A citizen of Anambra State, Miss Sandra Anazor has emerged the overall best in NECO and WASC examinations, lending credence to the huge investments of Governor Peter Obi in the state’s education sector.
Receiving her at the Government House On Wednesday, Obi announced a scholarship for the brilliant student, promptly redeeming it by handing her a cheque of N2, 220,000 to cover the six years she will be in school, having secured admission to read Medicine at the University of Ibadan.
Obi said he was proud of her accomplishments and that performances such as hers would encourage him to step up his visits to secondary schools in the state to encourage students to take their studies seriously. He promised to extend his visits to primary schools soon.
Reeling out names of Anambra people who are champions in their different fields of endeavour, Obi assured that the state would keep on searching for them wherever they are, so as to present them as role models to the younger ones. Giving example with the Heart Centre his administration is building at St. Joseph Hospital Adazi-Nnukwu, named after foremost Anambra Cardiologist, Dr. Joe Nwiloh, he disclosed that other foremost Anambrarians would be similarly recognised.
Obi urged people of the state to see education as the most potent instrument for competition, as according to Aristotle, the difference between the educated and the uneducated is as that between the living and the dead.
During the ceremony, the ancient saying that “success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan” which President John Kennedy repeated after the disastrous “Bay of Pigs invasion” played out, as the principal of Queen of the Rosary, College, Onitsha, where Sandra had her junior secondary school education, Rev Sr. Maria Nwankwo, and the principal of Federal Government College, Onitsha, where she had her senior secondary school education, Dr. Mrs CHinyere Nzerem, jokingly claimed her as their own. They both expressed happiness at her performance.
In her speech, Sandra Anagor expressed surprise at the state government’s gesture, saying that Peter Obi has proved beyond doubt that he loves education and the success of his people.
Sandra’s proud father, Barrister Azubike Anagor, accompanied by her mother, Chinwe, linked the rising performance of Anambra indigenes in examinations to Gov. Obi, who has shown interest in all sectors.
He recalled that Obi provided boreholes, generators, Internet, lab facilities and buses to schools in Anambra State, saying the gesture allowed Sandra and her colleagues at Queen of the Rosary College, Onitsha and students in other schools in the state to attend boarding schools in relative comfort.
In her own remarks, the State Commissioner for Education thanked the governor for “his absolute love” for the state.
In her academic history, Sandra has won many academic competitions and awards.
