Charles Chukwuma Soludo first came into national attention in May 2004, when he was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, replacing Joseph Sanusi. Before that appointment he was Chief Economic Adviser to President Obasanjo.
He came to the Central Bank as a technocrat par excellence, his resume detailing outstanding academic achievement as well as stints at some of the world’s most prestigious economic institutions.
Mr. Soludo won prizes for best graduating student at undergraduate, masters and doctorate degree levels at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
He was soon to emerge as one of the arrowheads of the Obasanjo Economic Management Team. Only months into his tenure, Mr. Soludo announced a new capital base of N25 billion for banks, up from the N2 billion he met when he assumed office.
This new prescription triggered what has come to be arguably the most significant set of transformative events in the history of banking in Nigeria.
The Nigerian banking scene, hitherto a rowdy, unwieldy marketplace consisting of eighty-four mostly middling - and timid - banks, transformed into an assemblage of award-flaunting, awash-with-cash financial institutions which seemed to be in a race with their own shadows to rule, Africa at first, and then the world.
Mr. Soludo became a man feted by all and sundry. The high point could justifiably be said to be his winning The Banker magazine’s Global Central Banker of the Year, in 2006. News reports said that was the first time a governor of an African Central Bank would be so honoured.
But the change of power in 2007 left Mr. Soludo without the unstinting support that he was accustomed to from the presidency. This left him at the mercy of his many critics and before long he was spending all his time fighting for survival.
Only months into President Yar’Adua’s tenure, Mr. Soludo watched helplessly as the President halted and reversed his landmark redenomination of the naira.
Around that time he was also dropped, alongside more than a dozen others, from the newly reconstituted Economic Management Team, in which he had been a major player throughout the second term of President Obasanjo.
Soon to follow was the African Finance Corporation scandal. The report of the panel set up by the federal government to investigate the AFC accused him of financial misdemeanour and recommended that “appropriate action” be taken against him.
Today, the scandals that emerged after Mr. Soludo’s tenure (The Great Banking Bust, and the Securency Polymer Scandal) threaten to dwarf the ones that came to public knowledge during his governorship. It is now clear that, having succeeded in turning our banks into giants, he promptly abandoned the job of supervision for which he was appointed.
Under his watch the bankers went berserk, piling up debts, jets and dubious awards as the banks in their care bled to death.
It is somewhat baffling, that in the middle of a banking crisis traceable to serious regulation lapses arising from his tenure, Mr. Soludo is acting as if contesting for the governorship of Anambra State is the most natural thing in the world to do.
His eagerness to avoid the relative obscurity that other former Central Bank governors seemed happy to retreat into can only be explained by the fact that he is still only 49 years old, and so has many more years of active service ahead of him.
Beyond that, however, it is difficult to fathom any other reasons for the move, at this time, when his much-touted achievements are unravelling at both ends. Add to that the rigged process that made him the ruling party’s candidate and it becomes ever clearer that Mr. Soludo has embarked on a misadventure.
Also, no one is asking any questions about the origins of his campaign war chest. It is as though the country has come to assume that one term, as Governor of the Central Bank -a public office - is more than enough to excuse an individual from scrutiny as to the source of his campaign funds.
Mr. Soludo’s famed brilliance is not enough. Past conduct must be seen as a pointer to future performance. And on the basis of his legacy as Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Soludo still has many questions to answer before he can be deemed deserving of a chance to occupy the Anambra State government house.
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