By Michael Ovat -Awka
Mr Daniel Ezeigwe, media aide to the wife of Anambra State governor and the founder of Healthy Living With Nonye Soludo Initiative, Dr Mrs Nonye Soludo, has warned a social critic Kingsley Ubani and others criticizing the present government of Anambra State to always educate themselves before mistaking ignorance for intelligence.
Ezeigwe gave the warning via statement in Awka on Monday, while reacting to a comment credited to Ubani questioning the registration of “Healthy Living With Nonye Soludo Initiative, an NGO owned by the Anambra governor’s wife.
Recall that Ubani, in one of his usual post, criticized Mrs Soludo, over the registration details and location of her “Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo Initiative”.
Ubani pointed out that the initiative was originally registered in the United Kingdom in 2016 as Healthy Living Food Limited (at 50 Brondesbury Park, London) and later registered in Nigeria in 2023 as the Healthy Living With Nonye Soludo Initiative with an address on Isiuzo Street, Independence Layout, Enugu.
He questioned why Mrs Soludo would register and locate the initiative’s official address outside of Anambra State, using it to question the family’s commitment to the state.
Reacting further, Ezeigwe, urged Anambra residents and the public at large to disregard the publication.
He said Kingsley Ubani’s latest dull attempt to turn the registration address of Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo Initiative into a political scandal is a classic case of manufacturing outrage and idiocy where none should ever exist.
According to him, “First, Healthy Living Foods is not a business that suddenly appeared after Nonye Soludo became the First Lady of Anambra State. The business was registered in the United Kingdom in 2016, while the Healthy Living campaign began as early as 2006. The Nigerian registration of Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo Initiative in 2023 is a separate administrative fact. These dates matter because they expose the hollowness and silliness of the attempt to portray the initiative as some hastily assembled contraption designed to exploit public office.
“Second, and more importantly, since when did the address on a registration certificate become a measure of an organization’s commitment to the people it serves? If the initiative had been registered in Anambra but had achieved absolutely nothing for the people, would its registration address suddenly make it a success? Of course not. Yet, because its Nigerian registration is in Enugu, we are expected to dismiss years of humanitarian work. What a remarkably shallow argument from someone who begs for seriousness. The question is not whether the registration address is in Enugu. The question is what Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo Initiative has done for the people of Anambra State.
“Let us educate ourselves before mistaking ignorance for intelligence.
“Where was this outrage when over 250,000 sanitary pads were being distributed through hundreds of Healthy Living School Clubs? Where was this forensic obsession with addresses when thousands of households received over 25,000 free packs of Nonye’s Healthy Living Pap through primary healthcare centres across the state? Where was this sudden concern when households, schools and communities received 27,000 packs of free seeds, and when the initiative’s wellness programmes continued to reach communities across Anambra? Where was the clueless argument when the governor’s wife empowered 5,000 people, in a manner that had never been seen in Anambra’s history? Where is the blind cheerleader when BudgIT Nigeria honoured the NGO with its Health Activism Award? These are not imaginary achievements. They are programmes whose records and beneficiaries can be examined. Anyone who disputes them should challenge the facts, not hide behind an address.
“Healthy Living with Nonye Soludo Initiative has built a humanitarian footprint that deserves to be judged by its work, not reduced to the location printed on its registration documents. Its programmes in health promotion, nutrition, menstrual hygiene and community wellness have created a record that deserves serious scrutiny and fair assessment, not cheap political caricature. And here is the contradiction in this argument: the same person who complains that the initiative is registered outside Anambra is apparently unconcerned with whether the people of Anambra have benefited from it. So, what exactly is the priority? A registration certificate that looks geographically satisfying, or tangible programmes that reach real people?
“If the argument is that registration outside Anambra automatically means a lack of love for Anambra, then that argument should be supported with evidence of harm or neglect. A registered address, by itself, proves neither. As for dragging Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo’s family into allegations that they hate Anambra, that is political theatre, not a logical conclusion. A family’s commitment to a state cannot reasonably be measured by where every private business or charitable organization is registered. It should be assessed against evidence of service, investment, opportunity and impact.
“Anambra people deserve serious political conversations, not arguments that confuse paperwork with performance and geography with humanitarian service. So, Kingsley, if you have evidence that the initiative has failed the people, present it. If you have evidence of wrongdoing, bring it forward. If you dispute its achievements, interrogate the figures and the beneficiaries.
But if all you have is an address, please do not dress it up as proof that a family hates an entire state.
“An address is not a legacy. A certificate is not humanitarian impact. And political insinuation is not evidence. Judge Healthy Living by what it has done, what it can prove, and the lives it has touched. That is the conversation worth having Ezeigwe concluded.
