By Jude Atupulazi
The Guber Candidate of the Young Progressives Party, YPP, for the November 8 Election in Anambra State, Sir Paul Chukwuma, has expressed personal pains that the state is yet to achieve its potentials, 34 years, following its creation.
Reflecting on the journey so far during the latest anniversary of the state’s creation, Chukwuma said Anambra was faced with a mirage of challenges that dramatically contrasted with its rich human capital and huge potentials in commerce and industry, which, he said, remained under utilised.
‘That Anambra remains an average Nigerian State is more profound under its current leadership by Governor Charles Soludo, a Professor of Economics, who, ordinarily, one would expect, should have turned around the economic fortunes of the state on the premise of his Dubai – Taiwan Model for Anambra. But this has not been the case, as Anambra struggles with the most mundane of all governance challenges, which is the protection of life and property of the governed.
‘As a matter of fact, while the Governor was commemorating Anambra’s 34th Year in the New Government House constructed at undisclosed billions of public funds, the Internet was agog over news of yet another of his appointees, alleged to be involved with the criminal gang commonly called Unknown Gunmen in the state.
In a state filled with global-quality individuals capable of delivering across all governance spheres, the Governor of Anambra State is either appointing fraudsters indicted in America for wire fraud as local government chairmen, or a criminal as the head of an agency designed to fight touting in the state. This is an aberration. To crown it all, till this moment, the government is yet to come up with any form of explanation as to why the house belonging to the head of its anti-touting agency was demolished by federal government forces,’ Chukwuma stated.
He further posited that at 34 years, Gov Soludo had failed to dutifully deploy Anambra’s vast human resources in the service of the state, while equally failing to turn around the commercial and industrial comparative advantage of the state.
The YPP Guber hopeful lamented that not only were people not safe in today’s Anambra State, but that prosperity and progress remained a dream too far to reach.
‘Today, I salute the courage of Ndi Anambra all over the world, and I congratulate all hardworking residents of Anambra State.
‘May I then remind us all that we will not surrender our homeland to peddlers of rhetoric in government who lack the strength, vision, character, discipline, and zeal to move our state forward.
‘The YPP will turn the fortunes of Anambra State around, for good. This current disappointment is only but for a time.
‘Our government will restore the glory of Anambra State. We shall hire the best, not fraudsters or suspected criminals, and our best will give our homeland the best that Anambra deserves,’ he assured.
