Tony Okafor, Awka
The Anambra State governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has said he must be very careful before he will sign any World Bank-assisted Project in the state so as not to jeopardise the future of the people.
Soludo made the disclosure during a live programme on radio with the people of the state monitored by our correspondent.
The governor who was reacting to a question from a caller, said some of those projects were the most expensive projects in the world because they would give high exchange rate during payback.
The governor said he had told authorities concerned that he would not sign any World Bank or foreign loans, unless its value would be such that would generate the resources to pay back the loans.
He said, “If it is from World Bank you are waiting for your training and so on, sorry my apologies for you. World Bank projects are loans, not free lunch. They are bound to be paid by our children and children children. And I’m not going to take any of such loans except it is clear to me how it will be paid for.
“Now that the exchange rate is somehow; if you borrow from World Bank at Dollar rate, Central Bank will change it at 400 and something naira to the dollar; then we use it. When repayment time comes, you pay at N700 and something naira to the dollar.
“Some of these loans are the most expensive funds in the World. So before I sign any of such loans, I will think not once, twice but ten times before committing the future of this state to those kind of funding. You think World Bank are bringing you free money, it is a loan, business.”
Speaking further, Soludo restated that all the unknown gunmen caught terrorising Anambra state were Igbo, not other tribes, but South-Easterners who would hide under the notion that criminality had become a very lucrative business.
On his plans for the disability community in the state, the governor said “We are coming with an agent for the Disabled Rights Commission, a corporative movement that will be domiciled in every ward of the state to torch persons with disabilities more fundamentally than how it is done before.
“Before, it has all manner of shows but this time we want to approach it in a manner that is more methodical and systematic geared towards touching thousands of lives, not tens of lives
“Those activities are for shows, they don’t appeal to me at all and not a good PR. I like to solve problem at the grassroots.
On road construction, Soludo said every road project constructed under his administration must guaranteed to last at least 20 years, with technical engineers, bureau of public procurement, special implementation team, ministry of works, and resident engineers who would inspect the roads signing to that effect.
On touting, the governor stressed that it was not a profession, saying that majority of the touts would do nothing else for a living, hence the call by his administration to engage them into meaning ventures and crafts that would make them self reliant.
The citizens’ chat with the governor was broadcast live simultaneously by five different electronic stations in the state.
