soludo.chukwuma-chnlspix

Soludo’s (mis)fortunes grow with court order against his governorship ticket, currency bribery scandal….

By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica and The Black Business Journal. Chido@USAfricaonline.com

On December 16, 2009, the political clout, economic and credibility fortunes of embattled former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,  Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo took another downward slide via today’s ruling against his candidacy by the Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja.

But it’s not over for Soludo. Evidently, until there’s a possible but unlikely apex court ruling on the Soludo-PDP shenanigans in Anambra State, these latest, critical developments are reconfiguring the political landscape of Anambra State.   He is, therefore, for now, been disqualified from contesting  in Anambra State’s February 6, 2010, volatile governorship showdown.

Consequently, the incumbent Governor Peter Obi has one less key player and influential and well-credentialed money-bag to contend with.

But there are other key, strong players in the partisan field: former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s massively wealthy aide Andy Uba (of the PDP until a few days ago) now flag-bearer of the Labour party, former Governor Dr. Chris Ngige of AC (formerly of the same PDP), and Andy’s brother and Obasanjo’s area coordinator Chris Uba of the PDP. of course, there are other personalities and latent factors.

Although, his opponents are happy that the December 16 ruling presents a severe setback for the technocrat Soludo, there may be a sliver of hope and final card for Soludo.  A very highly-laced USAfricaonline.com source within his campaign claim that “Professor Soludo is considering a  very strong, creative way to the governorship of Anambra. We’ll see what happens in a few days….”

While political observers continue to watch Soludo’s (mis)fortunes and others in the  cantakerous Anambra politics, his tenure at the CBN has been dragged into the trail of controversies, too. Among them, the scandal and allegedly fraudulent currency printing contracts awarded to Securency, an Australian corporation during Soludo’s tenure. Securency is being investigated by the Australian government and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for paying bribes of almost N1 billion to key and highly-placed CBN officials, and officials of other countries.

The statements by the Chairman of Securency Bob Rankin which Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks and its subsidiary  USAfricaonline.com have, concede that there are issues of bribery investigations going on, arising from the May 23, 2009 reports in The Age (Australia) newspaper. Rankin notes he is aware of allegations “that payments made to agents by Securency International Pty Ltd may have been used by the agents to pay ‘kickbacks’ to foreign government officials. Securency has strict policies and procedures prohibiting such payments.”

The other issue is the lax enforcement of banking regulations under his tenure which many experts say contributed to the rapid weakening of the capacity of the Nigerian banks amidst the global economic downturn.

USAfricaonline.com has been reporting that Soludo’s successor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, dramatically reversed a few of Soludo’s mechanisms.

Second, Sanusi, a technocrat with a keen eye for a more disciplined banking system,

has taken bold actions which, pointedly, are in contrast to Soludo’s chummy engagements and dalliances with Obasanjo era bank execs, stock exchange execs and bank directors who ran many of the banks and investors’ funds aground.

One of the directors of Nigeria’s 2nd largest bank who is based in Lagos told me in a phone chat “we did not expect Soludo to so quickly jump into partisan politics… straight from the CBN. It’s sad he’s going this way, only to be messed up by the PDP.”

While the alliances are shifting, it is basic to note that the controversies, law suits and attendant issues of Soludo not following the procedures of the PDP’s nomination for governor filed by some of the party activists: Valentine Ozigbo, Nkoli Imo and Ferdinand Okoye derailed his efforts to hold on to ticket. Ozigbo is, partly, a Houston-based tax accounting exec. Their suit and the court’s earlier order compelled  the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove Soludo’s name as the party’s candidate.

The march and contests for the 2010 February 6 election hold all the markings of a heady, twisted return to the clash of money, leverage with the INEC, the Police, media and other raw elements of power which have always complicated leadership and elections in Anambra.

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USAfrica and USAfricaonline.com (characterized by The New York Times as the  most influential African-owned, U.S-based multimedia networks) established May 1992, our first edition of USAfrica magazine was published August 1993; USAfrica The Newspaper on May 11, 1994; CLASSmagazine on May 2, 2003; www.PhotoWorks.TV in 2005. More perspectives and debates of Anambra politics and life are on the USAfrica-powered blogs and e-groups: IgboEvents@yahoogroups.com and AnambraPolitics@yahoogroups.com.

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