Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, goes the age-old aphorism. Back home, anyone who elects to serve his people in a representative capacity – be it as president, governor or lawmaker – should expect to be constantly, the object of public scrutiny, which forms the basis of assessing them.
Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, is one of them. As the Governor of a difficult state like Anambra, there’s little doubt he’s well aware of the weight of that office and what follows it.
Lately, he’s been in the news, mostly for the wrong reasons, owing to his very poor handling of the precarious security situation in the state. It’s a situation to which he apparently, has no answer yet as the people of the state continue to cower in fear.
Yet, it is not all bad for the state’s number one helmsman who has been doing well in infrastructural development, especially roads.
The quality of his roads so far, has been very good and we give him kudos for.
To this end, we want to commend him on his reconstruction of the dilapidated portion of the Amawbia Express Road after many, including us, had repeatedly drawn his attention to that.
That portion of road had been a nightmare to road users, with many vehicles breaking down there. Now it has become very smooth and a joy to drive on. Even though it is a federal road, Soludo’s Anambra State Government had done it, while expecting a possible reimbursement from the Federal Government. The fact that it is his people that use the road made it imperative that he should do something on it which he has done.
We commend him for listening to the complaints of the citizenry, even though he’s supposed to do just that.
But while applauding him for what he just did on that road, we quickly wish to draw his attention once again to the chaotic situation in the commercial city of Onitsha, where the activities of touts are making life uncomfortable for the citizenry, a development threatening to rubbish his plans of making Anambra a livable state.
Recently, two of his revenue agents were killed by an irate mob following the unfortunate death of an innocent passer-by. He was hit and killed by a tipper, after government revenue agents reportedly pounced on the driver and attempted to stop him by force. The driver lost control in the process and rammed into a bystander who was crushed to death.
Incensed by this, those at the scene rounded up two of those agents, beat them to death and set them fire.
This would not be the first time revenue agents would struggle with drivers of moving vehicles. We had earlier condemned this action in one of our editorials but it is apparent no heed was paid to our complaint. Now, a worse scenario has occurred and more lives have been lost.
We once again advise Soludo, to once and for all address the activities of touts in Onitsha and other commercial hubs of the state.
His government should devise other means of raising revenue without resorting to crude methods. People complain daily about the inglorious activities of touts at major parks and markets in the state. They have become a law unto themselves and most times divert revenue to own pockets, thus, defeating the purpose of using them.
What happened in Onitsha recently, that led to the aforementioned deaths was unfortunate and should not be allowed to repeat itself.
Amid increasing belief that the government of the day is actively encouraging touting by not acting against complaints against them and their modus operandi, Soludo should come out in the open and put a halt to their crude methods.
The stories daily emanating from Onitsha are scary. If government agents are not hitting people with pestles, they’re causing drivers to lose control and ram into passers-by. Enough is enough. The patience of the citizenry in Onitsha is running thin and should the government not act, a total breakdown of law and order may trail the last incident.
Soludo should please address this situation once and for all.
