BY BRIGHT JACOB
Anambra state is one of the five southeastern states in Nigeria. She is, no doubt, a major player among the five southeastern states. It is the gateway to the eastern heartlands, a hotbed for commerce and entrepreneurial activities.
Anambra can rub shoulders with any other state in Nigeria when it comes to the academia.
Many notable sons and daughters of Anambra are making waves in banking, science and engineering. Anambra State was created in 1976 from the former East Central State, and since then, it remains one of the few states in Nigeria with a low poverty index, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. She prides herself as the light of the nation
The incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, a native of Aguleri in Anambra East Local Government Area, and a former banker and technocrat, obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Accountancy and Master of Business Administration, both from the prestigious University of Lagos.
Obiano is of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, the ruling and a very formidable party in the state. He is the fourth democratic governor of Anambra State.
Obiano succeeded Peter Obi on March 17, 2014. He had contested the November 16th, 17thand 30th, 2013 gubernatorial elections and won, and was subsequently reelected for a second term on November 18, 2017.
Now at the twilight of his administration, and with the November 6, 2021 elections around the corner, the question in the mouths of every Anambrarian in particular, and Nigerians in general, is what’s next for Anambra State after Obiano bows out of office?
Obiano has indeed made enviable strides in different facets of life in Anambra State, from economic, to health, politics, education and infrastructure. Yet, more can still be achieved. In the forefront of the struggle to take over from Obiano are the People Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, who believed that their own candidates would have done more for Anambra than what Obiano accomplished or would ever think to attain. They have, therefore, mounted a “siege” against the government, hoping to hoist their party flags at the government house in Akwa. In the area of security, there’s obviously room for improvement and Anambra can still have it much better.
Though Obiano is doing his best to stem criminal activities and frustrate criminals out of the state, insecurity occasioned by kidnappings, ritual murders and armed robbery have continued to go unchecked. There have also been reported clashes between the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra and security agents. Thus, after Obiano, a clear message ought to be sent to every trouble maker in the state that Anambra doesn’t welcome or condone the breakdown of law and order. The end of Obiano’s term should usher in another chief security officer who has zero tolerance, far more than Obiano has shown, for crime.
In 2017, at a breakfast meeting in Lagos titled “Investment Promotion And Protection: The Anambra State Experience, Challenges And Opportunities”, Obiano made bold to say that Anambra State had become the fourth largest economy in Nigeria. He attributed that accomplishment to the “determination of his team”.
While that declaration may be laudable and commendable, Anambra has abundant potentials to overtake even Lagos State as the largest economy in Nigeria. Though individuals like Charles Soludo, Val Ozigbo of PDP, Andy Ubah of the APC and so on who are vying for the number one job in the state, have promised to take the economy of Anambra to enviable heights by attracting direct foreign investment into the state, it remains to be seen how this can be achieved after Obiano’s exit.
Health is wealth, they say. Any state lagging in health care delivery will always find itself grounded and eventually wrecked by underdevelopment. Obiano has expedited actions to revamp health care delivery in the state. He added state-of-the-art units to the Onitsha General Hospital and procured equipment for the Amaku Teaching Hospital. Rural health care delivery has also benefitted from the governor’s healthcare delivery programme. However, a vast majority of those there have lamented the dearth of qualified medical practitioners in the rural areas.
The state’s comprehensive health insurance scheme has since commenced, and it is an initiative most people hailed because of its affordability. Ordinary citizens have been afforded the opportunity of paying a little sum of money for quality healthcare services.
After Obiano’s exit, this programme and others like it, that impact positively on the masses must be sustained. It doesn’t matter whether the opposition makes it into power, decisions bothering on healthcare delivery must not be politicized. The people must not suffer for such irresponsibility and insensitivity on the part of the political class, after all every politician always claims to work for the good of the masses.
After Obiano, therefore, prompt payment of healthcare practitioners in the state must be sustained and prioritized, and welfare packages for these frontline workers improved so that conditions of service in the state can be reasonably equated with what obtains overseas. Of course, the end result of pursuing such an agenda is that brain drain in the state will be nipped in the bud.
“The end of Obiano’s term should usher in another chief security officer who has zero tolerance, far more than Obiano has shown, for crime
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Politics in Anambra will still be a bitter-sweet experience even after the tenure of Obiano elapses. Political actors in the state don’t seem to have learnt much. Violence and acrimony still rear their ugly heads in the polity. All the major political parties have internal squabbles, and it seems Obiano, even in his capacity as the leader of his party in the state, has not been able to reconcile the factions that exist in the state’s chapter of APGA.
A faction of the party led by Jude Okeke had produced Chukwuma Michael Umeoji as the flag bearer of the party in the November 6 elections.
However, another faction led by Victor Oye, which produced Soludo, had insisted that both men were the bonafide party chairman and candidate respectively. Thereafter, a judgement of the Court of Appeal that sat in Kano had set aside an earlier judgment by a Jigawa State High court which had previously made pronouncement in favour of Jude Okeke and Umeoji.
Though Obiano participated in the primaries that produced Soludo, it remains to be seen how his status as an ex-governor, after he leaves office, can bring any semblance of sanity into factional politics in the state. This is because his statesmanship and experience notwithstanding, party members seem more to be driven by their selfish interest. These reasons, therefore, make it so vital that Anambra produces a new governor, who is not only charismatic and influential, but can build bridges and work together with those who didn’t support them.
There are those who argue that Obiano’s strides in education have been under-reported. Whether this is true or not, after Obiano, education should be on a high priority list. Incoming government of any of the political parties should continue with the legacies of Obiano in education. The practice of the incoming government discarding policies of previous regimes shouldn’t come into play. Scholarship programmes which the governor had initiated should continue running and the status of the state as an education enabler should be pursued with vigour.
As the administration of Obiano heads to its finishing line, there is a growing concern about the state being plunged into further debts.
It is not a secret that former governor Peter Obi left the sum of N75 billion in the state treasury for Obiano. However, today, the governor has been accused of borrowing, and trying to mortgage the future of youths in the state, because of his alleged abysmal style of financial management. Obiano should address these allegations before he leaves office. He has a track record to protect and must therefore remember that there is life after government house.
