The Soludo Solution: bold visions and great expectations By Chido Nwakanma
Do you know that the average Keke rider in Onitsha, Anambra State
contributes N90, 000 to taxes annually? Or that the pepper seller in the
market similarly contributes N50, 000 per annum from the N200 she pays
daily? Or that the taxes they pay ends up in private pockets rather than in
government coffers, whether local or state?
Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo outlined on 17 March 2022 his bold
vision for Anambra State, incorporating an “agenda for an itinerant tribe in
search of a liveable and prosperous homeland”.
Taxation will form a significant part of the vision to transform and develop
the state as will technology. Soludo aims to “transit beyond petroleum into
the digital world of the 4th Industrial Revolution and envision Anambra as
an industrial, technology, and leisure/entertainment hub of West Africa”.
The Governor dropped a significant and symbolic hint. He intends to live
in Anambra State after governing it! Allusion?
Taxation Tripod
The Governor spoke on taxation in three areas.
First is the promise to ensure that citizens derive value for their taxes. Soludo
disclosed that he paid above N10million tax in 2021. He promised a valuefor-your-taxes dispensation. There will be a litmus test for expenditure
based on two questions: “a) if this is my hard-earned money from work and
profit, can I spend it this way? b) Is this the best way to spend the taxes and
levies collected from the poor traders and okada riders? If I cannot answer
Yes to both questions, I will hesitate to do so”.
Second, Governor Soludo expects every Anambra Citizen to pay their taxes.
He wants them to count on his pledge of accountability, transparency,
impactful and careful management.
Third, he envisions an Anambra Diaspora Tax whereby Anambrarians
living outside the state contribute to taxation. However, seeing as citizens
pay taxes where they live, how would the Anambra Diaspora Tax work?
What would be the parameters? Would be it flat or graduated? Would it not
amount to double or triple taxation for such citizens?
Bold ideas and visions
The inaugural speech resounded with ideas and bold visions befitting a
professor of economics and first-class brain. It was an example of the Big,
Hairy and Audacious Goal syndrome articulated by Jim Collins and Jerry
Porras in their book, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. “A
big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) is a clear and compelling long-term goal
guided by a company’s values and purpose”.
Characteristics of BHAG include paradigm shift, working outside comfort
zones and an ambitious yet accessible to explain goal.
Hear Soludo: “To effectively implement our ambitious agenda, we need 25-
30% of state gross domestic product (GDP) annual investment levels, which
is about $2.58 – $3.09 billion. Public sector investment is less than $100
million per annum at current levels. The gap seems daunting, but we are
undaunted. The internally generated revenue is barely 0.5% of state GDP.”
The Contract with Anambra People, Soludo added, “derives from three
seminal documents: (a) “Anambra Vision 2070—a 50-Year Development
Plan”, which I chaired the drafting; (b) “The Soludo Solution: A People’s
Manifesto for a Greater Anambra”; and (c) “The Transition Committee
(Combined) Report”—which built upon the first two”.
Presenting Anambra Vision 2070 document
Philosophical drivers
The philosophical drivers are One Anambra, One People, One Agenda. The
goal is to “build Anambra into a liveable and prosperous smart megacity”.
The Anambra State Soludo Solution has five pillars.
- Law and order (homeland peace and security);
- Economic transformation as Nigeria’s next axis of industrial-tech and
leisure. - Competitive and progressive social agenda (education, health, youth,
women, and vulnerable groups). - Governance, the rule of law and a rebirth of our value system; and
- Aggressively tackling our existential threat posed by the
environment—towards clean, green, planned, and sustainable cities,
communities, and markets.
It also includes a vision of a new framework for service delivery and
development in Public-Community Private Partnership (PCPP). Tasks
under PCPP include adopting schools, building roads/infrastructure,
managing government assets, receiving and managing development
matching grants, participating in sanitation and securing law and order.
Other elements of the Soludo Solution include:
Made in Anambra and concentric circle of patronage
“The Anambra State Government will only patronise Made in Anambra
products and services unless such goods or services are not currently made
in Anambra, then made in Nigeria, Africa, in that sequence. We are making
a statement when you see me in Innoson vehicles or my Akwete dress with
a pair of shoes made in Ogbunike/Nkwelle Ezunaka and Onitsha.”
Mr Governor and his deputy chose an IVM all-terrain vehicle (jeep) as
official vehicle and served local delicacies at the function.
Everything Technology
Technology will be a driver of production in Anambra, connecting it to the
world and the world to Anambra. The state will plug into and take
advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA). Expect a
high level of digitisation in services.
“We will soon inaugurate the Anambra Innovation and Technology
Advisory Council to drive the emergence of the digital tribe and mainstream
technology and innovation across all aspects of our lives, our International
Investment Council, our Global Friends of Anambra in Development, as well
as the Council on the Ease of Doing Business.”
Anambra Standards
It will serve as a new benchmark with a focus on excellence. Goods and
services produced in Anambra State must meet the relevant criterion.
Opportunity lies in having a committee to work with various professional
and occupational groups to dimension the Anambra Standards for various
goods and services.
Swords in ploughshares
Soludo called on the combatants who have turned Anambra State and the
East into a crime scene to put down their arms. He reprises Isaiah 2:3-4. “We
can’t build this homeland by turning the sword against each other. Ndi
Anambra love their land, 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- now claim to be freedom fighters. Criminality
cannot be sugar-coated. This must stop. All the stakeholders must now
review the narrative and the action plan.”
Maximising the Benefits
“With Ohanaeze’s estimate that some 11.6 million Igbos living in the North
and over 7 million in Lagos state and over 70% of our non-land assets
scattered all over Nigeria and the world, we need Nigeria and Nigeria needs
us. We need Africa and the world, and they need us”.
Will Soludo deliver? Can he deliver? Critics say the speech is an excellent
example of the theoretical prescriptions of an economist.
Human Capital experts state that past performance is a predictor of
potential. The nation can reference Soludo’s past performance in creating
today’s big banks from a market of 89 banks of varying size and capacity.
He made it work despite strong opposition. It worked even as the capital
base prescribed for the banks then seemed outlandish.
An actual area of concern for Soludo watchers is the predisposition to hubris.
He needs the collective wisdom and participation of Ndi Anambra. Mr
Governor must continually connect with ALL stakeholders and never
dismiss any. His initial moves of banning the revenue touts are welcome, but
it creates enemies in the immediate. What is the plan to avoid a vacuum?
The Soludo team also must manage expectations. The expectations are so
high, it could become an albatross. How do you meet such huge undefined
expectations? It will be an interesting case study. The first charge would be
to dimension them into measurable indicators. It helps all stakeholders to
keep a verifiable count.
Vision is one of the critical elements in successful development praxis. The
other is the capacity to execute. Indeed, the ability to execute distinguishes
achievers from laggards in Nigeria’s public sector management. Governor
Soludo must get the civil service on his side as the ones who know the
cemeteries and how to make the dead walk. In the first instance and another
chapter of four, Anambra State will live in exciting times of which the
Chinese philosopher spoke.
