Govenor-elect Chukwuma Charles Soludo and the Vision of an Africa’s Dubai

Abel Ezeoha

Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike

The 2021 Anambra State governorship election has against all odds come and gone in peace; and the winner is Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). Undoubtedly, the post-election commentaries resonate across the view that the election was peaceful and represents the wishes of the people. The only outstanding demur is that only about 10 percent of the registered voters in the State actually voted in the election. Experts have however argued that low turnout is of significant concern only in the event that the number of winning votes is skewed largely in favour of the winner’s strongholds. In the Anambra case, the APGA candidate won in 18 out of the 20 local government areas in the State, including in the respective home local governments of the first and the second runner-ups. In the build-up to the election, the preference for Soludo’s candidacy manifested in the widely held view that, among the contestants, he had the most balanced knowledge of the muddy Nigerian socioeconomic and political terrain – bearing the cachet of a world-class professor of economics, a former central bank governor, and a member of the federal government’s economic management team. His leadership style in the Central Bank of Nigeria (from May 2004 to May 2009) left many with the intellection that he is a system-man and an archconservative reformist.

Soludo did not win the gubernatorial election because his promises were more ennobling than the others. He won because of the power of relative public perception of his capacity to govern. He was able to communicate his manifesto better in a way that touched on the people’s sense of want. Of his promises, I want to focus on one – perhaps the most legendary of all. That is, the analytical impression of bequeathing Anambra State with the status of Africa’s “Dubai”. This Dubai vision finds its roots in the 2009 governorship election, where Soludo contested and lost under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party. Then, his campaign was built on the jingle of transforming Anambra into the Dubai-Taiwan of Africa (DTA) if elected – meaning that, as in the ideological premise of the city of Dubai, Soludo’s pledge was to make Anambra a nerve centre for real estate business, luxury shopping, modern architecture, and tourism.

For the just concluded 2021 governorship election in the State, it is possible that the proclaimed 2009 Dubai Vision was his winning card. But, how realizable is such a dream in the prevailing federal context and construct in Nigeria? The question is necessitated by the fact that comparing Dubai and Anambra is both imperfect and nonpareil. Dubai, for instance, is a mega city built by the sovereign state of the United Arab Emirates. As such, there was and there is no ethnic, religious, or federal character bias in the design and funding of the Dubai project. It follows that the capacity of a sub-national entity to build a Dubai in an inefficient and malfunctioning federal structure is not only doubtful but also inadmissible.

Gauging the feasibility of replicating the Dubai project requires us to put the ideological promises in context. First, it is acceptable that the Dubai vision is borne out of Soludo’s desire to make a difference, and not out of mere desperation for votes. Same way, majority would accept that the 2015 “Change Promise” was made out of an utmost good faith and desire to deliver the nation from the bondage of underdevelopment. It is therefore important to keep in mind the fact that most electoral promises fail not because the makers originally meant not to keep them, but more because such promises are often made out of context. Likewise, the problem with pursuing the Dubai vision lies in its context-insensitivity. For example, Soludo’s belief that what it takes to transform Anambra to Africa’s Dubai is “a committed governor and the support of the people of the state” is too theoretical and not reflective of the realities of practical governance in one of the world’s most vertically unequal and complicated federal systems. The highly criticized Nigerian federation is such that the government at the centre has over the years firmed its grip on the country’s fiscal space, and worked to ensure that it retains monopoly of the constitutional duty of policing. In some quarters, it has been argued that the government at the centre largely dictates the developmental speed of the sub-national constituents in the country. The Lagos example (between 2004 and 2007) and the current VAT contretemps exposed deeper the enervated condition of sub-national entities in the country. Historically, there has always been a huge price to pay by any state that says no to the centre. Pursuing the Dubai vision surely would require the visionary to say a lot of nos to the federal government. And so, Soludo might be breaking the heart of Anambra people if he keeps faith with the Dubai model. He might be disappointing the people of South East and the entire Nigeria, whose hope of political enfranchisement tacks on the outcome of the Anambra experiment.

Another area of concern in Soludo’s promised model of development is his desire to ride on contributions from Anambra indigenes from Diaspora, support of central government and international development partners, collaboration with neighbouring states, and huge oil and gas deposits at Ogbaru. While collaboration is highly a welcome idea, it is important that he strives to avoid patronizing externally-driven models of development.

It follows therefore that Soludo needs to change gear as soon as he gets to hit the ground running. Rather than giving us a Dubai, he should aim at giving us South Africa’s Western Cape – an exemplary province that has successfully and consistently set itself apart in an adulterated political setting. Western Cape and its iconic Cape Town city retains the reputation of Africa’s best governed and most developed province, strangely amidst South Africa’s cloudy socio political and economic clime. Western Cape Province outshines and has long left South Africa behind in all indexes of development. The high national unemployment rate in South Africa contrasts sharply with the relatively low rate in Western Cape; same is the human development index and the per capita income. Of the Top five best universities in Africa, two belong to the Province.

How has Western Cape managed to survive and sustain her development configurations amidst the depleting socioeconomic fortunes of South Africa? The answer is simply found in the Province’s enshrined culture of economic and political self-determination and self-respect. Since the 2009 general election in the country, the Democratic Alliance party has kept power to itself, which enables the people of the Province to chart their own development course. In the Province, governance is system-driven and exemplary, and the flamboyant character of leadership in a typical African state does not exist in Western Cape. The Western Cape model is essentially designed to sublimate the bads and to attract and retain the goods.

It is therefore easier and more sustainable for Soludo to work towards giving us Africa’s Western Cape than a seemingly unrealistic Golf city of Dubai. In this regard, all he is required to do is to provide an enabling environment that offers protection and equal opportunities to genuine investors from far and near. This includes restoring the glory of Nnewi as “Nigeria’s self-made industrial hub” and returning Onitsha to its position as a host to the largest market in West Africa. By wooing and offering maximum protection to investors, through friendly fiscal conditions and sumptuous incentives, businesses and industries would naturally emerge. Only then will the call for “wealth to return home” make sense to Igbo entrepreneurs and industrialists. During his tenure as the governor, Soludo should work to deliberately incorporate succession plans in the governance system of the state – to ensure that the right political order is maintained and that growth-prone socioeconomic ideologies are consolidated and sustained. Above all, he should be ready to run a slim government, where transparency and accountability is a necessitous rule of the game, and where; and as much as possible an inclusive governance fashion reigns supreme. Although Soludo has repeatedly stated that he is not going to learn from the job and that he would hit the ground immediately, I suggest that the first step to throw will be to initiate a bilateral relationship with the Western Cape Government and learn from the Province how to avoid water while in the river.