Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo came to the limelight as the Governor of the Central of Bank Nigeria where he led the phenomenal reform that stabilized the Nigerian banking industry. After the miracle he performed in the banking sector, many Nigerians began to see and hail him as the scholar-innovator with the magic wand to cure the ills of Nigeria. One commentator actually described him as “the unrepentant reformist”.
Hence, when Soludo won the Anambra State governorship election held in Nov 2021, many hailed it as the dawn of a new era in Anambra State and the Southeast. People thrilled by his academic performance talked about how connected he was and how he was going to use his influence to revolutionize Anambra and turn the Light of the Nation into the Dubai of Africa.
One of the reasons Soludo’s election generated lots of excitement in Anambra was that the state and Nigeria in general have been enmeshed in serious security and economic crisis. Like the Igbo would say, “When a big cow breaks loose, a great man is dispatched to fetch it.” Anambra State was that big cow and Soludo was the great man sent to the rescue. Expectations were so high and everybody lookup to the erudite Professor to pull Anambra back from the brink. After 100 days in office, it is pertinent to ask, how has Soludo faired in this huge responsibility? Before looking at Soludo’s scorecard however, let’s first underscore the tradition behind first 100 days in office.
Brief History behind First 100 Days in Office
Scholars trace the origin of “First 100-days in office” to France, where the concept of “Cent Jours” (Hundred Days) refers to a period in1815 between Napoleon Bonaparte’s return to Paris from exile on the Island of Elba and his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, after which King Louis XVIII regained the French throne. Historians speculate that it took Napoleon 100 days to return from Elba, reinstate himself as ruler of France and wage war against the English and Prussian armies before his final defeat.
However, the practice of assessing a leader’s first 100 days in office is associated with democracy. Democracy being a political ideology that firmly has its root in the US, certain American political traditions and tendencies have understandably crept into other democracies of the world. One of such is the first 100 days in office which is an offshoot of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency in the US.
Popularly referred to as FDR, Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States had the unenviable task of piloting the affairs of his country during the Great Depression when nearly a quarter of the nation’s banks had failed and unemployment rate was at 25 percent.The 100 days expression was first invented in a July 24, 1933, radio broadcast by President Roosevelt. Although he was actually talking about the 100 day session of the 73rd United States Congress that was held between March 9 and June 17, rather than the first 100 days of his administration, Roosevelt had inadvertently given rise to what is to become a global political tradition that would outlive him and his government. Over time, across most democratic climes, presidents, governors and other elected public officials have been judged against that useful, if somewhat illogical, standard. Today, it is a tradition that is applied to practically all levels of governance as it is being used by the public, the media and scholars to measure success or failure.
Soludo’s 100 Days in Office
While a leader’s 100 days in office may not be a perfect benchmark for assessing his or her four year tenure, nevertheless, it serve as a basis for judging the direction of an administration and perhaps the prerequisite requirment for continuity or change in policy. On this note, Soludo’s 100 days in office can be assessed on the foundation of three benchmarks: security, waste managment and teachers recruitment. These are the three areas where Soludo’s performance has been felt the most and thus can serve as the basis of his assessment.
Security
Soludo inherited an Anambra state that was and still ridden with security crisis. However, analysts believed that the governor has both by commission and omission worsened the security situation. Soludo’s policy disaster started with his initial obsession with ending the Monday-sit-at home that was in place before he came to office. As political commentators have articulated, the attempt to quash the sit-at-home as his first policy objective showed Soludo’s lack of foresight and understanding of Anambra and Southeast politics.
Currently the Governor seemed to have started to retrace his steps and is taken the necessary action to correct the political blunder. He is doing now what he should have done originally: focus on delivery of the dividends of democracy to the people and the sit-at-home will die a natural death.
Another blunder Soludo committed on security since his 100 days in office was playing the blame game with the insecurity. Instead of accepting that the state has a security problem and confronting the problem headlong as the chief security officer of the state, the governor had gone about blaming everybody but himself. The most unfortunate part of it is that he accused the citizens of sister Southeast states of responsibility for the in security in his state. Apparently, steps have also been taken to correct this miscalculation. Robust security measures have been put in place and actions are underway to curb the insecurity in the state.
Waste Management
Apart from security, another key objective of Soludo’s government was waste management. The Governor had on his inauguration stated clearly that his first objective as governor would be to clear Anambra of the dirts accumulated during Obiano’s governorship. On his first day in office, Soludo and his Deputy was in the field with trucks and shovels, digging through debris and packing dirts in the city of Onitsha. However, after the excitement of those first days, the enthusiasm of Soludo’s administration to make Anambra clean had disappeared. Today, there are refuse dumps all over the major roads and cities of the state. In fact, Anambra has become three times dirtier than what Soludo inherited and one wonders what has gone wrong. Soludo can definitely do better!
Teachers Recruitments
Where the failure of Governor Soludo is most obvious in the last 100 days is in the ongoing teachers’ recruitment programme in the state. The exercise is so poorly planned and abysmally executed that many are beginning to wonder, is this all Soludo, with all his trumped up credentials has to offer Anambra State? Soludo’s failure in the recruitment exercise has in the eye many, made Obiano to look like a genius.
The first day the exercise was held, there was uproar in the whole state as many who were shortlisted for the examination could not sit for it following massive system failure. The examination was canceled following the outcry by many who accused the administration of fraud. The examination was fixed for another day and this new date was even more chaotic than the first. The only good news from the latest examination was that unlike the first, it actually held. Those who scaled through were called for further examination. The people who participated in the examination described it as hellish. Some of the candidates who attendance returned to their home as late 11 pm and 12 am in the following day. The experience at the venue of the examination was nothing to write home about. There were pictures of pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers who collapsed because of the stress they were subjected to during the examination. The questions again become, what was Soludo trying to achieve with making people go through this degree of stress; was his the first state government in Nigeria to recruit teachers and was this recruitment exercise even necessary in the first place?
The Policy Direction behind Soludo’s Scorecard of Failure
While Soludo’s first 100 days in office cannot totally be described as failure, it is obvious that he has performed below expectations. Maybe, part of the reasons he has not lived up to expectations was because the bar of success was set too high for him. It is not uncommon that leaders like Soludo with enormous record of accomplishments often perform below expectations when they find themselves in real and challenging leadership situations.
However, this may not be enough to explain Soludo’s failures. What may explain the failures better is his lack of patience to understudy and understand the system before rushing in to change it.The worst thing a leader can do on arriving into a new system is to assume that he knows how the system works. It takes time for new leaders to understand their new environments. This is also why new leader should avoid early criticism of things they think should be done differently because there’s always a reason why certain things are done the way they are done. The time for change will come but first understudy the system. Taking time to learn the system also allows the new leader to assess who and what in the system are ready for change — and who will be the leader’s allies when the change comes. It is after the leader has spent time learning and formulating strategy that he can act.
However, it appeared like Soludo didn’t take these factors into consideration. It appeared like he arrived at the scene with the presupposition that he was a professor and knew more than everybody who had been there. Take for instance, the issue of the sit-at-home. Almost all the Southeast governors, including Soludo’s predecessor, Obiano had tried to stop the process without success. The fact of these failures should have warned Soludo to tread with caution but it didn’t.
A Second illustration of this overconfident- rash- approach to policies is the state’s waste management system. Obiano’ administration was operating a system, which though below average had nevertheless managed to keep the state clean to certain degree. When Soludo arrived, he rushed to set aside the old system and ended up introducing a system that has completely failed to work.
The last point that explains this phenomenal failure by Soludo’s administration more than any other thing is the teachers recruitment exercise. Before Soludo launched his drive for the recruitment of teachers he had to dismissed some teachers recruited by his predecessor, Obiano on the allegation that they were not quilified. This is happening when the administration was less than 100 days in office. Did Soludo take enough time to undertand the system or was he just acting under the impression that anything from his predecesor who is not a prefossor didn’t deserve wasting time to understudy?
In sum, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo has all the qualities and experiences required to change Anambra State for good. However, as the last 100 days have shown, he will not be able to do this if he continues to act as if he is the only wise man in the land. There is a big difference between being a professor or a governor of Central Bank and ruling one of the most complex states in Nigeria.
