Anambra State Under The 4th Republic Governors, Viz-A-Vis Prospects Under The Reign Of Prof. Charles Soludo In The Next 8 Years, By Chidi O’Martins

Anambra state, currently 1 of the 5 South East states of our great country, was created out of the old Anambra state (comprising of current Enugu and Anambra states) in 1991 by the then military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. This goes without saying that the state, which is about 4500sqkm in size, has existed for 3 decades. If the state were a human being, you sure would call her a full-grown adult, and should have had a sense of direction at this age.

The question then is, has Anambra really fared well in development so far? Different people might have different answers to this simple question, depending on what perspective one sees it from. Please note that this piece is not in any way, intended to be an academic work, but just something to refresh our brains and enable key into the great prospects lying in wait in the new Anambra.

At this point in time, permit me to attempt answering this question from my own perspective as a son of the soil, from the state capital, Awka. I will do this by briefly x-raying contributions of each of the 4 major (total of 6) regimes that have ruled Anambra state, since the start of the 4th republic which commenced in 1999, when the state was still young at age of 8.
The 1st regime of the 4th republic government that governed Anambra state, was led by Chief Chinwoke Mbadinuju, who assumed office in May 1999 and lasted as 4 long years of pain to Ndi Anambra. During the infamous rule of Chief Mbadinuju, capital projects were not done, even recurrent expenditures like salaries were not paid. Public schools were shut down for as long as 17 months in a stretch due to nonpayment of salaries. Even our pensioner parents were not paid their pensions and were called dead woods by the governor. One therefore wonders how basic recurrent expenditures like salaries couldn’t be paid, when there were no capital expenditures.
The answer is very simple. Let us not forget that at that time, the menace of political god fathers was so severe and the then governor owed his first allegiance, to the god fathers who put him in power hence struggled monthly to please the god fathers. Remember also, that the Government at the center was PDP and the state was also ruled by PDP, yet the state was in doldrums, hence appears that state party, being same as the federal level ruling party does not matter so much where there is no sincerity of purpose from the ruler.

2003, saw the emergence of Dr Chris Ngige, who was of the PDP as well and was put in power, by the political god fathers. We all know that he came with good intentions but had a score to first settle with his political god fathers. None-the-less, he stood his ground and reaffirmed that his loyalty was more to that of his subjects. It was not an easy time for his Excellency at the onset as he had some running battles with his political god fathers which culminated into a kidnap attempt. However, in his almost 3 years rule, Dr Ngige was able to pay salaries and other recurrent expenditures as well as pick several infrastructural development projects like road networking. Without an iota of doubt, Ndi Anambra were at that time very happy with their leader. Be it as it may, his regime would not be said to have reached optimal expectations of Ndi Anambra. His regime depended so much on the Federal allocations and Internally Generated Revenue and did not strongly explore the prospects of the private sector collaborations or cooperative agreements with international development institutions hence could only do just a little. His regime was ousted in March 2006 by the courts and then entered his Excellency, Chief Peter Obi.

Chief Peter Obi governed the state for 2 full terms, making him the 1st Anambra state Governor, to serve 2 complete tenures even under a party (APGA), different from the party at the center (PDP). Ndi Anambra were very happy with him as he was able to pay salaries and other recurrent expenditures, provided capital infrastructure and had savings in the state government coffers at his exit.  I personally recall how my Umudioka Awka village roads were, prior to Chief Peter Obi’s tenure. Our roads were so deplorable. Today we have roads that look like major highways in the F.C.T. Chief Peter Obi was able to achieve some savings like I earlier mentioned, because he literally supervised transactions himself and cut a lot of wastages and leakages. While that was a positive style, I dare say it just wasn’t the best style for running a state. It was like Chief Peter Obi was the only one in the system who was upright and if he were not there, nothing happens. The control systems were not there.

That style of governance sure would have made development very slow and even prevented other possible developments from happening at all in the state. I believe, he would have achieved a lot more by institutionalizing systems and controls and strengthening them. I believe this will be one of the major differences between Chief Peter Obi’s regime and the incoming regime of Prof Soludo. I will still hint on this while talking about prospects of Anambra state, in the next 8 years. So, for 8 years, Ndi Anambra however enjoyed a stable economy with infrastructure being provided as we believed that it is better small than none. I hear some APGA party loyalists say that Chief Peter Obi was only carrying out the APGA party’s manifesto, but I slightly differ from that thought. I strongly believe that it was just strength of Character and sincerity of purpose that propelled Chief Peter Obi into achieving the successes he achieved.

Chief Peter Obi handed over to Chief Willie Obiano in 2014, who equally maintained payment of recurrent expenditure as well as some community developments. Some infrastructure like bridges and streetlights were equally done and it is on record that the Governor, built a standard airport for the state but however did not explore much of the private public partnership schemes, nor collaborate much with the international development world, which facilitates developments for worthy governments.

From narratives above, I summarize by saying that from my perspective, Chief Peter Obi and Chief Willie Obiano have been the best Governors we have had in Anambra state so far and both had strength of character as well as sincerity of purpose and both depended on just the Federal Allocations and the Internally Generated Revenue (I.G.R.) and did not have any meaningful revenue from cooperative agreements from development agencies nor have significant private sector partnership. Just check statistics of revenue for Anambra state from 2006 to 2020 and you do not see anything significant from this area. Apparently, there were no systems in place that could support that.

It is now expected that come March 2022, the new Governor elect, His Excellency, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo will take over the mantle. He has published his manifesto, which has covered developments in road infrastructure, technology, food/agriculture, economy, health, and education. He has been proactive in going ahead to reasonably point out how he intends to achieve these and has even put figures down. He outlined Federal Allocations and Internally Generated Revenue which are basically what the past Governors have all relied on. Prof Soludo went beyond these to mention his intention to partner with the private sector and cooperate with the international development bodies which actually fast track developments in communities. I know this much from my career experience in the development industry.

As an insider, who has once been privileged to work for Prof. Soludo, I can confidently tell you that these plans are not just lofty plans for Prof, but very doable for him. I have worked with him in the past, where he successfully attracted several international funders, for a brand-new research institute that he set up. He also did a lot of collaborative ventures with the international development agencies as the Chairman of the National Planning Commission/ Chief Economic Adviser to President Obasanjo. The International development community has so much confidence in this man. This is because, beyond being very intelligent, his strength of character is so compelling, so not surprising that his tentacles are far reaching. He equally has a solution to any problem.

Prof. Soludo can invent a sea route to India. Note that despite these inherent features I just mentioned, the international development community will never put a dime on any project if they have not seen a working system of controls in place. Prof’s 1st task is setting up a working system of controls, in whatever body he oversees. Note that this is a feature that Chief Peter Obi did not have, which significantly pulled him back. Prof Soludo also will not just be making an empty boast of involving the private sector collaborations if he does not have the capacity. We all saw what he did with the Transcorp Transnational Corporation of Nigeria. If he did that as a Central Bank Governor, then I sure bet you that he will do multiples of that as a Chief Executive of a State.

Having highlighted the achievements and perceived drawbacks of his predecessors and his own inherent strengths, I am very convinced that Ndi Anambra are about embarking on a journey to the Promised Land.
I therefore use this opportunity, to formally congratulate Prof Soludo as well as remind him that 4 or 8 years isn’t a very far time as it is just by the corner, so should immediately set to work in earnest. I believe that there would be political distracters but should not allow them to derail him. I dare remind Prof Soludo that he now has a social contract with Ndi Anambra and will be assessed based on what he has mentioned in his manifesto.

I also implore all Ndi Anambra to all put hands on deck in this transformation that will soon take off and seize this opportunity to think home in investments, for maximum returns. Everyone will likely have a way of being committed to this growth.

This piece is just my humble thoughts that I have decided to put down on paper.
Written by
Chidi O’Martins, is a financial management and compliance expert of over 2 decades in the development world, with relevant public sector experience in Nigeria and Malawi. @ chidiomartins@yahoo.com, 08037743308