ANAMBRA STATE INVESTMENTS BY PETER OBI ARE WORTHLESS SAYS A PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS
Yesterday night during Channels TV live interview, Gov Soludo made disparaging remarks about Peter Obi. According to him, it is useless saving money when people are dying in the hospitals and the investments PO made are next to nothing.
I will quickly respond to these 2 weighty issues made by Soludo.
Before PO came into office, no hospital in Anambra had ANY accreditation. Due to PO investments in health, 10 hospitals (govt and mission owned) were accreditated for Nursing and Midwifery. Obi also built a brand new Teaching Hospital that was equally accreditated. Soludo did not see this and people are dying in the hospitals because PO is saving.
I hope Soludo knows PO investment in Interfact Breweries is not the ONLY investment. Just for clarity purpose, Interfact Breweries today is now a Multinational Corporation, initially a subsidiary of SABMiller and now AB InBev, the largest brewery in the World. Anambra State Ministry of Finance has 4.7% stake of AB InBev in Nigeria, which Soludo was referring to as worthless. Yes the stock value may have fallen, no thanks to Buhari genius, but according to the last financial release, the Total Assets of AB InBev is 372billion Naira, which are worthless according to Soludo.
AB InBev, a multinational company that remits millions in PAYE to State Government and Company Income Tax to Fed Government year-in year-out is worthless according to Soludo. A company that has added identity to the SE and paid millions to South easterners, such as Illbliss, Zoro, PSquare, Osofia and co as well as contributed to the entertainment industry is worthless according to Soludo. A company that has employed thousands in direct labour and more indirectly is worthless according to Soludo.
I hope Soludo also know that PO invested heavily in infrastructure in the Harbour Industry Estate/Layout in Onitsha, that is located in between the first and second Niger Bridges is what Soludo said is worthless. The Harbour Industry Estate now has over 30 functioning companies impacting positively in jobs creation and revenue to Anambra and Soludo said the infrastructural investments in this area are worthless.
I hope Soludo knows PO made investments in the Orient Petroleum Industries, which has made Anambra to be an oil producing State. In June this year, Anambra received 268million naira as first payment based on 13% derivation from the Federal Government and will continue to do so, except oil exploration stops, but our Prof of Economics says the investments in Orient Petroleum Industries are worthless.
Apart from direct investments, PO also contributed to the attraction of several industries, which Anambra is benefitting, for example Innoson and Juhel. Let me stop here for now.
Soludo appears to have issues with PO, be it jealousy or whatever. But, as a governor and if he has problems with the current state of Anambra, he should first bare his fangs on Obiano his immediate past predecessor before Obi. He may as well continue to find faults up to Ngige and Mbadinuju.
Soludo’s quick was to attack PO but dodged to comment on the redesigning of the Naira by the CBN when asked in the same interview says a lot about him and his character. Before we forget, Soludo was among those that campaign for Buhari, whose genius has affected Nigeria businesses and billionaires, including Anambra State investments.
I will end this piece with a quote from Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala –
“ There is definitely an issue of character with Prof. Soludo and his desperate search for power and relevance in Nigeria. Nigerians should, therefore, beware of so-called intellectuals without character and wisdom because this combination is fatal .”
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