Pushing through with prudence

ON ASSUMPTION of office on March 17, 2022, Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo promised the people of the state that he was going to be prudent in the management of Anambra State resources, a promise  he  kept by reducing the cost of facility maintenance, checkmating revenue collections  , cutting down the cost of governance in the state.

  Professor Soludo promised to work for ndi Anambra and make Anambra  the Dubai and Taiwan of Africa.

  This, he hopes to achieve through his contract with AnambraPeople .Soludo’s contract with “ndiAnambra” are contained in, (a) “Anambra Vision 2070—a 50-Year Development Plan”, which he chaired the drafting; (b) “The Soludo Solution: A People’s Manifesto for a Greater Anambra”; and (c) “The Transition Committee (Combined) Report”—which built upon the first two”.

  With lean resources, Governor Soludo has done a lot. In 2022, he signed the 2022 Revised Budget of N170 billion into law. He said that the budget fell short of N250 billion estimates for building critical infrastructure in the state.  The governor said though the resources at the government’s disposal were abysmally lean and earnings from the oil sector were so low, his administration would bridge the deficit through multiple strategies, including cutting expenditure and a prudent procurement process.

  He has brought civility and prudence in the expenditure profile of the state, resulting to the birth of developmental strides, without using the approved #100 billion by the state House of Assembly and reduced the cost of facility management in Anambra State from N137million to N11million, thereby saving N126million every month.

  As a visionary leader, he brought over 400,000 palm and coconut seedlings, which were distributed across the state, to the people to cushion the effect of the dwindling oil money, thereby preparing the state to survive in the future.

  Also to  sustainably keep Anambra  streets lighted up at nights at minimum cost, the Soludo administration has converted over 6,380 conventional diesel powered streetlights to solar across the state.

  Governor Soludo, in an event recently said that “Anambra is spending close to N2 billion on federal roads because most of them are not motorable. Our people are facing untold hardships passing through these roads.

  “In achieving the dream of Anambra of turning Anambra to a smart mega city, these roads will ease movements, attract more investors to the state, help farmers in movement of farm produce from one community. 

  Okechi Enemchukwu, a public servant, noted that Professor Soludo had within one year in office ,done that which his predecessor did not do in road infrastructure, citing the Amansea-Awka road(Cattle market axis) which was in a very bad shape as an example. He said, “that road was a nightmare.  Before Soludo Solution came, that road was something else. The heavy traffic jam experienced there was frustrating. People spent hours on that road, so many missed business opportunities as a result of traffic jam on that road, property and lives were  lost because of the bad road. 

  “Soludo did magic on that road. The surprising thing is the huge amount of money  he saved from the facility maintenance fund of N137million the immediate past governor, Willie Obiano approved for  monthly maintenance of government facilities. Professor Soludo came and reduced the fund from N137 million to N11million, saving N126million monthly for  other projects”.