo has “no room for persuasion or moral suasion”. It is not a hidden matter that Soludo engaged the Onitsha market leaders for years on end, pleading, mediating, and even going to visit IPoB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in custody, who pointedly revealed that he was against sit-at-home and the concomitant wasting of precious Igbo lives towards its enforcement.
Governor Soludo has performed admirably by reopening the Onitsha Main Market on Mondays and ending the enforced Monday sit-at-home. As the legendary Zik of Africa, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, reiterated, “History will vindicate those who are just.”
Critics, like Dr Amanze Obi, argue that Soludo’s approach is flawed, citing the need for a regional solution. However, Soludo’s efforts have shown that decisive leadership can bring about change, and his actions have been hailed as a “rewriting of the grammar of terror” by informed quarters who wish Anambra and the Southeast well.
Thanks to Soludo, the sit-at-home order has ended in Anambra for good, and even its main enforcers have concurred with the solution governor, resulting in restoration of normal socio-economic life for both Anambra and the Southeast.
Law Mefor, PhD, is Anambra State Commissioner for Information.