Anambra State with a new slogan: The Plight Of The Nation (1)

By Chukwudimma Aaron-Okonkwo

1. It was during the administration of HE Dr Chinweoke Mbadinuju that Anambra State had the slogan, "Home for All". As welcoming as the slogan portrayed early on, it was later seen as a bad omen for the State owing to the rate of crimes rampant in Anambra at the time. And so, it was later changed by the administration of HE Mr Peter Obi upon assumption of office.

2. HE Dr Mbadinuju (Odera) inherited the affairs of the State from a military administration in 1999 with no money in the State treasury. From the little finance he was able to muscle out for the development of the State, he established and built institutions among which are: Government House, Governor's Lodge, State University in Uli, Commissioner's Quarters, Women Development Centre, Judiciary Headquarters, Anambra State Boardcasting House (ABS) to mention but a few.

3. The infrastructures Odera established were topnotch such that President Obasanjo marveled at them when he visited the State. He gave Odera A-plus in infrastructure development.

4. However, as much as Odera did his best to develop the State with meagre funds available to him, his only sin which our people used to measure his administration as a failed one was non-payment of teachers' salaries for a long period of time, inclusive of non-payment of pension and gratuities. Also, schools were closed down for longer months. Insecurity reigned supreme too. However, he was able to curtail the insecurity situation of the State to a lesser extent through the establishment of the State Vigilante Group also known as Bakassi Boys. He earned a B pass mark on Peace and Security.

5. Regarding non-payment of salary, what most of us failed to understand in this regard is that Odera's administration actually paid salary. He inherited four months salary owed workers by the military administration and cleared it and then began payment of Christmas bonus to workers. As for pension, the truth of the matter is that, there was no money budgeted for pension in Abuja and sent to Anambra. So, how do people expect him to pay pensions when there is no money available for such?

6. In consequence, the administration of HE Mr Peter Obi had to change the State slogan from "Home for All" to "The Light of the Nation".

7. The new slogan struck appropriately for so many reasons. First, the landmark judgement that was bequeathed him, HE Obi by the supreme Court, wherein he recovered his mandate as the elected governor of the State after about two years of intense legal battle, was second to none. So that, Anambra became the first state where such happened, as equally affected politicians from other states followed and till date, still follow the "light". Again, the administration of HE Peter Obi (Okwute) continued from where his predecessors, especially HE Mbadinuju and HE Chris Ngige, stopped.

8. HE Peter Obi's administration embarked on upgrading and equally rehabilitating the existing state institutions. Those were such institutions built from scratch by the Mbadinuju administration as well as those initiated and left uncompleted by the Ngige administration.

9. Okwute, of course, did not stop there. He went further to establishing more institutions for the State; example, the Igbariam Campus of the State University and the raising of the then moribund Amaku Hospital to what it is today, a befitting and or comparatively well equipped Teaching Hospital. He went further to attracting institutions for the State; example, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). He returned most schools to their original owners, went further to equipping the schools with all necessary equipment for learning and educational development. Anambra was topping WAEC and NECO rankings as first positions back to back.

10. During HE Obi's administration, all sectors in the State were developed simultaneously via Anambra State Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS). Thus, no single sector in the State was left undeveloped. Dilapidated roads were aggressively rehabilitated. New roads were opened, constructed and completed. Anambra become known as the State with the largest and best road network in Nigeria.

11. Furthermore, local and international investors were invited, or better put, were attracted to invest in Anambra. International aid agencies were approached for developmental grants, they granted.

12. So much for "The Light of the Nation" during the administrations preceding the current administration that has turned the State into "The Plight of the Nation"!

13. Yes, it is a pain in the heart that HE Willie M. Obiano has turned my dear State into a pathetic condition. He has wrecked havoc in the State! The State which hitherto boasts of over #75 billion naira painstakingly saved for her by the Okwute administration has now been plugged into over #200 billion naira indebtedness.

14. As I write this, this current administration is about to sell off some of these infrastructures built by the previous administrations, precisely the Commissioners Quarters and State Government buildings located in Enugwu. All is just for continuous looting of the State assets. How my dear State is now being made a laughing stock is not funny at all.

...to be continued in Part Two. Watch out tomorrow.

We knew this all along..

Anambra needs help itself. Not our captains of industries all over Nigeria.

But we frowned at it and continued freedom fighting at the national levels only..

Obaino was originally an albino.. hence the surgicalistic plantain face

I may have forgiven Peter obi for unknowingly invoking this okoro aji

Based in america to come suck the purse dead.

It shall end in praise though... Lets re-start first thing the next morning.

Peace