The much talked about investment of Labour Party’s candidate, Peter Obi comes into controversy again as sitting Governor, Charles Soludo says it’s worth next to nothing
Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, has said that the much-taunted investment claimed to have been made by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi on behalf of the people of the state is worth next to nothing.
Obi, while serving as Governor of Anambra State from 2006 to 2014 said he had invested a sum of N1,955,535,247.00 as state’s investment in the International Breweries, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewing company.
Since becoming the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Obi had counted this as a major achievement which he claimed had yielded bountifully for the state.
He had said on many television and newspaper interviews that this showed him as a visionary investor who could do the same for Nigeria if elected as President of Nigeria.
However, Governor Soludo, in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday said the investment is worth nothing.
Soludo, who asked his interviewer, Seun Okinbaloye why he wanted his interview over his works in the state to turn into an interview about Obi’s claims, said he had also read in the newspapers “somebody” claiming over some investments.
“I don’t know about those investments. This interview is about my 2023 budget. I am not talking about the investment of any of my predecessors. By the way, the one you are talking about, I don’t know about that. I mean I there was something I read about somebody speculating about the value of whatever investment; what I have seen today by the value of that investment is worth next to nothing.”
Speaking further, the Anambra governor said he would rather invest in infrastructure that will better the lives of his people than in a private company.
“First of all, you have to rebuild the public infrastructure, that is building the future,” he added.
“We are investing in our schools, hospital. We are creating Anambra as Africa’s leisure entertainment hub; modernising our cities; embarking on urban regeneration; giving our people light so that they can have quality air to breathe; controlling pollution, and dealing with flooding and erosion.
“I’m not going to leave those and say I’m saving money to go and invest in a private company.”
Speaking further,Soludo disclosed that in the next few days more than 5,000 in the state will get their employment letter.
He said, “We are handing out employment letter to more than 5, 000 teachers to end an era of schools without teachers.
“We are going to have 240 plus doctors and consultants to man our general hospitals, so if you look at the five fingers approach of our programmes we designed our budget to keep our eyes on the ball,” Soludo added.
Soludo had ordered for employment of both primary and secondary school teachers in the state school system barely two months after assumption of office to beef up teacher/students ratio in the state.
No fewer than 6,000 out of 31,000 applicants who participated in the online recruitment examination for teachers in Anambra state scaled through.
The state Commissioner for information, Mr Paul Nwosu said following the recent teachers’ Computer Based Test(CBT), a total of 6,250 candidates were shortlisted for oral interview for the teaching jobs across the state.
According to him, 3,250 would be deployed to primary schools, while 3,000 would be for secondary schools, adding that the oral interviews had been scheduled to commence on the 27th of July, 2022 and would last for two weeks,.
Nwosu said, “The interviews, which will come in batches, will hold at Igwebuike Grammar School Awka; St John of God Secondary School, Awka and Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board( ASUBEB) Awka.”
Following the controversy that trailed the first online CBT, Soludo ordered for its cancellation and directed that it should be repeated, with the state government bearing the cost incurred by the applicants.
The governor had earlier presented the N258.97 billion 2023 budget to the House of Assembly chambers in Awka.
The budget christened, the budget of acceleration” recorded a raise from the N170 billion revised 2022 budget presented by Soludo in May.
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During the presentation, he said that the 2023 budget embodied his administration’s “single-minded focus and determination to continue to press the accelerator pedals in spite of the risky bumps on the way”.
The budget has a capital expenditure of N164 billion, accounting for 63.2 percent, while recurrent expenditure at N95.5 billion accounts for 36.8 percent, representing a budget deficit of N13 billion.
According to the governor, about N91.8 billion, representing 56 percent of the total capital expenditure, was devoted to land transport, power generation, and urban reintegration.