Shettima Hails Soludo’s Non-Partisan Leadership At Second-Term Inauguration

Vice President Kashim Shettima has praised Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo for his non-partisan approach to leadership.

According to Shettima, Soludo has helped foster unity and strengthen Nigeria’s political, economic, and social institutions.

Shettima, who represented President Bola Tinubu at the swearing-in of Governor Soludo and his deputy, Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, for a second term in Awka on Tuesday, described the governor as a man of ideas and honour who has remained committed to national growth despite the temptations of partisan politics.

He said Tinubu’s policies had benefited directly from Soludo’s counsel, noting that “the policies of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, have benefited from the candour, specialist insight, and patriotic counsel of this distinguished economist, this restless thinker, this public intellectual of uncommon range, both in open fora and in private conversations.”

The VP said Soludo’s influence on national discourse had become so significant that “once the Professor clears his throat, half the country reaches for a pen and the other half braces for impact.”

Shettima described the renewed mandate as more than an electoral victory, declaring that “the people of Anambra are today renewing not just a mandate, but a covenant with competence.”

He also noted that differences in political affiliation need not breed hostility, adding that Soludo “has shown that it is possible to see beyond the dangerous shenanigans that so often pass for politics in our clime, and to keep faith with the higher calling of public life.”

In his inauguration speech, Governor Soludo promised to build on his first-term achievements

According to him, 73 percent vote his administration received was “more than ordinary votes but an affirmation of love, patriotism and partnership of rebuilding our homeland.”

He set an ambitious target to transform Anambra “into an African Dubai, Taiwan and Silicon Valley.”

Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, former Commonwealth Secretary General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, were among dignitaries who attended the ceremony.