Politics
Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra has vowed to continue with his novel, “N20 million Community Choose Your Project Initiative’’.
He made the commitment as he marked his 5th year and the first year of his second tenure as governor of Anambra State.
Until his swearing in on March 17, 2014, such community-based initiative had not been deployed anywhere in the country or indeed anywhere in the world.
Following the resounding success, it has become compelling to sustain the initiative as significant improvements were recorded at community levels, after the first phases of the exercise.
Under the arrangement, each of the 179 identified communities in the state was provided N20 millions, with which they were expected to identify projects of their choice, provide contractor from the community to undertake the job and supervised by their representatives.
There is no doubt that this has helped many communities to adopt projects like building of community centres, markets, motor parks, civic centres and refurbishment of schools.
A few opted for modern libraries, water schemes, health centres, refurbishment of hospital, town halls and skills acquisition centres.
An appreciable number have completed their first and second phases and now awaiting commencement of the third phase.
It is believed that a former Governor, Mr Peter Obi, scored highly in initiating good governance and performed well particularly in road construction.
This was, however, the most immediate desires during his tenure, but Gov. Obiano, not only continued with such projects, he even evolved more dynamic initiative in addressing community-related issues, dear to the hearts of Ndi Anambra.
The projects were being pursued in line with vision and commitment of Obiano that was mutually worked out at inception.
He adopted a popular maxim `Continue, Complete, Commission and Commence new projects, CCCC.
This entailed continuing with all inherited projects; completing and commencing new ones and Commissioning — inaugurating already completed projects.
These policies yielded immediate results, because they were driven by passion of a leader, desirous of making positive impacts and leaving legacies.
It was these desires and the push that propelled him to build the three world-class flyovers within the three popular zones of the capital, Awka on the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway.
The zones are Amawbia, Kwata, and the Aroma junctions, known previously for their unending traffic gridlocks and prone to accidents with accompanying human and vehicular hustle.
Soon after the flyovers were delivered, it became obvious that it was the respite that was desired to usher in sanity on the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway.
The concept, design and composition have been monumental architectural master piece that have changed the skyline of Awka, putting the city into the threshold for desired modernity.
The three bridges symbolically represent the torch-bearing status of the state as `Light of The Nation’.
The bridges have most significantly, signalled an emergence of a new trajectory, a new style with freshness, a new beginning, perhaps the real renaissance designed to give the city the impetus of modern capital in a hurry to arrive.
The ease of driving through the capital city, Awka, is a fact being attested to daily by all those that traverse the popular expressway.
But the beauty and ambience are experiences in euphoric altitudes. More satisfactory, however, are trend-setting pace in developments currently being maintained at community levels of the state.
The multi-dimensional developmental strides of the Obiano administration had necessitated a solid and enduring inter-connectivity of roads to create a network between rural communities and the urban centres.
In the agriculture sector, for instance, the ease of transporting farm produce from farms in rural areas to urban markets has been aided by good roads and strong bridges.
The building of bridges and execution of rural electricity projects have effectively aided smooth flow of traffic, improved lives at community levels.
The governor has pursued with vigour, massive installation of street lighting in virtually all communities of the state.
It is perhaps in recognition of the importance of electricity as part of index of development, that a former Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo remarked recently: “the construction of street lights are major tenets of development, as it will encourage night trading and other commercial activities.
“The street lighting projects have promoted growth in the state’s economy.’’
Striking and strategic, however, has been the construction of a bridge connecting the rest of the state to the oil fields at Aguleri-Otu in Anambra East Local Government Area, LGA, of the state.
Arguably, this is the longest bridge in the South East; the bridge also connects Anambra to Kogi State and links Abuja, the Federal Capital and other parts of North.
The same can be said of bridges at Nteje, the Iseke-Mbosi-Azia, SARS Awkuzu-Achalla, Agu Nteje-Nando.
Other bridges are the Ogbu-Mgbede Umueri, St. Monica’s Road, Ogbunike, One-Ogboji-Achina, NAUTH Road, Nnewi, Isuaniocha-Urum – Amanuke-Achalla and the Enugwu Ukwu by-pass.
At a time that many states struggled with irregular payment of worker’s salaries, occasioned by the economic recession, the “Obianomics’’ was invoked, as his Government continued to meet up with its obligations to the state’s workforce.
Obiano continued with regular payment of salaries, allowances, pensions and other benefits.
Of course, the recession of 2016, brought anguish and sorrows as the economy nosedived and exchange rates skyrocketed. There were increases in prices of commodities and hyper inflation was recorded, but this was hardly felt in Anambra State. This is where Obianomics was generously deployed.
In spite of distressing recession, Governor Obiano was among Governors that did not opt for bailout funding from Federal Government. The governor also refused to borrow from external sources too; the Government rather relied on prudence as an acclaimed accountant and renowned Auditor to manage the scarce recourses available to his Government.
It was in the midst of this dire situation that the Governor exhibited his mastery in economic brilliance and dept in applying astute management principles to launch the `N20 million Community-Choose-Your-Project Initiative’.
The initiative at first appeared superficial, but overtime made the difference. In practical terms, the initiative soon began to yield the dividends of democracy visible to the urban and rural folks alike.
In clear terms, this translated into an injection of not less than N3bn into the state’s economy within a very short space of time.
While projects continued in various communities, employment was created, food vendors enjoyed patronage, artisans were engaged, traders profited from sales of building materials and sundries.
Under the situation, civil engineers and several levels of professionals in the sector were positively engaged and the ripple effects were felt in many areas of the state’s economy.
The initiative is now in its third phase and has continued to meet economic challenges of the people while delivering modern infrastructure to rural and urban communities.
Obiano’s governance style and managerial skills has set him apart as a quintessential and visionary leader.
As he marks his 5th year and the first year of his second term in office, one can conclude that he is, indeed, the harbinger of a people’s renaissance.
Tags: Government continues with Novel `N20 million Community Choose Your Project Initiative’
