Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says his appointment of Ngozi-Okonjo Iwela as Minister of Finance and Chukwuma Soludo as the governor of the Central Bank was among the best he made during his administration. 

He said he was accused of possibly ruining the country because of his appointment of the two technocrats from the South-East by those who had ‘Igbophobia’ but pointed out that they ran the best economic era of the country.

Mr Obasanjo said this while speaking at the first year anniversary town hall meeting of Mr Soludo as the governor of Anambra in Awka on Saturday. 

He said Mr Soludo did well as CBN governor and blamed the current crisis on the inability of the bank to function as the development bank that it was.

Mr Obasanjo applauded the account of one-year stewardship as reeled out by Mr Soludo, saying he did not doubt the Anambra governor’s capacity to deliver as Governor of Anambra.

The elder statesman described Mr Soludo as a man with an immense passion for Anambra who opted to contest for governor when he had the potential to serve at national and international levels. 

He urged Mr Soludo to continue his efforts in the agric sector and work towards making Anambra the headquarters of palm and cassava production in Nigeria.

He urged the people of Anambra to continue to support Mr Soludo to enable him to execute his noble policies for the state.

In his presentation, Mr Soludo said he was reviewing the complaints of some teachers who were laid off in the early days of his administration in 2022.

He said this was in addition to the 5,000 teachers already employed by his administration to end the era of schools without teachers. 

The governor said human resources remained the best resource of Anambra and that nothing would be left undone to make the education system in the state’s institutions of high human capital transformation. 

He said the infrastructure transformation of the state was on course, with about 260 kilometres of roads awarded across and at varying stages of completion. 

Mr Soludo said a large expanse of land had been acquired in different locations for the industrial part, pharmaceutical products area and export emporium.

In his opening remark, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu condemned “unwarranted attacks on Igbo”, especially in Lagos.

Mr Iwuanyanwu, chairman of Ohanaeze Elders Forum, said Igbo would not accept being issued quit notice from anywhere as they were bonafide Nigerians with full privilege of citizenship.

Mr Soludo was sworn in on March 17, 2022.

(NAN)