By Law Mefor
Metaphorically, someone said giving certain persons too much money is like setting that money ablaze. The story of Anambra State is almost sounding like that. A stupendously self-made people, it is commendably a place where each of the 177 communities that make up the State, boasts of dozens of millionaires and professionals on top of their game in all walks of life. Yet, it is one State where the falcon cannot hear the falconer. If any State in Nigeria is truly endowed, it is Anambra, yet again; it lacks a sense of the collective and progressive leadership recruitment process that will ensure that some of their best get the chance to guide the State to true greatness.
With the release of election timetable for the State by the Independent National Electoral Commission, Anambrarians are on the march again, looking for Mr. Governor. November 16, 2013 is the D-day to decide who takes over from the incumbent. As usual, the list of interested contestants is increasing by the day, and has reached over 30 and still counting. This is not strange as it has always been a cacophony of aspiration in Anambra. In the last election, for example, over 30 aspirants slugged it out on the platform of the PDP and 28 at the general election, discounting scores that participated in the numerous amorphous parties' primaries. It is the highest anywhere in the country, which many rightly see as a game of the spoilers, not any genuine manifestation of the so-called republicanism and democracy that the Anambra nay Igbo people pride themselves with.
What is even more disturbing about the recurring development is the hollowness and incoherence of an overwhelming majority of these aspirants, who have not demonstrated in any discernible way that they have an iota of idea of what to do with power if they get it.
Like broken records, these contestants simplistically shout about, “I will transform Anambra State”. Yet, not one has come forward with a well-researched analysis of the condition of the State, how the hell the State got to where it is and more importantly, how the hell he, the messiah (as they all claim), hopes to rescue the rudderless State. In the end, and with benefit of hindsight, they seek power as an end in itself, and not as a means to change things for the better. With such people in office, all Anambra can ever hope for is brand new masters, not any meaningful change as is being touted.
Old Anambra State was created in 1976 from part of East Central State, and its capital was Enugu. A further State creation in 1991 by IBB divided Anambra into two states, Anambra and Enugu.
Anambra State is unique in many ways. It is a State with a big catalogue of firsts in practically everything – the good, the bad, the ugly. It is the home of many most outstanding Nigerians who have shaped the nation and played on global stage. Some of these figures are Emeka Ojukwu, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chinua Achebe, Emeka Anyaoku, Alex Ekwueme, Philip Emeagwali, Chimamanda Adichie, to mention just a few. The only Nigerian Saint (in the making) Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi , is from the State as well, while struggling with Bayelsa and Abia for kidnapping capital title. How embarrassing then for many to now deridingly ask the Anambrarian: "As Okeke has returned from the battlefield, where are his boots? I get am before no be property".
There is no doubt that the potential of the state as a commercial and technological hub of the nation has not been tapped because of mediocre leadership. Anambra has actually been on the decline, with activities of hoodlums and kidnappers driving the well-to-do out of the state. In post-independence Nigeria Onitsha Main Market served as the commercial nerve center/hub of the nation and by extension, of West Africa. But today, Onitsha Main Market, now a shadow of its old boisterous self and stagnating, plays second fiddle to both Lagos and Kano.
Apart from what the Peter Obi government did with the assistance of the UN-HABITAT to produce 20-year structural plans (2009–2028) for three major cities in the State, Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka Capital Territory to restore urban planning and guide their growth into the future, its successive colourless and visionless governments never did more than run palliative governance. Nothing has been done in the direction of conceiving a One City State and turning Anambra State into a One-stop Market for West Africa and an Economic Tiger that it can easily become. Of course, without a dry port, an international cargo airport and infrastructure, such idea will remain an empty dream and none of these aspirants has an idea of how to go about such an enduring dream.
Indeed, where it comes to governance, it cannot be said that the State has ever enjoyed the best of leadership, both at appointive and elective levels. What came quite close to a real deal was the governorship of Chris Nwabueze Ngige, but it was short-lived before it could crystallize. The Ngige government was remarkably an eye-opener as nobody knew there was such money to develop the State within it until he opened it up to the public.
Strangely, those running the State, before and after Ngige, saw/see it as a cash-cow; to them, it is a honey-well where they can only draw. The efforts of Ngige and Professor Chukwuma Soludo to take back the Awka government house failed in the fiasco called gubernatorial election by the Maurice Iwu-led INEC in February, 2010. Without a doubt, it was the worst election in the annals of the history of democracy, where, in aberration, only 96,000 voters out of 1.9 million, voted back Peter Obi, an incumbent(as he then was and still is) who couldn’t even get the opportunity to vote for himself in that charade of an election! No serious country would allow such election to stand but it stood in Nigeria against Anambra State.
Anambra State is the gateway to the Easter Nigeria and therefore its governance strategically important for both the survival and growth of the region. Its name is an anglicized version of the original 'Oma Mbala', the native name of the Anambra River, which is a major tributary of the River Niger. The Capital and the Seat of Government is Awka, with a sad reputation as the only undeveloped State capital in Nigeria due to internal politics involving both the Awka autochthons and some politicians who insist on treating the State as their farmland.
Anambra is the eighth most populated state and the second most densely populated state in Nigeria after Lagos State. The stretch of more than 45 km between Oba and Amorka contains a cluster of numerous thickly populated villages and small towns, giving the area an estimated average density of 1,500–2,000 persons per square kilometre.
Apart from its comparative advantage in technology and commerce, Anambra is rich in natural gas, crude oil, bauxite, ceramic and has an almost 100 percent arable soil. In the year 2006, foundation laying ceremony for the first Nigerian private refinery Orient Petroleum Refinery (OPR) was made at Nsugbe-Umuleri area and OPR is attempting to go into operation but will the Ibaji people of Kogi State let them? A very resourceful people but lacking cohesive, inspirational leadership, currently, Anambra State is believed to have the lowest poverty rate in Nigeria. It is a tip of the iceberg of what the State could be with a purposeful, far-sighted leadership.
Leadership is service, not business or showmanship as many politicians in the State unfortunately believe. If most of these people milling around for the simple reason that they can afford the cost of forms of political parties and play the spoiler understand it, they will do well to steer clear of Anambra elections and give the State the chance to chose a governor to restore its status as “the light of the nation” and “the gateway to the East”. Lest the State and by extension the East, lose another 8 years to palliative governance and plundering.
Such distractions by moneybags led to the crisis that led to the 10-month strike under Chinwoke Mbadinuju and the kidnapping of Chris Ngige as governor. Bastardising of Anambra State has to stop in the interest of its people, south east and the nation at large.
• Law Mefor, Author and Forensic Psychologist, is National Coordinator, Transform Nigeria Movement (TNM), Abuja. E-mail:lawmefor@gmail.com; +234-803-787-2893
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