By Ebuka Onyekwelu, PhD
It is a well-established fact that the public good is not the sole responsibility of the government. This is why Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo’s public-private model is an enduring tribute to a working partnership that can deliver Anambra’s development aspirations. The Anambra State Commissioner for Lands, Professor Offornze Amucheazi, has, relying on this model, deepened collaboration with the private sector under Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo’s Public-Private-Community-Partnership (PPCP) to strengthen institutional reforms in the Ministry of Lands.
In our earlier conversation, Professor Offornze said that he intends to leave a legacy of sustained reforms at the Ministry of Lands, where he has served as Commissioner since 2022. True to his vision, the Ministry of Lands in Awka has transformed into a new and completely different office from what it used to be. During that conversation, the Commissioner also revealed that the condition of the Onitsha office of the Ministry of Lands is a source of huge concern to him, insisting that the office should reflect the weight of governance and institutional reforms that is symbolic of Soludo’s administration.
Just last month, I accompanied the Commissioner for Lands, Professor Offornze Amucheazi, to the Ministry’s office in Onitsha, where I met a post-independence era office building that has significantly decayed. The office had become very bad and unfit for purpose. After our assessment, we made a stop at the office of Chief Don Ebubeogu of Tiger Foods. Only a few minutes into the discussion, after the Commissioner’s passionate and unfiltered appeal, Chief Don said we should just see the office. We walked to the office, which was nearby his office, and after observing the state of the office, he confirmed it was bad. Right there, he called his brother, Chief Celestine Ebubeogu, who also said he would stop by and see the place.
About a month has passed, and then on Wednesday, I also accompanied the Commissioner for Lands to that Ministry of Lands office located at GRA Onitsha, and it is now a massive construction site, courtesy of the Ebubeogu brothers. What I saw was a massive reconstruction, not something casual or basic. The Anambra State Ministry of Lands office in Onitsha is now undergoing reconstruction by private individuals. This is a remarkable patriotic gesture on many fronts. First, why does this even matter to the Commissioner, Professor Offornze, when he has absolutely nothing personal to benefit from the office reconstruction? Then, why should private businessmen invest huge sums of their money into rebuilding an old and dilapidated government office? Neither the Commissioner nor the Ebubeogu brothers have any immediate and personal need or use for the office. But that is exactly the point. Public good doesn’t have to be of personal benefit before it is embarked upon. Provided it is a good deed, then, it is worth doing.
Indeed, so much can be done when vision meets a heart that is committed to the common good. The PPCP model of development is a call for patriotic individuals to step up and begin to take ownership of their communities to strengthen collective response to challenges. A sense of ownership stems from a sense of stake, which will be elusive without collaborations like this. This collaboration has been absent for a while, which has created a new conception of government or public property as things that are abstract and therefore can be mismanaged, misused, or even destroyed at will. This is because there is no sense of responsibility among the people over those properties, and there is no attachment.
It is therefore important to evaluate the underpinning philosophy behind the PPCP development model beyond structures, equipment, sand, and cement. It is a viable redirection to internalize collective ownership of government and public good by all.
Under Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Anambra is not “their Anambra,” and the government is not “their government.” It is our Anambra and our government, where there is a demand on all of us to step forward and take common ownership of our dear state. The new Anambra places a demand on us to demonstrate our collective ownership of our state through an unshaken patriotic commitment to the common good. This is why the Ebubeogu brothers can commit their money to rebuild a public office, and this is why Professor Offornze is passionate about getting that office fixed for accelerated quality service delivery by staff members, which will improve general government efficiency and the effective conduct of government business. This is a development model that works.
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