By Chesa Chesa
As Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration enters its third week, residents and indigenes of the Anambra State have identified insecurity, unemployment, and poor electricity supply as the biggest and most critical challenges they want him to tackle as soon as possible.
This was gleaned from a perception and expectations survey conducted by Nextier, a public policy advisory firm, on the two-week-old administration of Professor Soludo as Governor of Anambra State.
The survey, which was released yesterday, had respondents that comprised Anambra State residents and indigenes, both within and outside the State.
The respondents, who are adults (18 years and above), identified the most pertinent challenges as security (84.7 percent), jobs (83.8 percent), and electricity (79.1 percent).
According to Nextier, the specific objectives of the survey were to ascertain the 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 his governance agenda.
The survey findings might have informed the urgency with which the Governor has taken steps to address the security challenges in the State, the survey noted.
His stoppage of the continued observance of the Monday “Sit-at-Home” order declared by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is a first step to addressing the security challenges in the State.
According to the survey, it is however, important to ensure that the government has sufficiently downgraded the capacity of the IPOB militants and other criminal elements to cause mayhem and fear in the State.
Details of the report showed that security has the highest mean rating of 4.49 and received the highest percentage (84.7 percent) of the respondents who placed it at a crucial level.
Sixty-five percent of the respondents rated the security situation in Anambra State as very poor, while another 15.9 percent rated it poorly.
Respondents selected access to jobs as the second highest-rated challenge in the State. It had a 4.41 mean rating and the second-highest percentage (83.8 percent) of respondents who rated it at the critical level.
The survey profiled 12 critical challenges, including access to affordable food, affordable housing, electricity, healthcare, job, land, motorable roads, pipe-borne water, public transportation, quality education, security, and the impact of multiple taxes on small businesses.
Respondents were, however, optimistic that the administration would very effectively address the remaining nine out of the 12 challenges identified.
Of the nine challenges, education generated the highest level of optimism. It has the highest mean rating (4.30) and the highest percentage (81.9 percent) of respondents who believed the government would effectively address the challenge.
Despite the respondents’ optimism about the administration’s effectiveness in addressing the identified challenges, they feared that certain factors could compromise such efforts.
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/overbearing power of the federal government, insecurity, and litigation.
The survey’s conclusion is that Ndi Anambra are aware of the critical challenges requiring state government intervention.
Therefore, according to the survey report, “the Prof. Soludo administration could benefit from running a people-centred government staffed with the best people.
“The policies and programmes should be evidence-informed and driven by a logical theory of change. The government should continuously assess its programmes and use the lessons learned to improve their effectiveness.”
