Yes ,two years is enough to revolutionize the business of Governance and public administration in Anambra State. It took Prof Soludo less than two months to announce a major reform in the banking industry, a move that caused earthquake in the entire Country and beyond .
As a revolutionist and a reformer , Prof Soludo was awarded the best CBN Governor globally in three consecutive years Viz 2005,2006 and 2007. Of course , the entire South East and Ndigbo across the globe celebrated Prof Chukwuma Soludo ascension to the office of the executive Governor of Anambra State as well as the political face of Igbo Nation . Prof Soludo himself acknowledged during his inauguration the humongous expectations from the people and promised to hit the ground running .
The entire Nigeria populace awaited for Soludo miracles in the areas of security, law and order , economic transformation,human capital ,social agenda , Governance and value system .
Last week being 17th March ,2024, Prof Soludo marked 2nd year in the office amid mixed reactions . To some people , Solution Government is a miracle worker . To others , there was nothing to celebrate .
However , this write up will x-ray the success stories recorded by Soludo administration within the last two years as well as failed promises that would have laid a solid foundation for a prosperous Anambra State.
It is important to remind us that our dear people are very easy to please . They are politically naive and indifference. They hardly expect anything from people in Government . In fact , virtually provide almost everything by themselves. They provide internal security,they run umunna administrative structure, an effective merit driven Government .They build hospitals ,schools by themselves . They take care of their children and reatives . They use apprenticeship system to empower themselves . They dig boreholes for themselves and even construct internal roads within the communities among several other things . Hence , when Government execute a simple public task , people dance and celebrate like manna from the heaven . That is the reality .
However, Government is about perception,it is about given the people hope . It is about creating happiness for the people .It is about providing adequate security and economic prosperity for the people.
With a population of over 5 million people living in Anambra State , the major responsibility of Soludo Government is to organize her citizens towards a desires destination, inspire the abundant human resources to productive Anambra State.
On the security , the security situation has improved. There are few cases of kidnappings , car snatching ,cult war, hired assassinations but State Government has always responded to reassure the people that they are still in charge. However , Anambra state cannot exist in isolation. The high unemployment rate in the Country is encouraging crime rate .
On law and order , no significant improvement has been noticed . The rate of dispensing justice is still slow hence public confidence has not been restored . Court operations are still analogue driven that cases of missing files are still recorded on daily basis. The judicial officers are still poorly renumerated. There is no noticeable reform ongoing in state judicial system .
On urban and rural development planning, It is expected that Soludo Government will show his employers (Ndi Anambra) during the first six months Anambra State Master plan in 3 D drawing indicating the various new cities in locations like awka ,Onitsha ,Nnewi ,Ihiala and ekwulobia . Such masterplan with central sewage , drainages , road etc and such city plans would have inspired Ndi Anambra across the globe to participate in building a new Anambra in more systematic and organized manners . A good example is Abuja masterplan and appointment of El-Rufai to implement the master plan . Soludo has always said that 97% of Anambra wealth is at private pockets and the sure way to get 40% of the money into public work is to show managerial abilities and connect with the people emotionally . Government has enormous capacity to organize factors of production to ensure that good behavior is encouraged while bad behavior is sanctioned accordingly thereby maintaining law and order. In the last two years , urban and rural development plans are not yet visible and may be in the drawing board.
On Road construction, Prof Soludo Government should be commended for building many strategic roads across the 21 local government. Since the creation of the State ,no administration has shown such commitment in rebuilding several failed roads as well as commencing new ones and completing them at a record time . Just within 2 years , Soludo Government has awarded about 450 km of roads , exceeding record of most Governors that have spent 8 years in Office. However , there are few instances where indigenous contractors failed to live up to expectations. Again , it is expected that Prof Soludo would have developed a data bank of all the Urban and rural roads showing the state of the roads as at the time of inauguration and come up with public private partnership funding model that will facilitate the building of all internal roads in various estates scattered around the State . Again , it is the exclusive responsibility of the State to organize citizens to achieve a desired development agenda.
On Food production, the ministry of Agriculture is not visible in the last two years . There is no noticeable incentive for massive food production . Anti open grazing law has not been enforced as promised by the State Government some 18 months ago. Hard working Farmers have recorded losses because of open grazing in the last two years even without any form of incentives from Government. Soludo Government has not developed database for real farmers and the location of their farms . Few days ago , Ogbaru men ,women and children decided to enforce anti open grazing law by ejecting all the herdsmen and their cattles within the Local Government since State Government has failed to enforce the law they enacted. The implementation of palm and coconut seedlings distribution showed that the ministry of agriculture has no plan . The seedlings were distributed to people without any record. Soludo Government claimed that more than one million seedlings have been distributed to families in the last two years. However , the policy was poorly executed as Government cannot track the performance of such public investment. Claims that families will be empowered when the palm trees start fruiting are mere theoretical .Again , Soludo Government promised that Cooperative Societies will be used to empower the ordinary people including party members at ward levels. A call to State Cooperative Office indicated that they have not heard anything from Government. The Government has not encouraged farmers apart from sharing seedlings . There is no Agricultural masterplan to mechanize and modernize the farming practice in the State.
On education, Mr Governor insistence on merit based recruitment of Teachers endeared him to many progressive minded people. However , nobody has seen the government education policy even as the number of students keeps increasing . As the case with other States in Nigeria,private schools see failure in public schools as an opportunity to exploit parents . Public Schools have continued to be a dumping grounds for the sons and daughters of nobody while the working class battle to pay their children school fees in private schools.Even with the implementation of free basic education,the contents of our education still belong to the dark age . The competitiveness of Students from Anambra is majorly because of parents huge investment on their children education. ! There is unsustainable class struggle going on as many families see public schools as being inferior and this has psychological effects on pupils. The household income is dwindling by the day even in the face of high cost of living and galloping inflation . It is expected that Soludo Government will address the widening gap between public and private schools ,look into why people send their children to private schools ,look at their school fees structures and even how much they pay their teachers.People are really suffering , unfortunately,nobody wants to speak out for fear of the obvious.
In the last two years , Government has not built any model school or technical school to meet the challenges of 22nd century just as promised some months ago. Most public schools in the rural areas have no electricity. It is becoming waste of time and resources teaching students abstract topics that cannot address problems in digital age. We are simply wasting our most precious resources – human resources , we have to train them to be productive. Again ,one cannot give what one does not have ,however , Government wage structure cannot attract the best brain in the public schools .No doubt , female teachers have taken over public schools that one can hardly see a young man teaching in Government schools,the ratio of Male to female is 1:20 . Our teachers are poorly renumerated.Soludo Government should introduce performance bonus , car and housing loan at single digit lending rate . Prof Soludo as a Teacher should pay Teachers living wage . Good wage is highest motivator of labour , therefore ,teaching profession should earn the highest pay to attract the best hands and empower young people rightly.
On Sanitation , the initial disappointment that greeted the administration during the first four months have died down. Sanitation Contractors are living up to expectations.The mounting of waste materials have disappeared around the State . Within the last two years, the management of waste materials has improved significantly but it is expected that companies into recycling will assist to convert waste to wealth.Alex Otti model on waste evacuation should be copied . In Aba, waste evacuation is done in the night such that in the morning,mounting of waste materials vanish like spirit.It was like a magic but good incentive system is at work .
On Housing , nobody has seen the blueprint on Housing policy apart from the Government signing MOU with few Property Developers . There is no justification for the kind of rent tenants pay in the cities considering the income level of Residents in the State. In Awka for instance ,a Tenant pay as high as N1,500,000 per anum for a three bedroom flat. How much is minimum wage? How much do average people make in Awka? Tell me why people should not collect bribe to make both ends meet? It is expected that Soludo Government will attract special funding for execution of low cost mass housing and building of new cities. Awka 2.0 and Onitsha 2.0 are still in the planning stage . Soludo Government has not inspired the people in this regard. It seems that provision of housing is not in government program. This is why every community in Anambra state is into land speculation and land agency including youths development levies .This is because of lack of economic opportunities.
What of job creation ! Agricultural sector is known to be the highest employer of labour ! I have not seen any plan to establish farm settlements and give Cooperative Societies access to free land or grants or single digit lending. There should be a well defined roadmap to drive agricultural revolution,investors are waiting to see such and Government must play public interest role to show people direction.If Soludo Government could approve about N6B to build a new Government House or about N3M billion to build fun city, what stops the same government from building modern mechanic / industrial/ farm / arbattoir villages where primary and secondary school students will be attracted to undergo industrial training even undergraduates and graduates . Soludo Government should have used the last two years to build those industrial parks and farm settlements that would have given job opportunities to millions of our youths . Perhaps ,170,000 jobs Soludo Government promised every year were no where to be seen! Government initiates ,designs projects and invites investors to partner . These things are not rocket science .
To be continued…..
Ndubuisi Anaenugwu writes for Good Governance Ministry (GGM)