It was not only a sartorial stamp, but the charisma of his macho presence. He made a political regalia of his Akwete top and trousers, red cap and his glowing dark skin, and you could not miss the voice: The boom of the Anambra orchestra. No leader, perhaps since Tafawa Balewa, will lead with the rare philtre of his vocal gift. No broadcaster, but he will dwarf any electronic larynx evangelising his own programmes. imagine an Ikenna Ndaguba, Ernest Okonkwo or Kevin Ejiofor on the throne. But he has more.
Chukwuma Soludo, at last, mounted the throne as governor of Anambra State. He does so with a mighty credential hardly matched by any in any office. The former CBN chief now becomes a chief servant of one of Nigeria’s top entrepreneurial states. He calls his people an itinerant tribe. He is beckoning them home, like the existential philosopher Heidegger who says home is the object of all quests.
His speech was a promise but a restraint, an embrace but a caution, a flight but a crawl, a dream inside a pragmatic vision, soars but saunters, at once revolutionary and conservative.
Unmistakable is his avowal of an ideology called Pan African market progressivism. It brings the market impulse for popular good. Goods for the good of all. It reflects a man with a mission, and aware of the watch-eye of posterity. He spoke with zest and detail. He wants to transform many things. For commercial brio, to praise and challenge Nnewi and Onitsha duopoly, and stir the people to trust and taxes. For politics, to create a cooperative society by dimming the tides of violence and enlisting the renegade forces of IPOB, criminality and ESN to a band of brothers. Culture will brandish standards and locally made goods in a high-tech context to bring “Anambra to the world and the world to Anambra.” To bring plenty through a frugal style. All under the umbrella of an ideology at once indigenous and universal. It was delivered in a tone at once sober and optimistic, but putting off celebration until the job is done.
For optics, no one could forget his reference to Innoson as his official car, and all meals and clothes and shoes within Anambra confines. He has presented the agenda. After the people, Anambra big wigs, led by the inimitable Oby Ezekwesili, anointed him.
He has whetted the appetite. His gunpowder is dry. The eagle is looking at the sky. He has fluttered his wings. Now in flight. Lookout.
