How Obiano is setting Anambra State apart – Part 2

If Nigeria could be self-sufficient in rice production alone, the county would save billions yearly. Last year, a former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Engr. Charles Ugwuh, disclosed that Nigeria spends $2.6 billion, which today is over N780 billion importing rice. That is a huge drain on the scarce foreign reserve.

Besides, Obiano’s commercial agricultural revolution has begun to yield foreign revenue for the state. Anambra is already recording $5 million (about N1.5 billion) from the export of Ugu and bitter leaves to Europe, which is unprecedented in the country. The Governor is exploiting the comparative advantage Anambra has in the vegetables. Furthermore, sorghum, sweet potatoes and pawpaw are being produced in commercial quantity.

By making agriculture his number one priority in the ANSIPPA blueprint, the Governor is returning to our agrarian economy. If properly harnessed, the development of agro-based industries and their derivatives would guarantee massive job creation for the teeming unemployed youths.

The government is partnering with appropriate international donor agencies, including the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to train youths and local farmers in modern farming and irrigation techniques. The neglect of agriculture constitutes the primary economic problem facing the country.

One critical element that will make agriculture succeed is steady power supply. I have maintained in this column that without uninterrupted electricity, investments in agriculture would be a waste as agro-based industries would not function and farm produce would be wasted. I have also advocated that state governments should embark of electricity projects, especially, now that the sector is being privatised.

Power supply is a critical factor in industrialisation. The industrialisation objective of Governor Obiano will be a mirage without electricity powered from the state. It is high time the states owned independent power projects of their own as a way forward. This realisation informed the move by the State Government to partner with Orient Petroleum Company and others, to install an 85 megawatts electric power station at Alor to generate power to the industrial areas.

The government is also working to complete a long-standing injection sub-station to supply power to four feeder stations at Enugwu-Ukwu, Abagana, Nimo and Ukpo. The northern axis of the state is not left out. The Governor is expanding the 33kv line to feed the northern districts. All these efforts are geared towards ensuring that nothing hampers the industrialisation plan of the state.

Coming to road infrastructure development, I have always wondered why a large part of the country is still inaccessible more than 50 years after independence. The same roads which politicians used in campaigns in the 60s are still there untouched and today’s politicians are also using them to campaign. But Anambra State has proved to be different to a large extent.

Remarkably, Anambra State has the largest network of tarred roads in the country. Assessments carried out under the peer review mechanism of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), showed that Anambra has the largest network of tarred rural roads in the country. There is practically no local government headquarters in Anambra State that is not linked with tarred road. The synergy between the previous administration and Governor Obiano’s government has paid off in road development.

Governor Obiano has kept faith with the road development need of the state by completing, not abandoning, ongoing road projects began by the previous administration, and also commencing new ones. To make the roads attractive and pleasurable, the Governor is installing environmental infrastructures like signposts, bus stops and street lights to make the roads functional.

The completion of the 42 kilometre bridge across the Omambala River, the longest in the state, has opened up the agrarian and oil producing communities in that part of the state. Today, people in Aguleriotu, Eziaguluotu and Enuguotu, for the first time, have direct access to the rest of the state by road rather than water. The farmers can now carry their farm produce to larger markets in the state to earn higher income.

This comment won’t be complete without mentioning education. There is a confounding paradox in Anambra State as far as education is concerned. Anambra State produced most of the first crop of educated fellows in Igbo land that pioneered critical sectors of the Nigerian economy at independence. The grandmaster of them all was Nigeria’s first president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, among many others.

Unfortunately, that pride built on a solid education foundation seems to have been abandoned. Today, a typical Anambra youth, rather than think education, is more interested in business and money, as if the educated don’t do business. I have lived in Japan, perhaps, the most technologically advanced nation, whose citizens are educated businessmen. Japan has 97 per cent literacy rate.

What worries me is why most Anambra youths think that doing business as illiterates and semi-illiterates is the ideal thing. Those who campaign for girl-child education have lesser job in Anambra State; the girls are getting more educated than the boys; the campaign should refocus on promoting boy-child education.

Like the Japanese, the business acumen of Anambra people, indeed, Igbo, needs educated minds to flourish. Illiterates and semi-illiterates can’t operate in today’s complex technological world system. Governor Obiano has a lot to do on the education front. Nothing short of an education revolution is required.

The land scarcity issue in Anambra State could be tackled through a well-thought-out land consolidation and reallocation programme, which would allow several households to own parcel of land upon which they could build multi-storey structures. The same land scarcity informed the building of skyscrapers in Tokyo, Japan and Taiwan, among other cities. But that will require efficient power and water supply system to function. The Governor should work hard on providing water.

Considering the overall strategic programme being implemented in Anambra, I can confidently say that Governor Obiano is on the right track. Space constraint won’t allow full discussion of what the Governor is doing in health, environment, science and technology. Certainly, the future is bright in Anambra State.

Nigerians are in trouble because some of their leaders have messed up the country. But things can still change if one selfless visionary leader with mission could emerge. That leader would show that positive people-oriented governance is not rocket science. All it takes is tactic with a sense of commitment in implementing well-thought out development agenda.
Concluded.