Mr. Charles Soludo, Governor of Anambra State.
By Egufe Yafugborhi
Talkative Charles Soludo must end his know-it-all showboating in governance. He must stop going about bragging about hollow promises of turning Anambra to an eldorado.
Campaigns are over, mandate duly handed over. Time for playing to the gallery is over. Time for Soludo to walk the talk. Under him, nothing in Anambra has changed, if things are not getting worse by his actions and inactions. Anambra under Soludo can’t change on wishing thinking or rhetorics of rich economics grammar.
He got sworn in and without any meaningful mitigating interventions in place, he declared cancellation of IPOB stay-at-home order, as if the sit-at-home was imposed by government in the first instance. And the result, ‘ungun known men’, burnt the governor’s home local government secretariat and wasted innocent lives to prove their bragging rights.
Soludo, without imposing any determined force against defiance, declared cancellation on the extortion gangs who imposed and collected unapproved levies from traders in Anambra major markets. The feedback, the violent gangs have become more daring, still collecting the forced levies from the hapless traders.
Under Soludo, with the increase in killings Anambra continues to drift into a Hobbesian state. It is left to be determined whether there is any functional police station in Anambra today in the true sense of crime fighting as being uniform wearing law enforcement officer.
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Police personnel have all taken a hide, working in muftis to sustain their extortions on the weak among the populace. Under this atmosphere of lawlessness, Anambra is daily drifting into Southern Nigeria’s most unsafe capital. It is perhaps head to head in pole position with Imo in terms of mindless killings.
Under this atmosphere, the bloodsuckers are killing with reckless abandon, most incidents unreported. May 4th, they got to South Africa based Kene Mbeegbu in Ozubulu, his hometown in Ekwusigo Local Government Area. A generous man in the estimation of his folks, the unknown gunmen have had one failed attempt at the life of Kene in his frequent homecomings. He wasn’t that lucky on this occasion.
They ensnared and shot at him as he tried escaping in his black Wrangler, Sport Utility Vehicle. They dragged him out, stripped him to his pants and shot him to the chest, murdered him in cold blood. The community had been thrown into mourning again, less than a week earlier over a similar killing.
Hardly anyone is safe in Anambra today, except for Soludo, co-officeholders and individuals with means to buy their safety in the hands of the blood suckers. Last month a step brother, transporting an Anambra family from Delta state for a homecoming event had a bitter taste of the reign of terror. He was shot in the head, throat, left to die on the journey into state. His being alive today remains a mystery.
This is the task before Soludo. It will be foolhardy to think you can superintend over terrorism-overwhelmed Anambra with a the mindset that he is still governing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Governing comfort zone CBN is nothing like governing Anambra state. Two extremely different ball games.
The earlier Soludo realises this and wake from his slumber, the better for the legacy he wishes to leave behind for his people when he serves his time. Anambra is bleeding. Cheap oratory won’t save her. Radical actions must to taken to rescue Anambra from its drift into a state of nature.
Egufe Yafugborhi, is a public affairs commentator, writes from Port Harcourt.
