. . . Slams ex-governor for being ‘epitome of wantonness, corruption, ineptitude and vile’

The out-gone Government of Chief Willie Obiano has been described as the worst in Anambra State since the state was created. The verdict was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday in Awka by Mr. Valentine Obienyem, an Awka-based businessman, journalist and media strategist.

Obienyem lashed Obiano, describing him as “an epitome of wantonness, corruption, ineptitude and vile”. He prayed that God will grant the Governor Chukwuma Soludo, who was sworn-in this Thursday morning, the wisdom to avoid what he called “so many pitfalls of Obiano which have stunted the growth of the state and made Sen. Chris Ngige to insist that his government took Anambra State 20 years backwards.”

Obienyem also contended that Anambra State under Obiano was governed by propaganda for which Obiano spent billions of Naira. In his words, “Here is a Governor who lied about everything. Even when the state did not officially export a leaf of vegetable, he claimed it made $5 million from ‘Ugu and Onugbu’ export. Even when 80% of the yam we consume in Anambra come from Benue and Taraba states, he claimed to be receiving order for millions of tubers of Yam from Europe.

“Even when he knew that the economy of Anambra State was retrogressing under him due to his lifestyle, including how his inordinate demands led to Neimeth pharmacy and Distell, that had started building their facilities, to relocate from the state. His inordinate demand also led International Breweries to build their biggest facilities in Shagamu instead of Anambra, at the bank of Omamballa River, where Obi had acquired land for them.

“How can a man who caused economic havoc in the state claim economic growth under him? He should tell the people of the state what happened to the shares of Anambra State in International Breweries that made it to move from the highest to one of the lowest shareholders.”

Obienyem regretted that “Obiano started with lies and ended with lies.” Explaining, he said: “Look at his farewell speech, in spite of leaving behind the worst state in terms of security, he said he shockingly was leaving the safest state and even counted the participation of an Israeli security expert in his security conference as a ninth wonder of the world; look at how he named ‘community choose-your-project’ initiative as a model sought-after, when no state has embraced it because it was a project through which he enriched his cronies who ensured that only about 13 out of the budgeted N20 million reached the communities. Meanwhile, through such initiatives, he blinded the communities from demanding tangible projects from the government.”

On the claim that he granted the sums of N2.8 billion to mission and public schools and another N1.2 billion to mission and government hospitals, Obienyem described it as another lie, saying that what Obiano did was to announce any money that caught his fancy and deceitfully allow his people to procure needed materials with which they retired the amounts announced.

Addressing the claim that he built the biggest oxygen plant in Nigeria, Obienyem wondered how a building of the size of boys’ quarters should be described as biggest in Nigeria. “I think it is an affliction for one to think that whatever comes from one is the biggest in the world. I heard he usually boasted that his clothes and shoes were the costliest in the world. This also shows how they stayed in their offices and cooked up statistics upholding Anambra as number one in whatever they conceived,” Obienyem submitted.

Obienyem also said that Obiano talked shamefully of keke ambulances he bought in the state which no one has seen in operation as his achievements and claimed that under him Anambra became an oil producing state, when that pronouncement was made by President Goodluck Jonathan, when Obi was the Governor, after he visited Anambra oil fields.

“As usual,” Obienyem continued, “he mentioned his one-in-town exploits in erosion when they were done by NEWMAP. Here is a man who has refused to control the erosion threatening to cut the Dual Carriage Road around UNIZIK and Awgbu-Amaokpala road into two.”

Insisting that the incoming government should convert the uncompleted International Conference Centre into a shopping mall, Obienyem said that leaders must always be careful in choices of projects and not for vain glory as Obiano did. He also queried the value of the Centre, vis-à-vis the sum of N11 billion it was said to have engulfed, as well as the N37 billion for the airport.

Concluding, Obienyem said that the likes of Obiano did not have and should not have business with leadership. He lamented that “Anambra will take years to recover from his catastrophic era where gratuities have not been paid in the state since 2017, the savings of over N75 billion squandered and debt of over half a trillion from borrowing and debt to contractors.”

“Clever by half, did you see how he skillfully avoided mentioning of the roads he did, because Anambra people are still requesting the names of the over 1,000 kilometers of roads, he claimed he did? Did you see how he cleverly said that the Awka light he evacuated to Aguleri, over four years ago, was for the airport even when he promised in his inaugural speech that he would build three power stations,” Obienyem asked.

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