It is clear that the administration of Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State has continued to toe the path of good governance that his predecessor, Mr. Peter Obi was known for. Both Governor Obiano and Mr. Obi are products of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the party that the late Ezigbo Gburugburu, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu bequeathed to Ndigbo.
At the inception of his administration, Governor Obiano assured Ndi Anambra that he would be guided by the four C principle – to Continue with projects began by his predecessor, Peter Obi; to Complete and Commission them, and also to commence his own projects. Governor Obiano has prudently managed the resources of the state, despite reducing federal allocations, occasioned by lower crude oil production and sales in the international market, falling oil prices as well as other economic factors.
Despite these challenges, Akpokuedike has continued to meet his obligations to the citizens and partners, and will continue to do so. Workers are paid on time unlike in other states where civil servants are owed arrears of salaries. Leave allowances are also paid on time. Promotions are done as and when due and civil servants receive bags of rice and other goodies every Christmas.
Backlog of civil servants pensions and gratuities have been cleared, including the 25-year pension and gratuity backlog owed retired staff of the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) totalling almost Three Hundred Million Naira. For this reason, organized labour and other stakeholders have variously crowned Governor Obiano as Champion of workers’ welfare. The Governor has variously been honoured by The Sun Newspaper, Silverbird and other reputable media organizations with the Governor of the Year awards.
Governor Obiano deploys the resources of Anambra State to work for Ndi Anambra. Many, often, wonder how he is able to do all these for Ndi Anambra despite the economic challenges and recession Nigeria has gone through. It is through his ingenious leadership and management styles. He is guided by two principles. He calls one creative funding and the other ‘Doing more with less’.
Guided by these principles, Governor Obiano continues to channel needed resources towards several sectors, including health, education, agriculture, roads and infrastructure, investment attraction and promotion and so on.
Anambra State now boasts of world class bridges; there are the three beautiful Awka bridges located at Aroma, Kwata and Amawbia Bye-pass, Nengo bridge at Nteje, Iyi-Ora bridge in the agrarian Anambra West area, which will open up the area to further economic activities. The Odene Eziagulu bridge, reputed to be the longest bridge in Anambra State, which connects the rest of the state to the oil reserves through Aguleri-Otu in Anambra East Local Government Area.
Governor Obiano continues to invest in the security architecture of Anambra. This has ensured that the State remains one of the safest in Nigeria. Through the ‘Light Up Anambra’ project, street lights now traverse almost all the communities in Anambra State, thus gradually turning Anambra State into a 24-hour-economy. Unlike in the past, Ndi Anambra now visit home regularly whether at Christmas, Easter or during family ceremonies.
Ndi Anambra have a good man in Governor Willie Obiano. They know this too and demonstrated it with their votes during the November 2017 gubernatorial election when they renewed the Governor’s mandate for a second term with the now famous ’21 over 21’ landslide victory. Governor Obiano, in accepting the renewed mandate, pledged that he would work even harder during his second tenure. He has been doing that vigorously.
No doubt, Nigeria is in election season. The Presidential and National Assembly elections have already been concluded, while the State House of Assembly election is scheduled for Saturday, March 9, 2019. There is no better time for Ndi Anambra to vote for continued peace, progress, prosperity and synergy in the state than on the day of that election.
This is a call for Ndi Anambra to vote-in APGA candidates in the state assembly elections who will work synergistically with Governor Obiano to sustain the progress being made in the State. Ndi Anambra should avoid promoting rancour, tension and heating up the polity by voting non-APGA members into the House of Assembly who will get into loggerheads and leadership tussle with the Governor. If we do, the remaining years of Obiano’s tenure may just be spent dealing with needless rancour between the executive and legislative arms of government.
In the words of Senator Chris Ngige, Former Governor of Anambra State and Minister of Labour and Employment, “Our people should learn to play national and regional politics. In national elections, we should support the bigger parties but we should support APGA for our regional and state elections”. Let us vote APGA House of Assembly candidates so that we will continue to enjoy the peace, partnership and progress we are currently enjoying in the State.
The Presidential and National Assembly Elections are over. It is now time to focus on the matter at hand, which is ensuring that Ndi Anambra elect APGA candidates in the forthcoming state assembly elections. It is time to render the type of support given to Peter Obi, Okwute Ndigbo, former governor of the State under APGA and the Vice Presidential Candidate of the PDP in the just concluded Presidential election to APGA candidates in the coming local assembly elections.
Ndi Anambra, let us come out on Saturday, March 9th to vote APGA candidates for House of Assembly elections. This is indeed our chance, Let us take it.
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