This Sunday, March 17, Anambra Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, will mark his two years in office. In these two years, he has shown glimpses of where he wants to go, and, given the challenges he faced in his first few months, we dare say he has done relatively well.
It will be recalled that on assumption of office two years ago, he had met an intimidating security situation which had almost crippled the state and chased many people away from it.
Families were holding funerals and traditional ceremonies in the cities, rather than in their communities. In fact, some communities had virtually been taken over by hoodlums who were collecting money from the people of those communities who wanted to hold events like funerals and weddings. That was how bad the situation had been.
But Soludo had meticulously planned and executed his plans against them and has today largely succeeded. But for the fact those hoodlums usually enter the state from neighbouring states, we are certain that more success would have been recorded and this is why we have been calling for an inter-state collabo to deal a resounding and permanent blow to their menace.
But away from insecurity, Soludo has also done well in other areas like health, sports, education, among others. In education, he has employed teachers twice. He has also been powering on with the permanent Government House Project, while providing an enabling environment for the springing up of many housing estates.
But by far, his most visible achievement is the construction of quality roads that will stand the test of time. Currently, work is going on in many communities in the state and we are satisfied with the quality of those so far done.
However, his administration has not gone without some controversies, chief of which is the demolition of traders’ shops and wares. The government wants to ensure a clean and healthy state and has been unhappy with traders who sell by the roadside or who operate in shanties that do not add any aesthetic value to the state. In fact, the areas where those shanties have been removed are looking a lot better.
But we appeal that these demolitions be done with a human face. On the night of Friday, March 8, this year at the Aroma Axis of Awka, around 7:30pm, we saw a team of government enforcers making away with food items and fruits sold by roadside traders. We wondered what those enforcers intended to do with those food items and fruits. Were they going to eat them or throw them away? Why not just order the traders, most of them women, to leave the scene?
At this time of excruciating economic hardship, making away with the food items of those women is not the best, unless they will be asked to come to the office and redeem them and pay which we however doubt. You do not carry a pot of soup to the station and ask the owner to come take it back and pay a penalty. Being food to be sold to other people, it is both dangerous and unhygienic to do so.
Soludo’s Government has also not wholly succeeded in stamping out the menace of touts at parks and markets as these obnoxious elements are still found in their numbers in their areas of operation despite government’s claim of getting rid of them.
We believe that government can do much better in this area as these touts are responsible for many criminal activities, especially in the evening hours. However, we are pleased to note that government is making appreciable efforts towards arresting the situation.
In all, we believe that the Soludo Administration will succeed based on what we have seen so far. We will continue to put his government in our prayers as its success will benefit the state and its people.
