An old video of Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo speaking about the record of his predecessor, Peter Obi, has resurfaced online, drawing fresh attention amid the renewed political debate surrounding the two politicians.
The footage, which was recorded during the 2021 Anambra governorship campaign, shows Soludo, then the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), discussing Obi’s administration and citing economic and infrastructure-related data.
In the video, Soludo said Obi ‘did relatively well as an APGA governor’ and specifically mentioned road construction during his tenure.
He also referred to poverty and unemployment figures in the state, saying, ‘Anambra State had poverty rate decline from 53% to 14.8% under Peter Obi. Anambra State had the lowest unemployment in Nigeria at 13%.’
The clip has resurfaced amid renewed online discussions about Obi’s record as governor and Soludo’s subsequent public comments about his predecessor.
The figures and their attribution have, however, been the subject of competing interpretations. In a subsequent explanation reported in 2022, Soludo said he had been citing National Bureau of Statistics data and that poverty in Anambra had risen from below 25 per cent in 2005 to about 53 per cent in 2010/2011, before falling to 14.78 per cent in 2020 under Willie Obiano.
Soludo also later criticised some aspects of Obi’s administration, including his assessment of investments allegedly left behind by his predecessor. In a November 2022 interview, he said the purported investments were ‘worth next to nothing’.
The resurfaced video has nevertheless generated renewed reactions online, with supporters of Obi drawing attention to Soludo’s earlier comments, while others have pointed to the broader context in which the figures were presented.
The development comes as political discussions around Obi, Soludo and the record of successive administrations in Anambra continue to attract attention ahead of the 2027 political cycle.