Soludo urged to prioritise agriculture, reduce cost of drugs in PHCs, others

  

By Okechukwu Onuegbu 

Stakeholders in Anambra State have called on governor Chukwuma Soludo to prioritise agriculture and sustainability projects with a view to improve the living conditions of the populace at the grassroots.

According to them, although the incumbent administration has been providing coconut and palm seedlings across the State, there was need for a dialogue with the real farmers to find out what they actually need as well as secure their farms for increased food production and mechanisation.

They lamented that some of key agricultural provisions often end up in the hands of politicians pretending to be farmers and urged the governor to work with real farmers, provide them with soft loans, build their skills and provide them with modern equipment for mechanised agriculture.

The stakeholders, who included MDAs, artisans, farmers, persons with disabilities, transporters, town union, civil society organisations and the media, disclosed their intentions at a quarterly budget performance reviews for Q1 and Q2 2025 held in Awka by the Civil Rights Concerns (CRC), a Non-governmental organisation.

The Executive Director, CRC, Mr Okey Onyeka, had explained that the programme was domiciled under their project titled 'Strengthening Fiscal Justice for Gender Equity and Tax Accountability: Ensuring That Public Resources Are Raised and Spent Responsibly, Transparently and Equitably.

According to him, objectives of the meeting were to analyze implementation of Anambra State’s 2025 quarter 1 and 2 budgets, build knowledge and data on the public finance management (PFM) work of the government as a basis for advocacies and engagements for better prioritisation of pro-poor matters.

The meeting was also aimed at establishing how the government uses debt to fund its interventions and how matters concerning the marginalised were prioritised in these.

"To review the performance of Anambra State Quarter 1 to 2 financial reports and how it aligned with the 2024 programmes deliveries; build understanding with key stakeholders to engage for improved implementation of services in key basic sectors in the remaining quarter of the year; and identify areas that duty bearers should prioritise and include in the 2026 budget being prepared," he added.

The participants after reviewing the Anambra State budget performance for quarter 1 and 2, expressed happiness over the insights gained from the presentations and urged the Anambra State government led by Professor Chukwuma Soludo to provide key basic amenities to the people at the grassroots to feel the impact of the revenues generated, as well as improve the revenue generation in the state.

The stakeholders also raised concerns about the quarter performance of the budget, especially in the area of primary health where the prices of drugs are still high at PHCs and implored the government to take urgent actions towards ameliorating the issue.

Other issues raised were that ASHIA coverage of health services is still poor, many public health facilities cannot be accessed by persons with disabilities, need for establishment of mechanic village, training of mechanics, as well as training of teachers on inclusive education and to ensure that the selection of participants for one youth two skills programme is inclusive and transparent so as to achieve its objectives.

They, further urged the government to provide PWD assistive devices in public facilities, deploy more security personnel to recover Anambra forest taken over by unknown gunmen, and provide gender friendly equipments to women farmers.