By: Chudi Nnamekwe
Barth Nwibe has thrown his hat into the 2025 Anambra Guber ring. It is a welcome development that the Igboukwu-born oil magnate is out to, as usual, to provide a semblance of opposition to Gov. Soludo unencumbered, unstoppable second term journey in any case he (Soludo) decides to embark on it.
If what I read on the Voice of Nigeria blog is true about Nwibe’s reason for joining the race, then I am fully convinced that he is just another unprepared candidate who is out to entertain Ndi Anambra with familiar rhetorics. As a business man with over two decades of active business life, Barth should be candid enough to compare his scorecards with the likes of the Late Chief Anthony Enukeme (Tonimas) who not only established numerous businesses across the country, but brought his money home to the benefit of his Neni community, tarring over 18km of rural roads, siting branches of his company across the State and employing Ndi Anambra in thousands.
I also would like to point Barth to Ibeto, Obijackson, Okwuosa, and so many other illustrious businessmen of Anambra origin who have affected their communities in positive ways through their private ventures. One would expect that a starting point for Barth would be to state in clear terms his personal contributions to community, LGA, State or the Nation upon which Ndu Anambra may now consider him for the plum job. This was certainly missing at his reported engagement with a few persons over the weekend.
He started as usual with argumentum ad hominem. Showing that is prepared only for entertainment. In Barth’s Igboukwu community thousands of youth have become job creators courtesy of Gov. Soludo’s 1Youth 2Skills program and the Start-up Anambra tech development program wherein over 20,000 persons have been trained across various tech skills. This is exclusive of over 8,000 Teachers, 1,000 Health workers, 2,000 security operatives that have been employed under two years of Soludo’s administration. Does Barth need to be reminded that prior to 2022, eight (8) LGAs in Anambra were under siege by criminal gun men. Today, no inch of Anambra’s space is in the control of none state Actors.
While Barth is still bemaoning is illusory insecurity, Innoson has just launched the first locally made electronic car in the country at Nnewi, a few metres away from Barth’s village home. Omaa Motors, another local automobile company, is rapidly setting up at Umunya in Oyi LGA. I don’t want to mention thousands of MSMEs rising up in the State.
It is on record that Governor Soludo has held series of townhall meetings with Ndi Anambra at home and across major cities in the country with very interesting outcomes springing out of it in the form of policy and projects visible across the State. I wonder how Ndi Anambra Central felt when Barth announced to them that he was vying for a “single term of four years”. They must have bellowed, whilst looking at Barth’s pocket, “akiko ndi mgbu oo!”
I don’t know how Barth or any other aspirant think that anyone can oust Governor Soludo who has set records far better than his predecessors’ in two years. Anyways, let the entertainment continue!
