Soludo’s liveable and prosperous Anambra — e-government can help
Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo’s presentation on his first year in office over the weekend was well attended with dignitaries like former president Olusegun Obasanjo, past governors like Labour party’s Peter Obi and other eminent Nigerians. As an Anambranian who doesn’t reside in ana Anambra I streamed with rapt attention the proceedings of the day and was hoping to get much more detail on what are, based on what he said, really lofty plans for the future but also a bit more of an account of the his stewardship in the past year.
Of course I expected that the presentation would focus on highlights given the audience, and, as such, I hoped for something more concrete afterwards. The executive governor via his twitter feed graciously published a link to a presentation and that gave me some hope. After going through it, however, I was left wanting more, because, even though there are tidbits of information on projects begun in the past year, the presentation provided little aid to non-resident Anambranians on how to keep an eye on the details — especially if they’d like to help.
For example, I would have loved to be better acquainted with the 261 km of road contracts awarded — where are they, what state are the projects in, what is the completion timeline for each? With the 5,000 vocational and entrepreneurial skills placements — what sort of skills were offered, what have the recipients gone on to do, will there be another batch, when, how can non-resident Anambranians volunteer time or provide resources to support the next phase? There was mention of hard-to-reach areas like Nzam in the governor’s speech but no detail in the presentation. I particularly was looking forward to reading about the Innovation District and how it is shaping up — where is it located, where do individuals and corporate entities who want to get involved find more information? The absence of any information on the exciting idea of a cable car service within Anambra suggests that it could have been an off-the-cuff remark by the governor.
I could go on and on but the crux of my submission is that Anambra state and its leadership will need to do a lot more to provide more information to citizens at home and at large — if the full potential of the governor’s lofty goal of raising the internally generated revenue (IGR) contribution to the state’s economy to 5% is to be unlocked. The Anambra e-government agenda will be a significant tool and should hopefully begin with making the state’s official website a hub of all things Anambra. At the moment it is really difficult to use and find information on.
I and many others would like to see some of the recipients of digital skills put to good use by the state’s information commissioner, Paul Nwosu, on the state’s website — the state website would, for example, be a fantastic medium to introduce all lovers of Anambra to those who serve them in all capacities. There is no good reason that each ministry, local government or community shouldn’t have a regularly maintained portion of the website that brings the government close to the people. While we’re at it, if all the people are to be carried along then the content on the state’s website should also be in a language that a not insignificant portion of the people think daily in.
In conclusion, it seems to have been a busy 365 days for nwa Mgbafor but he has his work cut out for him — if his goal is to energise non-resident Anambranians to first get interested and then involved in making ana Anambra a liveable and prosperous state. His words have been heard across the ether and his actions in the area of engagement and information dispersal in the next 365 days will make a significant difference because as they say there is only perception.
