Governor-elect of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo says his swearing-in ceremony as governor will not take “a kobo” of state funds.
Soludo was speaking on the third day of the meeting of his 80-man transition committee headed by one time World Bank boss, Obiageli Ezekwesili, held at Tulip Hotel, Agulu, Anambra State.
The outgoing governor, Mabuaburochukwu Obiano is due to hand over to Soludo on 17 March 2022.
Sources say the gov-elect had scaled down a proposed N500 million budget for the transition to N20 million, but Soludo’s comments show this to be incorrect. He said, rather “there will be no event, no ceremony, no party. I only need a few people to witness the swearing-in, and have the office opened for me to get down to work, work, work. Not a kobo will be spent. I have expressed that wish”.
He warned that his government will be “disruptive” and people should not expect business as usual. The governor-elect’s rhetorics could be signalling a new regime of tight fiscal discipline that could place him on a head-on collision with political profiteers and entrenched interests in the state.
He also announced that henceforth, “the official car of the governor will be Innoson cars”. Innoson Motors is West Africa’s first indigenous car maker located in the industrial city of Nnewi, Anambra State.
Prof. Soludo, a former governor of Nigeria’s central bank, won the governorship on 6 November 2021 under the state ruling party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, on his third attempt.
His 80-member transition committee comprised mostly accomplished technocrats drawn from several states of Igboland has received widespread positive reviews.
But there are concerns that he is assuming office at a time of political instability and economic dislocations in the region due to separatist agitations.
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