Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has disclosed that he has not received any salary from the state since he assumed office as governor two years ago.
He said his wife, as the First Lady of Anambra State, does not have an official car, but she still drives her private cars.
The governor said this on Sunday during the celebration of the second anniversary of his administration at the International Convention Centre in Awka, the state capital.
Soludo said he was deliberately implementing the strictest measure ever taken by the government by cutting costs and not incurring debt in the last two years.
“Any governor that comes floods you with offers for borrowing and so on and so forth, 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 aske 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.
“As I speak to you, I am not taking any salary, I am not paid any salary by Anambra State government. Even the First Lady of Anambra don’t have any official car, she still drives my personal vehicles,” Soludo said.
The governor said his decision to reduce the waste and cost of governance is to direct and prioritize resources towards things that are important to the people of the state.
He said his government had prioritized areas that had been neglected in the past and built hospitals, roads, schools and others in places where such services had never reached.
Soludo assured the people of Anambra that every Kobo entrusted to him as governor would be accounted for, saying that if he ever borrows, the people will be shown what projects the loan was used for and how these projects would repay the loan.
The celebration of the second anniversary of the Soludo administration was marked with the Pontifical Thanksgiving Service presided over by the Bishop of Nnewi Catholic Diocese, Bishop Jonas-Benson Okoye and the Bishop of Awka Catholic Diocese, Bishop Paulino Ezeokafor.
