Soludo’s Revelation: I’ve not Earned Any Salary in Two Years

Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, sensationally disclosed on Sunday that he has not drawn any salary from the coffers of the state government since he became governor two years ago.

Similarly, he disclosed that his wife, the First Lady of Anambra, has no official car. She drives his personal cars, he added.

The governor, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN made the startling revelations in Awka the state capital, on Sunday while giving the mid-term report and scorecard of his two-year-old administration.

“As I speak to you,’ Soludo told the huge crowd at the International Convention Center, Awka, venue of the anniversary celebration, “I am not taking any salary. I am not paid any salary by Anambra State government. Even the First Lady of Anambra does not have any official car. She still drives my personal vehicles.”

These, the governor explained, were part of the cost-cutting measures he deliberately adopted to enable his administration “do so much” with the meagre resources available to the state.

Running the most austere government in the state’s history, he added, also explains why his administration has not borrowed a dime in the last two years.

“Any governor that comes floods you with offers for borrowing and so on and so forth,” he continued, “but we decided for the first two years to demonstrate something, capacity to do more with less.

“And so far as has been said, for two years, despite receiving about 25 per cent in real terms or in dollar terms of what was in the past, we have chosen deliberately not to borrow.

“I have been asked severally; ‘how do you do without borrowing and with the difficult circumstances?’ And my answer is that we are doing so because we are executing the most austere measure government ever.”

His decision to drastically prune wastage and reduce the cost of governance, Soludo said, has helped his administration to prioritise and direct resources to things that are of utmost significance to the people of the state.

He said his administration has prioritised areas that have been neglected in the past, building hospitals, roads schools and others in places that such amenities have never reached.

Soludo then re-assured the people of Anambra State that every kobo entrusted in his hand as governor will be accounted for. And if he ever borrows, the people will be shown clearly the projects the loan was used for and how the projects would repay the borrowed sum.