“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 choose deliberately not to borrow.
“Having been governor of the
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 gears.
“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 soon.
“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
is an agenda with a deadline, and we are not relenting,” the governor stated.
The governor decried the
dwindling resources in the country, saying, “The resources available to the
state today are 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.”
Former Secretary-General of the
Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku who spoke at the event said: “I’m not
surprised at what Soludo is doing in Anambra.
“Is it security, human capital
development, social agenda or recognizing and reordering the 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.”
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.”
