The debate, which held in the state capital, Awka, ahead of the February 6, 2010 governorship election in the state, was meant for candidates to present their manifestoes to the people of the state.
The debate was organised by the Anambra State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association and held at the Emmaus House, Awka.
The four candidates present were the governor, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance; Ngige; Soludo; and the candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, Dr. Mike Ejezie.
The debate was nearly marred by a low turnout of candidates and the ego displayed by the contenders present. Only four out of the 25 candidates honoured the invitation.
Obi was the first to arrive the venue of the debate but left after he found out that other candidates were yet to come. He came a second time and left again because it was only Ngige and Soludo that had sat on the podium.
When Obi did not return early, the organisers threw the debate open to Soludo, Ngige and Ejezie. The three then spoke for five minutes each.
It was while Soludo was rounding off his address that Obi came in with a crowd of supporters, who held up proceedings for more than 10 minutes, praising him.
After Soludo rounded off his speech, Ngige took over, and then moved out of the hall just as Obi was going to be called upon to speak.
Ngige, whose exit created a commotion, was apparently not ready to listen to Obi because he felt that the governor did not grant him the same courtesy.
Shortly after, Soludo got up, shook hands with some members of the audience and left the stage, with his supporters in tow.
The hall was almost left empty before Obi’s supporters surged forward to fill the seats on the front row.
To make matters worse, public power supply was cut off just as Obi took the microphone.
Obi, however, explained that he had come in late because protocol demanded that he should be the last person to speak, being the governor.
The speakers were very jovial and lively as they made light-hearted references to one another. One of such was when Soludo said he would adopt informal policing to fight insecurity in the state.
He said though he would not disclose the details of the plan, Ngige would know a little of it because he (Ngige) and Soludo’s father were at different times victims of kidnappers.
In his presentation, Soludo said that if elected as governor, he would raise the economy of the state to become the largest in the country.
He said that he would have to do this through an ambitious power supply programme.
He said the surest way to fight insecurity was to provide jobs. He said he would provide between 300,000 and 500,000 jobs within his first term in office.
He said the Igbo had no business being in a party that was not in the mainstream of politics and advised them to join a national party.
He appealed to Ngige to return to the PDP because “hooligans and rogues that dominated the party in Anambra State had been chased out and sentenced to hard labour.”
He said he would deploy the same skills that he used as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in fixing the problems of Anambra State.
In his address, Ejezie said that by exploiting the mercantile nature of the people of the state, he would use the Onitsha Main Market to engineer Anambra’s economy.
He said he would do so by building many shopping malls.
Ngige, on his part, said the much talked about development in the state would not take place unless basic things like roads, infrastructure and security were put in place.
He disagreed with Soludo that Igbo people should move to the PDP, describing the party he co-founded as a “dying party.”
He said the best state governments in Nigeria today were not controlled by the PDP.
Obi lamented the state of affairs in Anambra when he assumed office in 2006. He said the state lacked improtant facilities such as a government house; governor’s lodge; as well as base maps for the three major cities.
He also said there was no master plan and that the state was in arrears in paying salaries and pensions.
He said he had to delve into developing all sectors simultaneously because the United Nations defined development beyond merely focusing on one area.
Dr. Andy Uba of the Labour Party; Mrs. Uche Ekwunife of the Progressive Peoples Alliance; Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu of the Hope Democratic Party; and Chief Okey Nwosu of the African Democratic Congres were some other top contenders that were absent from the debate.
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