Politician of the Year- Gov Willie Obiano – Impacting positively on Ndi- Anambra

Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano has introduced dynamic programmes that have touched the lives of the people in the state. He also brought drastic improvement in the security of lives and property of the citizens and residents of Anambra State .

From 1970 to date, after the civil war, security in Onitsha and environs and indeed the entire Anambra State has been a very intractable issue as criminals from time to time had hijacked the state, compelling the people to live in permanent fear. At a time, the crime became too rampant that people had to resort to sleeping in churches.

Even during the military, violent crime was almost the order of the day, hence the setting up of Armed Robbery and Fire Arms Tribunals which tried and executed those found guilty of robbery cases. But that could not solve the problem of crimes in the state.

At a time in Anambra State, a gang of robbers were accosting luxurious buses plying from any part of East to Lagos.
Immediately they stepped into Anambra State from any other part of the East, these organised robbers unleashed bullets on the bus from every side, which led to loss of several innocent souls of passengers during that period .

Banks, fillings stations and individuals were back again to their cherished ones. In fact, at a time an attempt was made on the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, which failed.

But Governor Obiano has changed this infamous action immediately he assumed office, adopting innovative strategic measures.

Nobody knew the secret employed by this accountant and banker turmed politician but Obiano employed civilsed method, using the police and installing of street lights at strategic places in the state especially from Onitsha Bridgehead to Borromeo Hospital Round About through old road to Amawbia in Awka.

Today, Anambra can be said to have the best security network. Prominent Anambrarians who have relocated to Lagos, Abuja, Enugu and other cities in the country and now conduct marriages of their children outside the state started returning back.

And business started booming again. Night life returned to the Onistha, Awka and other major cities of the state.

The presence of security expectedly has multiplier effect on the socio-economic development of any place as it engenders confidence among the people, business community and investors.

The improved security situation has increased the number of hours of doing business in the state as well as brought back night life which has died in the state.

This development has not affected other areas of the state, hence the huge investment on agriculture and industry in the administration of Willie Obiano to the tune of $1.2billion and $3.2 billion respectively, hence the increased production of rice in Anambra State.

There have been major investment in rice production like Coscharis farm in Ayamelum as well as poultry in Igbariam and others in various parts of the state.

These investment in agriculture has resulted in the exportation of vegetables from Anambra State to European countries and yam to United States.

As a boost to agriculture, the state has provided to the farmers 291 hectares of land, seedlings, fertilizers and herbicides to encourage mechanised agriculture in the state.

Governor Obiano has not fared any less in the area of trade and commerce.

The traders in Anambra State are happy that his administration has impacted on them in one way or the other. Obiano took the bull by the horn by setting up N10 million projects in all the markets in the state.

In the choose yourself N10million project, every market in the state is entitled to N10million worth of project. Some of the markets used the opportunity to build office complexes, halls, access roads, motor park complex, electricity, water boreholes and overhead tank among other projects. These no doubt has added value to the markets and the traders themselves.

Fire fighting vehicles were also bought and distributed to strategic markets in case of any fire outbreak. One of the fire fighting vehicles is situated at Building Materials Market Ogidi to cover that area and the environs.

The governor has also extended the kind gesture to all the communities in Anambra State by asking them to choose N20million projects.

He went further to challenge the communities which finished their first projects in time to choose another tranche of N20m project, which some communities have already benefited.

The good news is that virtually all the communities have completed all their projects, while some which finished on time have been given another N20million for second projects. These projects are dotted all over the communities as town halls, skill acquisition centres, roads rehabilitation, boreholes, among others.

Obiano has done more than excellent in the construction of roads and bridges since he became governor. Apart from constructing three world class bridges in Awka at the popular Aroma junction in Awka, Kwata and Amawbia junction, in the state capital, Obiano has also done a bridge across Mamu River at Amansea – Ndiukwuenu-Awa-Ufuma.

He has also constructed about 180 km of roads through the state as well as rehabilitated the existing roads through the State Road maintenance Agency’s zero pothole programme.

Obiano also constructed the Iyiora Bridge believed to be the longest bridge in the State, which connects Anambra West, part of the food basket basin of the state to the rest of the world.

There are other ongoing roads construction in different parts of the state, one of them being the construction of bridge across Nteje – Umanya bye – pass along the Onitsha- Enugu Expressway.

On education, Governor Obiano has disbursed at least over N700milion to mission schools, constructed over 2,500 classrooms-blocks for primary and secondary schools in the state, installed 30KVA generating sets and provided transformers to the schools too.

Obiano’s administration also awarded scholarships to about 200 students of Anambra State of origin to the tune of about N120m as a source of encouragement to academic excellence among Anambra children.

The State also recruited 70 contract teachers for the 11 technical colleges in the state to boost their staff strength.

The welfare of teachers is critical to Obiano’s administration. Consequently, he has increased the salary of 1,634 teachers of core subjects in the state school system as well as the salary of 2, 732 teachers in rural areas of the state by 20 percent to motivate them and provide more access to quality education to the children in riverine and agrarian areas of the state.

Acording to the State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Kate Omungha, the number of candidates who passed external examinations at five credits with English and Mathematics such as West African School Certificate and National Examination Council (NECO), at five credits with English and Mathematics have increased to 70 percent.

A teacher from Anambra State recently won the best teacher in the country and was given a brand new car. And all these attest to the quality of education under Obiano.

Little wonder, the outstanding achievements of Governor Obiano enabled him to record a landslide victory during his re-election in the state as he defeated other candidates in all the local government areas of the state.