Everyday Soludo’s experiment continues to point towards a new thesis of governance. Like many political, religious and business Elites, and even the common people have confirmed, there is something Soludo is doing in governance that the rest of Nigeria needs to emulate and replicate.
Before Soludo, there was this misconception that “the people” only care about “stomach infrastructure” over and above politics of development. It was not really easy to dare rethink this, let alone puncture it, because for many years some Politicians have deepened the idea that politics is transactional — negotiating and frittering public resources to servicing short and selfish interests of a few who per chance come close to power. While this seemed to have worked, it bred a deep gulf of mistrust between the government and the people. It became difficult to mobilize revenues like taxes from the people because they do not see how such pooled resources better their lives.
A Society where the people have learnt to survive without government, providing for themselves what ordinarily should come from the common pool, is a Society on the precipice.
What then is Soludo’s magic thesis?
Prior to his assumption of office, he told Ndi Anambra that he would show clearly to them what every kobo of their money given to him is used for. He also says to members of his team, and I quote, “In spending public resources, you must first ask yourself, ‘if this were my personal money would I spend it in this way?’ If the answer you get is NO, then do not waste public resources. It is a betrayal of trust”. Those close enough to see how Soludo carries out the day to day activities of government would tell you that it has become cliche for people to first test their demands against this sacred assessment before making presentation to the government of the day.
What Soludo has done is to replace the politics of stomach infrastructure with what he calls, “Sustainable neo-welfarism”. This new system encourages government to lead with empathy, devising strategies on how to strengthen the weakest links within the larger social system. For instance, Soludo’s free public education has further democratized opportunity for all, providing greater leverage for poor families to break free from what he refers to as the “poverty dynasty”. His free antenatal and delivery program has helped to improve maternal and infant health reducing the mortality and morbidity rates to almost zero. His emphasis on skills is central to creating productive individuals for the Society, and his training and empowerment of young people with at least two skills is a precursor to income redistribution where new industry players/millionaires can emerge within the remit of legitimate enterprise.
Doing this has earned Soludo enormous goodwill amongst the people. He has become a sitting Governor who is not afraid to engage his people on the streets and markets. Of course, wherever they see him they want to lavish him with gifts, because he has done things that put more money in their pockets and make life easy and worth living for them. Today in Anambra, taxes are paid with no resistance, trust for government has improved more significantly than any other time in the State’s post democratic history. Could this be the birth of a new governance and socio-economic system? If yes, what name will be most appropriate for it — Soludonomics or Soludoism?
— Mazi Ejimofor Opara PhD is a Medical Sociologist and PR practitioner.
