Anambra State in the past seven months of PROFESSOR CHUKWUMA SOLUDO’S watch has witnessed measures of tugging between his government and various sects in organized crime, including some sub-sects in the informal sector, whose operations diminish the quality of life of the people and the state’s revenue receipts. The governor’s devout insistence on strategic engagements bordering on the inviolability of life, government’s revenue yields and systemic sanity are fundamentally responsible for the sustained tussles. Mr. Governor would not tolerate parallel structures that undermine the state’s economy and challenge the authority of the government to protect the people and ensure a sane polity. He takes no prisoners!
Change is a phenomenon that is often met with some reservations. It attracts anxiety, suspicion or even outright resistance when inclined to impetuous disruptions such as Soludo’s sworn precept of disruptive change in the governance of Anambra State recommends. Since Professor Soludo began campaigns for the Anambra’s top seat till date, he has maintained an uncompromising eagerness to turn things around in the singular pursuit of making Anambra State a prosperous, livable and pleasurable habitation for Ndi-Anambra and other persons who opt for the state.
As the governor of Anambra State these past seven months, the governor cuts the impression of a leader in a hurry to make things veer to his predetermined conclusions – in direction and urgency. Since the system would not freely yield to his compulsions, the implementation of some of his policies tests the audacity of the governor to impress his authority and convictions on the Anambra political ecosystem.
Those who gave Governor Soludo no chance of any success (and they were many) in his fierce charge against kidnappers and other harbingers of death, who earlier held sway in the state, now join other Anambra residents in celebrating the assured boost in the people’s sense of freedom and safety. Every passing day furthers the governor’s superior power.
While the governor’s profile is unarguably on ascent on this count, the worrisome incidence of touting has continued to gnaw at the image of the government as the legitimate authority to protect its citizens and maintain law and order in public places. Despite the State Government’s recent institution of the Anambra Joint Enforcement Team (ANJET) to ensure compliance with extant laws on modes of revenue collection and ensure the routing of touts in the state, the agency seems to be overwhelmed by the motley nature, size and spread of the miscreants.
It is a win some, lose some situation in the state governments “red eye” revenue scheme. Understandably, the success of any government largely depends on the fiscal resources available to it. Given Soludo’s determination to set the template for good governance in this clime, it is not surprising that, with the austere state treasury upon poor receipts from the Federation Account, he would need improved internally generated revenue to fund his envisioned Anambra Project. This necessity, however, tends to expose the government to some revenue belts that prick the sensibilities of everyday Anambra people; particularly those in the extremities of the state who would not understand why they should pay taxes for burial posters of their loved ones and their homes, for instance.
Considering the existential essence of revenue collection to the government, one expects the government to invest adequate efforts in promoting the new tax regime to an appreciable buy-in from the target tax payers. The relevant components of the scheme should be persuasively canvassed in public arenas and in diverse media spaces across the state. This will spare a good population of Ndi-Anambra the weight of state might and the ominous tension upon gray tax matters.
So far, Ndi-Anambra have no cause to doubt the benefits of the overwhelming electoral victory they handed professor Chukwuma Soludo in the 2021 Anambra gubernatorial poll. They are confident in his capacity to live his lofty promises. They eagerly look forward to better days in a prosperous, livable and pleasurable smart megacity homeland in the course of this treasured administration of theirs.
Written by OKECHUKWU ANARADO
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