Today, thirty-one years ago, Anambra State, as it is presently constituted, became a reality. Created alongside nine others through a fiat of then military “president”, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babaginda, the new state brought about new hope in the shared aspirations of her people who had desired more political and socioeconomic inclusion in what was becoming an unhealthy power tussle between “Ndi wawa” and “Ndi Agbaenu” in the old Anambra State. Thus, the creation of the new state provided the renewed expectations of the people of the new Anambra to strive to build a homeland that befits their spirit of excellence.
The successive military sole administrations that came before and after the quashed third republic when Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife was executive Governor made remarkable attempts to stabilize and position the new state as “home for all” but as the legitimacy and terms of reference of such administrators carried them, they could not perform any magic to lift the fortunes of the state. From the then Navy Captain Joseph Abulu, AIG Dabo Aliyu, Colonel Mike Attah, Group Captain Rufai Garba, and Wing Commander Emmanuel Ukaegbu, the stories were similar.
But like every democratic government that enjoys the acceptance of the people, the government of Dr Ezeife was spectacular in ideating very important policies and programmes that was to lay a strong foundation for the state. His government, though shortlived and operated under a period of national political uncertainty and transition, was reputed to initiate the first ever attempt to bring home the people of the state to invest in their home. The think home philosophy of the Ezeife administration was thought out to provide a platform to attract local and indigenous investments that will in turn bolster local workforce and improve the economy. The government also commissioned an environmental research which could have put paid the emerging erosion devastations facing the state.
However, the nation’s return to democracy in 1999, came with a sweet-bitter experience. Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju’s government which struggled through its four year life span to come up with signature projects for the young state was strangled with numerous political and labour crises. The security situation at the time was unsavory as the attempt to use an unorthodox security strategy only yielded spiraling negative results turning the state into an anarchical and pariah society. Pupils and students in various primary and secondary schools lost a full academic calendar. Strike actions were the order of the day.
As such, the subsequent political events post general elections of 2003 with its climax on July 10 of the same year, and the Court of Appeal judgment of March 16, 2006 that truncated the Dr Chris Ngige era and brought in the Mr Peter Obi administration became a watershed in the anals of history of the state. Starting from July 10, 2003 when he took back the state after an unpopular attempt to kidnap him out of office, Dr Ngige started what could be described as revolutionary reclaim of our road infrastructure, payment of owed earned allowances, gratuities and pensions and breaking down the bureaucracy that walled the government from the governed. Peter Obi arrived with a robust development plan in 2006 called the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy, ANIDS which systematically transformed every sector of the state economy and standard of living, taking the state from the rear to a leading state.
So was the Willie Obiano administration which focused on making the state a first choice investment destination. While building, completing and sustaining the successes of his predecessors, Governor Obiano leaned on giving landmark legacy infrastructure that today sets the state apart from her contemporaries. With a world standard competitive passenger and cargo airport now in the state and one of the longest bridges leading into the base of her oil wealth, Anambra State is on the verge of realizing the dreams of her forebearers.
The fulfillment of this dream is not up to question as the state is today led by an all rounder, meticulous economist, scholar, development expert, and former apex banker, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR. In the first few months of his arrival on the thirty-first year of the state, Governor Soludo has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities to steer the state to “prosperous liveable homeland”. With his intrusive and systematic “Soludo Solution” driving the “disruptive change” mantra which is today reverberating across communities and introducing a new wave of socio-political and economic participation and thinking, the Anambra we all wished for is here.
Therefore, as we celebrate this 31st birthday of our dear homeland, Anambra State, let us in oneness be deliberate to take actions that will only catapult this state to an exemplary society of emulation.
IGWE DENNIS EZEBUILO
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