By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
There is palpable fear amongst the serious commentariat in addressing relevant issues because most of the viral news attributed to esteemed personages may have been cooked up by the feeble minds of the fake news industry. Anambra State Governor-elect, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has had many words put in his mouth by these fake news manufacturers.
It’s therefore interesting seeing Prof Soludo while interacting
with the members of his transition committee laughing off one of the fibs that
quoted him as saying that he would not spend more than N20 million for his
swearing-in ceremony.
Soludo cleared the matter thusly: “I have made a wish that not even One Kobo of Anambra people’s money will be spent on the swearing-in ceremony. It is a wish, and I mean it. What are we spending money on? Just a few people coming to the inauguration and witnessing it, then I will open office and get down to work immediately. I do not wish any event, dancers or players and all that. I just want to show up for work, like every first workday. Though it is going to be a Friday, which is the weekend, I’m going to work for over eight hours that day. No ceremony, no event, no party, nothing. Not even 10 Kobo will be spent. So the people who are saying N20million has been budgeted should go and tell us where they will get that money. It is going to be work, work, work, and that is what we epitomize.”
These words definitely would not sound well to the ears of the
idlers and loafers littering the political landscape. Free-loaders may of
course get up in arms, but it does a world of good that the work ethic of the
quintessential Anambra person is being given pride of place by the
Governor-elect.
Leo-Stan
Ekeh, the CEO of the trailblazing Zinox Computers who is not from Anambra State
once reportedly said: “The wealth, energy and knowledge per square metre in
Anambra does not exist in any other parts of Africa.”
It needs to be reiterated always that it is work that drives successful
societies and civilisations. Productivity matters, and any leader that does not
drive it has crucially missed the essence and fallen in love with the accident
of base consumption.
Soludo goes to the kernel of the matter as he prioritizes his
strategy of promoting indigenous brands such as Innoson Motors and the Akwete
cloth.
I believe it was during his campaign tours, while at Chief Cletus Ibeto’s house in Nnewi, that Soludo made the promise that he would use only Innoson Motors as his official cars. On a lighter note, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, CEO of Innoson, asked those around to please take note of what Soludo had said!
Seriously,
one would have thought that it was one of those political campaign promises
that would be put on one side once power is captured. It stands Soludo in good
grace that he is living up to his words this way: “I said it even during the
campaigns, and I meant it, that if I win, the official car of the Governor of
Anambra State will be Innoson Motors.”
It’s cool by me seeing Soludo, aka Charlie nwa Mgbafor, clad in
his smart Akwete dress, stressing that it was not a coincidence that he has
been wearing Akwete, and adding for good measure that his intention is to make
a statement with the dressing.
According to Soludo, “My Akwete dress is not just a dress; it’s a
statement. I want to make a statement with it. You know, in the entire
Southeast, this is the only textile product alive, and it’s handmade by the
women of Akwaete in Abia State. Igboland is one and we must protect it. We want
to bring back the zeal of patronizing our own. The dresses I will wear are
those made in our place here. We must protect the things that are made in our
place. Something is about to happen in Igboland, and together we will get
there.”
The
personal example of the leader goes a long way in paving the path of constructive
development. As Chinua Achebe famously said in The Trouble with Nigeria, “The
Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to
the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the
hallmarks of true leadership.”
Anambra stands as the pivotal state of the Southeast, being the
home of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Alex Ekwueme, Cyprian
Iwene Tansi, Cardinal Arinze, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie etc. It is
incumbent on Anambra State to drive development from the teeming geopolitical
zone to the broad national plain.
The
Soludo example in Anambra State should uplift nationwide attention to
development, for as the Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public
Enlightenment, C. Don Adinuba, wrote in “Developmentalism and Nigeria’s
Governance” in Businessday of June 7, 2016, “It is a mark of vacuity in our
national politics that even ethnic and sectional organisations like Afenifere,
Ohaneze and Arewa People’s Congress which claim that their raison d’etre is the
wellbeing of their peoples have no development agendas which address the
challenges of hunger, poverty and ignorance among their peoples. None has a
blueprint for job creation, security, agricultural production, industrial
growth, quality education or anything in their respective regions.”
Anambra State comes tops with 139 marks in admission to Nigeria’s
Unity Schools. The educated workforce is available. Anambra is one vast market
intervolving entrepreneurship and workable commerce. The Made-in-Anambra work
ethic suits Prof Soludo like his Akwete cloth.
It is with bated breath that the world waits for Prof Chukwuma
Charles Soludo to assume duties as Anambra State Governor on March 17 in this
year of Our Lord.
*Uzoatu, a poet, is a commentator on public
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