By Ikeugonna Eleke
Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has marked his Second Year in Office as governor, stating that he does not receive salary from the state government as a way of saving costs.
The Governor spoke during an interdenominational service packaged to mark the event at the International Convention Centre, Awka, Anambra State Capital.
Soludo said he had plugged many leakages in government, cut a lot of costs, and had been doing a lot with little. He said as part of realizing the plans of his government, the First Lady of the state, his wife, Mrs Nonye Soludo, did not drive official cars but rather drove his old cars.
Soludo said: ‘Today, we have come to report some aspects of what we have been able to do within these two years. Anambra People are our employers; you elected me and my deputy and we took office exactly two years ago as your chief servants.
‘Today, I tell you that Anambra is strong and getting stronger. We are intentional about doing more with less because we are facing extraordinary times in Nigeria, but tough times are for tough leaders who are innovative. Banks have been offering to lend to us, but we decided that these two years, we will show that we can do more with less and we chose deliberately not to borrow.
‘Having been governor of Central Bank of Nigeria and managing the finances of the entire country, I needed to demonstrate that some things are possible. Today, we are managing the finances of Anambra and we need to show what we can do. From henceforth, we are changing gear.
‘Anambra has not seen anything yet. Every kobo of Anambra’s resources entrusted in our hands, we will show you where we put it. When we borrow, and of course you can borrow when you have good reason to, and when we do, we will show you what the money was used for, and we will borrow to invest in things that can pay back the investment. But you will never see the kind of borrowing we saw before.’
The governor spoke about his achievements in office, saying: ‘We have built 240 kilometres of roads in 24 months. What this means is that for every month we have been here, we have constructed 10 kilometers. Even if you put the entire state resources in one local government, you will still not finish every road, but we are picking strategic roads.
‘We are working on the Anambra State Government House and Governor’s Lodge. Anambra is the only state created over 30 years ago that does not still have a permanent government house. Soon, the new Anambra Government House will be commissioned.
‘We will commission roads in Okpoko tomorrow. Okpoko is one of the biggest slums in the entire West Africa, and for the first time, a general hospital has been built there, and we will commission it tomorrow. Anambra Wide Water Scheme is now being test run. Ours in an agenda with a deadline, and we are not relenting,’ the governor stated.
The governor decried the dwindling resources in the country, saying that: ‘The resources available to the state today is a fraction of what it used to be. If you go by the purchasing power of money then, you will know that we have far less to spend. What we are doing is that we are managing what we have very well.
‘I can tell you that I’m not getting salaries from the Anambra State Government. My wife, the First Lady, does not have any official cars; she still drives my cars. We are cutting waste and plugging loopholes.’
On power generation, he said: ‘We are working to crack the power puzzle in Anambra too. We have learnt something from Barth Nnaji. It took him 20 years to deliver the Aba Power Project. We have learnt from how he did it and ours will not take that long. We have assembled experts for that reason. What we can tell you is that we will do it, but I will not stand here and tell you the length of time.’
Meanwhile, Anambra people have commended the governor on his achievements within two years in the saddle.
Former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, who spoke at the event, said he was not surprised at what Soludo was doing in Anambra.
‘Is it security, human capital development, social agenda or recognizing and reordering governance value system? What is most impressive about Soludo is that these things are not in the realm of hearsay, but projects we can see. I congratulate Soludo on his excellent performance in the last two years,’ Anyaoku said.
Also, the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Rt Rev Paulinus Ezeokafor, who officiated the thanksgiving Mass said: ‘He is a man who is well known and the last two years have seen extraordinary achievements in some areas and acceleration in other areas, especially in the socio economic and infrastructural transformation in Anambra State.’
