Take a fresh look at your lifestyle.

Why Anambra State does not deserve Prof Soludo again as governor — By Onyiorah Chiduluemije

200

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.

The common sense maxim which holds that: to whom much is given, much is expected in return, ordinarily should have been the watchword of Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo in his administration of Anambra state. The necessity for this being that, the good people of Anambra state had since 2021 given their highly treasured mandate to Nwa Mgbeke to become their Governor and servant leader, and to not just govern them well, but also to do so in line with the campaign promises he made to them.

By offering Professor Soludo their mandate and the rare opportunity to serve them in all honesty and in preference to many other aspirants to the office of the Governor at the time, Ndi Anambra thus demonstrated immense love for him and did in fact sacrifice a lot for his sake. They therefore deserve in return what could be considered the best from Soludo, especially as promised. Incidentally, that this life-time ambition to become the Governor of Anambra state eventually came to fruition in 2021,against the backdrop of his initial, repeated but failed attempts to achieve the goal, is in itself enough demonstration of kindness for professor Soludo not to have so far reneged in fulfilling the larger and salient chunk of his campaign promises. Funny enough, the next Governorship election in Anambra state is a little more than one year from now, and one therefore wonders what miracle of achievements Governor Chukwuma Soludo could perform before the lapse of his tenure.

As things stand today, there is hardly any area of human existence which Governor Soludo could be adjudged to have done excellently well, not even improving upon areas that his predecessors had laid solid foundation for development to thrive in the state. A cursory look at the educational sector, for instance, would reveal that no exceptionally significant milestones have in actuality been accomplished since his ascension to power. Like this writer did state clearly in his previous piece, Dissecting Governor Soludo’s Big-for-Nothing Government of Anambra state, the gains that are beginning to accure from students’ and teachers’ performance in secondary schools in Anambra state owe largely to the legacies of prudence and visionary leadership that His Excellency Mr. Peter Obi bequeathed Ndi Anambra, thanks to his commendable and timely investment in capacity building of teachers and students alike, as well as other improvements brought upon learning and teaching facilities and the learning environment itself.

Interestingly, it logically follows that there is no way the nearly three-year-old government of Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo could have been the real brain behind the burgeoning success stories of secondary school students in Anambra state, especially given the fact that such milestones are not an overnight but long-term-planned accomplishment. It then becomes important for people to endeavor to read between the lines whenever Professor Soludo or his team of praise singers begins to make unfounded claims that his decision to recruit five thousand teachers or so shortly after he assumed the mantle of leadership of the state, marked a turning point in the revitalization process in the education sector within the state.

Besides, it must be emphasized that mere recruitment of teachers nowadays without any provision for relatively sufficient motivations to egg them on in the light of the dwindling economy of Nigeria, more or less amounts to causing a motion without movement. As it were, there is so far no verifiable proof to show that these new recruits and even the old ones are well-motivated by Professor Soludo-led government. Invariably, with the benefit of hindsight, it would appear these new recruits almost have nothing exceptional to offer, and neither is there evidence to show that they have brought some novel improvement into Anambra state educational system that makes the incumbent government to be occasionally beating its chest unnecessarily.

This brings us to another related issue of immense concern about Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo’s lackluster performance in Anambra state. Lately, a video record of Soludo’s visit to a certain community in the state went viral on social media. In the video, the Governor, while speaking to the community, took a swipe at people who believe he has abandoned his blueprint on recreating Anambra into the African Dubai-Taiwan models as contained in his manifesto. He accused people of this line of thought of being of little faith and lacking in the knowledge of what development really entails. He also noted that his Dubai-Tiawan proposal for Anambra state was not such that could be rooted in the “wrong perceptions” of people of little faith who had envisioned a new Anambra state full of skyscraper under his watch. Apparently in an attempt to fundamentally alter his original campaign promise in this regard, Soludo invented a new narrative by arguing that, at the foundation of his African Dubai-Taiwan political promise lies the imperative for qualitative teachers and qualitative education that would, according to him, herald the advent of other forms of development. To this end, he argues that Anambra cannot develop with an illiterate population.

For sure, no country, no state and not even Anambra can experience genuine and far-reaching development with an illiterate population. On this point, unarguably, Governor Chukwuma Soludo is right. However, most surprising in all of the foregoing is the way and manner Soludo is tactically beginning to change almost the entire original narrative of his campaign promises on virtually all subjects. First, his futile attempt to construe his promise to transform Anambra state into Dubai-Tiawan models as consisting mainly in laying a strong educational foundation in the state, is an act quite unbecoming of an intellectual and a Professor for that matter, and this is seriously unacceptable. Meanwhile, it is worthy to note that when Professor Chukwuma Soludo first mooted and proposed the idea of African Dubai-Tiawan transformation plan for Anambra state during the periods of political campaigns, he did not tell Ndi Anambra it was going to be anchored upon building a strong educational foundation in the state. Rather, among other things, he created the impression of his readiness to replicate the physical hallmarks of Dubai and Taiwan in Anambra state, if given the opportunity to become the Governor.

Today, regrettably, he is living in denials in respect of all of this. Evidently, in the first place, one wonders what could have prompted the talks about having world class roads, bridges and buildings, Anambra shopping mall in Africa, the Nollywood studio, Emeagwali Information Communication Technology (ICT) village, among other things, if indeed Professor Soludo had propagated a different notion about African Dubai-Taiwan at the time. Truth be told, Governor Soludo is today being economical with these facts in order to cover up his lackluster performance in the state.

Nontheless, let it be granted to Professor Soludo, though without necessarily conceding, that what he meant by his African Dubai-Taiwan plan for Anambra is chiefly predicated upon building a strong educational foundation in the state. But here again lies a problem with his approach to taking his cue from Dubai and Taiwan educational models. Though Governor Chukwuma Soludo claims to have declared free education to government owned nursery, primary and secondary schools, yet nothing could be further from the truth. The big question here is, is mere non-payment of school fees or actual payment of tuition fee of five thousand Naira alongside with payment of other varieties by pupils and students, tantermount to actual enjoyment of free education? Obviously, your answer to this poser is as good as mine. In Dubai and Taiwan, for instance, where professor Soludo purportedly draws the templates for his so-called free education policy, what the governments of these countries did was to place their children on a full-scale scholarship, in which case the benefitting pupils and students enjoyed the full sponsorship of their education at different levels. This was in addition to other people-oriented schemes and measures instituted by the governments of these countries at the time in order to intensely motivate their less privilege nationals to embrace education and vocational training of all kinds.

But down here in our Anambra enclave, Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo is busy deceiving gullible minds and telling people who care to listen that Anambra state cannot develop with an illiterate population. And here again, one is impelled to ask: does Anambra state really have such bulk of illiterate population that Governor Soludo should be seen making fuss about it? Or, is this a subterfuge to belie his incompetence in the state? Of course, if the reports of the National Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF Education Fact Sheet 2023 are ever seen and taken seriously by Soludo-led government, then using the term “illiterate population” to talk about the people of Anambra state in the first place, is not just a great disservice but also a misnomer deriving its negative force from sheer misinformation. For the avoidance of doubt, in these reports, Anambra state took the sixth (6th) position with 92.11 percent in the state-by-state assessment of literacy rates in Nigeria. Yet, here is their Governor making unguarded alterances for some cheap political gains.

Until recently, Anambra had been among a few examplary States in the Southeastern Nigeria. All because, rightly or wrongly, it had been governed by men who kept their campaign promises, at least to a reasonable extent. Needless to mention the likes His Excellencies Senator Chris Ngige and Mr. Peter Obi. In the case of the former, the legacies he left behind in terms of provision of road infrastructure across the three senatorial zones in Anambra state still speak volumes for him till date. Unequivocally, these were solidly constructed roads done and delivered by Ex-Governor Ngige in less than four-year-single term, before he was eventually given a boot by the Court. For the latter, Mr. Peter Obi, his legacies of visionary leadership demonstrated in the manner he revitalized the educational sector in Anambra state as well as his prudence in the management of state resources, among other things, attest to one of the reasons why he still enjoys a lot public admiration everywhere goes and some sort of nation-wide acceptance.

Sadly, today Anambra appears to have gotten the very wrong leadership in place; one that talks more but does almost nothing; one that does not match words with actions; one whose stock in trade is deploying highfalutin and platitudinous language in order to build castle in the sky from where it can enscounce itself and watch while the citizenry wallow in anguish of all kinds. Certainly, whether we like it or not, this is the fate Professor Soludo’s government has embraced. And this is why it is imperative to show him the way out. Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo’s needs not to be given the benefit of repeating class, because even in the face of his failure he still feels fulfilled.

Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije
Writes from Abatete, Anambra state and can be reached via

 

Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.