Not only did he obtain first-class honours, but he was also the top-of-the-class graduate throughout his studies up to the doctoral level in 1989.
The people of Anambra State have elected Charles Chukwuma Soludo as their next governor, offering the topmost position to a man whose record of accomplishments, in academia and public policy, yielded the persuasion that he was the most auspicious candidate among his main challengers, including tainted Andy Uba and Valentine Ozigbo who has no public service experience.
In the election held on Saturday, with a supplementary poll on Tuesday, Mr Soludo, 61, of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) scored 122,229 votes to claim victory, finally achieving a goal he first set in 2009, 12 years ago, just after he left office as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
His closest rival, Mr Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 53,807 votes to emerge second, and Mr Uba, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate got a total of 43,285 votes to emerge the third position.Valentine Ozigbo
Born on July 28, 1960, Mr Soludo hails from Umueze Village, Isuofia in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. Messrs Soludo, Ozigbo and Uba are from the same local government.
Top of the class
Mr Soludo graduated with a first-class degree in Economics in 1984 from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), one of Nigeria’s preeminent and first-generation universities, where he also studied and researched for his master’s and doctoral degrees.
Not only did he obtain first-class honours, but he was also the top-of-the-class graduate throughout his studies up to the doctoral level in 1989 when he won the Vice-Chancellor’s prize for the best graduating PhD student.
Itinerant scholar
Mr Solduo honed his research capacities at some of the best institutions in the world, gaining a cumulative four years of post-doctoral scholarship in the United States, Ethiopia, and the United Kingdom. Between 1991 and 1992, he was a Visiting Fellow at The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.; and between 1992 and 1993, Research Fellow at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa.
In addition, he was a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C. in 1994; and later the University of Oxford, 1994 and 1997; the Smuts Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, 1996-1997, and a scholar at the University of Warwick, 1997.
In 1998, UNN appointed Mr Soludo Professor of Economics, a remarkable achievement for the scholar, who was then 38. “I became everything in my 30s…I became a professor in my 30s,” Mr Soludo boasted during the Anambra governorship debate.
As he says in his CV obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Soludo travelled to 46 countries as an itinerant scholar and consultant to several multilateral finance and development institutions, including the World Bank, African Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the European Union, among others.
“ConSoludotion”
In July 2003, Mr Soludo made a foray into the government with an appointment as the Chief Economic Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo. And in the month that followed, he got an additional responsibility as the Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission, initiating the process that birthed the National Bureau of Statistics.Olusegun Obasanjo
In May 2004, Mr Obasanjo appointed Mr Soludo to the CBN as the governor, which Mr Uba would claim he made possible. “My brother brought you to me,” said Mr Uba, during the governorship debate. Mr Uba was at the time of Mr Soludo’s CBN appointment a close aide to Mr Obasanjo. But Mr Soludo dismissed his rival’s claim.
PREMIUM TIMES
