USAfrica, the international multimedia networks and public policy organisation, has adjudged the Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, as the Nigerian Governor of the Year, ending 2014.

This decision, according to the organisation, is “based on the USAfrica Governance Index for combining effective management, practical results and grassroots social responsibility since the blast of his Anambra Governorship whistle on March 17, 2014.”

USAfrica — with almost 23 years of professional journalism and multimedia publishing business from its headquarters in Houston, Texas — has been acclaimed by the CNN, The New York Times, international scholars and public policy leaders as the largest and arguably the most influential African-owned, U.S-based multimedia networks.

A statement issued from Houston, Texas, by the Founder & Publisher of USAfrica and the first African-owned, U.S.-based professional newspaper published on the internet, USAfricaonline.com, Dr. Chido Nwangwu, said: “In less than ten months of taking over the mantle of leadership of Anambra State, the banker turned politician has, with purposeful zeal attracted investments and with the courageous heart of a bull, confronted the criminals and miscreants who had unleashed mayhem and gripped the peace loving people of the state in the throes of trepidation, fear and death…. Obiano is proving to the people of Anambra and Nigerians, at home and in the Diaspora, that here cometh a man of proven technocratic competence out to put Anambra State on its rightful place on the map of economic development of Nigeria.”

Nwangwu added: “In the course of the USAfrica Governance Index assessment across the State and other parts of the country, we reached the conclusion that Gov. Obiano has not only done very well in impacting various sectors of Anambra but he has shown that a truly transformative leadership is possible within a relatively short period and utilising very modest resources to push the great and sometimes boisterous Anambra State to its better heights and security. I believe security is everything! Akpokuedike Obiano challenged and has, so far, subdued most of the bandits and their infrastructure with his battle coinage ‘Operation kpochapu’ and deployment of crime fighting assets.”

Obiano is on the cover of the January 2015 special edition of USAfrica magazine and has confirmed to USAfrica that he will attend the event for the award of Governor of the Year on Friday January 16, 2015, in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

Nwangwu noted that the Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA) which was established on April 14 this year, has attracted investments and signed MoUs which the Anambra government has projected at almost U.S$1.5 billion by January 2015.

“Also, worthy of note regarding the dexterity of the Governor to make a difference since the creation of the State almost 23 years ago, is his avowed stance to make Awka a befitting capital city and decongest the area,” said Dr. Nwangwu, a former adviser on Africa business to the ex-Mayor of Houston.

He recalled that, “to actualise this lofty idea and change the face of Awka, on May 15, 2014, Gov. Obiano established the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA). With diligent execution, in a couple of years, gone will be that cluttered, rusty, and forsaken look of the capital city; replaced by a place befitting the industrious and wealthy business sector driven people of Anambra State. Obiano’s dream and work in progress is to chisel out a modern, multi-nuclei city.”

He said that “realising that the people needed a drastic approach to several social and developmental issues confronting them, Governor Obiano had within four months of assumption began to tackle infrastructural decay, aggressively rolled out the caterpillars and engineering equipment to flag off a massive road construction network in the state, and addressed critical health, water and agricultural sectors, to name but a few.”

USAfrica, according to the statement, “also recognises the commendable works of Governors Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State.”