The governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, predicts that Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party, may prevail in the state's presidential election on February 25, 2023.
However, he questioned his predecessor's chances of winning the general presidential election next month.
“I wish Peter Obi the best of luck. Let him go and compete as others,” Soludo said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Thursday. “We (APGA) are also competing in the same race. We have our own candidate (Peter Umeadi), who is also son of the soil, coincidentally from Anambra State as well, and he will do his own bit, get his own votes.”
The governor referred to his piece in November 2022 where he said though Obi might win in Anambra but won’t win the overall presidential election.
“In that piece, I even considered that Peter Obi might win in Anambra State. I did mention that,” he said but doubted the possibility of the LP presidential candidate to win the overall election.
Soludo, the new national leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), also said he has given Obi all the support a state government can offer to a former governor like Obi, who was in office between 2006 and 2014.
The Anambra governor said he has been fair to all parties campaigning in the state and has not denied them state facilities to use for rallies.
Of late, Soludo, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; and Obi were been engaged in altercations on the state of Anambra economy.
Prime 9ja Online recalls that Soludo had said the investments Obi left in government are worth close to nothing.
The APGA leader also said Obi can’t win the 2023 presidential election as there are “two persons/parties seriously contesting for president” – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, Obi replied that he did his little as governor of Anambra and urged Soludo to do his best in the state as an economics professor.
The duo met thereafter at a function in Awka and locked in an embrace in what has been described by many observers as a “reconciliation move”.