Why would Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, pay N5 million of Anambra money for a documentary of one hour (8-9pm) aired on Silverbird TV on Friday, February 18, 2017, which contents are 95 per cent lies?

The governor’s many lies are evident, as could be seen from the sector by sector analysis.

Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)

They showed the ‘Revenue House’ clearly. This is the house completed by former governor, Peter Obi, which Obiano commissioned and claimed as his project.

He mentioned stimulus he announced to cushion effect of recession in Anambra. They should have told us how those measures have reduced recession. Is Anambra State experiencing something different from any state in Nigeria in terms of recession? You cannot fool the people with such gimmicks.

Twenty million naira given to each community

I heard most of the towns beat up those that went to them to interview them on those projects. The Commissioner of Information, Tony Nnaecheta, shamefully said such developmental efforts had not been witnessed before. They all should be ashamed that after abandoning multi-billion naira projects inherited from the towns in Anambra State, all Obiano is doing for them is building N20 million projects that have no economic benefits to the people.

To show you how Obiano ridicules Agulu people, his documentary mentioned the abattoir they said the N20 million is being used to build in Agulu. Why did he not mention the project being executed in Aguleri?

Did you notice that in spite the fact that Obiano is executing over 50 per cent of his entire project in Aguleri, yet he did not mention Aguleri?

Awka

One award Obiano deserves genuinely is the ability to commission aerial photographs to deceive the people. Anybody who had not been to Awka recently but saw the aerial photos being brandished in the town would think he has done anything there, except the three ill-advised and badly-constructed fly-overs that are only fit to be knocked down for achieving the opposite of what fly-overs do in other climes: His fly-overs increased traffics rather than reduce them.

It was only under Obi that Awka got serious and beneficial infrastructure, such as the teaching hospital, secretariat, Customary Court of Appeal, roads (Agu-Awka By-pass, Court Road, Awka Inner Ring roads, roads within the GRA, roads to Okpuno, Ziks Avenue, among many others), Obi attracted the ongoing Federal Secretariat, Central Bank, Federal High Court, and many other federal establishments to Awka. Till today, Obiano has not attracted one. Even the Court of Appeal Obi was working on seems to have been abandoned.

Awka Capital Development Authority (ACTDA)

The Awka Capital Development Authority was formed and passed into law by then governor Obi, when Hon Anayo Nebe was the Speaker of Anambra House of Assembly. Obiano is fond of claiming what others had accomplished before him.

I saw pictures being brandished as housing estates being built under him. Till date, despite all the noise, Obiano has not built any housing estate in Anambra State.

As for the MD of Rockland, it was sad to hear him say: “In four years, Obiano has done what other governors joined together have not done in the state.” These are the type of people that daily mislead that man. Rockland mentioned the civil servants’ estate under construction as Obino’s brain child, whereas it was Obi who flagged off that estate, when Sir Chidi Ezeoke was the Head of Service.

The documentary mentioned street lights as one of the achievements of Obiano. Isn’t this pathetic?

Economic Blueprint

Obi attracted many industries to Anambra, and they are all operating now. These are SABmiller, INNOSON, Juhel and Orange Drugs.

Before he left, he did ground-breaking for Distell and Nemitch pharmaceutical companies. When he left, both companies pulled out, saying that Obiano was not serious. See, the same man is talking about economic blueprint.

Attraction of $4 billion to Anambra State: What does this Obiano take us for? After drinking, he will open his mouth and say whatever he likes. Who can give us the equivalence of $4 billion in naira? We have such foreign direct investment in Anambra, yet, we do not see evidence of that.

Trade, Commerce and Industry

Obinano knows that everything about Onitsha Shopping Mall was concluded under former governor Obi. Under him, no kobo was committed to the project by Anambra State Government and, yet in the documentary, he was claiming to have completed the project. Must you lie at all times? The two projects – Awka and Nnewi malls – he inherited, he has not added one block to them.

They even showed the picture of Onitsha second Business Park without mentioning the name, because people will recognise that it was Obi’s project.

Export of Ugu and Onugbu

They decided to have a little mercy on us today by not mentioning the amount. They forgot to mention the perfection of plans to export yam, even when bulk of the yam we eat in Anambra State come from Benue and Taraba states. Now is mango time, we will not be surprised if one day Obiano will tell us that Anambra State has exported mangoes and cashews worth over $2 million.

Rice

Coscharis (Couched) farm they dance with was attracted by Obi.

Right now, the farm is just coming up, with just a few hectares of land under cultivation, yet Obiano says it is feeding the country now. States that cultivate 90 per cent of the rice in Nigeria, including Ebonyi, does not make 5 per cent of the noise the Anambra noisemaker makes about non-existent things. No wonder Governor Rochas Okorocha laughed at him and challenged him to publish his achievements.

Omor Rice Mill: Obiano’s documentary disclosed how the mill was handed over to Joseph Agro. But, let us remember that it used to be a federal mill, until Mr Obi got the Federal Government to cede it to Anambra State, a feat Obiano lacks the capacity to achieve.

Picture of tractors: The documentary flashed the pictures of tractors without saying anything. This is designed to deceive the people to think that it was part of Obiano’s phantom agric project. Those tractors were bought under governor Obi, and packaged in Nteje.

Education

So part of Obiano’s achievements in education was sending 23 teachers to Singapore? I mean, this is ridiculous. Even the Singapore trip was with money secured from World Bank for education managers, which was supposed to be by nominees of the Catholic, Anglican Church and government.

Obiano talked about the renovation of 1,000 classrooms, which were actually done under Obi. The truth is that under Obiano, the gains in education cannot be sustained as Anambra has started sliding down, progressively

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University and Nwafor Orizu College of Education: He talked about increase in their subventions, but let it be noted that he has not added one building to these institutions. If he has done so, let them name those buildings.

As for the College of Agriculture, Mgbakwu, an already ND and HND-awarding institution, he re-named it a polytechnic. He forgot to mention it, even though the change of name was his only achievement in that institution. Under Obi, over 15 buildings were erected in the college; under him, none.

Health

They mentioned the renovation of Orumba General Hospital. People from that side will tell you that it is another lie. He did nothing in that hospital. He mentioned the renovation of Onitsha, Ekwulobia, and some health facilities in Umunze.

However, it’s on record that Obi completed the renovation of Onitsha General Hospital and secured accreditation for it. Obiano has not added one block to the hospital. On Ekwulobia Hospital: Obi renovated it and erected six new buildings there. Obi’s plan was to get it accredited. By now Obiano should have got that hospital accredited. Instead, he is lying about renovating it, even when he has not added one block to it.

Which other hospitals in Umunze did he refer to? Do they not have names?

They showed water ambulances bought under SURE-P programme, which Obiano claimed was bought by his government.

Roads

They talked about Amansea-Amawbia road. After three years, they are still talking about a road Obi started and set aside enough money for its completion. In the past, Obiano said he had completed all the roads started by Obi, but in the documentary, they put it this way: “Most of the roads are ongoing, some are completed.” When somebody lies, he can never be consistent.

Industry, Power and Energy

The documentary relayed the picture of the Vice-President’s visit to SABmiller and Innoson, two companies attracted by Obi. This is a man who inherited two industries Obi had laid the foundations for their facilities- Distell at Ozubulu and Neimetch Pharmacy at Ekwulobia, which Obiano could not see through, thus making them to leave the state.

On power, the documentary mentioned a new injection substation to boost power to Enugwu-Ukwu, Abagana and Ukpo, and showed the picture of Obiano commissioning the Enugwu-Ukwu Sub-station without mentioning the name. Clever people! Because sufficient alarm was already raised about Obiano commissioning Enugwu-Ukwu Sub-station Anambra State knew nothing about, they avoided mentioning the name and yet showed the picture.

On transformers, Obiano said he had bought 250 transformers. Bandying figures is nothing to him. But, where are those transformers? This man sef!

Oil and Gas: Everyday Obiano talks about oil and gas. And, yet, under him Anambra State has not put one kobo to Orient Petroleum. As Chairman of Downstream at the Senate, Senator Uche Ekwunife had perfected the papers for Anambra to be named an oil-producing state, before she was removed by Sir Victor Umeh, on the sponsorship of Governor Obiano.

A few weeks ago, Lagos State was named an oil-producing state, even when oil was first started being drilled in Anambra. Before the naming, nobody heard Governor Ambode say anything about it. He quietly worked things out. In Anambra, we have a governor who sings the plan to name Anambra an oil-producing state, and yet he does nothing about it.

Water: The documentary showed picture of water schemes supposedly built by Obiano, but they did not mention the towns they are located. What do you make out of this?

Disbursements to industries: Obiano said he had disbursed N1 billion loans to industries. Again, why did they not mention one industry that benefitted from the loan?

First Lady

The documentary allocated to the first lady almost half of the time allotted to the governor, if not, the lodge will not enter both of them.

See how lowly Obiano’s men reason: they mentioned Agulu (home of Peter Obi), Nri (home of Uche Ekwunife), and Alor (home of Chris Ngige), as first three towns that benefitted from the houses the first Lady built for the poorest in Anambra State. We saw the pictures of hut-like bungalows that cost over N40 million per one. They also showed us cave-like toilets the first lady built. These were actually existing toilets built by local governments.

In any case, do huts and toilets justify the N250 million the woman collects every month as security votes?

Finally, they said Obiano has stayed for two years and few months. So they can lie about this one too? Next month, Obiano will complete three years.

Lies! Lies!! And Lies!!!

•Chukwugozie can be reached via voxpopuli1980@gmail.com

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