Autonomy: LGAs Benefit More by Having Relationship with Governor – Anazodo, Nnewi North Mayor

~ Before I became chairman, we never benefited single project from state, federal govt

On Tuesday, the Board of Editors from THE RAZOR NEWSPAPER; the most authoritative online news outfit in Anambra State sat in a special interview with the Mayor of Nnewi North Local Government Area, Hon. Echezona Anazodo in his office. He spoke about his challenges in administering the local government, his projects, the upcoming local government election in the state and his plans going forward, and most importantly, the relationship he has been able to forge with Governor Chukwuma Soludo and the state government, which is translating into massive projects.

Excerpts:

You have been chairman of Nnewi North Local Government Area for over a year now, and we know this is a council area with high concentration of billionaires. We want to know how it has been superintending over the affairs of the local government.

Well, any leadership has its own challenges, even in those places you see as less endowed. The size of a place also determines the size of the problems of the leader. In the case of Nnewi, we are urban, but we still see ourselves like a rural community. We look at Nnewi from many angles, but one thing that helps me is that I have been around, and I understand how things work here. This is because of the experiences I have gathered all along in trying to serve Nnewi in different platforms and cadre. Before now, I have been the secretary of this local government for three years, before being the Mayor. I have also been the secretary of the town union for four years and the secretary of the youths for four years. So I have had opportunity of serving and contributing my quota in various levels and this made me understand how our people think, and the way they think may differ from how others may look at things.

So we started handling things from their perspective, and from the perspective of others, king that we have diverse personalities here. Also for you to be able to handle these high profile people, you have to think alongside with them and see reasons for what they are trying to say, only then will you comprehend. Nnewi is not too difficult, we are not violent people. We may make noise, but we rarely hurt each other and that is what keeps us. If you look at those people that may be in opposition, they may be people who also have relationship with you, either from your paternal or maternal side. So there is a limit to what they can do to champion their cause and that is the thing that keeps us together. Another way I see this is that this leadership is a platform for me to serve my people so every day, I have to think of how to give my best and God sees it, that is why He helps me with ways to meander through hurdles. My philosophy to life is that even if I have to stay just one day in this office, let it count. Again, considering how I came into office, it is about God, so I have to work in a way that will not disappoint God who brought me to where I am today.

Let us know, what is your relationship with the big names and money bags in this local government and how do they influence you decision and what you do here, viz-a-viz your relationship with the governor?

My relationship with them is going well. As for the governor, he is our boss in this state and we have to work in consonance with him. I know you may be asking if we are being controlled by the state because of the issue of autonomy, but I want to tell you that even if the state says you should take care of your local government , you will still not function in isolation because Nnewi North is part of the larger Anambra State, which also constitutes the constituency that the governor is supposed to govern. Nnewi North is part of the component that make up Anambra and without Nnewi North there will be no Anambra State, or let me say Anambra State will not be complete, let me put it that way. So the only thing that can help you is to have a healthy relationship with the governor and the state government. It is difficult for you to separate both, so once you understand this, it will help to know that the only way to succeed is to have a sound relationship with the state. It doesn’t cost anything. Rather it will profit the local government to have a good relationship with the state government. Before I became the chairman of Nnewi North, we spent roughly 16 to 18 years without having any tangible project here; either done by local government, state government or even federal government. This is apart from the one Etiaba did during that period (when she was Anambra governor for three months), subsequent governments have done nothing here and we started looking at it to know what the problem is. As the problem is that we need to have a synergy with state government to create a relationship. Two must agree to tango. If not, there are some certain things that are your rights that are also privileges, or happen based on relationships. So that is actually what having a relationship with the state has earned us.

Coming to the projects, the state government has projects, either already done or ongoing in Nnewi North. We too as a local government we have a lot of projects and if you move around, you will see that work is going on in every place in the local government, so we are better off with our relationship with the state government. So we are working together because if Nnewi North is good, it is good for all of us, not minding if we got it by being in good relationship with any one or not. What is important is that our local government is good.

ANSIEC has announced the date for Anambra Local Government election, we know of an agreement for political office holders in Nnewi North to do just one term. Will you be recontesting, knowing that just two years is not enough to achieve your dream for your people?

Let me be frank, even if I spend 10 years here, it will never be enough. If I stay here for 10 years, I will think I need more time to do more, so I’m not thinking in that line.

Like I said, the philosophy I had while entering into office is that let everyday that I stay in office count. I’m not too obsessed with power. I’m still young and have held other positions before now. The tenure of a Local Government Chairman is minimum of two years and maximum of four years, according to the Anambra local government law.

Why I’m not too keen is that, let it be that I’m doing well and the people drive it and ask for me to return. Even if I decide to go for second term and the people say I have not earned it, I won’t go. If I go I will fail. But even if I say I don’t want to go and the people say I should go, I can change my mind. I’m available to serve my people at this early stage of my life and the issue of second term is not what I want to think about now. We are just one years and two months in office.

Funding determines success of every administration. We don’t know if you are getting what you should?

I don’t understand the question. We have local government law 2024 and the way we are supposed to run our local government is clearly stated there. What we have is what is available for us to spend and that is what we are spending. Now, there is no state, local government that has enough to throw around. You have to strive to break even, you have to be more progressive in thinking to navigate and achieve some certain things, to know how to get and use what is available for you and run with. In Nnewi North, we are operating far above what is available to us because we are exploring other means for us to be able to survive.

You have to explore other needs to make sure you have enough to take care of the needs of your people. Many people can survive without allocation, why should I be talking about allocation as my only means when in Nnewi here, we have high concentration of billionaires, we have big markets every where that we can harness and I will be here talking about allocation. Even if they bring you the allocation, and bring those of others and give to you, you will still need more.

What are your major challenges you face here?

We have numerous challenges and they are all major. Everyone is facing security challenges, money to fund more projects, but the basic is that we have struggled so hard to maintain a synergy with the state government, and if there are things we can’t do, they will come and do it. That has been our driving force. And that is why this place is relatively calm. If you know this Local Government, it used to be hot, but today we are experiencing relative calmness. We have achieved peace and in that way development has started springing up in Anambra. That is what we are doing and the people are trusting us for it.

So what we are doing is to find problems in Nnewi North and solve them, and the state government is also finding problems in the state including Nnewi North Local Government and solving it too. That is why in Anambra we say solution is here and now solution continues when the new term of the governor begins.

There have been cases of fire outbreaks in Nnewi, what has your government done to curtail that?

Just today, we launched a fire truck in the area, while also inaugurating a team of fire fighters to mitigate frequent cases of outbreak of fire incidents in the town. This is coming just two weeks after a huge industrial layout, Ngobros Nigeria Limited was gutted by fire.

We launched this truck and also inaugurated a team of 15 fire fighters to ensure that incidents of fire outbreak in Nnewi North are tackled. Previously, we have had fire incidents in markets in Nnewi North, and even recently, we witnessed fire outbreak in a popular company. Even though we had efforts from the state fire fighting team, but we want to have a team in Nnewi that will complement what they are doing.

We are entering Harmattan season and we know that is the period fire ravages people’s property. So we have said that it will not happen again in Nnewi. We are taking our destiny in our hands. Me and my aides and the fire fighting team held a road show round Nnewi town today, with the new truck to sensitize residents of fire management, while also giving out hotlines for people to call in cases of fire outbreaks.