Willie Obiano: 100 Days of excellence: Wowing the audience in a lecture she delivered to mark Obiano’s 100 Days in office in Awka, Chimamanda had observed: “Most of us know how, for a long time, Onitsha has been a security nightmare. If you are travelling, you do not want to be in Upper Iweka after 6 p.m. because of the fear of armed robbers. But today, because of our new governor’s initiative, people in Onitsha no longer live in fear.True freedom is to be able to live without fear. A relative told me that you can drop your mobile phone on the ground in Upper Iweka and come back hours later and still see it there, which was not the case in the past. And which is one of the best ways to measure leadership – by the testimony of the ordinary people.”From the encomiums that have trailed his exploits, it is easy to assume that in 100 days, all that Governor Willie Obiano has done was to hunt down armed robbers and kidnappers. But this is very far from the truth. The truth however is that security is an all-important enabler upon which Obiano’s economic agenda, otherwise known as the Four Pillars of Development, firmly rests. So, it deserved an immediate and focused attention because it is a precursor to other great initiatives. It must, however, be noted that even while the war on crime was raging, Obiano was also pursuing his Four Pillars of Development – Agriculture, Industrialisation, Trade and Commerce and Oil and Gas. At the flag-off of this year’s farming season at Nteje in Oyi Local Government Area, Obiano ignited the fire of his agricultural revolution in the state with an inspiring speech and a handful of seedlings. He has also commissioned the Coched Farms project that has the capacity to produce 120,000 metric tons of rice per annum and create 1,000 jobs. On the heels of the Coched Farm project comes the Ekcel Farm project, which has acquired 3,000 hectares of land for the cultivation of cassava. Governor Obiano also appears to have acquitted himself well in his campaign promise to continue the projects bequeathed him by his predecessor, complete them, commission them and commence a new set of projects of his own. Perhaps, nowhere is this more manifest than in the area of road construction where he has flagged off the construction of 14 new roads, totalling 167.494 kilometres and commenced the construction of three flyovers in Awka and one bridge that leads to the oilfields of Aguleri. Again, to actualize his vision for Industrialization and Trade & Commerce, which are two of his administration’s Four Pillars, Obiano has mapped out a 10-year Industrial Development Plan and drafted a blueprint for the construction of modern markets in Ogbunike, Oba, Awka and Umunze. At the same time he has opened an intense lobby to ensure that Anambra becomes Nigeria’s 10th oil-producing state and cleared all outstanding arrears of pension and gratuity amounting to N946,571,926.46k owed local government pensioners in the state. Another area where the governor has done well, is in the environment where an intense campaign is on to reclaim the three cities in the state from filth and rubbish. Operation Keep Anambra Clean has effectively changed the face of Onitsha from a glorified ghetto to an emerging 21st century commercial city. The governor has also done very well in Health, Education and Tourism with the planned development of the historic Ogbunike Cave into a world-class tourist destination. Again, in a bid to give his hard-hitting stance against criminals in the state a human face, Governor Obiano is waving an olive branch with the on-going gathering of data on the youths of the state, with a view to placing them on meaningful employment. Youths of the state have been advised to visit their local governments and register in the on-going exercise for possible job placement in the nearest future. The governor is also lauded for his grand plan to transform Awka, the state capital into a modern city with all the facilities that make for a 21st century purpose-built city. With the flag-off of construction works on three flyovers and the three-Arms Zone as well as the inauguration of a new Awka Capital Territory Development Board to envision a new Awka, Governor Obiano has indeed, embedded himself in the hearts of Ndi Anambra. And he showed this awareness when he said in his address of welcome at the lecture marking his 100 days in office last week that “we have tested our own strength and seen that indeed, like our fathers before us, we are capable of great things.” Indeed, it would be difficult not to connect his desire to give Ndi Anambra his very best with the symbolic launch of what he called the Spirit of Anambra at the lecture. Unveiling a new emblem, a flag and an anthem for the state, Obiano reasoned that, “if we build only roads and bridges and forget the building of our social and psychological consciousness, our foundation for future greatness would have been laid on quicksand.” Anambra is famous for its plurality. But today, there is only one consensus – that Governor Willie Obiano has done well in 100 days. Original link Read More goo.gl/X8meqt (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 06:33:47 +0000
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