By Christian ABURIME
In a resplendent, glitzy and well-attended ceremony at the Convention Centre of the upscale Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Friday April 11, 2025, the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, added another merited accolade to his growing list of honours, clinching the ‘Vanguard Good Governance Award 2024’, presented by Vanguard Newspapers.
The event, which celebrated Nigeria’s most impactful leaders, served not only as a recognition of excellence but also as a reaffirmation of Governor Soludo’s transformational three-year tenure in Anambra, a tenure that has redefined governance as a vehicle for pragmatic solutions and inclusive growth.
Indeed, it was a night of shine and substance. Celebrating outstanding achievements, as affirmed in the brief welcome remarks by Editor Eze Anaba, the Vanguard Awards brought together Nigeria’s political, business, royal and cultural elite.
Mr. Atedo Peterside, Chairman of the occasion, captured the mood succinctly: “The gathering is awesome, a convergence of those rewriting Nigeria’s story.” Truly, the evening was as much about legacy as it was about laurels.
While successful businessmen, education investors, and billionaires, Dr. Adedeji Adeleke took home the Personality of the Year award, the spotlight equally beamed on exceptional governors like Soludo, whose policies have turned subnational governance into a laboratory of innovation in their respective states.
For Governor Soludo, the Vanguard honour arrives just months after being named SUN Newspaper’s Governor of the Year 2024, and this dual media recognition now underscores his unique blend of technocratic rigour and pragmatic leadership.
In Soludo’s Anambra, it has been a story of from Promise to Progress. Since assuming office in March 2022, Governor Soludo, a former Central Bank Governor and economist, has pursued what he terms a “people’s agenda” with relentless focus.
His administration’s pillars, anchored on security, education, healthcare, infrastructure, urban renewal, economic diversification and more, have become more than slogans. The multidimensional impact, often achieved amidst fiscal constraints, reflect Governor Soludo’s philosophy that development is not about grand announcements; it is about granular execution. It is also about doing more with less and without borrowing!
In his remarks, Vanguard Editor Eze Anaba emphasized that the awards were not merely for popularity but for verifiable impact. For Governor Soludo, this rings true and through. Yet, three years on, his results speak louder than rhetoric. The impact is verifiable.
No wonder, the SUN and Vanguard awards, both decided by rigorous verifications of development projects prioritising data over dazzle, validate the Soludo approach. One can say that Governor Soludo treats governance like a serious business: iterative, agile, and user-centric. Anambra is his MVP, and it is scaling fast.
Yet, while the awards celebrate past and ongoing achievements, Governor Soludo’s eyes remain fixed on the future. Challenges will always exist, but his administration’s methodical pace suggests confidence rather than complacency.
As the governor would have remarked after receiving the award, every honour is a debt owed to the people and the good work in Anambra has just begun. Now with his recent ratification as APGA candidate for a second term and overwhelming nonpartisan endorsements for Anambra’s November 2025 election, Governor Soludo is poised to turn Anambra into a blueprint for Nigeria’s subnational revival.
While Nigeria keeps contending with its own national questions, Governor Soludo’s story, of a professor-turned-politician delivering functional solutions and measurable progress, may well become a case study in award-winning leadership. For now, Anambra’s renaissance continues, one solution at a time.
