On the 17th of March, 2022, Professor Chukwuma Soludo and Dr. Onyeka Ibezim took oaths of office and were sworn in as democratically elected Governor and Deputy Governor of Anambra State. The significantly low-key inauguration, on Governor Soludo’s considered advice, marked an early sign of the administration’s frugality in the use of state resources in pursuit of its dream “livable and prosperous smart megacity homeland envisioned to be the preferred destination for indigenes and other purposeful persons to live, learn, invest, work, relax and enjoy”.
Observing the administration’s journey for close to five months on a 4 year course, one can risk concluding that though the terrain appears rough, the new sheriff in town is determined to shepherd the affairs of state to safety. So far, Mr. Governor has maintained a deafening level of consistency in walking his talk on his novel functional “disruptive change” mantra, impressed only by the doctrines of maximum public good and prudent use of public fund. He would – while strategizing for more effective and sustainable ways of confronting the worrisome insecurity, poor state of roads, poor waste control, embarrassing touting across the state – insist on only palliative interventions with acceptable performance quotient.
Soludo’s insistence on conservatory response to the multi-sectoral needs of the state soon began to gnaw at the palpable goodwill that visited his electoral victory. A good number of Ndi-Anambra expected that the governor’s vast global experiences in grooming corporate economies guaranteed an immediate one-off systemic turnaround of the state’s fortune. Soludo would offer no spasmodic plunge into the demands.
In less than three months, however, the people began to feel the soothing effects of their governor’s painstakingness in taking decisions. A joint task force went after the adamant criminals in the jungles and streets of the state. Since the operation began, insecurity in the state has been on steady decline.
The governor’s strategic visit to Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) in prison lent a hand in unmasking the group causing mayhem in the state.
This justifies Soludo’s resolve to reclaim the state from the stranglehold of the criminals by taking them out through armed security operations.
The gap the administration identified in the size of the state teaching force received commensurate response in the governor’s instruction for recruitment of over 5000 primary and secondary school teachers. The recruitment exercise is in advanced level of completion by the Ministry of Education.
To ensure appropriate drug storage and distribution in the state and the South East, the Soludo administration through public-private partnership has performed the groundbreaking ceremony for building an ultramodern International Drug Market at Oba. The project which will be delivered in 24 months will lead to the relocation of the Bridge Head Drug Market to enable the Government redesign the area for more beneficial use. The administration has launched new facilities and medical equipment at General Hospitals in Onitsha, Enugwu-Ukwu, Umueri, Agulu and Ekwulobia.
Soludo declared emergency on roads, embarking on serviceable repairs during the rains, while ready for expansive road rehabilitation and construction across the length and breadth of the state as soon as the rains recede. The administration has embarked on redesigning and designing of some old and new roads so as to provide free traffic and provide pedestrians safe walk corridors in busy cities.
It is not surprising therefore that road and infrastructural development account for 64% of the fund in the administration’s 2022 Revised Budget of one hundred and seventy billion naira.
As a way of cushioning the effect of failing global petroleum economy, the Soludo government is reinventing the Oil Palm economy. It is also introducing Coconut economy. This scheme supplies an average of one million seedlings each of Oil Palm and Coconut annually to farmers across the state.
In all these, Professor Chukwuma Soludo’s adept experience in managing human and material resources for societal good is incontrovertible. For this, Ndi-Anambra continue to celebrate the victory they collectively earned in his emergence as their governor.
Written by OKECHUKWU ANARADO
Comments are closed for this post.