Now that the curtain is about to be drawn on the government of Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, what legacy does it bequeath to the people of the state? What is the rating of the administration in the eye of the people? Has it performed well to the glory of the state? Or is it a case of average performance in the last eight years?
Ordinarily, a question of this nature needs not struggle for an answer. Why? The performance record of the administration seen in multi sector development is enough evidence that Mr. Obi has made success of governance in the state. However, I will not be surprised if tomorrow, a group of people make a contrary claim. It may not matter to this group what efforts the administration has made since it came to keep the politically turbulent state out of odium’s way. Neither will they care less if, after so many years, the administration was to pioneer efforts in so many sectors of the state economy.
For daring to govern according to the dictates of his conscience, and having the temerity to insulate the treasury from chronic looters, Obi has earned for his government some discontent. On the bus, at recreation centres, on the pages of newspapers, some show reasonable dissatisfaction against the administration. As puerile as some of the reasons for attacking the administration are, those who attack seem to have a thousand and one reasons why they vent their anger on the government. If they cannot indulge in an orgy of wild partying they blame the administration for not sparing on loose cash. If girls, those free and easy with their favours, fail to make business as a result of maybe the pervading sense of order, the administrations is blamed. There is no end to the blame game.
Some had wished that the administration played down prudence, even if it meant borrowing, if allocation to the state was not enough, to indulge expensive desires of some privileged few. It does not matter to what effect that will be in the overall interests of the state, neither does it matter if the mass of the people is affected positively or negatively as a result of such decision. The people, on their part, have no qualms acknowledging good governance once the dividends of democracy begin to percolate to them through good network of roads, healthcare, education, housing, security, infrastructure, transportation, employment etc. For these people, the Obi government has worked itself to some reckoning, having brought development to bear in virtually all the sectors of the economy. But not so for the sworn enemy of the people! He is unimpressed by all these. Once his pocket is not lined, the administration has failed. And at every turn, he has a thousand and one reasons to discredit it.
Writing earlier on the subject, a commentator once said that if Obi continues the way he was running his government, he will be judged a failure by the time he leaves office. He even cited states like Lagos and Kano as some of non-oil states which are not as vulnerable as Anambra and which “IGR can at least finance their recurrent expenditure.”
Let me state that as at the time he wrote this piece, there appeared a swell of critical reviews on Anambra State, set adrift essentially by the diminutive former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El Rufai. Much as this piece has no intention of dwelling on the vast profusions of the period, i feel obliged to spare a line on it.
I became aroused by what seemed an unhealthy development in one of the states earlier mentioned by the writer. Lagos State, which for some reasons has become a model state for most of the critics of the Obi government, is said to be enmeshed in terrible debt. The debt profile of the state, according to the writer, one Ola Animashaun, is in the region of N300bn. The writer, by his admission states, “while the figure of N300bn might be criticised as being pulled from the air, that of N270bn is hardly disputable.”
It is not clear whence the writer scrounged his facts, but suffice it to say that Lagos may not be as healthy as some of those who make comparison of the disparate states. He wrote: “But then, the question should be asked whether it was necessary for Lagos to have borrowed so much externally and domestically. This question becomes very relevant in view of the allocations to the State (about N176bn for 2012) from the Federation Account and the state’s Internally Generated Revenue of more than N276bn in 2012 alone, making a total of about N452bn.”
All these may not be necessary, save for the fact that certain persons have continued to use Lagos as yardstick to measure development in Anambra. “Go to Lagos State and see what Fashola is doing there,” some would say. I have had to argue that Lagos was the political capital of Nigeria and now its economic capital and as such the comparison is baseless.
If Obi, with the little resources available to him, has been able to achieve so much, and without laying a burden of debt on the state, he would rank as one of the best in the country. I still maintain he remains one of the most capable hands from the Southeast zone suited for a presidency of Igbo extraction. When Anambra State under his watch was adjudged as one of the few viable states in the country, opposition made political capital out of it. Those who are not capable of any meaningful contribution to the development of the state have not failed to derail any government that shows focus. The same applies to those who have been there but failed to improve the lives of the people, stunting development in every sector, particularly education. It is difficult to expect good commendations from them, after all, is it not said that a runaway nun always speaks ill of her convent.
Orakwue Chikelue
Abagana
Anambra State
