The Willie Obiano administration in Anambra State has kick-started work on a state-of-the-art Government House valued at over $30 million, scheduled to be completed in 18 months.

Located at Agu-Awka, the 22,000sq metres landscape project will comprise the Governor’s Office/Lodge, Judiciary Complex, House of Assembly Complex, and Banquet Hall. The project is being handled by IDC Construction Company.

Work was already above the foundation level as at the time News Express visited, while the road to the Governor’s Office has already been graded.

According to the manager of the construction firm, Engr Wadih Chrem, the architecture of the entire four-arm zone is one of its kind, and will be delivered in good time, as stipulated in the contract papers.

Anambra has operated from a temporary Government House since the state’s creation in 1991.

Pioneer military administrator of the state, Col. Mike Attah, had way back in 1991 initiated a gigantic project planned to be a masterpiece of architecture befitting a Government House for the state. However, the project, started by the state’s first democratically elected governor, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, was stopped by his successor, Dr. Chris Ngige, after it had gulped N3 billion.

Today, the imposing edifice has been overgrown by weed; parts of the walls have started cracking while the entire fittings and long span aluminum roofing have been vandalised. Unfortunately, the masterpiece which was to be named after the first Nigerian president and late Owelle of Onitsha, Rt. Hon. Nnamdi Azikiwe, has become a dwelling place for roaches, rats and lizards, as well as a defecating ground for commercial motorbike operators.

At the beginning of construction of the project in 1999, by the then governor, Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju, the ‘Zik Government House,’ was billed to cost a little over N300m. The edifice was planned to serve as both the governor’s office and the governor’s lodge, with guest houses and offices for Government House staff. The contract was awarded to a company originally owned by an influential business man, Prince Arthur Eze. But somewhere along the line, the then self-acclaimed godfather of Anambra politics, Chief Chris Uba, took over the mouth-watering contract.

For some inexplicable reasons, between 1999 and 2003, the contract value was reviewed upwards. As a result of the whopping financial cost and terms of payment, the Ngige administration vehemently refused to tow the line of his predecessor. In a way, that marked the beginning of the end for the multi-million naira project.

When News Express visited the abandoned ‘Zik Government House,’ it was found to be an eye sore. Mad people and hoodlums have turned the entire building into an abode. A section of the overgrown premises has been converted to a farm, and a family was seen cultivating the land. News Express learnt that the Obiano administration is toying with the idea of completing the project and using it as a campus of the Anambra State University.

The immediate past Peter Obi administration did not apparently consider buildinga Government house a priority, but not so for his successor.

Anambra, The Light of the Nation, has seen many governors – military and civilian – come and go since 1991, but none was able to give the state a befitting Government House. Obiano, a man of style and taste who assumed office on March 17 this year, appears destined to break the ‘jinx’.

•Photo by Pamela Eboh shows the emergent Anambra State Government House.