For too long, Nigeria has had leaders who would rather hire dozens of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and head to court than produce their secondary school certificates. Leaders whose educational attainments are matters of conjecture. Too many times, dubiously sworn affidavits have sufficed for authentic certificates.

And the consequence of all those characters sauntering in the corridors of power is there for everyone to see.

But in Soludo, we have an economics professor and a former governor and chairman of the board of directors of the CBN who wears his intellectual skin so proudly.

Some will be waiting for him to fail, so that they will be presented with good talking points on why good education should not be a prerequisite for leadership.

If Soludo does not yet appreciate the enormity of expectations, two WhatSapp texts I received this morning might help.

As soon as the results were announced, a friend from the Middle Belt, who relocated to the United Kingdom because he couldn’t stand the mess that leadership has made of what used to be the promise of Nigeria, wrote:

“Now, Nigeria has a governor!!! May he be the pivot of Nigeria’s turnaround to the path of progress in all fronts. Anambra has won the race ahead of Nigeria by getting a good head to run things.

“I am just in awe at this development, I never thought it would be. This phenomenon gives aspiring intellectuals a great chance to come into politics. The narrative has now changed. A doer elected to office has changed the song.”

The second text came from a statesman from Anambra, an accomplished technocrat who retired having worked in the upper echelons of an oil company.

“God has granted Anambra a leadership that will surely make a difference, another lease of life. I pray that Soludo’s leadership impact in South East (Alaigbo) will be significant.”

On October 20, my column was titled ‘Why Anambra needs Soludo’.

Anambrarians defied all odds to heed the clarion call. The ball is now strategically placed in the court of Charles Chukwuma Soludo. I wish him all the best!

READ: https://www.thenicheng.com/anambras-ball-in-soludos-court/