By Jude Michael
A support group of Anambra Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, comprising commercial transport operators and truck drivers, under the aegis of Solution Marshals, has given a thumbs up to the Anambra State Government on the projects so far executed and those currently ongoing. The group made this known, October 4, during a guided tour of journalists in the state led by Comrade Osita Obi, human rights activist, as well as National Coordinator of Solution Marshals.
The projects toured included the ongoing flyover in Ekwulobia, the new-look Okpoko Town, General Hospital, Okpoko and Ekwulobia General Hospital.
Osita Obi, in his assessment after the tour, said the essence was to acquaint journalists with the achievements of the Governor with a view to verifying government’s claims on its projects; even as he said it provided an opportunity for the people of the state to see how the government was spending their taxes.
He lauded Soludo for turning Okpoko from a slum to a livable place and said the Governor deserved a second chance to complete what he had started.
‘The Governor has done tremendously well and deserves support from the people to achieve his developmental agenda for the state this tenure and that of 2025,’ Obi stated, while recalling the governor’s strides in education that saw the initial employment of 5,000 teachers that, according to him, had eased the dearth of teachers in the state.
He also recalled Soludo’s free ante-natal policy for women, as well as free child delivery.
‘The Government has equally empowered 5,000 youths through the One Youth-Two-Skills programme with grants for start-up and this has eliminated crime and hard drugs intake by youths of the state,’ Obi pointed out.
For her part, Dr Mrs Kenechi Nnaji (Senior Medical Officer), at Okpoko General Hospital, said most residents of Okpoko were poor but that the government was providing free mother and child care. She said everything concerning pregnancy was free, including child delivery in every general hospital in the state.
Nnaji noted that previously, many doctors had unemployment challenges but that now many had been employed.
For his part also, the Secretary General of the group, Comrade Emmanuel Oramalu, said, ‘What we are saying is that Soludo is working. This is the first time in the history of politics in Nigeria that a first-time Governor deliberately delivered dividends of democracy to the people without thinking about the next election.
‘From his first day in office, he showed the people that he came to work for them. Through Soludo, the story of Okpoko in the Ogbaru Council Area has changed. He has transformed Okpoko and today there are hospitals, schools, roads, and even water, to drink in the area that had been abandoned for decades.’
At Ekwulobia General Hospital, Dr Chinelo Madubike, Chief Medical Director, CMD, praised Soludo for his inputs in the hospital by way of beefing of staff strength and free ante natal services, which, she said, had made the hospital busier. The CMD said this had led to more births as mothers now flocked there.
She said the State Government had provided orthopedic beds, incubators, x-ray machines and solar panels, which, she said, provided regular power supply.
Madubike said four doctors were now in the hospital as against one earlier, even as she however called for more doctors to meet the UN standard.
