By MarkAnthony Nze
For nearly one month, being the third time in the year, the Governor of Anambra state, Willie Obiano has been in the United States, where he is holidaying with his wife, and almost hundred aides that journeyed with him. Obviously, the Governor went for the summer vacation, and not really any business relationship as he pretentiously presented, and this time, being summer is the sweetest period in the States.
Obiano on countless times, has proven immeasurably that he is a man that loves pleasure with passion, among his favourite kinds include frolicking with light-skinned complexioned women, (which the United States has in abundance) and excessive drinking to the point that he often drinks himself to stupor. An attitude very unworthy of a gentleman let alone a serving Governor, and number one citizen of his state.
Ordinarily, Obiano’s reckless life style would not have been so much an issue to be bothered about if he were not a Governor, and saddled with the leadership of Anambra State, the the 10th most populous Nigerian state with a population of over four million, which has Onitsha as one of the most commercial cities in Africa.
Interestingly, Onitsha is a leading commercial hub in Nigeria, and the revenue that accrues to Anambra from taxation on the markets domiciled in Onitsha is more than enough to successfully pilot the economic affairs, and further develop the infrastructural facilities of Anambra without even exerting pressure on the coffers of the state’s allocation but quite unfortunate, Anambra state is heavily indebted even though Obiano inherited a debt-free state from his predecessor, Mr Peter Obiano, and is even unthinkable, that the state is struggling to pay salaries to workers, considering the fact that Obi left a surplus savings of over 75 billion naira in cash for Obiano.
How did Anambra degenerate to this ridiculous state? It is simple, a man who placed premium on frivolities rather than the real issues of life was made a Governor, and handed over the leadership of a commercial viable state to run. Obiano was given an office far superior to his competence. Obiano should have been allowed to start his political career as a Special Adviser on Entertainment when he became a Governor, for he knows the choicest wines to entertain guests with, he has a network of beautiful young women that are good at relieving the stress of men after a hard day’s job. He loves the night life with every fibre of his soul, and his favourite musician is Flavour N’Abania, the talented artiste who is as good as in music as he is good as identifying beautiful young ladies, and having relationships with them little wonder his baby mama was a former beauty queen, and he is a very good friend of Obiano, the parlance of “show me your friend,” explains the rest.
Now, the Governor is in Orange, New Jersey, where he recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with with the Mayor of Orange, Mr Ted Green, according to Obiano, the relationship would be centred on “mutual assistance in the areas of education, health, infrastructure, power in various forms, and firefighting.”
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Quite frankly, the basic question here is what sort of MOU that governments of two different countries would sign without detailed explanations of the interests involved? An MOU is worthless if there are no distinct specifications captured in it. Obiano’s MOU with the City of Orange, clearly does not appear feasible, and only amounts to sheer waste of productive time, and money that should have been channeled towards infrastructural development in Anambra state. It is emphatic to state here that the Governor thus far has spent over a million dollars since nearly one month he embarked on this trip with his entourage.
It is disheartening to realise that Obiano owns buildings, and cash worth several millions of dollars in the United States, while workers and pensioners are being owned in Anambra. And those acquisitions were not prior to him becoming a Governor. Obiano’s state-of-the art houses in the United States would make billionaire President Donald Trump go green with envy. While Obiano is getting richer by the day, Anambra is being looted to bankruptcy daily.
The once beautiful state under Governors Chris Ngige and Peter Obi had just returned to the damnable, and decayed periods of the former notorious Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju that Ndi Anambra cursed, and regretted ever having from 1999 to 2003, and swore not to allow him go for the second term.
There is hardly any project started, and completed by the Obiano’s administration. Any project claimed to have done by Obiano’s government is often the one that Obi started and almost near to completion that, Obiano would struggle to finish, and subsequently, boast about how he initiated the project, and took it to it is final execution. With the aid of over a thousand charlatans, he employed as media aides, they would flood the Social Media with those pictures, and further brag with their usual idiosyncratic slogan, “Willie is working.”
The media aides of Obiano tend to forget always in their swiftness to defend the gross incompetence of their principal, that they are not the only Anambra indigenes on Social Media, usually, when others from the state come across such misleading information, and debunk the falsehoods which always irritate the living daylights out of the aides, and in a bid to cover up their cheap lies, they often resort to pouring their vituperations on the innocent indigenes who are only interested in having the affairs of their state running smoothly.
Every government that has the interest of the masses welcome constructive criticism but since the government of Willie Obiano is only concerned about amassing wealth for himself, family, mistresses and loyal aides who are shamelessly defending the rueful conditions of the state, they abhor criticism, and very willing to go to any length to silence any opposition. Obiano, assuredly, had earlier told his aides to go on and deal with anyone who seems to oppose or challenge his anti-development views, that he could afford to use money to shut whatever consequence that might arise.
Obiano, is of the perception that he has the absolute right to recklessly use the funds of the state because he has the Anambra State House of Assembly in his pocket, who ought to have checked his excesses, and the support of the Nigerian Northern Caliphate because he willingly accepted to be their stooge but sadly, he is yet to learn from the humiliation, the Caliphate is subjecting former Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo, and his family in spite of all the loyalty he, and his family showed them. Obiano’s case will not be an exception, already, they had used the Economic and Financial Crime Commission to indict him on fraud, and at the right time when they need his loyalty where he would definitely want to say, no, they would open his case to embarrass, and eventually nail him as they are doing to Okorocha, the former Governor’s only crime against the Caliphate is that he wants to run for the presidency in 2023, and they still need him as a mole to deliver their presidential candidate in the South-East as they previously used him for Buhari in 2015 not necessarily because he looted massively the treasury of Imo state as a Governor.
The only way, Obiano can escape the looming disaster, is to regain the confidence the masses reposed in him to become their Governor in the first tenure because of Peter Obi who did extremely well, and endorsed him before Ndi Anambra. And for the second term, which he is doing now, he rigged himself into power.
