Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has maintained his stand that anyone promising to do one term in office needs psychiatric evaluation.
Soludo had weeks ago at a function of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, said anyone pledging a single term in office needs to undergo psychiatric evaluation.
The comment attracted condemnations then, with many thinking it was targeted at Peter Obi, former presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
But speaking on the matter on Wednesday while fielding questions on Arise Television's Prime Time programme, Soludo said his comment was made in the context of ongoing debates on zoning in Anambra politics.
He noted that similar promises had been made in the past but were quickly rejected by the electorate.
According to him, politicians often attempt to lure voters with pledges of serving only a single term, even when their manifestos suggest otherwise.
"You see, I said that in the context of the debate going on in my state, in a context where you have established a process of zoning, and somebody wants to cut short that particular zoning.
“They come with this sweetener, 'oh if you give me this and then I will only spend this time.' They know they were being disingenuous.
"They came with that argument in 2017 when my predecessor was running for a second time. They came here and telling Anambra, or some people promising us, including some people on the terrain today, Anambra people were quick to see through the disingenuity of that kind of promise, and of course, voted massively.
“The fact is that we won 21 over 21 local governments in that election. Nobody bought that crap, as it were.
"And now again, we are in for another election, and some people are again, imagine in the same state I am from the south and the north just finished, handed over to the south, and the south will serve its time, and then it will go to central.
“And now some people from the South senatorial zone are showing up because they realize that it does just...'oh, don't worry if you vote for me'...
"So they are swimming against the tide. 'If you vote for me, I will spend only one term'.
"Meanwhile, you see the manifesto that they are rolling out. You realize that even if they were to spend even 20 years, they wouldn't even scratch it.
“I mean, it's just, I don't know how to describe it. So you're just taking the people to be...you're just playing at the people's intelligence. You just think everybody is a fool.
"If anybody's saying that it's either he is just being deliberately deceitful or there is probably something not working right upstairs to take the entire people of Anambra State as fools, you know, to think that the entire people are fools, not to see through the lie, not to see through the deception, then the person must have a mental issue,” Soludo said.
The governor maintained that such promises insult the intelligence of the people, arguing that anyone making them is either being deceitful or unfit to hold office.
