Abia wins Good Governance awards

Abia State stood tall at the maiden edition of the BusinessDay Newspaper State Competitiveness and Good Governance Awards held on Wednesday in Lagos. The God’s Own State won two performance awards at the ceremony where many state governments were recognised for good governance.

Recognized in two out of the 13 categories, Governor Theodore Orji was awarded the Best Governor in Health Development and also State with the Most Improved Security. Governors nominated in the Best Healthcare Development category before the joint selection of Orji and Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi were those of Ondo, Niger, Osun, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Lagos, Niger and Sokoto states. Similarly, Cross Rivers and River states gave Abia State a good fight in the State with the Most Improved Security category.

Receiving the awards on behalf of Orji, the state Deputy Governor, Sir Emeka Ananaba, commended the organisers, saying the recognition would give the governor and his team the impetus to do more for the state and the people.

He said: “This is a great honour and we are so happy that people within and outside the state recognised the massive commitment of the governor and members of his cabinet to the Abia Project. “Everyone knows that Abia State deserves the State with the Most Improved Security in Nigeria given the reduction of crime-related activities in the state.

As we speak, you can now sleep with your two eyes closed in Abia State.” In his opening remarks, the publisher of Business- Day Newspaper, Mr. Frank Aigbogun, said the Good Governance awards was aimed at promoting competitiveness and good governance among the states, noting that the perception that democracy was not yielding dividends was false as many governors were developing their states. He said: “These awards will deepen peer review mechanism and inspire competitiveness among the states.

“The battle for performance in governance is getting tense among state governments and they are competing for the growing investment flow in the country. While there is always a temptation to say some states are not performing, I want to say much is going on and our democracy is growing.”

Other winners at the event were Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers State in the Best Governor in ICT; Governor Adams Oshiomole of Edo State in the Best Governor in Transparency category; Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State in the Best Governor in Education category, among others.

Which Abia State? Brown-envelope journalism. It was truly a business day for BusinessDay Newspaper.

u can all see what a joke this good governance award is. I mean for Abia to win it, u can just imagine...

Abia is flourishing ...no doubt about that,there is a huge transformation in Abia as was never before