2025: Anambra now living in shadow of its glorious

…Says state needs holistic leadership approach to make things better

From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha

Prince Nicholas Chukwujekwu Ukachukwu, businessman, politician and philanthropist is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming November 8, 2025 Anambra Governorship Election. Between 1999 and 2003, Ukachukwu served as a member of the House of Representatives, when he represented the Bwari Abuja Municipal Federal Constituency. In this interview, he speaks on a wide range of issues in Anambra politics, arguing that the state desperately needs a change of guard at the Awka Light House.

What is fuelling your passion to govern Anambra State at this point in time?

I believe this is the time for Anambra State to move from where it is to where it should be. I am a child of destiny and circumstance. When people refer to Anambra by the state’s slogan, Light of the Nation, the tag is not carnal. It came from the fact that Anambra is the shining light from which other states get hope. I schooled at Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha. When I was growing up in Onitsha, Northerners, people from Cameroun, Chad, Niger, Lagos and all parts of Nigeria came to Onitsha to buy goods. Is that the story today? The simple answer is no. Today, we are living in the shadows of the glorious past of Anambra. I remember living in the Awada area at a time when water gushed from taps with such pressure that if you didn’t hold your cup firmly to get water, the pressure of water from the tap would blow it away from your hand. Now we don’t see any water tap anymore, not to talk of water pressure. Many things are no longer working in the state and the people who know how to fix these things are very far from getting involved. We have had a series of people who came to govern Anambra and leave and not those who are in Anambra to fix it and stay. They are two different things – when you are passing and when you are part of it. The people who are carrying the burden of Anambra have not been given the opportunity to lead. At this point in time, God brought me out for a purpose. I never intended or believed that I would be part of this at this point in time. My younger brother, the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah (God rest his soul), had met me and told me his plans for the state and I realized that his action plan aligned with mine, he was a stakeholder and was doing quite wonderfully. At that point, it was quite obvious that he had something for Anambra and I told him that I would support him but unfortunately, death happened. People came to me and said that I had shared a similar vision with Ifeanyi Ubah, if not even a broader knowledge. They said I should get involved. That’s how the journey started. If you look at the journey so far, you can see that the coast is clear for us. From the primaries to the delegate congress, where 1630 people voted to choose the candidate, I scored 1455 votes. It is something quite remarkable.

How was the reception when you toured the local governments? What was your impression of the state of development?

We went round the 21 local government areas to thank the people for what they had done, for being part of us and for showing me that kind of honour and solidarity. We got a warm reception, one could see the joy, the enthusiasm and the expression of hope which was quite alarming. In fact, I fought back tears in my local government, Nnewi South, because I didn’t go there for one day to talk to them but they mobilized and came there by themselves. Some were crying out of love for me and their hope that Anambra will get it right this time around. You see, there are two things: when you are the government in power, you cajole people to come out, you intimidate them to come out and things like that. When you talk to the Town Union President Generals of different communities in Anambra, you realize that it is total coercion that the government uses on them. If you don’t come out as a traditional ruler to confer title on the governor, the government can suspend you, seize your allowance or even withdraw your certificate. If you are the President General of your community and you receive any other politician other than APGA, they will sanction you. I remember a community that I visited and the President General damned the consequences, he told me that he had been threatened that his salary would be withdrawn. The man told me in plain language that it was better for him to be with his people than to side with the government that has not done anything for his people too. I don’t see why the government of Anambra state would be cajoling the traditional rulers and the PGs. Love comes naturally, you don’t force it. If the government is counting on them this way, they will be disappointed on the day of the election because most of them will show them the true situation that day. You can’t coerce people to vote for you. Look at the markets too, the government should allow the traders to choose whoever they want to lead and aid them in the markets. You can’t just wake up and tell them you will dissolve the market executives and appoint a caretaker because you want people who will be loyal to you. Loyalty is earned and not forced. Politics is local and about making sure the people are happy. I don’t have any reason to set up a caretaker committee in the market because I want to control the market. My good governance will speak for me and they will follow me naturally. When I had meetings with traders in the market, I told them that I would want a commissioner who has knowledge of trading and manufacturing to be the commissioner for trade and industry, putting a round peg in a round hole. Anambra State is a manufacturing and trading state. For Anambra to be the light of the nation, the things that drive manufacturing and trading must be in place. Any other thing outside that will just be like running around the circus. For us to recover that glory, we must fix it.

So how do you intend to fix the state if you are given the opportunity?

One cardinal enabler to this is security. You must secure the environment so that businesses can thrive. I have built over 12 industries in Anambra but today they have shut down. The biggest of them is in Awka and is lying fallow because the expatriates are afraid of coming to run it because of security issues. The issue of security will be addressed by our administration so that industries can boom again. Also, there is no light, no residential areas for the industrial parks. God has given us natural resources. All you need to do is to go there and set up a power plant. When there is light, powered by cheap gas and cheap labour, every industry will like to come as an industrial park. They wouldn’t want to start grappling with trouble from villagers and the issue of acquiring lands and the struggle for certificate of occupancy. All over the world, big manufacturing companies are looking for cheap energy and cheap labour with security. If you have these three, companies will come from Europe and China to establish factories. There is enough of a market in Africa and Nigeria. When you train people in skills without the enabling environment and wherewithal to start, you have not done anything. You just use it as a slogan like ‘African Dubai Taiwan’, ‘One Youth , Two Skills’ and all that but you find out that the reality is that the skills are not functioning because you are not a businessman and have not created wealth before now, so you don’t know what it takes to make someone rich. We have attained that level that through us many people have grown to become very rich. We are not from the classroom where we preach theory but rather we have done practical. You don’t learn from experience rather you learn from those who have gotten the experience. We are coming with a collective responsibility, not selective or reclusive investment that cannot yield tangible results for our people. I am not criticizing, the governor of the state is my friend and I’m not being personal here. I’m not talking about him but rather dwelling on issues.

Governor Soludo said recently that some candidates in the governorship race just want to raise money. How do you react to that statement?

It was funny when I heard him say that. For people to give you money means they trust you. You are coercing the local government chairmen, taking government money and forcing them to fund the structure. That act alone if such should happen in any civilized world amounts to jail term. But people are contributing money out of their free will and love for some of us like SOFIG who raised money for me and you make a joke with it. That group is organic, they want things to work here and they have seen the future in me. But if we look at it critically, if I spend money today for my election, no Anambrarian will say that I’m spending government money. I’m spending money that I’ve walked and worked through the streets to get but on your own you are spending money that you can’t say is yours. The money you are spending is it from your salary as a lecturer, salary advance or overhead or personnel cost or allowance? No, it is Anambra State money. In this state, there are some priorities that actually matter and the press should help in educating the masses. Take for instance, how will I celebrate the building of a Government House which is only a place of comfort for me, my wife and children and showcase it that it is the best government palace in the whole world when it is for me, my wife, children, and siblings and in-laws where we relax and enjoy Anambra state money? The bulk of the residents and citizens of Anambra State will never set eyes on that hyped government house not to talk of setting their feet in the premises all their lives. We should have been celebrating the building of a teaching hospital in the state that can perform open heart surgery, brain surgery, bone marrow and kidney transplant etc. I don’t see why someone will have to travel from Orsumenyi to Awka in order to access the teaching hospital. Facilities like that should be built to standard and distributed in such a way that it should be closer to the people. That’s the mileage we should be celebrating in Anambra, not the government house where you go and enjoy and you announce on social media that I’ve just packed into Light House now and slept there last night thereby telling people to their face how you are enjoying yourself. The people are not secured in the streets and you fortify the government house with the police, army and other security agencies guarding you and you sleep well and don’t care that people are being killed every day in the state. Many people are losing their lives daily in this state and you don’t care. You built Fun City in Awka, but my question is: can a village man from my place go to Fun City in Awka? But the painful thing is that the same project was done with the money of that same village man from my place that cannot make use of the place. Nnewi South LGA alone, we know how much is accruing to the area in one month. Can you give us the project you have done in the area that has at least 30 percent value of the money the LGA has contributed? This is what we want to see. We have many issues to address and they are not being addressed. I’m not holding a brief for the security men in Anambra State but you should find out or investigate how many vehicles has the state government given to the police, army etc in the state since the last three years plus? How can you be in office for these years and there is alarming insecurity under your watch? In some communities in my area, people cannot enter there. If I’m going to my town, I will prepare as if I’m going to war. I don’t think the security agencies have received up to three vehicles from this government since inception. You launched Agunechemba that you are controlling but conventional security is left with nothing and the one you control engages in all kinds of illegalities. They have been killing people in extra-judicial and the government is not saying anything. All we are saying is that we should be proactive in our security matters and we need to address the issues that bothers us more, issues that affect lives and businesses in Anambra State. We need to encourage things that bring money into people’s pockets in the state.

What reforms do you intend to bring on board in the state if eventually you win the election?

The government treats farmers and farming as a low profession, as something that concerns the low people in the society forgetting that farming is something that not only drives the economy but can produce multibillion dollar earnings. The government should make farming easier and let the people know the agro-value chain where different people play different roles and also provide the necessary infrastructure. Why do kidnappers keep someone in the forest while such places should be converted to farmlands?

Outside the state government in Anambra, no other government is functional in the state. The local government chairmen have been reduced to personal assistants to the governor. They have nothing to offer other than singing praises for the governor on social media. They will tell you that they only see the alert for the allocation come in and it goes like that too. The little that is left for them, they use to do abracadabra. Councilors are revolting silently that they are being used to pass the budget but they don’t know how their money is spent and at the end of the day you realize there is no government at the local level. They can be seen but not heard. You dare not criticize the government or point out that this is wrong.

Look at the traditional rulers in Northern and Western Nigeria, they talk and their governors listen but here if you talk, they remove you. The Obi of Onitsha advised him and the next thing, he was removed as the council head. Things are not done that way. We shall give our traditional rulers voice in the state and make them part of the local government system. We shall give them value and make them important and relevant. We need to get this done, things have to change. Our projects have to be based on cohesion, we need to engage people before we put in projects. I was watching one video and my wife shouted for me to close it immediately, and really, I couldn’t watch the video because it was chilling. Look at how these ndi aka odo, those who carry pestle in the name of anti-touting squad, how they handle their fellow human beings, hitting that young man in such an inhuman form in his knee cap. The man was begging for his life but they were breaking his bones because the government that set them up cannot say anything about their excesses. What are those aka odo people doing in the streets? By God’s special grace, if we come on board, we shall flush them out of the state immediately because they have no business being there. Things are not done that way anywhere even before civilization. Things must be done in such a way that people will know that they are part of governance and not slaves to governance. If you want to put taxes and levies, engage the stakeholders first, let them be able to give their views. In Anambra State they just go and sleep, wake up and throw one form of taxation up on you and unleash ndi aka odo to go and enforce it. Are we slaves or cattle here? Anambra needs new holistic leadership approach to make things work. Look at how businesses are closing here and moving into Asaba because our side is lacking government support and security. Things are not working here and we need to bring back businesses in Anambra. Anambra used to be among the top in education but we are going down the ladder now. Our educational system should not be only in theory. From day one, children should be trained to be inventive, creative and technical in nature to develop their skills just by what they can do, not how many letters they can cram in their head. Most of the inventors in the world are not university graduates but graduated in their businesses. Our children still have those genes in them, we only need to discover and refine them.