Uche Nworah
It is clear for all to see that the government of Chief Willie Obiano, Governor of Anambra State has continued to toe the path of good governance that his predecessor, Mr Peter Obi was known for. Both Governor Obiano and Mr Peter Obi are products of the political party All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the party that the late Eze Ndigbo Gburugburu, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu bequeathed to Ndigbo. At the inception of his administration, Governor Obiano assured Ndi Anambra that he will be guided by the 4Cs principle, that is, Continue with projects began by his predecessor Peter Obi, Complete and Commission them, and also commence his own projects.
Governor Obiano has prudently managed the resources of the state despite reducing federal allocations, occasioned by lower crude oil production and sales in the international market, falling oil prices as well as other economic factors. Not minding the economic challenges, Anambra State under the watch of Chief Willie Obiano has continued to meet its obligations to its citizens and partners, and will continue to do so. Civil and public servants are paid on time unlike in other states where civil servants are owed arrears of salaries. Leave allowances are also paid on time. Promotions are done when due and civil servants receive bags of rice and other goodies every Christmas.
Backlog of civil servants pensions and gratuities have been cleared including the 25-year pension and gratuity backlog owed retired staff of Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) totaling almost Three Hundred Million Naira (N300M). For this reason, organized labour in the state and other stakeholders have variously crowned Governor Obiano as Champion of workers welfare. The Governor has variously been honoured by The Sun Newspaper, Silverbird and other reputable media organisations with the The Governor of the Year awards.
Governor Obiano deploys the resources of Anambra State to work for Ndi Anambra. Many often wonder how he is able to do all he has been doing for Ndi Anambra despite the economic challenges and recession Nigeria has gone through. It is through his ingenious leadership and management styles. He is guided by two principles. He calls one creative funding and the other ‘Doing more with less’.
Guided by these principles, Governor Obiano continues to channel needed resources towards several sectors including health, education, agriculture, health, roads and infrastructure, investment attraction and promotion and so on. Anambra State now boasts of world class bridges; there are the three beautiful Awka bridges located at Aroma,Kwata and Amawbia Bye-pass, Nengo bridge at Nteje, Iyi-Ora bridge in the agrarian Anambra West area which will open up the area to further economic activities. The Odene Eziagulu bridge, reputed to be the longest bridge in Anambra State which connects the rest of the state to the oil reserves through Aguleri-Otu in Anambra East Local Government Area.
Governor Obiano has and continues to invest in the security architecture of Anambra State. This has ensured that Anambra State remains one of the safest states in Nigeria. Through the ‘Light Up’ Anambra project, street lights now traverse almost all the communities in Anambra State thus gradually turning Anambra State into a 24-hours economy. Unlike in the past, Ndi Anambra now visit home regularly whether at Christmas, Easter or during family ceremonies.
Ndi Anambra have a good man in Governor Willie Obiano. They know this too and demonstrated it with their votes during the November 2017 gubernatorial election when they renewed the Governor’s mandate for a second term with the now famous ‘21/21’ landslide victory. Governor Obiano in accepting the renewed mandate pledged that he will work even harder during his second tenure. He has been doing that vigorously.
No doubt Nigeria is in election season. The presidential and national assembly elections have already been concluded with the state House of Assembly election scheduled for Saturday, 9th of March 2019. There is no better time for Ndi Anambra to vote for continued peace, progress, prosperity and synergy in the state than on the day of that election. This is a call for Ndi Anambra to vote -in APGA candidates in the coming state assembly elections who will work synergistically with Governor Obiano to sustain the progress being made in Anambra State. Ndi Anambra should avoid promoting rancour, tension and heating up the polity by voting non-APGA members into the house of Assembly who will get into loggerheads and leadership tussle with the Governor. If we do, the remaining years of Governor Obiano’s tenure may just be spent dealing with needless rancour between the executive and legislative arms of government.
In the words of Senator Chris Ngige (Onwa), Former Governor of Anambra State and Minister of Labour and Employment, “Our people should learn to play national and regional politics. In national elections, we should support the bigger parties but we should support APGA for our regional and state elections”. Let us vote APGA House of Assembly candidates so that we will continue to enjoy the peace, partnership and progress we are currently enjoying in Anambra State.
The presidential and National Assembly Elections are over. It is now time to focus on the matter of hand, which is ensuring that Ndi Anambra elect APGA candidates in the forthcoming state assembly elections. It is time to transfer the support given to former Anambra State Governor, Governor Peter Obi, Okwute Ndigbo who governed Anambra State under the APGA platform, and who was the Vice Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded Presidential election to APGA candidates in the coming local assembly elections.
Ndi Anambra, let us come out on Saturday, 9th of March 2019 to vote APGA candidates for House of Assembly elections, this is indeed our chance, Let us take it.
Nworah writes from Awka, Anambra State via [email protected]