An old video of Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo praising the administration of former governor Peter Obi has resurfaced online, drawing renewed attention to the two politicians’ contrasting public statements about Obi’s record in office.
In the video, recorded during the 1 November 2021 Anambra governorship debate, Soludo, then the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, described Obi’s administration as having done “relatively well” and credited him with implementing the APGA manifesto.
“PTOB, by the way, implemented the APGA manifesto and did well because he referenced PTOB. PTOB relatively did well.”
He added:
“He did the roles as an APGA governor, implementing APGA manifesto.”
The resurfaced clip has attracted attention because Soludo later became more critical of Obi’s record, particularly during the 2022 presidential campaign when Obi contested the presidency on the Labour Party platform.
What Soludo said about unemployment
During the debate, Soludo cited National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) figures while discussing Anambra’s labour market.
“And you’re saying, oh, things, the economy. Let me tell you, for the records, Anambra State has the lowest unemployment of any state in Nigeria at 13 percent.”
The NBS’s Q2 2020 labour-force report did record Anambra’s unemployment rate at 13.1%, alongside an underemployment rate of 17%.
However, the timing of the statistic matters.
A subsequent NBS Q4 2020 report put Anambra’s unemployment rate at 44.23%. The International Centre for Investigative Reporting’s FactCheckHub therefore found Soludo’s 13% claim misleading because he was relying on the earlier Q2 figures rather than the later available data.
This means the 13% figure should not be presented as a general or current measure of Anambra’s unemployment performance.
The poverty figure requires even more context
Soludo also said:
“Anambra State has poverty rate declined from 53 percent under PTOB to 14.78 as at last year. National Bureau of Statistics.”
The 14.78% figure is genuine NBS data. The bureau’s Nigeria Living Standards Survey 2018/19 recorded Anambra’s poverty headcount rate at 14.78%.
But the viral interpretation of Soludo’s statement leaves out an important distinction.
In November 2022, after the video began circulating in connection with his criticism of Obi, Soludo clarified that he had not meant that poverty fell from 53% to 14.78% under Obi.
He said the NBS data showed poverty rising from below 25% in 2005 to about 53% in 2010/2011, during Obi’s tenure, before falling to 14.78% in 2020 under Obi’s successor, Willie Obiano.
So, the viral claim that Soludo was simply saying “poverty declined from 53% to 14.78% under Peter Obi” is not supported by his later clarification.
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Why the old video matters
The resurfacing of the footage highlights a wider political dispute over how Obi’s eight years as Anambra governor should be assessed.
Soludo’s position in 2021 was that Obi had implemented the APGA manifesto and had “relatively” performed well. He also presented NBS statistics while discussing the state’s economic indicators.
By November 2022, however, Soludo had publicly challenged aspects of Obi’s record.
In an article titled History Beckons and I Will Not Be Silent, he argued that poverty had increased during Obi’s tenure and said it subsequently fell under Obiano.
Soludo also criticised the value of investments associated with Obi’s administration, saying in a Channels Television interview that they were “worth next to nothing”.
Obi disputed Soludo’s assessment and argued that his administration had left savings and investments for the state.
What the figures actually show
The available official data provide useful context but do not, on their own, establish which governor caused a particular change.
The NBS recorded Anambra’s poverty headcount at 14.78% in its 2018/19 Living Standards Survey. That was one of the lowest rates among Nigerian states in that survey.
The same survey, however, does not by itself establish that the reduction from the earlier 53% figure resulted from a particular governor’s policies.
Likewise, the 13.1% unemployment figure cited by Soludo came from a specific quarter in 2020. Later NBS figures changed substantially.
That distinction matters because economic indicators can change because of several factors, including national economic conditions, methodology, employment patterns and the period covered by a survey.
The bigger question
The resurfaced video is therefore more significant as a record of what Soludo said in 2021 than as proof that one interpretation of Obi’s performance is correct.
It also illustrates why historical political clips need to be checked against the original date, data source and subsequent statements before being used to draw conclusions about a politician’s record.
For readers, the key issue is not simply whether Soludo once praised Obi. It is what the underlying evidence says about Anambra’s economy during and after Obi’s tenure, and how much of any recorded change can reasonably be attributed to individual administrations.
The debate over Obi’s legacy is likely to continue, particularly as political discussions ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections increasingly revisit the records and statements of past office holders.
