- the way forward
May Soludo Succeed. That is the mantra of every right thinking Anambra person at home and abroad. Regardless of your political affiliation, preferences or personal impression of the person of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, you cannot take away the fact that he is indeed making some effort to prove his mettle, especially as a professor of economics.
He is indeed an economist at heart. Little wonder, though he got approval to borrow 100 million naira for infrastructural development in the state, he is still taking his time to ensure he gets the best deal for Ndi Anambra and therefore has spent his first year in office debt free. To critically analyse the governor’s performance and to be able to ascertain his strengths and weakness and proffer some insight as to what needs to be done to dot all i’s and cross all t’s that will clear all doubts as to the upward movement the election of Soludo is in the history of our dear Anambra State.
Professor Soludo, tweeting about the event that marked his one year in office which was held at the 10,000 capacity International Conference Centre (Obiano’s parting gift to Ndi Anambra), said;
“Today, I held a town hall meeting with my Employers – Ndi Anambra – the occasion afforded me the opportunity to present the Scorecard of my administration in 365 (one year), and to provide more insight on the road ahead.
“The event was aired live across major Television stations and the recorded live stream is can also be found on YouTube.
“ In 365 days, we have recorded interesting developmental feats, and we will continue to double efforts on the things that affect our lives positively as a people.
“I sincerely thank Ndi Anambra and friends of Anambra for their support in the last 365 days.
“I call on your continued support as we continue on this journey of making our homeland liveable and prosperous.
“Anambra will continue to succeed!
“CC. Soludo CFR.”
This discourse would be on x-raying those “interesting developmental feats”, the governor referred to, with a view to ascertain if they are what they are said to be and what needs to be done to do more. Of course, while speaking in glowing terms about his achievements in his one year in office, Soludo was quick to humbly add that his administration needed to DOUBLE THEIR EFFORTS TOO.
HIS POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE
Word on the street has it that Professor Chukwuma Soludo is not so well grounded as a politician. This is the impression he has created in this first year in office given that the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, which gave him the winning platform to the government house has faced one of its greatest downturns since the Peter Obi exit from the party in Obiano’s administration. His undiplomatic approach to issues bordering on the political party and some stakeholders especially the correspondence he initiated against Peter Obi’s presidential ambition, have all created backlashes for him this last 365 days in office. One is therefore amazed he was able to survive the Labour Party tsunami that swept across the nation in the just concluded election which had APGA mysteriously maintaining the majority at the state house of assembly. Might this be as a result of the eleventh hour intensive campaign for APGA by his government coupled with the threats of withholding dividends of democracy from communities that vote for another party into the house of assembly? Might it also be the yet to be verified claims of vote buying by the All Progressive Grand Alliance across the state? It is also adjudged that the governor still entertains soft spot for the Peoples Democratic Party given that while the billboards of every other party was removed across the state, it was only the “Anambra is APGA” billboard coupled with those of the PDP that were retained. That raised some eyebrows.
ANN even got it from reliable sources that some of Professor Soludo’s key cabinet members are card-carrying members of the PDP. Go figure.
While the governor’s no sacred cow innovation into the APGA which saw the likes of the former national chairman of the party, Chief Victor Umeh, jump ship, lick his vomit and join the Peter Obi team after losing his primaries in the APGA and the wife of the former governor, Mrs Obiano, fail at the polls while Soludo delivered Aguata to APGA, it is still imperative that, moving forward, the good governor considers competence over party affiliation in his employment plan. ANN investigations revealed that the while many of the 5000 teachers that sat for the employment exams made good marks, those that got employed were handpicked due to their party affiliation and recommendations. It was also discovered that most of the people who were finally employed as commissioners, directors, etc were done so, not because they were the most qualified but because they knew someone close to the governor or were party faithful. Recall that the governor had given the impression he would enthrone competence over connection when he assumed office and opened a portal for people to apply for different positions in the state.
IN SUMMARY:
Governance is the exercise of authority in an organization and Max Weber identified Soludo’s authority over the affairs of the state as largely legal, the people seem to miss the charisma of Peter Obi and the colour of Obiano. The only way the good governor can carve a niche for himself is by ensuring the quality of infrastructure he is executing is world standard as promised and that the state takes on a look that is close to that of Dubai and Taiwan as his campaign mantra promised the people of Anambra State. Pat Onukwuli of This Day insists that Governor Soludo needs to buckle up. He described Soludo’s utterances against Peter Obi during the campaign period as him “exhibiting thoughtless tone deafness that might have only emanated from arrogance and pride.” If the governor can attend to this Achilles’ heels of his, he may absorb some charisma and colour from his predecessor. I agree with Onukwuli that for Soludo to finish with a big bang, “he should be focused and avoid unnecessary politicking and vaulting ambition for future higher political offices. He should be slow in trying to make progress, listen more, and avoid speaking off the cuff as he recently did when he said he would only work with Assembly members elected under the banner of his All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). He should know that words matter and should stop proselytising as proclaiming to be better is hazardous. He cannot afford to be mediocre, or his professorial chair might be interrogated. Finally, he should focus on cleaning up Okpoko as promised and commence with plans to provide commercial nerve centre of Onitsha with prosthesis.”
