₦airaland Forum

dubem3:
i decided to create this thread after reading through a thread where Peter Obi the incumbent Anambra state governor was accusing el rufai of insulting the Igbos.
now, the first thing that comes to mind as an Anambrarian is how disgusting el rufai could be and the urge to call him all kinds of name and detest him follows. but then, i happened to also read further and saw how el rufai insulted ndi Igbo. All i saw was constructive criticism with facts and figures. My igbo brothers please before you feed on my flesh, hear me out.
i happen to know peter Obi after he claimed his mandate (not personally). I attended a lecture he gave and truly i loved the man. he seemed to have vision. i saw the spark in his eyes while he spoke.i felt the passion he exuded. he was good. years later (more like many months) i began to have doubts. what was happening? before i get carried away with my thoughts, back to the topic at hand.
the worst that could happen is we judge ourselves based on the pointers el rufai gave and seeing that we are better off than he gave us credit for, like the proverbial lizard that jumped down the iroko tree, we will praise ourselves if non would. but brothers, facts and figures don't lie.my questions are these

how would you access peter's performance so far?
why did peter ignore all that el rufai say and focus on an insult that didn't exist?
are these claims by el rufai true?
Anambra, what's the way forward?

if you have something constructive, please share with us...no tribal bashing...below is what el rufai said...its long but you can take pains to read

“You’re ignorant,” Peter Obi blasts El-Rufai

Published on June 10, 2012

Following his recent assertion that Anambra State was the poorest state in the country, that it was educationally backward, lacked priorities and suffered from poor infrastructural development, governor Peter Obi of Anambra has said that former FCT Minister Mallam Nasir El-Rufai was speaking out of ignorance.

According to Obi, his administration had laid a proper foundation for the solid growth of the state from a near zero situation when he assumed office six years ago, noting that only those who had not been to the state, and who had poor knowledge of the state’s recent history could say so.

He said, “I am surprised that somebody I am not sure has been to Anambra State even as a minister comments about the state from the point of view of what I consider as pure, unadulterated ignorance.

“It is an insult to the Igbo race to openly or even remotely suggest that any part of Igbo land is the poorest in the country. This negates our resourcefulness and ingenuity as a people.

“Honestly, I do not know what propels him or what interest he is protecting. We need people to help to assess and validate what we’re doing. We’re on course and we’re doing the right things.”

“The handover of schools to their former missionary owners and the take-off grant of N6bn for their infrastructural development is a feat that was replicated in the health sector with handover of hospitals to mission schools.

“On sports development, the state’s fortunes have been witnessing a steady rise in recent years at sports festivals due to government’s conscious sports development strategy aimed at spotting and grooming young talents to stardom.

“Our emphasis is on the youth not on adults and we’re marching towards a situation where the state will recapture its lost glory,” he said.

It would be recalled that the former Minster over the week said that “Obi has a BA degree in Philosophy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1984) and enjoys the title of being the youngest Chairman of Fidelity Bank. Considering Obi’s career achievements, and the fact that he has been to the Supreme Court successfully three times to reclaim his electoral mandate, the people had high hopes that he would improve on the stellar performance of Ngige, sadly, this has not been the case, as his administration has seen increasing crime rates, infrastructure deficits, a number of strikes over minimum wage, higher tax burdens and exodus of elites, among other challenges.”

Anambra’s budget of misplaced priorities by Nasir El-Rufai

Published on June 8, 2012
By Daily Post Staff

We continue our budgetary analysis with the South-eastern state of Anambra, with a view to analyse how the state’s budget plans to address development challenges within the state. The state is bounded by Delta to the West, Imo to the South, Enugu to the East, and Kogi to the North. It has a total land mass of 4,416 sq km, situated on the eastern side of the River Niger and has 21 local government areas. Its major towns are Awka, its capital city, the commercial town of Onitsha, and the industrial city of Nnewi. Anambra has a population of 4.2 million and is the nineth most populous nationwide. Most of Anambra’s population is rural. However, as is with every major state, rural-urban migration poses serious burdens for the state’s resources. This pressure is evident in Onitsha where amenities like decent housing, potable water and electricity are in short supply.

Old Anambra State was created in 1976 from part of the East-central state, and its capital was Enugu. Following further state creation in 1991, it was divided into two new states, Anambra and Enugu. Anambra now has its capital in Awka. Governor Peter Obi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) resumed office in March 2006, after the removal of Dr. Chris Ngige by a Court of Appeal judgment in Enugu which ruled that Ngige’s election in 2003 was defective. Obi was impeached in November 2006, but was reinstated in February 2007 after the impeachment was overturned. Although a fresh election was held in April 2007, he returned to office in June 2007 after a court ruling decided that he should be allowed to complete his four-year term. He was re-elected for a second term in 6 February 2010.

Obi has a BA degree in Philosophy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1984) and enjoys the title of being the youngest Chairman of Fidelity Bank. Considering Obi’s career achievements, and the fact that he has been to the Supreme Court successfully three times to reclaim his electoral mandate, the people had high hopes that he would improve on the stellar performance of Ngige, sadly, this has not been the case, as his administration has seen increasing crime rate, infrastructure deficits, a number of strikes over minimum wage, higher tax burdens, and exodus of elite, among other challenges.

Unemployment rate in Anambra is among the highest in the South-east zone, at 21.3 per cent, it is higher than the national average of 21.1 per cent. Imo’s unemployment rate is 29.9 per cent and Enugu is 15 per cent. The state has tried to reduce unemployment through its Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS) and the Anambra Youth Reorientation and Empowerment Program (ANSYREP), but the problem with these programmes is that they contribute very little to the production base of the state.

The incidence of poverty in the state is very high – actually disappointing. The South-east has a food poor incidence of 41.0 per cent of which 60.9 per cent is absolutely poor, while 66.5 per cent is relatively poor and 56.8 per cent live under a dollar a day. Anambra has a poverty index of 22.8 per cent, the third highest in the zone, and shares the sixth lowest position in Nigeria with Rivers State which also has 22.8 per cent. About 47.6 per cent of the state’s population is core poor, 45.0 per cent is moderately poor and only 7.4 per cent of the state’s population is classified as none poor. Income inequality as measured by changes in Gini co-efficient between 2003 and 2010 increased slightly by 7.6 per cent as against 18.1 per cent for Ebonyi and Enugu States 7.5 per cent increase.

The people of Anambra State are known to be brilliant, enterprising and resourceful. Most of Nigera’s brightest professors, writers, public servants and politicians hailed from the state. One would expect that given this enterprising spirit, the state would create conditions conducive to innovation, business and development. This is not the case, out of the five South-eastern states, Anambra has the fourth lowest ranking for ease of doing business; it was at a distant 35th position out of the 36 states and FCT in 2010. Starting a business involves nine procedures that may span 39 days. Enugu with the best doing business ranking in the zone, takes the 30th position of the 36 states, while Imo is ranked 36, as the most difficult state to do business both in the South-east and nationally.

Anambra State is not much endowed with mineral resources and the few known to exist are not exploited. For example, Tungsten at Oba, and large deposits of lignite in Onitsha, Idemili, and Nnewi councils are yet to be exploited. Kaolin is mined in the Ukpor lhembosi axis for the ceramic industry at Umuahia in Abia State; while the deposits at Afuleri are not exploited. Sandstones of Ameke Formation are quarried in several places, particularly at Abagana and Nsugbe for construction purposes. Natural gas has been discovered at Ebenebe Ridge, southeast of Ebenebe town, and preliminary prospecting indicates that crude oil exists in commercial quantities in the state. Cash crops in the state include coco yam, cassava, rice, maize and oil palm.

The 2012 budget for the state is N82.5 billion as against N66.9 billion in 2011, representing a 23.2 per cent increase. N46.8 billion (57%) is apportioned for capital expenditure, and N35.7 billion (43%) is for recurrent expenditure. Analysing the recurrent budget further, N9.2 billion or (26%) is set aside for Consolidated Revenue Fund Charges, N16.3 billion (45%) for personnel costs, N7.4 billion (21%) for overhead costs and N2.8 billion (8%) as subvention to parastatals/ tertiary institutions. Anambra’s total IGR for 2012 is projected at N12 billion, the same figure as was projected in 2011. This means, while its expenditure has increased, the state has not enhanced its capacity to collect or expand its tax base.

The two major contributors to IGR in 2012 will be N6.7 billion from taxes and about N4 billion from fines and fees. If this IGR is measured against the states projected personnel costs of N16.3 billion, Anambra cannot pay its staff salaries without reliance on federal allocation; this means it is one of those ‘dependent’ states and is not economically viable for independent existence.
The 2012 budget will be funded by projected capital receipts of N47 billion, N12 billion as IGR and N36 billion as FAAC allocations, bringing total revenues to N95 billion, out of which N12.3 billion would be transferred to Capital Development Fund. In sectoral terms, N28.2 billion (34.2%) is allocated to the economic sector, N24.2 billion (29.4%) to the social sector, N9.7 billion (11.82%) for the environmental sector and N20.2 billion (24.52%) for general administration.

The education sub sector is allocated N10.99 billion. The state has a longstanding reputation of being an educationally advanced state: it has at least nine institutions of higher learning, its literacy rate is comparatively high, in a 2010 NBS literacy survey, youth literacy in the state was said to be 92.9 per cent and adult literacy at 74.0%. However, compared to its South-east neighbours, the state has the third lowest adult literacy amongst the five states, Abia has 78.2 per cent, Imo 80.8 per cent, Enugu with 64.6 per cent and Ebonyi with 69.8 per cent. This means that in education terms, Anambra is performing poorer than most other states in its region. From this regional perspective, it means investment in education urgently needs attention and ought to be ramped up.

A meagre N1.4 billion is budgeted for health, and considering that health should be the core focus of any state government, this amount is barely adequate. From this sum, it is evident that the government has misplaced priorities, apportioning only 1.7 per cent of the entire budget to a sector that directly affects the livelihood of all of its populace.

Another major problem of the state is roads and soil erosion. In a bid to tackle this, the government apportioned N10 billion to continue the construction of several intra-state highways and bridges, targeting the completion of about 100km of roads this fiscal year. However, only N1.696 billion is allocated for drainage, erosion control and sewerage. This we believe would not address the challenges in that area.
Water supply which also is a major problem will get only N800 millio: of this sum, it is hoped that expansion works on major water schemes would be carried out, and new ones built. This sum is little, and may not amount to much improvement in water supply in the state.

Agriculture is apportioned N1.4 billion, an evidence of misplaced priorities: with figures like these, it is no surprise that unemployment in the state is high. How can a state government allocate only 1.7 per cent of its entire budget to agriculture in a rural state? Unemployment can be tackled effectively with agriculture if the value chain challenges in food and cash crops production are tackled.
The housing sub sector will get N1.8 billion, the government plans to partner the private sector in providing more residential accommodation, a core focus will be on completing all existing projects. This is commendable.

What is clear from this analysis is that the state like most states of the federation is not allocating funds to adequately address the key social challenges that confront its people. It should slim down the size and cost if its government, learn to prioritise its budget allocations, expand its revenue base from taxes by attracting Federal Government and private sector participation in mineral exploration, improve its business climate by easing the starting and running of a business.

The state like other South-east states must address the security challenges arising from violent crimes and kidnapping that has scared the elite and investors from the state. The state should leverage its human resources by refocusing the priorities of government on SME and industrial development, investing in infrastructure, agriculture and human capital. It needs to capitalise on the enterprising nature of its people by tackling unemployment, poverty and infrastructure deficits.

Until that time, it will remain a state with big prospects and very little growth.

On a day like this, a princess was freely given to my parents. That princess has matured into a queen. I am proud of my life and how far I’ve come. Happy birthday to me.

naijaseeker:
She no dey pass ball joor. Ordega was far better. The best winger Falcons never had was Vera Okolo, followed by Ordega. Esther is like Ikedia or udeze, too much dribble.

ponishah:
Have you guys forgotten Daniel Wilson?