Written By Dr Emeka Arinze, Dr Uche Nworah, James Eze and Ikenna Aniagbaoso

Seven is a magical number. So it is with the administration of Governor Willie Obiano in Anambra state. For the past seven years, Chief Dr Sir Willie Maduaburochukwu Obiano, Knight Commander of the Pontifical Order of Saint Gregory the Great, has demonstrated that he is a proactive, visionary and foresighted leader who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.
Specifically, foresight is like a pregnancy; only time reveals it. It is a most ignored attribute of leadership. But a leader without foresight is blind in one eye.

Indeed, foresight is a crucial gift of a great leader. The founding fathers such as the great Zik, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello all demonstrated remarkable foresight which can be seen in the legacies they left behind.

The landscape of the old Eastern Region bears the indelible marks of Dr Michael Iheonukara Okpara. These men were farsighted leaders who could see beyond their noses. The decline in our society today is partly because we have fewer leaders who are gifted with foresight.
In Anambra state, even a blind man can see that Anambra state has been so transformed in the seven years in which Governor Willie Obiano has piloted the affairs of the state. Akpokuedike has positively touched all sectors of the state economy. Since Obiano was sworn-in on March 17, 2014, he has shown that leadership runs in his blood. Thus, he has been exhibiting foresighted leadership in Anambra.
Seven years down the line, Obiano has written a fascinating piece of history for himself and Ndi Anambra. He has changed both the landscape and the mindscape of the state with his compelling vision. And now, in the closing year of his tenure, the outlines of Obiano’s renascent Anambra have emerged from the canvass.

Seven years of sustained investment in security has created a social capital which will take a while to expend. It took hard work to bring the state to a point where the country’s security establishment unanimously declared Anambra the safest state in Nigeria.
A free society is a precursor for economic development. A society is as free as the degree of freedom it enjoys in public safety. No meaningful and sustainable economic progress can be recorded in a volatile atmosphere, plagued by fear and uncertainty. Governor Obiano understood these and he made watertight security his foundation for the Anambra of his dream. The results have been impressive. Before he came on board, Ndi Anambra in the diaspora dreaded visiting home. Most of them conducted traditional burials, marriages and other cultural and traditional ceremonies outside the shores of Anambra state. Even those at home slept in churches and police stations for fear of kidnap and armed robbery attacks,

On Commerce, the World Bank, in 2019, rated Anambra among the Top-5 Most Improved States in ease of doing business in Nigeria.
The state was given a presidential award for this achievement. It must be remembered that this was once a state where no serious entrepreneur would risk a visit, only a few years earlier. As a corollary to Anambra’s impressive showing on the ease of doing business index, foreign investments have been flowing into the state.

Again, the National Bureau of Statistics reports that in 2020, Anambra attracted foreign investments worth 10.2 million dollars. It is interesting to note that not even the COVID-19 pandemic could get in the way of these investments.

The most distinctive of Obiano’s building bricks of greatness so far is in the fight against poverty. The National Bureau of Statistics reports that in 2010, the level of poverty in Anambra State stood at 53% on the national average. Interestingly, ten years later, Anambra rates 14.8% on national average.

Six out of these ten years were under Obiano’s watch. And, notably, within those six years, Nigeria has experienced two recessions but Anambra was totally insulated from the shock of the recessions through Obiano’s competent handling of the local economy.

Meanwhile, the crowning glory of the Obiano years is the Anambra International Airport, Umueri, Awka City Stadium, three flyovers in Awka capital territory and the International Conference Center in Awka. These are audacious legacy projects that have given Anambra a sturdy foot into the future. But only those with a level of discernment can see the emerging outline.

Only such people can see that if you are adjudged the safest state in Nigeria for many successive years, the world would want to do business with you. And for you to host the world, you need a world class facility; an International Conference Center. And if you build a 10,000-capacity Conference Center, how will the world access it if you don’t have an airport?

How would some of the largest professional bodies access the facility if there is no airport? If you have the largest retail market in West Africa, wouldn’t building an airport enhance the potentials of that market by increasing the footfalls in and out of it?
Can anyone doubt the economic import of hosting major conferences in Anambra State?

When you connect the items on this canvass with a clear line, what will emerge is a solid outline of a new Anambra State.
On Agriculture, Anambra state has advanced remarkably towards food sufficiency in the seven years of the Willie Obiano administration. As a major pillar of his development blueprint for the state, Governor Obiano provided funding to support agriculture and created an enabling environment to encourage investment in the sector.

Obiano’s strategic focus on mechanizing and commercializing agriculture and a sustained passion for effective development in the economic value chain, gave impetus to a massive revolution in agriculture. This yielded significant results as harvests became bountiful and outputs grew rapidly.

Under the Governor’s watch, rice production in Anambra state increased from 80,000 metric tons in 2014 when he took over to 345,000 metric tons in 2020. A projection of 525,000 metric tons yield has been made for 2021. Popular indigenous brands of Anambra rice are competing strongly in the markets all over the nation. They have also easily become the rice of choice in many homes.

What is more, increased yield in cassava, yam, maize, bitter leaf, vegetables and ventures in livestock and fisheries have revealed that Obiano’s agricultural revolution in Anambra state is not only strategic but also holistic. Obiano’s effective partnership with investors launched a bold move to revive the ranching of Efi-Igbo – a breed of dwarf cattle peculiar to Ndi Igbo.

With adequate funding through the Anambra Small Business Agency, ASBA, Efi-Igbo ranches in Eagles Farm, Umuchu, Aguata LGA and Wonder Farm, Umunze, Orumba South LGA are thriving today. Same applies to Lynden Poultry Farm which was commissioned in 2018 with the capacity of producing a million chicks a year. Today, Lynden Farms produces 5,000 crates of egg per day and has built capacity to process and package frozen chicken for markets in Anambra state and beyond.

In order to develop fish production and the aquaculture value chain in Anambra state, Governor Obiano created the Fisheries and Aquaculture Business Development Agency, FABDA, to harness potentials in fishery effectively and develop the value chain for maximum output. Through FABDA, over 3,000 fish farmers have been trained and empowered for increased productivity by the Obiano administration.

To create entrepreneurial and employment opportunities in the communities, Governor Obiano recently embarked on the building of three fish villages in the three Senatorial zones of the state. In the villages, youths are trained in the entire value chain while active production and processing of fish continues for local consumption and for export.

Governor Obiano’s passion for agriculture and zeal for maximum productivity spurred him to provide irrigation facilities in farm settlements to promote dry season farming in Anambra state. Even during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic, Obiano yet championed another novel idea for agricultural advancement titled Ugbo-Azu-Uno to encourage productivity even at a subsistence level.

However, the story of Obiano’s agricultural revolution in Anambra state cannot be completely told without mentioning the wonderful partnership between the state government and an indigenous investor, Graphil. This partnership engendered the unprecedented and trail blazing exportation of varieties of vegetables, spices, nuts, yam and other farm products to countries in Africa, Europe and America.
Supported by the Obiano administration with refrigerated trucks, Graphil processes and packages vegetables in Awka, Anambra state and prepares them for export through Lagos. But as work advances in the state owned international cargo airport project, Anambra waits with vigour to take more proceeds of Obiano’s agricultural revolution to the world.

Akpokuedike equally believes in stomach infrastructure; hence his “Ana Alu olu Ana Alu mmadu” mantra. Suffice it to say that increase in and prompt payment of workers’ salaries and pensions is a tradition since Obiano came on board, especially, bearing in mind that many states owe months of salary arrears. Graciously, the alert Governor and the Most Worker-Friendly Governor in Nigeria has been living up to his promise of paying salaries by 25th of every month.

Anambra under Obiano is the only state to have severally increased workers’ salaries across board in the last seven years and is equally the only state in Nigeria to have yearly given a bag of rice to every worker and pensioner in the state.
The Governor is also paying special allowances to teachers in hard -to -reach areas and those teaching special courses.
The impressive growth in Internally Generated Revenue to make up for the drying allocation from the federation account as well as the offer of scholarships to thousands of students is exemplary. In keeping with his usual drive for excellence, Sir Willie has achieved his promises, especially his four Cs – Continue, Complete, Commission, Commence new projects. Hence, Obiano has not abandoned any project from his predecessor.

There is massive construction of new legacy projects such as roads, bridges, and provision of road infrastructure such as traffic lights in different parts of the state, thus making Anambra number one in terms of road network in the country. Night life has returned to Anambra, thanks to the glimmering street lights in all communities, making it a one-community-state.

The Obiano administration also introduced a health insurance scheme, ASHIA, in collaboration with the European Union, EU, in order to enhance the living standards of the citizenry. This scheme provides healthcare to people, almost free, including laboratory, drugs and surgery. Akpokuedike constructed the biggest oxygen plant at COOU Teaching Hospital, Amaku, Awka as well as equipped the hospital with modern health facilities and personnel.

Again, for the first time in the country, a government started a people- oriented program known as “Community Choose -Your Project -Initiative”. Under this arrangement, each of the one hundred and eighty-one communities in the state was annually given twenty million naira to execute any project of its choice. With this development, no community has been denied direct democracy dividends by the government.

Equally, there is hardly another state that has established socio-economic outfit like the Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency, ANSIPPA and Anambra State Small Business Agency, ASBA, in order to attract investors, and empower small and medium scale entrepreneurs.

Sir Willie attracted Appeal Court to Anambra, 29 years after the creation of the state. Anambra is today the only state in Africa to install Close Circuit television, CCTV in major towns and cities across the state. This gesture bestowed Anambra the honour of hosting, for the first time in South East, the 12th Biennial Police Games in 2020.

Governor Obiano celebrated the final burial rites of our dead brothers and sisters during the Nigeria/Biafra war, tagged OZOEMEZINA. Akpokuedike also enrolls all the war veterans and former Rangers players into the health insurance scheme of the state. Apart from appointing the Ex-Rangers into sensitive political positions, Governor Obiano pays all of them monthly emolument, despite their state of origin.

For all these rare and outstanding achievements of Governor Willie Maduaburochukwu Obiano, Akpokuedike Global has received numerous awards and encomiums, including SUN Man of the Year, chieftaincy titles and Pope’s award of Knight Commander of the Pontifical Order of Saint Gregory the Great.

On education, the Willie Obiano administration has taken the sector to an enviable height in Anambra State. Right from the day Governor Willie Obiano was sworn-in, Anambra has never been the same in terms of education. Continuously, the media has been awash with repeated splendid performance of Anambra in the education sector in both national and international competitions.

Under his watch, Anambra has recorded the most impressive feats in education by any state in Nigeria. In 2018, five girls from Regina Pacis Secondary School, Onitsha won the Gold Medal at the World Technovation Championship at the Silicon Valley in USA. The girls defeated the US, China, Spain, Turkey, Uzbekistan and other world super powers to clinch the laurel. This rare feat, which has never been attained by school girls from black Africa, has shown that a silent revolution is going on in the educational sector of Anambra State under Obiano. Also, the bronze medal won by four boys from Saint John’s Science and Technical College, Alor in March 2019 at the International Festival of Engineering, Science and Technology (IFEST) in Tunisia has further confirmed that a revolution is afoot in the educational sector.

Before then, Anambra school children who had represented Nigeria at the 2015 World Schools Debate Championships in Singapore had twinkled like a million stars. They had won the Bronze Medal to register Anambra’s thirst for recognition on the global stage. While preparing for the next edition of the championship, the team had also defeated the famous Katong Convent School, one of the oldest secondary schools in Singapore in a friendly debate contest in 2016.
Anambra State, again, took the coveted first position in the 2020 examination into the highly competitive Federal Government School for Gifted Children, Abuja. It would be recalled that Anambra State also came tops in the 2020 National Common Entrance Examination results released by the National Examinations Council (NECO).
It would be recalled that Francis Chijioke Osakwe from Umuoji in Idemili North Local Government Area scored an ‘A1’ in each of the nine subjects he sat in the 2020 West African School Certificate examination.

Two indigenes of Anambra State – Ego Maduafokwa from Ihiala, and David Nwobi from Njikoka LGA, scored the highest marks in the 2020 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examination (JME).
Favour Obiajulu Okeke from Eziowelle in Idemmili North LGA took the first position in the competition organized by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology for outstanding science secondary school students throughout the country in 2019. Nelson Uwakwe from British Spring College, Awka took the second position in the 2020 competition.
The same year, Government Technical College, Onitsha took the third position in the national Junior Engineers, Technicians and Scientists (JETS) Expo in Abuja, which President Muhammadu Buhari attended in person.

Tochukwu Anyigbo from Ihiala, who was personally sponsored by Governor Willie Obiano, won the third place in the Global Robotics Competition in Mexico. Governor Obiano, who, as a student of the Christ the King College (CKC), Onitsha, in 1974, won the first prize in a national essay competition organised in memory of President John Kennedy of the United States by the American Embassy, is leading Anambra people to receive the young educational laureates.

Similarly, the robust motivation given to school teachers in Anambra State under Obiano has put Anambra teachers up for national honours and awards for exemplary performance. This is not entirely strange. In 2015, Governor Obiano had sent 28 teachers on offshore training to Singapore where they had gained exposure and first-hand knowledge in global best practices.

No other governor in Nigeria has shown such impressive foresight or thought of the critical role of teachers in nation-building. No wonder then, why in 2019, four Anambra teachers won different awards at the Presidential Teachers Award Night held in Abuja. Anambra was the only state that went home with four awards at the event.
So far, the administration has recruited 1,000 new teachers to strengthen both primary and secondary schools and built hostels with a capacity to shelter 700 students in twelve technical colleges.

It is interesting to note that not even COVID-19 could put a stop to academic activities in Anambra. While most states were still scratching their heads over the dilemma posed by the pandemic, Anambra had responded with the highly innovative Teaching-on-Air programme for primary and secondary schools. This novel partnership between the state Ministry of Basic Education and the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) has won national encomium as a strategic stop-gap measure that kept school children busy during the long shutdowns. Serious education stakeholders across the country have commended the initiative.
Indeed, in Obiano’s Anambra, there is a policy that says “No child must be left behind.” That is why the administration has given over 350 scholarships to students, especially those that have lost their parents. That is also why all physically challenged students in Anambra State have been given free tuition. Over 200 people Living with disabilities were on Christmas eve given appointment letters into the civil service of Anambra state.

The Special Education Center at Isulo has received unprecedented care under Obiano. These are children with extreme difficulties who were abandoned by their parents in the home. But because of the quality of care given to them by the administration, the school has grown in population from 100 to 300 students. Every child is important in Anambra State. Every child is given a chance at survival.
But sincerely, Governor Obiano’s most enduring legacy in Education may not even be the school hostels and classroom blocks erected by his administration but in the new and exciting spirit that has been inculcated in the Anambra child. Under Obiano, Anambra school children are rigorously trained to believe that nothing is impossible. There is a great deal of emphasis on their psychological preparation to face the world. This essence is embedded in the Ten-Shared Values that the children are taught in schools. His Excellency has demystified white superiority. Umu akwukwo Anambra are made to believe in themselves. Ask any Anambra child; he will tell you “I do not accept failure. Nothing is impossible. Yes, I can.” That’s our mantra.

No doubt, this is our way to demonstrate to all that these youngsters are worthy ambassadors and role models. In a society which is unfortunately marked by crass materialism, it is reassuring that there are persons like Governor Obiano leading the charge to change our national values, so that we can begin to pay homage to knowledge and enduring values rather than futile amassment of wealth.

Finally, it is gratifying to note that Governor Willie Obiano, in seven years has changed the face of Anambra in diverse ways. He touched all sectors concurrently – erosion, environment, industrialization, roads, bridges and road infrastructure. At seven, the best Ndi Anambra can do is to continue to support his government by being alive to their civic responsibilities. Bravo, your Excellency; ride on
Indeed, Anambra is the Light of the nation. To God be the glory.

Wednesday, 17th March, 2021

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