Following the reelection of Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State last week, his Chief of Staff, Chief Earnest Ezeajughi, speaks with OKEY MADUFORO on the factors that led to his victory at the poll among other issues
What are the secrets behind the landslide victory of Governor Charles Soludo in the recent election?
I think first of all, let me congratulate Mr. Governor, Prof Charles Soludo, my boss and my principal for his doggedness and leadership qualities and for his vision about Anambra State. Back to your question, you see, the magic was about passion, it is about leadership qualities and this is what it is all about and that empathy he has for our dear state. When he came into office after winning the election in 2021 and was sworn in in March 17th 2022, the Governor went straight to work and on that first day he was at Okpoko in Ogbaru Local Government area which has the largest slump in the eastern part of Nigeria.
He started work there and today it is no longer the Okpoko slump but Okpoko New Heaven with good roads, street lights and boreholes everywhere and today Okpoko can boast of a hospital that had never been there since the creation of the old Anambra State. The Governor made a strong statement about governance which he called the hypothesis and that hypothesis is what he called the politics of development and not the usual handouts of the past but value for governance. He started with the five pillars of governance which is first the fight against insecurity in the state.
Remember that when he came onboard eight local government areas were under siege by gunmen and those affected communities were no go areas between the year 2021, 2022 and 2023 The signing of the Udo Ga Chi Homeland security laws gave impetus to the establishment of the Agunechemba Security Squad which took on these miscreants and today those communities have been liberated and people are now back to their homes. Then the second pillar was infrastructural development which has to do with road infrastructure, construction of bridges as well as erosion control so you can agree with me that the politics of development worked.
In the area of Human Capital Development, the Governor took up the task of transforming our educational sector with the employment of over 5,000 trained and qualified teachers and put our public schools in order. He introduced free and quality education from the basics to Senior Secondary School 3 and what that means is that from the cradle, government has taken over the education of our children and those yet unborn. His free prenatal, post-natal and anti-natal heath policy provided our women the much-needed medical facilities and services free of charge. He also employed over 8,000 medical personnel into our hospitals and upgraded them.
He also embarked on the One Youth Two Skills program that has passed through advanced phases and for those who may not want to go to the University, you are trained to master two skills and after graduation you are provided with take-off funds to be on your own and the multiplier effects are that those that have been trained now train others and also employ more hands there by getting our youths engaged and positively employed. Recall that Anambra State was rated numEzeajughi ber one by an independent assessment body that studied the prudent management of fiscal and state resources.
This is an indication that we are doing more with less, and in terms of our procurement process we have ensured strict compliance to due process and that is why you cannot see any abandoned project in Anambra State. Also, every project that Mr Governor embarked on had funds already provided for it, hence there is no room for abandoned projects.
Today, over 1,000 kms of roads have been awarded and over 500 kms of those roads have been asphalted while others are ongoing. So, it was politics of development that indeed gave us this second term in office and a new dimension was introduced in Anambra politics where people took over his campaign and people were donating huge sums of money to his campaign.
These include individuals, market women, market leaders, Keke Tricycle operators and that is similar to what I saw in the United Kingdom where I worked as a councilor for 10 years and the Mayor of London Borough of Bent and similarly to what happens in America. The 21 over 21 result of this election is quite different from the past because someone can win the 21 local government areas of the state but lost hundreds of wards but in the case of this last election APGA won a total of 319 wards out of the 326 wards losing only seven wards. We scored over 422,000 votes which is twice the number of votes won in the past like 97 ,000 votes and the immediate past governor 233,000 votes or thereabout.
The success story behind this is that we introduced polling unit executives and you know we used to stop at the wards level, but now we went a step further to bring in the polling unit executives, and that went a long way in giving us victory in November 8 gubernatorial election.
Before the election, it was rumoured that plans had been concluded to capture Anambra State, through federal might. But it didn’t come to pass?
When I came into office, I started hearing the slang called federal might and I was wondering what it meant but today we have come to understand that those things are mere name dropping. Remember that Mr. President was here in Anambra in May this year and inspected projects being executed by Mr Governor and expressed satisfaction over what the Governor has done . Also remember that when he came for campaigns, he said that he has enjoyed good relationship with Mr. Governor for about 22 years and told us that Soludo is a brilliant son of Anambra State and that he is going to work with him.
This promise has been kept and Anambra State has very cordial and robust relationship with Aso Villa and in return Mr. Governor stated that the progressives are working together. Then, the outcome of this election has shown that the name dropping did not come from Aso Villa or from the President himself. Our victory is a product of a man that has been consistent with what he is doing and deliberate about it from his days at the Central Bank of Nigeria where he introduced the policy of recapitalization and consolidations that saved our banking system. This is what he has been replicating as the Governor of Anambra State through focused and pragmatic leadership.
It is also being rumoured that Soludo would join the All Progressives Congress (APC) after winning the election?
The man that I know at the moment is concentrating in delivering the business of governance to his people. This rumor about defection is not true because already the progressives are working together and at the center the leader of the progressives is President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, while here in Anambra State the leader of the progressives is Mr. Governor Charles Soludo and they is APGA. So, the issue of going to join APC is a distraction and Mr. Governor sees it as that and all that he knows is to bring value into governance and not the fuse about defection.
What do we expect in the next four years? We have a manifesto and we are following it like a shopping list and anyone that is completed we ticket it and move on to another one and what Mr. Governor has done in his first term in office is to build a huge and solid foundation that would ultimately drive the process for the next four years in office. So, the next step in our big bucket is consolidation and moving forward and that is ensuring that our state is transformed from the departure lounge to the destination point where people would be trooping into the state to do business and invest which would rob off on the socioeconomic development of the state.
We have the Agulu Lake project, the Awka City Park and the Anambra Misused Industrial City which is also part of Awka 2.0, the Great Niger City near Onitsha among others and you know we already have the Awka, Onitsha, Ekwulobia Cities but we are going to have three more New Cities that would spring up in the next four years.
There shall also be more link roads connecting the inter community local roads and you know that we have about 76 Communities that do not have Public Schools because the ones that they have now belongs to the Missions and Mr. Governor would be embarking on the construction of new public schools for those communities. When Mr Governor is through by the next four years Anambra would have witnessed great transformation like no other and Anambra would have become the great city state of our dreams.
Granted that Soludo would be good for another four years, is he also thinking about who would succeed him from Anambra Central Senatorial District?
You cannot put words into my mouth by asking this question and all that I can tell you is that based on the zoning agreement it would be the turn of Anambra Central after the Governor’s four years in office. But to say who would take over from him is something that I cannot say and I cannot answer the question.
If I can make an attempt at that I can assure you that Governor Charles Soludo successor must come through merit and the person must be qualified and ready to work for the people of Anambra state. Soludo doesn’t compromise merit and competence and if it means subjecting aspirants to examination he would do that as a believer in merit.
You can see that a Permanent Secretary here is from Osun State and the Account General is from Abia State and all that he wants is merit and competence and that is how his successor would be found. .
