Insecurity as Soludo’s nemesis ahead of 2025 poll

Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s efforts to revamp Anambra State in the last three years recorded successes. But the worsening spate of insecurity – caused by killings, armed robberies, kidnappings for ransom and cultism – has clouded the administration’s achievements and put a dent in his reelection quest, LAWRENCE NJOKU reports.

Anambra State governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, is a worried man. This is because the clear vision he caught before his assumption of office in 2021 on how to make the needed difference from his predecessors in the state is being threatened by insecurity.

As one of the finest academics the state could boast of, he had hoped that making the needed difference in the first tenure of his administration would boost his chances of a seamless second term next year.

He had indeed set out for work after taking his oath of office with a new approach to governance of the state. Part of what he felt would augur in the interest of the state was for his government to effectively take charge of the revenues coming into it. Finances belonging to the state were collected by third parties who remitted whatever pleased them into the coffers of the state government. Soludo had, therefore, automated the revenue collection of the state.

While appraising that initiative recently, the governor had stated that the system had improved the revenue base of the Anambra from N1.5 million, which he met when he assumed office to N3 billion monthly. He had expressed confidence in the ability of the state to generate N10 billion monthly as the target of his administration.

He had also wanted to improve and expand the infrastructure of the state. In the desire to do this, he had approached the state House of Assembly in 2022 for a loan facility of N100 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The lawmakers approved the loan to be obtained. Soludo, however, backtracked and refused to secure the loan. Rather, he opted to make do with what comes into the state coffers to do his job.

Explaining his inability to borrow even a kobo since he assumed office, he had insisted that his administration has very narrow stringent criteria for borrowing, stressing that he was not interested in plunging the state into further debts.

Yet, Soludo has continued to improve infrastructure in the state with programmes that cut across health, education, transport, roads, agriculture, and human capital development among others. He has continued to pay salaries and pensions.

Only recently, his state emerged victorious at the National Primary Healthcare Leadership Challenge where it clinched two coveted awards: Best State in the South-East Zone and the Overall Best State in Nigeria.

That victory swelled the pocket of the state with a grand prize totaling $1.2 million. This includes $500,000 as the best in the South-East and an additional $700,000 as the national overall best in the grand finale.

He has cured the non-conduct of elections in the local government areas of the state as he saw through one recently that produced elected chairmen and councilors. Until September this year, the last time the state held local government elections were in 2013.

He was not done. He also brushed aside recently the storm gathering over his possible clinching of a second term return ticket of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with the Supreme Court validating the leadership of Sly Ezeokenwa as the party’s national chairman.

Prior to the affirmation of the apex court, Edozien Njoku had held sway. Soludo’s chances of retaining the ticket of the party were being threatened because he never reckoned with the Njoku leadership.

But while he relishes these achievements, one thing that has put a serious snag in his administration is the ravaging insecurity that seems to have defied his methodologies and ideas. This is not giving the Soludo-led administration a good name.

On his assumption of office, Soludo had endorsed a tripartite discussion with arm bearing groups, the presidency and governors of the southeast region as a way of ending insecurity which he inherited.

He had told residents of the state: “We can’t build this homeland by turning the sword against each other. Ndi Anambra loves their homeland but the recent upsurge in criminality poses a great threat. My heart bleeds to see and hear about our youth dying in senseless circumstances. Every criminal gang—kidnappers, wicked murderers, arsonists, rapists, thieves – all now claim to be freedom fighters.

“There is no conflict that dialogue, in good faith, cannot resolve. Our government is determined to urgently restore peace and security in Anambra, and we will seek the active cooperation and collaboration of all stakeholders.”

He went further: “To IPOB/ESN, the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), as well as the disparate armed groups in the forests, it is time to interrogate both the purpose and means of your campaign. To the politicians playing politics with insecurity, you are riding a tiger. The current trajectory is a road to desolation. Let us get around the table and talk. Let the elite in the closet come out, and let’s debate our future and forge a consensus.

“Every day there is a ‘sit at home’, these poor masses lose an estimated N19.6 billion in Anambra alone. Due to the protracted breakdown of law and order, businesses are relocating outside Igboland, with growing unemployment, and traders who used to come to shop in Onitsha, Aba among others are going elsewhere. Who is losing? By forcing our children—the future of Igboland—to stay at home instead of being in school, while even the critically sick people (including pregnant women) cannot go to hospital, we harm our future.”

He had offered an olive branch to those willing to lay down their arms, assuring that the government was ready to rehabilitate them for the good of the state and the society at large.

But three years after the call, insecurity festers in Anambra. The right dictum that could address the scourge that has now become a worry to the residents and visitors to the state is yet to be struck. There are deep worries over escalating killings, kidnappings for ransom, cultism and other crimes that have taken over the state in recent times. Almost on a daily basis, several stories emanating from the state have continued to give the state a bad name and a no-go area.

Recently, a group of non-indigenes in the state through their chairman, Abubakar Sani, and Secretary, Adebayo Adewusi, had declared vast parts of the state as no-go areas due to worsening insecurity.

The group lamented the deteriorating security situation in 15 out of the 21 local government areas of the state; the abduction of a retired Anglican Archbishop of Nnewi Diocese, Most Rev. Godwin Okpala, who was kidnapped alongside his driver; the killing of a lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK Awka), Dr Fabian Osita.

They identified ‘no –go’ areas in several local government areas, including Orumba area (Ogbunka,Umunze, Ajali); Aguata LGA (Ezinifite, Uga, Umuchu); Ogbaru LGA (Ogbe-Ukwu near Iyiowa, Okoti, Ogwuaniocha, Ossomalla, Atani); Ihiala LGA (Ihiala town, Mbosi, Azia,Uli, Amorka, parts of Okija); Nnewi south LGA (Ukpor, Osumenyi); Idemili north and south (Abatete, Nkpor, Ogidi, Obosi, Oba,Ojoto) and Ekwusigo LGA (Ozubulu, Oraifite)

Some residents that spoke on the rising insecurity in the state insisted that it was becoming dangerous to conduct any activity in the state for fear of insecurity, adding that it had already taken a toll on the economy of the state.

Convener of Anambra Human Rights Watch, Silas Madu, while lamenting the spate of kidnappings, stated that millions of naira is being paid in ransom to hoodlums with any resistance from the state government.

“It is a worrisome development that kidnappings have been allowed to thrive in Anambra State despite the numerous police checkpoints in the state. For instance, some months ago, the market leader at Mgbuka Obosi Spare Parts Market, was kidnapped at his shop along Onitsha-Owerri road, till date, he has not been found,” he said.

A Public Affairs Analyst, Dr George Ibe, stated that the spate of insecurity is seriously distorting the progress being made in the state, explaining however that it was worrisome that “no part of the state is safe”.

“I pity the governor who has done his utmost best to give the state another phase. We are really making some progress in governance under Soludo. But you cannot say the governor is doing well with this level of fear and insecurity everywhere. People are killed or kidnapped anyhow. On a single Sunday in October this year, 12 persons were killed in Nibo Community in Awka South Local Government area.

“A day later, another reprisal attack took place where six people were killed. The killings were attributed to cult activities. But since, there are other skirmishes here and there that are not good for the state. I think there should be a focus on how to improve security in the state,” he stated.

Speaking with The Guardian during the just-concluded Annual General Meeting of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), a businessman based in the state, Jeffery Uwaoma, stated that the government needs to reactivate all in her laws to check rising insecurity in the state.

“I refuse to accept that what is going on has anything to do with the governorship election of next year. The ongoing insecurity was inherited if you will remember. Remember that even Soludo escaped being killed during his campaign in his own community. What I think is that we have not gotten to the root of this matter.

“We do not know the actual solution. The security operatives are even tracking them daily, but how they rose to occupy various places in the state is still a surprise to me. I think we need to support each other to tackle this matter,” he stated.

Apparently rattled by the development and perhaps the impact that it would have on the state in the coming election, Governor Soludo is no longer prepared to take any chance. Speaking last week in Lagos, after announcing plans to launch a joint security operation, codenamed “Operation Udo Ga Achi”, meaning “Let peace reign”, he agreed that armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism and touting as the principal problems causing insecurity in the state.

Soludo, who renewed his offer of amnesty to criminals in the state, given them until February 2025 to turn a new leaf, stated that his administration had procured 168 patrol vehicles, which would be distributed to various security agencies in the state.

“Apart from the support we will be given to the security agencies; we are also deploying ICT in the fight against insecurity. When we came in as governor, about seven local government areas were in the grip of hoodlums, but we took on them head on and liberated all those communities. Meanwhile the State Commissioner of Police, Nnaghe Itam, has continued to assure that his officers would not rest until violent crimes are subdued and sanity restored in the state.

The Commissioner, who had intensified stakeholders meetings with various local governments in the state, also urged the cooperation of the residents in tackling crime waves in the state.