WRITTEN BY CHIKA IBENEME
On the 17th March, 2014, His Excellency Chief Willie Obiano, the governor of Anambra state pledged to extend the dreams of Ndi Anambra by developing and properly

exploring the abundant oil and gas reserve basins in the state. It is for this reason that the Governor included Oil and Gas amongst his 4 Pillars of development, the others are Trade and Commerce, Industrialisation and Agriculture.
Today, Governor Willie Obiano is fulfilling his promise as he is providing vital infrastructure in the Oil and Gas reserve basins of Anambra State. It is on record that Anambra Oil and Gas Reserves basins were grossly neglected by the previous administrations in Anambra state. It is equally on record that apart from being the Oil and Gas reserve basins of the state, they are equally agrarian communities which produce the greater chunk of food consumed in the South East.

Yet they can never boast of any government presence before the inception of Obiano’s administration. It is equally on record that the successive government remember them only in times of election because they pull block votes and agree on whom to support without any external influences. I wept recently in one of the communities in Ogbaru called Ogwuaniocha when their traditional ruler said that electioneering campaigns were done via helicopters by politicians but they were abandoned as soon as the politicians got what they wanted. It took us an hour to get to this community from Ogbaru because there is no access road.
But the good news is that His Excellency Chief Willie Obiano is providing access roads and bridges to Aguleri Otu Oil reserve basin where Orient Petroleum is situated. The longest bridge in the South East built by Obiano which is 300 meters long leads to Anambra oil reserve basin. Another 160 meters Iyiora Anam bridge built by Obiano equally leads to the oil fields. The bridge also leads to Igbariam Gas reserve basin which has the largest gas reserve in Africa. The new Umueje bridge under construction equally leads to Enugwu Otu oil reserve basin. All these bridges are matched with high quality roads that will stand the test of time.
At Ogbaru oil reserve basin, Governor Willie Obiano is constructing the 14 km Umunankwo-Mputu-Ogwuaniocha road to Ihiala with a bridge across Ulasi river. It is on record that Ogwuaniocha has the largest oil reserve basin in the South east yet to be exploited. Also the governor is continuing Umunankwo-Ogwuiele road also leading to Ogwuikpele oil reserve basin in Ogbaru axis of Anambra state.

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Anambra has never had it so good before now. Chief Willie Obiano is building the state for the next generation. He is laying a generational foundation for Ndi Anambra.
I salute Governor Obiano for his firm resolution to place Anambra on the path of real development.
Ndi Anambra should support this noble agenda of making Anambra state an oil producing state being championed by Governor Willie Obiano through the provision of infrastructure such as roads and bridges that lead to the oil and gas reserves communities. If Anambra state can achieve this goal of becoming an oil producing state, not only will our federal allocation increase thereby providing government with additional funds to carry out developmental projects, there are also additional benefits that will accrue to the state in the areas of job provision for our youths, training and skills acquisition, empowerment of local businesses, improvement in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Anambra state and many others.
If we take examples from what is happening in the Niger Delta regions, we can see that a developed oil and gas sector attracts foreign companies who will bring in their investments. Such investments dollars usually run into billions of dollars. Imagine the transformation that would happen in Anambra state if we can achieve this through Governor Obiano’s giant strides.
As we approach the November date for the scheduled Anambra gubernatorial elections, our people are encouraged to ensure that they vote for APGA to ensure continuity so that we do not lose momentum with big progress the present APGA government has made in the area of developing critical infrastructure that will support the oil and gas economic sector in Anambra state.

Chika Ibeneme writes from Amichi

 

 

 

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