Although
the world hardly knows this, the Willie Obiano administration is currently in
more exciting times than during the political barnstorming that culminated in
his reelection. All the meetings, all the workshops, all the strategy sessions,
all the commissioned studies since initiated are aimed at one thing: LEGACY!
Governor Willie Obiano currently dreams, talks, walks and exudes legacy!
That
is why Anambra State is on a pivotal date with history,
the threshold of a new dawn. That dawn begins on St. Patrick’s Day – March 17,
2018 – when Chief Obiano will mount the rostrum at Awka’s Ekwueme Square, to
take for the repeated, momentous occasion both the Oath of Office and the Oath
of Allegiance, to mark the commencement of his second and final term of
governorship.
This
article is not intended to steal the Anambra State Governor’s thunder. No. He
will himself articulate in his inaugural address the plans, procedures,
programmes and purposes that will propel Ndi Anambra as a blessed people set
apart for peace, plenty and progress, an entity whose motto of “Light of the
Nation” duly and wholly becomes it. But, because the odd snippets are allowed,
it must be recalled that Governor Obiano had given his word that he aimed to
have established by the end of his eighth year in office a new, thriving
Anambra State thriving – with or without statutory appropriations from Abuja.
It is apposite also to discuss afresh the *Gov Obiano |
When the
instruments for the construction of the Umueri Airport
were initialed last year, the governor promised that it would be open for
business in three years, to mark the distinction between those who dreamt and
the plethora of others whose dreams were, in essence, no more than wishful
thinking. The Umueri Airport will be the first of its kind anywhere south
of the Sahara , moving both passengers and
cargoes, serving as a centre for the repair and servicing of aircraft, and
operating as a refueling station for local and international airplanes and
airliners. The airport city will generate direct jobs by the hundreds and
indirect ones by the thousands. That is the notion of the aerotropolis. That is
one of the legacy projects schemed to come to fruition during Governor Obiano’s
second term.
Without
question, a genuine political leader intent on imbuing his area of jurisdiction
with self-reliance could do with all possible support. Such a leader must have
all hands on deck, and all the constituents pulling in one direction. That was
the political engineering Governor Obiano accomplished after the result of the
November 18, 2017, gubernatorial election showed that he had defeated his
opponents by a landslide, winning overwhelmingly in all the 21 local government
areas of the state.
Such a
comprehensive victory often afflicted the shallow-minded with delusions of
divinity. Yet, Obiano disdained triumphalism. Rather, with a passionate plea on
his lips, he reached out to all those that fought the election against him,
visiting them in their homes, and granting them audience at the Government
Lodge. Come, he said to one and all, let us join hands and build a better
Anambra that we all will proudly call home, a new society that posterity will
be even prouder to call homeland.
If people
examined Anambra State today, they would discover that
the acerbity that characterised much of the election campaigns has given way to
a fresh vista of reason and dialogue.
The
childish scuffles of partisanship have been replaced by the maturity of
statesmanship. It is thanks to Obiano’s perspicacity that, of the mindset of
every key Anambra political player today, the experiential benefits of the
passage of time in St. Paul ’s
letter (1 Corinthians 13:11) can be cited: “When I was a child, I talked like a
child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I
put the ways of childhood behind me.”
The
childishness of partisanship has been overtaken by a maturity seeking to
generally move Anambra forward. This latter-day maturity will play out in many
departments, one of which deserves a mention. Nationally speaking, Anambra
currently enjoys preeminence in educational standards – from primary through secondary
to tertiary levels. But, for Governor Obiano, the primacy in this sector
represents only a clarion call for consolidation. Reports on commissioned
studies by education experts have reached the governor’s desk.
The
implementation of their recommendations commences on inauguration morning, to
ensure better and adequate staffing of teaching personnel, their constant
retraining, and increased incentives for those working in backwaters and others
teaching special subjects. This will ensure that Anambra, where Governor
Obiano, decreed and executed the demolition of the so-called examination
“miracle centres,” will remain numero uno in education – the fundamental
pedestal for development.
Outside
the strategic field of education, there is a tactical realm crying for speedy
attention. The Federal Government owes Anambra State
a whopping N43.8 billion in refunds for federal roads repaired and constructed
by the Obiano administration. This gargantuan debt is years old. Seeing no
reason for the dramatic, Governor Obiano has never gone out, loudhailer in
hand, demanding the refund.
He has
continued to use the quiet, diplomatic approach, although most other states
similarly owed have since smiled to various banks. All voices, especially those
of Anambra’s political class of nascent maturity, must now team as one to ask Abuja to, please, pay up.
Fate has dealt Obiano the card of directing his people’s affairs; the debt
settlement will add resonance to the truism that Willie Is Working!
No comments:
Post a Comment