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| Pres. ABA Tinubu and Gov. Charles Soludo |
Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo has framed support for President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election not merely as pragmatic politics but as a calculated investment in future Igbo presidential prospects. In a video circulating on X, the governor—speaking in Igbo—urged the South-East to back the incumbent southern president so that, after an expected northern interregnum, the region can more credibly claim reciprocal support when power returns south.
“You have to engage in discussions. Now that it is a southerner holding the power, it’s remaining four years. It is now left for us (Igbos) to support him so that when it goes to the North and comes back, we can now trust that every southerner and northerner will support us,” Soludo said. He added that political power should rotate among groups and dismissed personal ambition beyond his current role: “What am I vying for? I’ve gotten a governorship position; will I go for a third term?
Everyone must be given the opportunity to be able to rise.” On his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), he was blunt: “As for APGA, we will support the moving train. Because that is where we can get our share that we would bring home in our own interest.”
The remarks, which surfaced around Friday, build on Soludo’s earlier public positioning. They followed his inclusion, announced earlier in the week, as Anambra coordinator on the revised All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council for 2027. He was named alongside figures from outside the ruling party, including FCT Minister Nyesom Wike (PDP) and Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke.
APGA’s national publicity secretary, Ejimofor Opara, welcomed the appointment as evidence of Soludo’s advocacy for strategic partnership between Anambra and the federal government, citing tangible gains in infrastructure and economic initiatives for Ndi Anambra and Ndigbo.
Local Anambra APC leaders, however, objected, arguing that installing a sitting APGA governor as campaign coordinator risked undermining the party’s own structures and candidates in the state. The tension underscores the unusual cross-party alignments Tinubu’s camp has cultivated.
From “Wasted Votes” Warnings to Formal Alignment
Soludo’s message is not new. At his second-term inauguration earlier in 2026 and in subsequent appearances, including in Ebonyi, he repeatedly urged South-East voters not to “waste” ballots on alternatives, framing progressive collaboration as the path to relevance.
He has described APGA and the APC as ideological allies rooted in progressivism—APGA having registered as progressive years before the APC’s formation—and pointed to an “unprecedented” elite consensus, with dozens of governors reportedly aligned behind Tinubu. He has defended the administration’s difficult economic reforms as necessary for longer-term shared prosperity while stressing national unity and security.
This stance marks a deliberate shift from protest politics. Soludo has argued that Ndigbo should move “from the alliance for protest to the alliance for progress” and “partnership for prosperity.” In 2023, the South-East delivered overwhelming support to Peter Obi; Soludo’s counsel treats that outcome as a cautionary tale of votes that did not translate into governing power or reciprocal leverage.
The Logic of Rotation and the South-East’s Long Wait
Soludo’s argument rests on Nigeria’s informal but resilient practice of power rotation or zoning. Since the return to civilian rule in 1999, the presidency has largely alternated between North and South in roughly eight-year cycles: Olusegun Obasanjo (South-West), Umaru Yar’Adua/Goodluck Jonathan (North then South-South), Muhammadu Buhari (North), and Tinubu (South-West).
The arrangement, never fully constitutionalized, emerged from post-civil war and post-June 12 political settlements aimed at managing ethnic and regional competition. Earlier efforts, including debates in the 1994–95 constitutional conference, explored rotation among six geopolitical zones or simpler North-South alternation. governance-corpus.vercel.app
The South-East has never produced a civilian executive president in the Fourth Republic (Nnamdi Azikiwe’s earlier role was largely ceremonial). Soludo’s calculation is sequential: support a southern (South-West) incumbent through a second term, accept a northern turn thereafter, and then press a stronger claim—backed by demonstrated partnership—when the South’s turn returns. In this reading, isolation or protest candidacies risk leaving the region outside the bargaining table when elite negotiations determine the next cycle.
Critics within Igbo political circles reject this timeline. Groups such as the Igbo Agenda Dialogue have dismissed Soludo’s and Wike’s endorsements, reaffirming support for Obi and arguing that individual officeholder’s calculations should not dictate collective strategy.
They contend that ethnic or regional solidarity and voter preference can transcend rigid zoning, and that premature alignment with the incumbent undercuts the region’s negotiating power. Soludo’s approach prioritizes elite reciprocity and “getting what you bargain for” over immediate ethnic assertion.
Pragmatism, Risks, and Anambra’s Position
As a former Central Bank of Nigeria governor and economist, Soludo brings technocratic credibility to the progressive branding. His administration has emphasized federal collaboration on projects, and APGA has positioned itself as a junior partner capable of delivering “share” for the South-East without dissolving its identity. The “moving train” metaphor captures a transactional view of Nigerian politics: relevance flows from proximity to power rather than pure opposition.
Yet the strategy carries clear risks. It could deepen divisions within the South-East between those prioritizing long-term inclusion through alliance and those favoring independent or opposition platforms. Local party pushback in Anambra illustrates the friction when national campaign structures override state-level APC interests.
For Tinubu’s camp, Soludo’s endorsement expands outreach in a region that has been electorally skeptical; for Soludo, it tests whether demonstrated loyalty will later translate into reciprocal support for an Igbo candidacy—an outcome that remains contingent on northern and South-West calculations years from now.
Nigeria’s zoning tradition has proven flexible under pressure but durable as a political expectation. Soludo’s intervention reframes the South-East’s presidential aspiration as a multi-cycle project requiring present-day coalition-building rather than immediate confrontation.
Whether this pragmatic realism strengthens the region’s eventual claim or simply legitimizes the current power configuration will depend on the 2027 outcome, the subsequent northern tenure, and the willingness of other zones to honor the informal bargain when the South’s turn comes again. In the meantime, the governor has placed APGA and Anambra firmly on the “moving train,” arguing that is where the region’s practical interests lie.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers Global, News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Politics and Technology.
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