The Anambra governorship campaign trail has descended into raw political theatre, with Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo and Uche Ekwunife, deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), trading vicious insults that have now gone viral across Nigeria.
What began as Soludo’s attack on the academic records of Nicholas Ukachukwu and his running mate has snowballed into an unprecedented war of words, touching on fake certificates, professorship titles, and even personal hygiene.
Soludo: “Her PhD is fake”
In a video widely shared online, Soludo accused Ekwunife of parading a bogus doctorate degree from an unaccredited institution.
“INEC has a column where you swear that everything you filled is the truth,” the governor declared. “This person wrote that she has senior secondary school certificate, then she also said she has a PhD. But how can you have only secondary school certificate, no diploma, no degree, no master’s—and suddenly a PhD?
“It is a PhD certificate from a fake institution. Even as a vulcanizer, you can pay sixty dollars and they will give you one. Yet you’re parading it. It is better to just write your SSCE, because that is what you have and it is enough.”
The governor vowed to make fake certificates a political issue: “After the election, when we finish with Okeite [ritualists], we will go after those with fake certificates because they are confusing our children.”
Ekwunife: “Smelling professor, dirtiest governor in Africa”
Ekwunife’s response was swift and scathing. In another viral clip, she turned the attack on Soludo himself, questioning the authenticity of his academic laurels and branding him a “smelling professor.”
“The fake professor that says he is governing a state, please leave me alone,” she fired back. “For three years you have been governor, it has only been suffering and deaths. Two assembly members died under your watch, and you did nothing.”
She challenged Soludo to prove his claims in court rather than wait until after the election: “You are saying my certificate is fake—then go to court. Why are you waiting till November 8?”
Ekwunife went further, alleging that Soludo’s professorship was merely honorary. “Your professor title is just an award, not earned. Show us where you earned it. Stop deceiving people.”
Then came the most stinging personal insult: “Soludo, has anybody told you that your mouth smells? You are the dirtiest governor in the whole of Africa. Tell your wife to buy you deodorant. When you speak, the odour is embarrassing for a governor.”
“You can’t determine my future”
Ekwunife also accused the governor of chauvinism, citing his past statement that a married woman could not be governor.
“Well, your own daughter is married here in Anambra—so will you say she cannot be governor? I am where I am today without one percent of your support. I can even be president tomorrow. You are too small to determine my future. One million Soludos cannot stop me.”
The slugfest has shifted the political conversation in Anambra from policy and governance to mudslinging and insults. Rather than debating insecurity, jobs, or infrastructure, two of the state’s most prominent politicians are locked in a battle over who holds real certificates and who smells worse.
For voters, it is a spectacle both entertaining and troubling, underscoring just how toxic the run-up to the November 8 governorship election has become.
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