- The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo has said he must think ten times before signing any World Bank-assisted Project so as not to jeopardize the future of Anambra people.
Speaking during a live programme with Ndi Anambra on Monday while reacting to a question from a caller, Governor Soludo said some of these projects are the most expensive projects in the world because they give high exchange rate to payback the loans.
The governor announced that he has told authorities concerned that he won’t sign any World Bank or foreign loans, unless its value is such that will generate the resources to pay back the loans.
“If it is from World Bank you are waiting for your training and so on, sorry my apologies for you. World Bank Projects are loans, not free lunch. They are bound to be paid by our children and children children. And am not going to take any of such loans except it is clear to me how it will be paid for.
“Now that the exchange rate is somehow. If you borrow from World Bank at Dollar rate, Central Bank will change it at 400 and something naira to the dollar; then we use it. When repayment time comes, you pay at #700 and something naira to the dollar.
“Some of these loans are the most expensive funds in the World. So before I sign any of such loans, I will think not once, twice but ten times before committing the future of this state to those kind of funding. You think World Bank are bringing you free money, it is a loan, business.”
Professor Soludo noted that all the unknown gunmen caught terrorising Anambra state are all Igbo, not other tribes, but South Easterners who hide under the notion that criminality has become a very lucrative business.
On his plans for the Disability Community in the state, the Governor said “we are coming with an agent for the Disabled Rights Commission, a corporative movement that will be domiciled in every ward of the state to torch persons with disabilities more fundamentally than how it is done before.
“Before, it has all manner of shows but this time we want to approach it in a manner that is more methodical and systematic geared towards torching thousands of lives, not tens of lives
“Those activities are for shows, they don’t appeal to me at all and not a good PR. I like to solve problem at the grassroots”, Prof Soludo concludes.
On road construction, he said every road project constructed under his administration must guaranteed to last at least 20 years, with technical engineers, bureau of public procurement, special implementation team, ministry of works, and resident engineers who inspect the roads signing to that effect.
On touting, the Governor stressed that it is not a profession, claiming that majority of the touts do nothing else for a living, hence the call by his administration to engage them into meaning ventures and crafts that will make them self reliant.
Correspondent OGEMDI OZOEMENAM reports that the Chat with the Governor was beamed live by the state-owned media Abs radio/television, Odenigbo 99.1fm Obosi, ANN and other two private radio stations in the state.###
