I am scared

Spectators like me watching from the stands are scared stiff. The current macabre dance playing itself out in Anambra State in the name of politics is bothering everybody except nobody. We all know that what Nigerians will do in 2011 will dwarf the Afghanistan experience to Lilliputian proportions but what is happening in Anambra State is scary!

In the last two weeks or so we have been fed with sordid details of what happened or did not happen in the Gubernatorial primaries which produced Professor Chukwuma Soludo, immediate past Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria as the ruling party’s flag bearer. We have been told stories of delegates being forced to pay huge sums of money only to be disenfranchised at the end. We have not been spared how contestants offered fellow contestants tonnes of money to withdraw from the race and give one of the contestants a soft landing. There was reportedly so much money flying around that the referee who was imported from another State in anticipation of what was to happen almost fainted when he was offered N500 million just to doctor a delegates list. I am scared.

As if all that is not bad enough, the reported kidnapping of the father of Professor Chukwuma Soludo last night by people who think they deserve a piece of the cake adds a new dimension to the multi-faceted monster. Chief Solomon Soludo was quietly minding his business when some people who think they could do some good business with the old man’s head, kidnapped him last night to an unknown destination. Smart kids. With all the money Professor Soludo was alleged to have exhibited during the primaries, who would not be tempted?

The Police in Anambra are reported to be investigating the matter and I know they will do a good job because the Nigeria Police can and does do a good job if and when they mean to do a good job – if you know what I mean. When this mess is finally over, could somebody please inform Professor Soludo that wherever he got that mountain of money from, as an Economics Professor, one expects him to know a better way of investing that money without attracting hoodlums to his old man. The way he is going about it, the only word I can find is obscene. He is not behaving like someone who went to school. Haba!

Tata, everybody

Napoleon