Soludos, Ekwunife Trade Blame Over Mbadiniju Rot

The battle for Anambra’s political soul ahead of the November 8 governorship election has taken a new twist, as Governor Chukwuma Soludo and his wife, Dr Nonye Soludo, are locked in a war of words with APC deputy governorship candidate, Senator Uche Ekwunife, over the legacy of the state’s first Fourth Republic governor, Chinwoke Mbadiniju.

GWG.ng reports that Ekwunife had fired the first shot at a campaign outing, alleging that the Soludos were part of Mbadiniju’s administration between 1999 and 2003, a government many Ndi Anambra still recall with pain. She argued that with such a tainted past, the governor and his wife lacked the moral standing to criticise others.

Mbadiniju’s four-year tenure was marred by endless strikes, unpaid salaries, rising insecurity, and a bitter godfather war that crippled governance. Teachers were on strike for nearly a year, civil servants were left without pay, and the state descended into chaos until the intervention of the Bakassi Boys vigilante outfit. Despite pockets of reform, Mbadiniju left office in 2003 with a battered image, remembered more for failures than achievements.

Mrs Soludo, in a strongly worded statement signed by her media aide, Daniel Ezeigwe, dismissed Ekwunife’s claims as false and mischievous. “For the records, I never met Dr Mbadiniju of blessed memory. Never,” she said. “I cannot dignify Ekwunife’s fabrications with a response. I am too busy with my children as schools resume. These allegations are pitiable and laughable.”

She went further to turn the heat back on Ekwunife, suggesting that if anyone needed to explain ties to the Mbadiniju government, it was the senator herself. “We urge Senator Ekwunife to stop swinging the conversation and focus solely on explaining to Ndi Anambra her involvement in the political disaster of the state between 1999 and 2003,” the statement read.

Mrs Ekwunife is widely reported to have worked for a bank that had dealings with the Mbandiniju government between 1999 and 2003.

The exchange has electrified the political scene, with analysts noting that it is not just a battle of words but a struggle over who defines Anambra’s history. For Soludo’s camp, the aim is to pin the failures of Mbadiniju squarely on those who were in the system, while Ekwunife is determined to drag the governor’s family into the mud of that era.

As the campaign season heats up, the ghost of Mbadiniju’s troubled legacy has returned to haunt Anambra politics — and it is now the weapon of choice in the fierce contest between Soludo and Ekwunife.

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