“The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbour.” – Socrates
Anambra governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo’s recent diatribe on the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, was uncalled for and may have shocked many. Not those who are close to Charlie Nwa-Mgbafor or have had to interact with him.
There is no way somebody with such a narcissistic personality disorder will sleep well and be happy at the rising profile of those he perceives to be his mates. Governor Soludo may be an extraordinary person academically, but in so many ways he has shown a dearth of wisdom around him. Someone should tell him that classmates are not always gracemates.
Any Igbo politician who, driven by whatever motive to stand in the way of Peter Obi today, is unwise; worse still if the person is from Anambra State. There is no faster way to injure one’s political future than the road of ignominy that Governor Soludo has chosen. Even if he is pushed by envy or covetousness [this is obvious], an Igbo politician attacking Obi now is committing harakiri, their motivation notwithstanding. Little wonder the English say, “Envy shoots at others and wounds itself.”
Whether he agrees or not with this, Governor Soludo, by his vituperative attack on the Labour Party presidential hopeful, has shot himself in the foot and will have to live with the wound and the avoidable nuisance of bringing home ant-infested firewood. Such cargo has no place in the home. He would have to live with the ants for the rest of his political career. Anybody whose brilliance blinds from knowing when to use it is indeed unintelligent.
Governor Soludo may not know that meaning well is an aspect of governance and delivering what you mean is another. Politics is 80 per cent governance and 20 actual work. He will soon discover this. You cannot knowingly engage a wrestler in a bout and turn around to say you are too tired to continue and that you need a rest. The ever-vibrant Obidient family will come for Soludo in a manner he never imagined. It takes a spiritual eye which Soludo does not have to know that the Obi phenomenon is not ordinary and is beyond even candidate Obi. Anybody who decides to visit the kitchen should stop detesting smoke.
From now onwards Governor Soludo will discover to his chagrin that getting your politics in governance wrong is like pouring water in your petrol tank and expecting the vehicle to start and move. Buddha, the venerated founder of Buddhism, holds that “He who envies others does not have peace of mind.”
Governor Soludo will soon come to terms with the reality of the above Buddha quote. Soludo will very soon discover that the Spanish Jesuit, Baltasar Graci, was right to say, “The envious die not once, but as often as the envied win applause.” The governor just dragged himself into getting hurt whenever Obi’s profile moved up a notch or two. Since June when the man emerged as the presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party, the Obi profile has been on the ascendancy. Soludo’s needless outburst shows clearly the kind of pain he has been in ever since Obi entered the political space like a hurricane.
Those who are quick to tag Soludo’s undesirable eruption on Obi as envy cannot be wrong. The attitude met all the indices of an envious character. Envy is a state of desiring something that someone else possesses. It’s a vicious emotion that can crush self-esteem, inspire an effort to undermine others’ successes, or even cause people to lash out violently. Other notable signs of envy are when you aren’t happy for others when they achieve success. Another person’s success makes you unhappy, you feel the need to diminish someone else’s success. You judge others negatively, refusing to see the positives in them and you are happy when others face setbacks. When you are in such a state, your driver is envy and unless you change, your direction leads to feeling alone against smiling “enemies.”
Narcissism is a personality disorder associated with envy and is so significant in human relationships. Soludo has just copiously displayed it by his attack on Obi. Soludo who just got his first political breakthrough by being elected Governor of Anambra State is by his action confirming Harold Coffin’s view: “Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own.”
Ahead of how the public will rate his attitude Governor Soludo said arrogantly that he cannot be envious of Peter Obi from his high up there but forgot Gary Allan’s view: “You can be the moon and still be jealous of the stars.”
There is no point in arrogance from a person barely a year old in a position occupied by a so-called enemy for eight years and left more than eight years ago with an enviable record Soludo will need a miracle to match even as a Professor. Not with this self-inflicted distraction.
In a venomous letter under discussion, Governor Soludo even tried to arrogate to himself the role of spokesperson for Ndigbo, thereby deciding for the race what they want and who to deal with outside their son. His suggestion curiously excludes his own party APGA underscoring the hatchet job and in house slave mentality suspecio. Governor Soludo clearly overreached himself in so many ways than one in his first letter meaning that the second will come. Let’s hope Part II never comes. But he forgot that anybody of Igbo extraction not recognizing the impact of Peter Obi in the nation’s political space today, would have a lot of convincing to do to prove to the people that he is not an enemy and a cog in the rolling wheel of Ndigbo to political stardom.
Governor Soludo walked into this excrement with his eyes wide open because he operates in a mental state of omniscience, not knowing that such a state is rarely accomplished by any human being. If he had not allowed envy to drive his thoughts, possibly after watching Obi’s Edo State outing powered by the Obidient family whose following in that region is akin to hero-worship, a wiser Soludo ought to have been more circumspect in his utterances.
You cannot interact with Soludo, even for a split-second, without perceiving his putting airs. In his executive capacity over Anambra State, should we expect all the negatives to grow, especially as he is fast becoming the ‘Eze Onye Agwanam I of Awka Government House? He surrounds himself with those who virtually worship him and see nothing wrong with his airs. For Peter Obi and the Obidient family, 101 Soludos writing vitriol daily will not be enough to distract them, come 2023, from taking back Nigeria and rebuilding it.
If after one year in office as the governor, Soludo already sees himself as the potential President for the Aso Rock Villa, he should go and find out how and why Obi reached the point of winning the hearts of many Nigerians. Obi’s popularity, the basis of Soludo’s envy, didn’t come by happenstance. It is the outcome of a persistent display of humility despite his being well-to-do, in power, and influence, and a record of performance to look back on.
The thing about coveting is that who you feel it is the first victim because your position may not affect the person you are thinking about. If by his toxic letter, Soludo thinks he will slow down the Obidient Movement, he would be shocked to see the swell his outburst will generate for the “take-back-Nigeria” project going forward. We expect Soludo’s Bombshell 2.0 letter to come as an apology to the Obidient Movement and from there begin the recovery of his fatally dented political image. God, help him.