Anambra State All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate, Prof. Charles Soludo, has said the resort to violence will not solve the challenges confronting the Southeast.
“Shooting is not the solution. You must organise and have a platform to discuss,” he told Anambra State indigenes resident in Lagos.
The APGA standard bearer warned that if insecurity continued for a long time, the Igbo land would become desolate.
Soludo, a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), explained his mission in politics, saying he wanted to plough back to the society that has given him relevance.
The eminent economist promised to run an administration that would foster probity, transparency and efficiency.
“President Olusegun Obasanjo invited me to be the Economic Adviser and Head of Economic Planning and, later, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. I put up a policy that created 12.2 million jobs.
“I did bank consolidation and, since then, no money has been trapped in any bank. We put an end to failed banks.
“My children said I have done enough and discouraged me from going into politics. But God created me here. As an itinerant tribe, you are not respected by your host if your home state is not prosperous. I said if I fail, let me fail while trying, not that I should not try at all. We must build on the foundation that has been laid.”
Soludo, who spoke in Igbo and English, acknowledged that the journey to power is difficult.
But he expressed confidence that he would triumph at the poll on November 6.
The APGA flag bearer said he would not emulate the Lagos development model, saying this may not be sustainable.
He said: “Lagos is not sustainable if this trend continues, with all these traffic. The population now is 20 million. The East can become the new land of prosperity.”