Soludo’s Small Sticks And Huge Carrots

As Governor Soludo officially commissioned the Solution Arena — a one-stop spot for the sales of fruits, vegetables and grills — in Awka today, I was careful to put my gaze on the beneficiaries many of whom had thought the initial fierce clampdown on street trading by the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA) task force was an end to their livelihoods.

It is not unusual that at that level of thinking nothing of worth would make sense to them no matter how noble, even where clear logic topples their actions. One constant guarantee with Soludo’s leadership is his inability to leave the poor and vulnerable without alternatives.

As one made from adversity, Soludo is not one to be schooled on the need to keep the poor hopeful by providing vistas of opportunities for them. His only point of departure is that there is no relationship between “Poverty and Anyhowness”. One can be poor and organized; one can be poor and productive. As such, street trading and indiscriminate erection of markets are indicators of psychological dissonance that can only be corrected by creating functional systems that benefit all.

While Soludo dismantled the queer structures of street trading that defaced the Anambra urbanscape, making life in rural areas chaotic, he is deliberately erecting new ones and this is what the Solution Arena represents. It is the new model for petty trading in tandem with global standards for safe streets.

The huge carrot is that the Solution arena is a FREE space of open stalls, fully serviced for the purpose it was created. Little wonder, a nursing young mother besieged the Governor today with a gift at the Solution Arena. This is what governance in Anambra has become. This explains the street mantra across Anambra — THE SOLUTION IS HERE!!!

— Mazi Ejimofor Opara writes from Awka, Anambra State.