If Lagos State has been lucky in having talented governors since the restoration of democracy in 1999, Anambra State has been blessed with very good governors since 2003 when Dr. Chris Chris Ngige, the current minister of Labour and Productivity, became its chief executive and quickly began the process of taking Anambra State to unprecedented heights in development. As the majority leader in the Anambra State House of Assembly, one is proud that one played a significant role in changing the course of our state’s history from 2003 to 2007. We joined hands with Dr. Ngige to bravely fight the Presidency, which was determined to wreck the state because of the desires of those the great Professor Chinua Achebe memorably described as renegades, who were connected to the Presidency. As an engineer, one also played a professional part in ensuring that Anambra developed the most impressive road network in the whole country.

Ngige’s successor, Peter Obi, did not disappoint. For instance, he aggressively implemented Ngige’s policy of returning a number of secondary schools to the church, which built and ran them exceedingly well before the military government hijacked them in 1970. Anambra today does better than any other state in education. Obi also implemented Ngige’s far-reaching health reform. Obi recorded achievements in other areas.

Arguably, the greatest revelation is Willie Obiano, the current governor, who appears driven by what the late American president, Ronald Reagan, famously called “the vision thing”. Thus, Anambra may be set to give Lagos a good run, as a centre of development in years to come. Analysts were not surprised when in February, 2017, the president of the Institute of Chartered Accounts of Nigeria (ICAN), Titus Soetan, mentioned Anambra among Nigeria’s four most viable states, even though it is not a major oil-producing state.

The state is upbeat. Whether it is security or education or agriculture or industrialisation or housing development or independent power generation or road development or internally generated revenue or increase in salaries and allowances or prudent economic management generally, Anambra is doing well. Take security and peaceful co-existence. When Fulani herdsmen last year massacred people in the Nimbo community in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, many feared Anambra State would be the next theatre of massacre. The historical and cultural propinquity between Uzo Uwani, on the one hand, and Ayamelum Local Government Area in Anambra State, on the other, is well recognised; Ayamelum was until 1989 part of Uzo Uwani LGA in today’s Enugu State.

But far from the attacks spreading to Anambra, the Fulani herdsmen in Anambra State told the whole world how they had been living in harmony with their Igbo hosts. They illustrated the bond between them by explaining that most of the cows they rear in the state belong to Anambra indigenes; they are in business partnership. Another remarkable point which Fulani herdsmen, who live in some 20 communities across the state, made is that they and their Igbo hosts religiously abide by the agreement, which Obiano made both parties sign two years ago in order to enhance peaceful co-existence. They described the agreement as very fair to both farmers and herdsmen, noting that the implementation has been strict. Noteworthy is that there is a security committee peopled by representatives of different ethnic groups as well as relevant traditional rulers and headed by the state police commissioner, which does efficient intelligence work and monitors the implementation of the agreement.  It is a puzzle other states have not yet adopted similar agreements.

Related News

There are some important leadership lessons, which Anambra State provides for the rest of the federation. The first is the need to elect professionals and technocrats, rather than so-called professional politicians, as high public officers. Obiano, for one, is an ICAN fellow and patron as well as a former executive director of a leading bank. The second lesson is the imperative to work with the best team a leader can assemble. In Anambra, most of the commissioners and other top officers are economists, financial experts and other development oriented technocrats. Dr. Ifediora Amobi, the secretary of the state investment agency, was with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the World Bank while Solo Chukwulobelu, the secretary to the government, was an economics professor in the United Kingdom.

The third lesson is the urgency to adopt what is now known as developmental state ideology. The ideology requires every government to be focused on development rather than primordial or political issues, which are most often divisive. Southeast Asian societies like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan adopted it, making their region the fastest developing in the world. The living standards of the people are now competing with those of the West. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are following suit, and we are witnesses to the phenomenal transformations. Ethiopia has emerged Africa’s fastest growing economy, and its guide is the developmental philosophy.   

Anambra State is getting it right. This is why kogi State, for example, has sent a high-powered delegation to understudy the state’s financial management. It explains why such eminent persons as former vice president, Alex Ekwueme, ex Commonwealth secretary general, Emeka Anyaoku, ex-governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife, ex-women affairs minister Josephine Anenih and erstwhile Central Bank governor, Chukwuma Soludo, among others, have spoken eloquently about Obiano, who ironically I have never met. Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, former World Bank vice president and Minister of Education, recently called Obiano’s service record “evidence based”. We cannot deny the evidence of our own eyes. Though an APC member, I fully support these distinguished Ndi Anambra. Our state is headed in the right direction.

Senator Ben Murray-Bruce from Bayelsa State has noted, that other states in Nigeria should find out the secret for Anambra’s success and replicate it. By so doing, the country will get it right finally.

•Nsofor, ex majority leader in the Anambra state legislature, is an engineering consultant.