By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

What is, today, known as Anambra State used to co-exist with Enugu state as one state, with Enugu as its capital. But as the agitation for the creation of more states intensified in Nigeria, the gap-toothed military dictator and Nigeria’s head of state, then Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, created more states in Nigeria on August 27, 1991. The old Anambra state was split in two, with one becoming Enugu state; and the other, Anambra state.

The new Anambra state, the capital of which is Awka, is a state endowed with highly gifted people, who are indigenes of the state. What Anambra state lacks as to large landmass, it makes up for with its possession of internationally renowned people. They are/were international personages, who achieved distinctions in their diverse areas of specialization. And not a few of them blazed the trails in those areas.

A few examples will suffice and buttress my point. Anambra state is the home state of the Rt. Hon. Nnamdi Azikiwe, a Pan-Africanist and freedom fighter; the late Chinua Achebe, Africa’s greatest raconteur and novelist; Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a former secretary general of the commonwealth of nations; Mary Onyali-Omagbemi, a former African sprints queen of the tracks; and Prof. Laz Ekwueme, a great music teacher and composer. For the reason of space, I will not name other great Anambra natives, here.

But it is not only the state’s possession of highly educated and skilled people that makes it thick. Anambra has the singular honour of being the state that has the largest market in the entire West African sub-region. Besides the Onitsha main market, which is the largest market in West Africa, there are many other big markets in towns that make up the state. Those markets are central to the economic growth and survival of the state as huge revenues are generated from them.

While Onitsha, in addition to towns, which are contiguous to it, is the commercial hub of Anambra state, Nnewi is the industrial centre of the state. It has industries, including motor spare parts industries, that produce goods, which serve the needs of the people. If given the needed support, it will become the Japan-China-Dubai of Africa.

But Anambra state, which is a sub-national political entity, is afflicted with the same problems, which have hobbled Nigeria. Nigeria’s problems, which are myriad and hydra-headed, are traceable to bad, clueless, profligate, and corrupt political leadership. A country that has not got its politics cum political leadership right cannot achieve economic prosperity, political stability, and technological advancement.

Back in Anambra state, in this fourth republic, Anambra state had experienced bad political leadership. Dr. Chinweoke Mbadinuju, who led the state between 1999 and 2003, performed abysmally in office. He ran the state aground. Not only were schools shut down and other public institutions paralyzed, but, also, civil servants and retirees were owed arrears of salaries and backlog of unpaid pension and gratuity entitlements. Then, everything in the state was in a state of inertia and retrogression.

Expectedly, Dr. Mbadinuju didn’t win his re-election bid. And, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige came on board as the Anambra state governor. Ngige was helped to power by his political godfather and benefactor, Chris Uba, who bankrolled his campaign expenses. But they parted ways owing to their inability to agree on the formula for sharing Anambra state’s financial wealth.

Consequently, their bitter fight over the state’s financial patrimony furnished Mr. Peter Obi with the ammunition which he used to oust Dr. Ngige from office via electoral litigation. It was a long-drawn electoral litigation battle that enriched our electoral jurisprudence. Obi’s recovery of his purloined political mandate restored people’s confidence and trust in our judiciary, and strengthened our democracy.

In this fourth republic, Dr. Chinweoke Mbadinuju, Dr. Chris Ngige, Mr. Peter Obi, and Chief Willie Obiano, who took turns to govern Anambra state, contributed their quotas for the development of the state. While Mbadinuju’s use of the Bakassi boys to tackle rising insecurity in the state, then, prevented it from descending into an anarchic situation, Ngige’s praxis in road repair and construction has remained unmatched. On his own part, Mr. Peter Obi revamped the economic, health, and education sectors in the state. And it was Chief Willie Obiano, who built an airport and pedestrian bridges, and gave the practice of agriculture in the state a huge boost.

However, sadly, now, Anambra is being asphyxiated by the menace of kidnapping. The kidnapping incubus is worrisome. Some weeks ago, Chief Joseph Ezeokafor, founder of JEZCO OIL, was abducted in God’s sanctuary, where he had gone to offer supplications to God. Thankfully, he was released, later. Other sundry crimes are being perpetrated in nooks and crannies of the state by criminal elements.

But more worrisome and troubling now are the environmental disasters happening in Anambra state with frequent rapidity. Obosi town, which is in Idemili North LGA of Anambra state, is a case in point. As enemy forces surround a city so do deep erosion gullies surround the town. In fact, an important trunk road that passes in front of these government buildings located in Obosi, namely School of Health Technology, Anti-Cult Police Station, and Union Secondary School Obosi has been riven in two by gully erosion. And it is the same bifurcated road that leads to the totemic Idemili river, which has religious and cultural significances, and serves economic purposes. In fact, if urgent measures are not taken to check those deep erosion gullies in Obosi, the town will be submerged in them, soon.

However, in Anambra state, it is not only the town of Obosi that is under the siege of environment disasters. Nkpor, a town in Idemili North LGA, is under threat of gully erosions, too. And. Ogidi, the home town of the iconic novelist, Chinua Achebe, is literally floating on flood water. When it rains, a section of the old Enugu-Onitsha road, which is at Ogidi, will become a river. And, in the recent past, towns in Ogbaru LGA did suffer flooding, which caused the displacement of people from their ancestral homes.

The natural environmental disasters, which have destroyed human lives, roads, farmlands, economic trees, and houses, have traumatized the Anambra people. As a consequence, they are in sombre mood, now. But they are hopeful that their plaintive cry for help will attract both the state and federal government’s attention to them.

Therefore, rolling out the drums for the celebration of Anambra state’s attainment of thirty-five years in the face of the environmental disasters ravaging the state will appear insensitive. Rather, urgent measures should be carried out to arrest the rage of nature and tame it in order to guarantee the safety of life and property in the state. A stitch in time saves nine.

Happy thirty-five anniversary, Anambra people

•Chiedu Uche Okoye, a poet, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State. He can be reached via 08062220654 and 09125204141