—He should focus on security, job employment

DESPITE his apparent preparedness to render quality service to Anambra state, Governor Chukwuma Soludo has been warned to be wary of political sabotage, overbearing power of the federal government, corruption, negative influence of party members as well as poor cooperation from the state legislature.

This is as about 77.9 percent of residents and indigenes of Anambra State have thrown their weight behind the capability of Professor to address the most critical challenges facing the State as his new tenure as Governor enters the third week.

According to the result of the survey carried out by Nextier, a leading public advisory firm in Nigeria, the governor has been advised to give priority to issues of insecurity, unemployment, power supply among others in his bid to develop the state.

The Soludo administration perception survey profiled 12 critical challenges, including access to affordable food, affordable housing, electricity, healthcare, jobs, land, motorable roads, pipe-borne water, public transportation, quality education, security, and the impact of multiple taxes on small businesses.

Participants in the survey, who are Anambra State residents and indigenes, including those who reside outside the State, identified the most pertinent challenges as security (84.7 percent), jobs (83.8 percent) and electricity (79.1 percent). All respondents that took part in the survey are adults aged 18 years and above.

The survey, which was released yesterday, used a structured instrument with ten questions segmented into three main sections. Questions in the first section elicited the respondents’ demographic information.

The second section focused on the critical sectoral challenges in Anambra State as perceived by the respondents and measured their expectations from Prof. Soludo’s administration. Finally, the third section focused on the perceived challenges that may affect Prof. Soludo’s governance agenda in Anambra State.

According to the survey report, the specific objectives were to ascertain the perceived critical challenges requiring state government intervention; assess the level of optimism and expectations of Ndi Anambra on Prof. Soludo’s effectiveness in tackling the identified critical challenges and ascertain the perceived threats to the actualisation of Prof. Soludo’s governance agenda in the State.

The cross-sectional survey relied on online and in-person data collection to obtain input from 560 randomly sampled respondents across 21 local government areas in Anambra State.

Respondents outside Anambra State filled out the survey shared via social media channels.

Prof. Soludo, who has, since his swearing-in on March 17, hit the ground running, appears to understand the weight of the public expectations. His pronouncements and actions signal a public official committed to achieving some significant results.

On security, the Governor has instructed state government officials to stop observing the Monday “Sit-at-Home” order imposed by the militant wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra.

The announcement of his cabinet, staffed with top technocrats, is another indication of an administration that understands the weight of its challenges and is committed to addressing them.

The Nextier survey report constitutes part of a series of governance aids to help the administration track their performance and how it resonates with the people. It continues the support Nextier provided to the Anambra State Transition Committee led by Dr. Oby Ezekwesili.

Survey respondents, however, fear that certain factors could compromise Soludo’s efforts despite the governor’s apparent preparedness.

These factors include corruption, political sabotage, inadequate funding, weak public service, the negative influence of party members, poor cooperation from the State legislature, the structure of the federal system and the overbearing power of the federal government, insecurity, and litigation.

The survey concluded that Ndi Anambra are aware of the critical challenges requiring state government intervention.

Therefore, Prof. Soludo’s administration could benefit from running a people-centred government with the best people. The policies and programmes should be evidence-informed and driven by a logical theory of change, the response advised in the survey.

The government should continuously assess its programmes and use the lessons learned to improve effectiveness, said Nextier, which plans to run the survey every quarter to track the trend as the government continues to implement its policies and programmes.