Anambra State’s Governor Chukwuma Soludo has disclosed he had not taken any salary from the state since assuming office two years ago, as well as not taking any loans to fund any project.
Also, as the First Lady of Anambra State, his wife Nonye too had no official car but still drove their personal cars, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed.
The Governor made this disclosures at the celebration of his administration’s two years anniversary at the International Convention Center, Awka, the state capital on Sunday.
The celebration of the two years anniversary of Soludo’s administration was marked with the Pontifical Mass of Thanksgiving led by the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Nnewi, Most Rev. Jonas-Benson Okoye and the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Awka, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor.
According to Soludo, his regime was is deliberately executing the most austere government ever by cutting costs and not borrowing for the last two years.
Soludo said: “Any Governor that comes floods you with offers for borrowing and so on and so forth, but we decided for the first two years to demonstrate something, capacity to do more with less.
“And so far as has been said, for two years, despite receiving about 25 per cent in real terms or in dollar terms of what was in the past, we have chosen deliberately not to borrow.
“I have been asked severally; ‘how do you do without borrowing and with the difficult circumstances?’ And my answer is that we are doing so because we are executing the most austere measure government ever.
“As I speak to you, I am not taking any salary, I am not paid any salary by Anambra State government. Even the First Lady of Anambra doesn’t have any official car; she still drives my personal vehicles.”
The Governor said that his decision to cut wastes and the cost of governance was to direct resources and prioritise them to things that are important to the people of the state.
He said his administration had prioritised areas neglected in the past, building hospitals, roads schools and others in places that such amenities have never reached.
Soludo assured the people of Anambra that any kobo entrusted in his hand as the Governor would be accounted for, saying that if he ever borrowed, the people would see the projects the loan was used for and how those projects would repay the loan.
