By Law Mefor
As Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, marks his 66th birthday anniversary today, it is crucial to recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a personally signed letter dated November 9, 2025, wrote: “Governor Soludo, the Solution, has demonstrated that indeed knowledge is power and that academic principles can be applied in serving the people, undergirding accountability, transparency and prudent management of people and resources.”
With such a strong ally in President Tinubu, Governor Soludo is well positioned at 66. The plaudits have come from far and wide, but Soludo remains as ever his personable self, focusing on the job at hand and refusing to get carried away by the applause.
It’s not difficult to see why Governor Soludo is justly celebrated. He came to governance well prepared. He stressed from the very beginning that what he has on offer is disruptive change. He was so successful in his first tenure that the people of Anambra across the board decided on their own to fund his re-election campaign without the amiable governor contributing a dime! He took the byname “Oluatuegwu” – that is, “A leader who is not afraid of duty” – in his stride while delivering multiform democracy dividends.
In his scheme of visionary leadership, Soludo understands that security is the first principle of a functional state. Before his ascent to the governorship seat, vicious non-state actors held as many as 8 local government areas in Anambra State captive. The so-called “Unknown Gunmen” of that lamentable era had shrines and covens and registers of kidnapped men and women who paid immense ransoms, even as some of the kidnapped were brutally killed. Soludo cleared more than 60 of those vile camps and also went after their evil witch-doctors and ezenwanyis. It was a rout! He put in place the security network of Agunechemba and Udogachi, backed by the Anambra Homeland Security Law. He dealt a death blow to the get-rich-quick native doctors and pastors. He also put a stop to the Monday-sit-at-home oppression holding the people and the economy down in a devastating manner.
In the sphere of road infrastructure, Soludo is effectively in a class of his own. At the last count, nearly one thousand kilometres of roads were under construction, with well over 600 kilometres already asphalted and completed. The state-of-the-art Ekwulobia Flyover will be commissioned on the 35th anniversary of the creation of Anambra State on August 27. Soludo has strategically linked up all the sections of Anambra State with broad and durable dual carriageways.
There was a time when Anambra State was derided for using a construction company’s makeshift quarters as its government house! Soludo broke the jinx with the construction of the magnificent Light House that beats all other government houses in the country for class.
Of course Soludo stood for First-in-the-Class as a pupil and student of distinction in his younger days and netted a first-class degree at the university. It is therefore his duty to give education a central place in his administration. He has given employment to 8,115 teachers from across the country, not minding state of origin, and he has built 22 smart schools. He has emplaced free education in Anambra State from KG to secondary schooling and has put a stop to the money-making gambit of ill-assorted “graduation” ceremonies from nursery to college. It is no surprise, then, that Anambra has the lowest number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
The health of Anambra State is in fine fettle under Soludo’s watch. Soludo has constructed five new general hospitals and rehabilitated 130 primary health centres. 40 ambulance stations are functional, and the digital healthcare system with telemedicine capacity is operational. Soludo has recruited some 1,500 diverse health workers. Anambra today offers free childbirth and antenatal care.
New cities are being set up in Anambra State, such as Awka 2.0, Greater Niger around Onitsha, and the groundbreaking Aerotropolis. The Solution Fun City wins the diadem as the greatest leisure and entertainment complex in the West African sub-region. There are more dimensions to treasure, like the Anambra Mixed-Use Industrial City, the Agulu Lake Beach Resort, the Awka City Park etc. It will all be capped off with a 10-storey five-star hotel. A state rail master plan is also in the works.
From the background, 70 per cent goes for brawn while 30 per cent stands for brain. As much as 79 per cent of the state budget is deployed to capital projects, thus turning Anambra State into a sprawling construction site. About N1.5 billion in subsidized loans have been provided for micro, small, and medium enterprises via the Anambra State Small Business Agency (ASBA). Over 20,000 youths have been trained in digital skills at the Solution Innovation District with partners such as Microsoft and Wootlab. The government has provided N80 million in funding for 80 start-ups, while the “One-Youth-Two-Skills” programme has been quite exponential.
For Soludo, the more critical aspect is value reformation, which he has entrusted me with. Governor Soludo is principally interested in the “politics of development” as opposed to the “politics of handouts.” There should be no argument that politics geared toward development should trump the facetious politics of handing out freebies. The Anambra Way, as envisioned by Soludo, represents a solid stance on development that contrasts sharply with the fleeting nature of ill-assorted politicians bribing citizens with handouts. He remains the one leader who has his finger on the pulse of the people’s progress.
At age 66, Soludo stands out as a reason to believe in Nigeria. His partnership with President Tinubu bodes well for the betterment of Anambra State and the larger Nigerian family. From his days of the revolutionary banking reforms as the Central Bank Governor that saved the Nigerian economy to his dream of turning Anambra into Africa’s Dubai-Taiwan-Silicon Valley, hardly anybody can deign to vote against Soludo and win.
‘Soludo’ stands for ‘solution’, as President Tinubu keeps affirming. We too affirm.
Happy 66th birthday, Mr Governor!
· Law Mefor, PhD, Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation
