By Valentine Somtochukwu
There was a time when some politicians in Anambra State boasted openly that they had the powers to write the results of the November 8 gubernatorial elections, not minding how the people voted. Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR, had cause to stress that a rat cannot steal from a man who is wide awake.
It is against this background that one views the spurious written ratings being published in the social media in which every effort is made to portray Anambra State as coming last in all the indices. As they say, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” The writers of the fictitious ratings are overwhelmed by the quantum of work accomplished by Governor Soludo in three years such that they must resort to pathetic lies to undermine the standout incumbent who obviously has no credible candidates to campaign against.
The obvious fact is that the opposition candidates now know that they cannot write the election result, so they are writing ratings in their vain bid to sway the mind of the electorate. These wannabes have not been campaigning in the wards and zones where the elections will hold. They are just buying data for under-employed hirelings to write that Anambra State is performing badly in ratings written by them!
It’s so terrible when a man believes his own lies and goes about bandying them. These blokes obviously have no capacity to rank the Nigerian states. There is no research undertaken whatsoever to even make the ratings look credible even to an infant. The conclusions reached can only be likened to Alice’s adventures in wonderland.
How would they want any thinking being to believe that Anambra State that beats all-comers in WAEC, NECO, JAMB etc is lacking in education prowess? Anambra State states mantains the highest ranking at 139 marks in the admission to the Unity Schools. Governor Soludo has employed 8115 teachers, and the fiction writers want the world to believe that the teachers have not upped the ante in Anambra’s education feats.
The pity is that the crooked writers put forth these ratings and then claim that work had been done by “consultants”. For ratings to have credibility, the methodology used must be clearly verifiable. It is the height of unreasonable concoction to place Anambra State alongside states suffering under the grip of banditry. It is a loser’s game to clutch at any straw, and the losing opposition in Anambra State cannot but find work in the manner of the idle person inhabting the devil’s workshop.
For the education of these fiction writers of ratings, free education in Anambra State holds sway for pupils from Nursery to SS3 in all public schools. This way, school enrolment has risen in a large scale, witnessing 27.05 percent increase in primary schooling and 10.36 percent in secondary schools. Anambra State out-of-school rate is the lowest in Nigeria at 2.9 percent. UNESCO attests to this fact. Can’t the spurious ratings writers see with their naked eyes?
Just last year, in the National Primary Healthcare Leadership Challenge Awards as assessed by UNICEF, Dangote Group and the Gates Foundation, Anambra State took the first position in Nigeria. It’s not just that Anambra leads in the Southeast- it is leadership all over the country, thus justifying the “Light of the Nation” placing. Free antenatal services and free deliveries by pregnant women have been made possible by Governor Soludo. The patronage of public hospitals has moved from 25 percent in 2022 to a staggering 73 percent currently!
Soludo’s Anambra State towers in all fields, and no amount of spurious writing of fictional ratings can undermine the matter. Soludo has awarded contracts for the construction of 842.2 kilometres of roads, of which 546.3 kilometres have been completed and delivered. Dual carriageways account for 150 kilometres while 8 bridges and flyovers are all to the good.
The sponsored fictions written as ratings to undermine Anambra State in this election season have woefully failed. The hirelings cannot hit the mark. The characters hoping to write election results have seen that failure is their lot. The resort to writing pathetic fictional ratings as per Anambra State has equally been exposed as a pitiable failure.
Soludo’s Anambra State towers ahead without any credible candidate in sight. A tear for the discgraced opposition.
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*Dr Somtochukwu is an Awka-based public policy analyst in Anambra State
