My last thoughts on Anambra election It is my sincere wish that my state Anambra transforms to become a developmental giant in the East and a pace setter in positivity across the federation. As the election date draws near, I am afraid once more that the state will once again lose it chance to elect a visionary, a positive and progressive thinking candidate who would take us to El Dorado and grant my wish. The election discourses so far are filled with sentiments and emotions which in the long run would not develop the state. The candidates also has done themselves no favour at all, their manifestos has refused to be a product of thought provoking mental discourse on how to improve the state and contains no detailed plan on how to overcome the infrastructural deficit as presently witnessed in the state. The opportunity offered to the candidates by silverbird television and the Nigerian election debate group (NEDG) to sell their manifestos to the public was underutilized by them, as the debates was no better than the mimicked gubernatorial debate during my junior secondary school days. I still insist that no governor past or present has really put any strenuous effort to develop the state. CHRIS NGIGE For Ngige, I have never admired him. To me he is an electoral thief and I personally think that if not for his political travails during his administration he would not have registered any mean full achievements during his reign. However, Regardless of what you think about him you can not dispute the achievements recorded by his administration and the desire shown by him to rapidly develop the state within his three and half years stint at the government house. For sure he is the best among the pack and based on the quality of candidates on display I would rather prefer him to win although it appears unlikely. PETER OBI Peter obi lost the opportunity to be the greatest governor ever in the history of the state. His 8years reign was characterized with mediocre performances. There was no desire shown by him to improve the infrastructural deficit in the state or the welfare of its citizens other than propaganda. Yes, I agree that he should be commended for improved inter town road networks in the state regardless of the standard of the roads. But beside roads, other sectors got little or no attention. Housing, Education, Job creation, health, urban development, agriculture and the rest sectors has nothing tangible to write about. The governor only relied on religious sentiments and ethnic emotions to propel his government and exaggerate his meager achievements. His constant donations to the church ensured that the church was never an opposition hence setting a dangerous precedent. The only notable infrastructural achievements recorded by this administration beside roads are, the civil service secretariat at Aroma, Awka, Amaku general hospital Awka, Ngozika housing estate Awka, and the Intafact brewery at Onitsha. It is worthy to note that some of the above mentioned project were initiated and built to a point by his predecessors but completed by peter obi. If one quickly does a simple arithmetic’s of the revenues generated by the state, the one received from the federation account and the one collected on behalf of the 21local government areas in the state also keeping in view that there was little or no opposition in the state hence no distraction, when you then put up this projects and achievements as a ratio of projects to number of years spent and revenues at disposal one would easily dismiss this achievements as too meager. Occasionally popping up and giving out school buses, computer, donating or giving out cheques to churches and school principals to carryout very low standard projects just to save cost should not be taken by any serious minded fellow as achievements, when there are no teachers to teach computer studies, no educational policies and over 70% of the public schools are filled with dilapidated structures, the few schools that were renovated or had few blocks of classroom constructed can not be proud of the quality of the renovation or the standard of the newly built class rooms. Same story can also be told in the health and other sectors were nothing tangible can be written about. I have never seen, except in Anambra, where churches are now contractors and also undertake the function of the ministry of works. I am still at loss why a governor who had never made any strenuous effort to improve the state for about seven and half years would suddenly be in a hurry to initiate projects and dole out enormous amount of cheques at the twilight of his tenure, at the election season. Are all this ploys or conduit through which funds for campaign are gotten and campaigners rewarded? Why did it take so long for a serious minded governor to recognize that traditional rulers and vigilantes existed in the state for vehicles to be given to them? One then begins to wonder, where the money has been all this while and for what purpose? And why would the money be sitting idle somewhere while Anambra was decaying only for the money to surface during the campaign season ? In writing this, am well aware that most Anambarians has long been bought by sentiment and has fallen cheaply to this culture of low expectations. It is my sincere desire that we opt out now. It is also pertinent to note that the struggle should not be about political sharing, ndolu ndolu ocichi or a struggle of which political camp would laugh last, it should be a struggle to rapidly develop the state and improve the welfare of its citizens and nothing more. Anyone who ever becomes the next governor of Anambra state, goodluck and not Ebere is all I wish him. But he should remember that he has a heavy task at hand. From my arithmetic’s I can say Obiano of APGA would win. My hope is that he would not offer to us the peter obi styled leadership and policies.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 09:03:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015