Former President of Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ONICCIMA), Sir Rob Emeka Eze, has called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo, to make security, eradication of touting and rehabilitation of critical road networks as his major priorities.
Rob Eze who Presided over ONICCIMA for seven years and also a veteran film producer said for business or any other activities to thrive in any environment, there must be conducive atmosphere.
He said it is the presence of good security network that creates such conducive environment.
Urging Soludo to deploy his background to bring security to bear in the state, Sir Eze said many voted for Prof. Soludo because of his attecedent.
“If he was able to advise the Federal Government. If he was the Central Bank Governor, where he brought sanity to the system. If he was able to consult for world bodies and countries, I think ruling Anambra State will be like eating rice and stew for him,” said the veteran film producer.
He urged Soludo to strive to provide the best security he could in the state, lamenting that he had invested fortunes in his Cinema at ShopRite, Onitsha but he is not been making the returns he expected because of insecurity.
“Due to insecurity people don’t come to watch Cinema. They prefer going to Asaba or Enugu,” he decried.
The next agenda of Governor Soludo, said Eze, should be eradication of any form of touting in the state.
“There has been touting in Anambra State, but under the former Governor, Willie Obiano, the whole thing multiplied by 100 percent. There was no control. We didn’t experience this under Peter Obi. My advice is that he should not contract out revenue windows. He should deploy technology. You don’t see this kind of thing anywhere,” he said.
He continued, “I personally saved one woman selling oil from the hands of these touts. I had to come down from my car when I saw how they were embarrassing this woman, then the boys had to escape. Soludo has to stop all this. Let me use this opportunity to tell him that all eyes are on him on this issue of touting”.
But Eze quickly added that there must be alternative for these touts, if not, they would start robbing people.
He said the best alternative is his plan for agriculture, saying that the state government should set up farm settlement where to accommodate some of them.
The leader of Organised Private Sector (OPS), told Soludo that his work should not only be limited to Anambra State but the entire South East.
“He should impact on the entire South East. If he is able to impact on the economy of Anambra positively, then it will affect the economy of Imo, Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi States. I have told them that South East has a lot of economic potentials. Look at Aba shoes, Nnewi parts and industries.”
Sir Eze said the next thing after these two items is for Soludo to aggressively improve on the critical road networks in the state in order of preference or importance.
“We do not teach him, he already knows what to do but very importantly are the kind of people who will work with him. They should be able to follow his programmes. They should know what his programmes are all about. He should not pick charlatans, politicians who will come and look for their own pockets. He must be firm and ensure compliance to his programmes. I think if he does all this, people will not regret voting him,” he ended.
