Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has criticized politicians campaigning on the promise of serving only one term in office, describing such pledges as deceitful and an insult to the intelligence of Anambra people.
Speaking on Election Day during an interview on Arise Television on Wednesday from 15:17, August 20, 2025, Soludo said the tactic was not new, recalling how a similar promise was made during the 2017 governorship election but was rejected by the electorate.
“You see, I said that in the context of the debate going on in my state, in a context where you have established a process of zoning and somebody wants to cut short that particular zoning, or to, if you like, torpedo that, they come with this sweetener, or if you give me this and then I will only spend this. They know they were being disingenuous,” Soludo said.
“They came with that argument in 2017 when my predecessor was running for a second term. They came here and telling Anambra people, oh, some people promising us, including some people on the terrain today. Anambra people were quick to see through the disingenuity of that, of that kind of promise. And, of course, voted massively for Africa. We won 21 over 21 local governments in that election. Nobody bought that crap, as it were. And now, again, we are in for another election,” Soludo added.
He pointed out that the zoning arrangement in the state must be respected, stressing that the South senatorial zone must complete its turn before power rotates to the Central.
“And some people are again emerging in the same state. I am from the south, and the north just finished, handed over to the south, and the south will serve its term, and then it will go to central. And now some people from the south senatorial zone are showing up, because they realize that it does just that. They say, oh, don’t worry, if you vote for me, so they are swimming against the tide. Oh, if you vote for me, I will spend only one term. I will spend only one term,” he stated.
Soludo further described the manifestos of such candidates as unrealistic, arguing that even decades in office would not be enough to implement them.
“Meanwhile, you see the manifesto that they are rolling out. You realize that even if they were to spend even 20 years, they wouldn’t even scratch it. I mean, it’s just, I don’t know how to describe it. So you’re just taking the people to be, you’re just playing on the people’s intelligence. You just think everybody is a fool. You just think, sorry. If anybody is saying that, it’s either just being deliberately deceitful, okay, or there might be something not working right upstairs to take the entire people of Anambra State as fools, you know, to think that the entire people are fools, not to see through the lie, not to see through the deception, then the person must have a mental issue,” the governor declared.
