The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) for the February 6, 2010 election in Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo has blamed the precarious security situation and other problems on “catastrophic failure of leadership in the state”. The former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who spoke during an exclusive interview with Daily Sun at his country home, Umueze village (Isuanaoma), Isuofia in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State at the weekend regretted that Anambra which ought to be a first class state was reeling under a third class leadership.
Speaking against the background of the scary security situation in the state under which his 78-year old father, Pa Simeon Soludo, was kidnapped last month, he asserted that the worrisome situation was one of the factors that nudged him into volunteering to serve and rescue his people.
He declared: “Anambra is a first class state and requires a first class material to lead them. You cannot have a first class state and offer it a third class governance. It just won’t work. In Anambra today, there are refugees, people are running away.
There is a refugee situation in Anambra. It may not be so pronounced because you are not seeing people in camps, but people are moving in droves out of the state. Go to Nnewi, its dead, literarily dead. Look at the factories that used to be; that’s a place where foreigners used to describe as the emerging Japan of Africa; go to the place today, everybody has run away. Go to Onitsha, everybody is moving across to Asaba; come to Awka, it’s a ghost town. I mean Anambra is just dead now, in economic terms.
“There are no jobs, insecurity is just second nature. It has degenerated to a level at which even the kidnappers who kidnapped my dad told me that it is part of the culture.
That’s the way they described it. Well, I don’t know much of what the governor has done, but whatever he has done, obviously has not worked, because people are so scared. You can’t even do certain things that are supposed to be done at home any longer. People are now having traditional marriages in Abuja, Lagos and so on. Why? the fear of going home. And the investors cannot come. You cannot create jobs under this state of insecurity. And therefore, for me, that is the first job of government.”
Soludo listed among aspects of his agenda to restore Anambra to a secure path, creation of hundreds of thousands of job opportunities for teeming unemployed youth, creating new models of community policing, adequate equipment for the police and other security agencies, informal policing schemes and intelligence network.
While vowing to ensure a secure Anambra “where people can sleep with their two eyes closed”, he declined to divulge further details of his security blueprint saying, “I don’t need to discuss the details of that here on the pages of newspaper or on the podium” for obvious reasons.
Appraising his chances in the February 6, 2010 governorship election, he described them as very bright because “Anambra State is a PDP state”. As he put it, Anambra is more than 85 to 90 percent PDP. He predicted a landslide victory for PDP in the election, saying “we are not leaving anything to chance. We will win landslide. We don’t just want to win; we want to win very convincingly and that is why we are not leaving any stone unturned in the mobilization process that is ongoing. As you are aware, as the largest party not only in the state but in the country and Africa at large, there were almost 50 governorship aspirants who were interested in picking the ticket of the party which is a demonstration of the fact that it is the party on ground”.
Soludo, while stressing that the reconciliation efforts of PDP was on full throttle to assuage the anger of aggrieved aspirants and stakeholders following his emergence as the candidate, admitted that a 100 percent healing may not be feasible before the poll early next year. He had this to say about the pent up anger in some quarters with the state chapter of the PDP: “And of course, following that (his choice), there were some that are nursing some feelings and we are in the process of the healing. And I can tell you right now - if you have 50 per cent of PDP members working for PDP, you have a landslide victory. And I can bet you that we have well passed 80 per cent in terms of getting the entire house together. So, I think basically, this is a PDP state and the next government will be formed by the PDP under my leadership.”
On his promise of a quick turn-around of Anambra State into a model city state as the new African Dubai-Taiwan and the feasibility of the plan, he stressed that Dubai and Taiwan were developed due to sheer vision, outstanding leadership and entrepreneurship of the people. He promised to galvanize and mobilize Anambra to achieve a similar feat.
Said Soludo, “…Anambra State is uniquely better endowed to do better than even Taiwan and Dubai because it has the largest concentration of entrepreneurs anywhere in Africa. Anambra people are all over Nigeria, all over Africa, all over the world, especially in the United States developing those climes. Anambra has a unique geographical advantage. It has a boundary with the North through Benue and Kogi; it has a boundary with the west through Delta, boundary with South-south through Rivers, boundary with Imo, Abia and Enugu states.”
He described Anambra as a very special state in the country with the highest population density after Lagos and so uniquely positioned with potentially navigable waterways by way of the River Niger, which is being dredged. “And I can see the skylines along the banks of the River Niger. What you require is leadership and vision and that is what has been lacking totally – leadership and vision for our people,” he stressed.
Speaking further on what Anambra State needs to leapfrog to the enviable levels attained by Dubai and Taiwan, the PDP candidate said the full potentials of the people would be unleashed “when they see leadership that they can trust; leadership they can believe in a proven hand that can mobilize not only the domestic but also global resources of the people to move forward.”
Sun News
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