But for the gibberish written by Soludo’s media aide and Publicity Secretary of the defunct All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) this piece would have been unnecessary. This much is the truth. For once I am content to take the same view as majority of ndi Anambra in calling Soludo’s government desperate. This may seem rash, but there is no better assessment of a government that has become unnecessarily paranoid about its citizens.
It may be difficult to appreciate a media team that is serving a government that pollutes itself with every unlawful indulgence. Such team is prone to avoidable mistakes and risks being made the fall guy and sacked with ignominy. Already the axe of sacking (and redeploying after sack) is fiercely dangling in the governor’s hand, waiting to consolidate the embarrassing sack (and redeployment after sack) of the manager of the State Radio and the Information Commissioner. Any aide therefore that does not bear good fruits is sacked and “redeployed” to the street to have a feel of unemployment. With this the aides, especially those in the media have no choice, but to insult and tell lies at will. This media aide had once insulted the charismatic priest of the Adoration Ministry, Uke, Reverend Father Emmanuel Obimma and Dr. Sam Amadi, former chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) who incidentally is from the same community with him.
He claims Soludo is prudent and fiscally transparent. He probably is because he pays peanuts to his appointees and wears akwete. But ndi Anambra know better and can point at his bag man even in the dark. It is sad when a government thinks its citizens are daft and incapable of seeing through its veneer of deception.
On inception, Soludo who, by the way, thinks he is more intelligent than every Anambra person, said he will establish a portal where the state’s inflows and outflows will be accessed. He has yet to do that two years into his administration and like the deceptions of his government writ large he has continued to create the impression that the state is in dire straits. He micromanages everything, including security, leading to the parlous state of affairs existing in our dear Anambra. The precarious life in the state was last witnessed during the Mbadinuju era – if not worse- which made that government to seek recourse to obnoxious method of crime-fighting in the state. No governments before this time has been as lax in security as Soludo’s to the point that people are abducted and killed at will. Life is not worth much in the state any more. It is clear even to those who work in his government that Soludo does not know what happens around him and needs a lot of help. His pretenses to the contrary notwithstanding, the odds are stacked against him. It would not have mattered the overwhelming odds he faces if his actions and inactions do not affect the people. But the “omniscient” economics teacher who feels the only way to enforce tax collection in the state is by empaneling an amorphous group of tax men known as SASA to go about breaking citizen’s shins, skulls etc must be told that ndi Anambra are only tolerating him.
He may decide to promise wage increment because of the coming elections, but that in itself is not enough to guarantee him anything, and not enough to assuage the pains he has exposed the people to. His media aide may be blind to this (after all the young man has been over the moon and fawning on the administration), but ndi Anambra have been in regrets since his government. SASA harassment and abuse coupled with insecurity have forced ndi Anambra to wonder aloud if this was the Dubai-Taiwan Soludo promised them during campaign. The violation of the Anambra State Civil Service rules by appointing junior officers to head their superiors has kept the state workforce in disarray. The haranguing of members of the state Executive Council members and talking down on them has forced almost all of them to complain bitterly. The shabby treatment of his sponsors, politicians, the church, journalists on whose back he rode to power has continued to cause some disquiet. All of these and more are enough warnings that the Soludo government has lost enormous goodwill and is only struggling.
His stripling of an aide may decide to write insulting pieces from now till tomorrow, but it does not change the fact that Soludo’s government is drowning.
Emeka Oramali
