Leadership By Data: Is Soludo Obsessed With Roads?

One of the common sayings of Soludo, though not his signature quote, is “if you cannot measure it, you can’t improve it”. This saying has formed a major pivot of Governor Soludo’s management style. It has become so pervasive that no one who works for the government today thinks haphazardly or proposes any policy or program devoid of relevant evidence. Soludo would tell you, “In God we trust, every other person must provide data/evidence”. Hold this thought in one hand, and let me take you on a trip to periods during Soludo’s 2021 governorship campaigns.

It is on record that Soludo remains the only candidate who ran the most extensive and insightful campaign in spite of the widespread insecurity of the time. He himself was attacked in Isuofia by marauding gunmen, an attack that led to the death of three Policemen attached to him at the time — a story for another day. The crux of this time trip is to underscore that Soludo’s campaign was a survey, an open survey that provided profound data on the exact pulse of the people at an accuracy level of about 98%.

Anambra was in a crisis of a dearth in road infrastructure. Many communities were yet to see an inch of tarred road. Much of Awka North was a total wilderness, including the tragic experience of having to crisscross five other Local Government areas before accessing the Local Government headquarters in Achalla. Anambra West was another Local Government in the trenches with zero access to Nzam, the Local Government headquarters. If these two Local Government headquarters had no tarred road linking them to the rest of decent humanity, the state of roads in the communities that constitute them can only be imagined, not experienced. Okpoko and Onitsha were completely dead and a shadow of what a liveable city should be. From poor inner-city roads to the total collapse of major road arteries that made doing business and living in the area hellish. Awka was described as a “glorified village”, Ekwulobia was totally not on the map, and Nnewi was a horrific billionaires’ ghetto.

It was this data-driven realization that led to the famed declaration of a state of emergency on Anambra roads by Governor Soludo upon assumption of office. And if you know Soludo and his track records, he is not a man given to hasty decision-making. However, if and when he takes a decision backed by data, he follows it with single-mindedness and a consistency capable of squeezing water out of rocks.

Before Soludo, if you assembled 10 Ndi Anambra in a room and asked them to set a priority for their state government, eight would indicate roads. In fact, the top three requests the majority of Anambra residents made to Soludo during the campaigns were “Road! Road! Road!”. Then the business class in Onitsha would add a footnote that says, “help us rid Onitsha of Agbero (touts)”.

To this preponderant request overwhelmingly made by Ndi Anambra, the Soludo administration has responded forcefully such that in 33 months, Gov. Soludo has built over 700km of roads with over 410km already asphalted, constructed 8 bridges and over 400km of dilapidated roads rehabilitated in the “Operation Zero Pothole” initiative embarked upon by the Soludo administration. And still counting!

Soludo is not obsessed with roads alone, as other aspects of his social contract with Ndi Anambra are equally receiving unprecedented attention, and this has been validated by the awards and statistics already pouring in. However, one can argue without contradiction that Prof. Chukwuma Soludo CFR is a man defined by his consistency to excellence. And if Ndi Anambra are his employers, he is under oath to work according to his pact with them.

— Mazi Ejimofor Opara PhD writes from Awka, Anambra State.