“Without sufficient funding, the 2024 budget estimates, just like those of the previous years, will perform below average.” —Ebuka Onyekwelu The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has presented the 2024 budget to Anambra State House of Assembly. The Budget which was presented on Tuesday during plenary is the biggest budget by size, to ever be presented to Anambra State House of Assembly by any governor of the state. With a budget size of...

“Information Commissioner has also not facilitated any interface between the government and the media community.” —Ebuka Onyekwelu Recent developments, particularly political exchanges in Anambra State, have ignited concerns about how duly committed the government of Anambra State led by Prof. Soludo is on governance protocol or perhaps, if the government is merely using governance instruments as political tools. What is clear is that there is a mismatch of responses from the government, which raises the...

“Soludo’s letter, though realistic, was also an assault on the dominant feeling of the majority of Southeasterners at the time.” —Ebuka Onyekwelu By this time a year ago, there were ragging fireworks all over the media, ignited by an open letter written by Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Anambra State Governor. The letter entitled “history beckons, and I will not be silent (part 1)” signified Soludo’s deliberate entry into the political ring of the 2023 Presidential Election....

“Right now, APGA, our party, has only one advantage left, and that is the advantage of ethnic privilege.” —Ebuka Onyekwelu For nearly one month since Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah joined APC, I am often amazed at how some members of our party, APGA, have continued to insist that Anambra cannot vote APC. This is, at best, laughable. Only as recent as in 2017, Sen. Tony Nwoye, then of APC, garnered over 90 thousand votes in the...

“In 2021, Governor Obiano signed the Judiciary financial autonomy bill into law, yet the House cannot recruit its own staff” —Ebuka Onyekwelu The Anambra State House of Assembly Complex has remained closed, following strike action by parliamentary staff, under the aegis of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria – PASAN, over the non-implementation of the Assembly autonomy, by the state government. It is worthy of note that section 121 of the 1999 constitution of the...

“On the merit of Senator Ubah’s defection to APC, purely on the strength of prevailing reality in Nigeria’s politics today” —Ebuka Onyekwelu The move by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah representing Anambra South senatorial zone, from Young Progressive Party- YPP, to the All Progressives Congress – APC, is a development that is of particular interest to many people, especially power brokers in Anambra State. At least in the last week, I have been confronted by no fewer...

“In 2007, former president Obasanjo vowed that Atiku could not contest the election. Then, Atiku teamed up with Tinubu and was given the Action Congress – AC presidential ticket.” —Ebuka Onyekwelu For days, debates about President Bola Tinubu’s certificate from Chicago State University-CSU have dominated private and public conversations across Nigeria and beyond. But this is only happening because many people are not asking the right questions. First of all, the allegations erupted from social...

“Over the years, the contacts he built from his days as a student running a small-scale business have endured…” —Ebuka Onyekwelu Throughout Chief Willie Obiano’s two terms of eight years as Anambra State governor, the most consistent name associated with getting things done in that administration is Uzuegbuna Okagbue. As the Chief of Protocol and Deputy Chief of Staff to the then Governor, Uzu’s reputation and style were distinct. Yet, he was rarely seen and...

“Even Ifeanyi Ubah, like many others who have risen to unusual prominence, did not arrive there by following any particular path” —Ebuka Onyekwelu One major fact of life that I have come to personally acknowledge is that breaking even is not an easy thing. Moving from a less desirable economic or social status to a more desirable one, is not by any means an easy journey, more so in a largely badly governed society like...

“One of the major roadblocks to a government’s projects or proposed programmes is lack of sufficient funds…” —Ebuka Onyekwelu One of the major arguments in support of democratization and an open government system is because decentralization of power. Just as surely, the major criticism against the concentration of power is the likelihood of abuse. However, systems grow and mature gradually, moving from a closed structure and management to an open and accountable one. This growth,...