We Studied Soludo’s Dev’t Pattern, We’re Replicating it in Awka South – Mayor, Prince Okafor

~ Says he’s optimistic of second term, his people won’t let him down

Hon. Prince Chinedu Okafor is the chairman of Awka South Local Government Area. He is a chieftain of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and currently interested in contesting a second term in office. In this interview with Editors of THE RAZOR, he gave a rundown of his 14 months achievement as Mayor of the capital city, when insisting that he is sure of victory in the August local government election as his people greatly cherish him.

How long have you been in office and what have you been able to achieve within this period?

Thanks for having me in this interview. We have been here for 14 months, I was sworn in on the 3rd of October 2024, and immediately after that, we hit the ground running. First we keyed into Mr Governor’s pillars of development and decided to walk in his foot steps. The pillars include security, environment, infrastructural development and others.

We have also been able to key into the mindset of the governor and developed our security infrastructure. Some years back we used to have issues of security, cultism, drug abuse, prostitution and social vices but when the governor came in we decided that those vices will be put to stop, especially the one we refer to as Okeite.

The idea behind that one is getting rich quick and native doctors propel it to entice our young men and women and the people therefore see hardwork as not useful. But the governor said no, we can not have them anymore as they have caused great harm to our youths. We have since been fighting them and today you can see that we just had the best Christmas ever, and that is because of the efforts of the governor.

In the area of education we have also tapped the ideas of the governor and we now give out scholarships to tertiary institutions students and we choose Unizik because it is the major university we have in Awka South. Today we have 20 people on our scholarship there. We took over to pay their tuition and we have been doing that and we intend to do that from begining to their graduation.

In the primary schools, we have also been going round and inspecting to know what the kids need. Most of the schools need massive renovation, desk and other essential things. You know the governor has made education free, so we want every child to enjoy that benefit. We also ensure that the education is truly free without them having to extort the parents in any way. We have also been able as a local government to go to all the primary schools within our domain, buy text books and exercise books to distribute free of charge to complement the efforts of the governor. We have so far distributed over 3,000 note books across various primary schools in the local government. In the issue of environment, which is the utmost priority of the governor, I want to say that this is the most serious and difficult of them all.

Here, we are tackling it and we are trying to educate our people on the issue of sanitation and waste disposal. We have a waste management team here and we have daily disposals and have placed receptacles in various places, which we constructed for this purpose. But the most challenging aspect is that our people are used to dropping wastes indiscriminately. They dispose along the roads. You see someone dump refuse just by the door step and walk away, when in truth they can just walk a few meters and drop them in a receptacle. And you know, refuse if not properly disposed affects our health.

Then we also have the challenge of the scavengers. Even when the waste is well disposed, these scavengers go there, tear it up and make a mess of everything. Those are the things we are fighting against in the area of environment. These things encumber the workers. When they come around for evacuation, you see a job that should have lasted just 30 minutes taking hours as they work to coordinate these wastes because they need to gather these things that are scattered all over the place. But then, it is a work we must do, we go around the city with our enforcement team and also make announcement to deter people from disposing waste in ways that are not approved or going to receptacles to scavenge. We do not allow it at all because they are causing a whole lot of problems for us and endangering the health of everyone. But then, after saying it, you still see them go out in the middle of the night to scavenge. But our enforcement team have been very up and doing because most times we still apprehend them and most times make them to work in the dumpsite before they are released. You also know that waste is essential, the moment you get home, drink water, eat food, we are already generating waste. So it behoves our people to take care of it, but when you want to collect sanitation levy, that is where you see resistance. You keep going to ask for it over and over and at the end we end up in court and that is the only language our people understand. Once it ends in court, you see them coming to plead and pay. But these are things people are not supposed to resist because they are essential and you must pay for such services. It is a big crime to evade taxes. So I can say that it is been engaging, but we have been doing it and the local government has been better off.

Let me ask you about the the scholarship you mentioned. Did you inherit it from a predecessor and how do you ensure that it is sustained beyond your tenure?

We initiated this scholarship ourselves to help our people who are from poor homes but desirous of going to school but cannot afford it. About sustainability I will say that you know that an average duration of study in the university is four years, and in the course of my tenure, which is a renewable two years, I would have also trained the first set of graduates. But our plan is that the project will continue beyond my tenure.

Let me tell you, when we were looking for beneficiaries of this scholarship programme, we went for the poorest of the poor. When you want to get the youths out of the street and stop menaces like drug abuse, cultism, and the rest, that is where you go to. There are some of them that have been arrested and when they tell you their stories, you will know that sometimes it is just lack, but they are actually very brilliant and they went into this because they have no options. So we decided to look for a way to help them out and give scholarships to some of them.

How does it feel being the Mayor of the capital city?

This is a very big local government, this is the capital of the state and everyone who means anything live here and we have to ensure that things are done right. This is not a local government where you can just behave anyhow, or where the local government chairman will just relax. Everyday as the mayor of Awka South, I’m here at 7am, treating certain things because everybody has something they want to be treated and conflicts to be addressed, and sometimes I leave this office by 8pm. The governor lives here, the deputy governor, the 30 House of Assembly members, all the service commanders, the CP, the DSS director and all of them. Someone somewhere will need something and it is me the local government chairman they reach out to and I have to ensure prompt and swift resolution of such problems, so you see what I mean.

Do you see all these as challenges

Yes, the challenge is there, sometimes there is conflict of interest, people want one problem or the other resolved, and in the process you don’t know who else wants things done differently and they start reaching out to you and so it is a busy office. We have the Hausa, Yoruba, Igala and other cluster communities here and they all live and make a living here, so their expectation is high. So the expectation is something that must be met and we try to streamline ourselves in the way to do the things we do.

Tell us about your budget?

As a matter of fact, I’m happy with Mr President for the order for local government election across the country, and I can tell you that the best is even the order for workable budgets for the local government. As a matter of fact, before you came in here, I was just scrutinizing our budget for the 2026, it has been prepared and made available to the Congress of Councillors, meaning that whatever we spend here is budgeted and we are accountable for it, so whatever we spend, even before you spend it, it must have gone through and approved by the Congress of Councillors and we have to be accountable for every kobo.

The time table for the local government election is out, are you recontesting?

Yes, let me say that this first tenure was a learning process. For now I have been able to consult well enough with my people, I have read the state governor and I know what he expects of me, so I can say that by the grace of God when I return for second term, things will be different. I know that life is about continuous learning, but I have been able to learn the basics and that is the reason I want to come back as mayor and complete the second term because the experience is there already.

Your tenure here is just two years, would you advocate that the tenure be made the same as other elected officers, which is four years?

You know, the truth is that once you have interest in a position, from day one you must have agenda. First you know how many years is the tenure of the position you are going for and you tailor your agenda which you want to achieve for the people to fit into the tenure. So there is a tenure and there is two years tenure. If it is extended to three years that is fine, four years is still okay, but the reality is that a tenure for a local government chairman in Anambra is two years and you are meant to prove yourself within that two years.

Let me ask you about local government autonomy, how does it work in Anambra, and how do you operate in relationship with the state government and the governor?

It has been wonderful. We have been working together and in synergy. As a matter of fact, we do our projects together, we do most of the work together because the ultimate goal is to better the lives of our people. If we do things differently from the state government, it will be chaotic. So we have a mutual working relationship, both with all the components that consist of the state government. Be it the commissioner, heads of agencies and the rest. As we do this, the Governor stands as the father of the state and his leadership has been very wonderful. And we thank him so very much.

Are you mandated to pay back some of the monies accruing to your local government from federal allocation to the state?

No, local government in Anambra is autonomous, we have that autonomy and that is why we have a Congress of Councillors. We have Anambra State Local Government Law, and in that law everything about the local government is stated there. We have what we call the common services we do with the state. That common services is also very well explained in that law, so everything we do in the local government system is captured in that law and is legal. It is not about the state or governor waking up and saying bring this amount or bring that amount, it is not like that. Everything we do is enshrined in that law that was made by the Anambra State House of Assembly, so it is not a case of saying you have to remit some money back to the state after you have collected your federal allocation or being coerced to do things that are not in that law.

Your local government is the capital city of Anambra, and we think the governor is doing most of the work in terms of road for you and you are taking too much credit for what you didn’t do. You think so?

That is not true. There are so many projects we are doing besides roads and I can list them for you if time permits. You are correct about Awka being the capital and many projects being done by the state government, but of course it is wrong to think because some major projects are done by the state, that we have not contributed to them. But let me tell you about projects that we have undertaken wholly.

We have visited and donated hospital equipment in hospitals around the capital city here, top class medical equipment including medication all free of charge. We have been able to do erosion control and if you know what that means, you will know how capital intensive it is. We have done it in Okpuno where erosion ate up a part of the land, leaving a wide gully, pulling down the walls of a primary school and two classrooms fell into the gully. But we went there and it was a massive projects and it wasn’t safe for the children. We took it up and we did it. We have also done streetlight in many streets in Awka especially places that are considered dangerous at Night. We have built mini markets, the ones we call fruit market, which we have used to cancel our street trading.

We have done zero potholes across the city and palliative works on all the 20 wards we have in the city. In this one, all the councillors were involved and they contributed in spotting those roads and also supervising the projects. The idea was to do palatiave work on roads so that people who were coming back for Christmas last month wouldn’t find it difficult using the roads. We have done many water projects including boreholes across all the nine communities in Awka South.

Also in the council here you can see on going renovation works, and we have been able to put in solar installations, beautifying the place to make it dignified. We have provided office desks, printers, photocopiers and others. When I assumed office, our workers usually take shade under one mango tree there, so we had to start by making their working environment conducive by providing electricity, fans and the rest, so that they will be productive.

What is your relationship with your workers, the stakeholders and the people of Awka South, especially as we know that elections are coming up soon and you may need a second term?

Yes, my workers, stakeholders and the people of this local government, I enjoy a good relationship with all of them, and I just told you how it used to be for my workers and their working environment and equipment before I came. All these make them to love and support me the more. You are right when you said that election are coming soon, and you may have heard that I’m going for a second term, and I believe that by the grace of God, I will be reelected. I know it will go my way, I wouldn’t say it will not. What we are doing is to lay the foundation and build a lasting legacy that people will remember for a long time as far as Awka South is concerned.

All those projects I have mentioned are things people will remember us for when we leave here after four years in office. There’s roads, water projects, security, scholarship, health interventions, which is equipments and supply of drugs among others.

We are all politicians and anyone who is eligible can come out and contest for position. We are also preparing very well for the election which comes up in August this year, and I can tell you that we have been able to work with our governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, and the working experience has been awesome and we look forward to another two years because we are sure we have won the confidence of our people and we will win. We already know what the governor gears to achieve, and here we have been able to key into such visions and these are the important things that people need, not just for the sake of contesting. You must ask yourself first what you can offer to the people.

Back to environment, may I commend you because we see road sweepers every morning doing their job. I want to particularly ask, is it your local government or the state ministry of environment that pays them?

Yes, we have 210 road sweepers, and we do the payment because we employed them. Mr Governor came in and said everything about sanitation should go down to the local government, so we do the employment, we do the payment and even the contractors that work for us, we also engage them.

As for the sweepers, we used to have 110, and last month we decided to add 100 sweepers because more roads are springing up as being built by Mr Governor. It is not only about keeping the place clean, but also serve as employment. What we did in employing them is that we ensured that the sweepers live in the same area where they will be assigned to work, so that they won’t spend money on transport to go to do their job. In the morning you walk to your portion and do your work, without spending much.

We saw some tricycles down there, were there procured by the local government and what is it to be used for?

Yes, we procured those tricycles and we are still doing fabrications on them before putting them out in the street. The idea is that these tricycles will go into villages where our 50 ton refuse disposal trucks can not go into. They will be on standby in case we have illegal dumping of refuse and they will move in and clear it up. 10 of such tricycles have arrived and we are still expecting more.

Talking about security, you had earlier mentioned cultism, drug abuse and the rest, can you beat your chest and say that security has been tackled totally?

Yes, you know security is not something you can say you have solved 100 percent. Even in the most developed worlds, I’m sure they can not beat their chest and say they have done it all. No matter how hard they try, you still hear news of a psycho bringing out a gun and shooting someone in broad daylight, or someone walking into a school with a gun and shooting pupils without provocation. But I must say that before now we had issues in Awka, where these cult boys will operate unchallenged and will come on foot and kill someone and will not be in a hurry to leave. Sometimes they use these tricycles and no one challenges them. They will come, kill people, spend time and walk away. But they can’t do it now. We have equipped our security well enough and we can now challenge them at any point. Once we hear where they are, our men move there. So with the new Udogachi and our own contributions to strengthen them here in Awka South, we are now more equipped. So all that has been taken care of. All we need is information from people.

What plans do you have to make motorist, especially Keke and okada to obey traffic light so that there will be orderliness on the society?

Yes, Keke operators are major form of transportation here and they are very important to us, but as you mentioned, majority of them don’t adhere to traffic rules, but we have been able to meet with them twice in the past, but with this reminder, we will engage them again, sensitize them on the dangers of not adhering to traffic rules and also letting them know that they can be arrested and persecuted for not doing the right thing.

We have the road decongestion unit here in the local government and there have always been at work and many times, they impound vehicles and bring them here and magistrate court gives fine for them. The law is the law and ignorance of it is no excuse because you can cause trouble for other road users. I believe we are doing our best tackling it with reorientation and adequate sensitization.