I READ an article entitled “At 20: Anambra Still Crawls” by one Mr. Emmanuel Obe. The said article x-rayed Anambra State since creation, and noted that many things are still wrong with the State.

He was, like many people from Anambra, unhappy about the indiscriminate use of siren by some prominent citizens of the State. Apart from lamenting that the State still lacks some basic infrastructure, he also picked holes in the fact that most people honoured during the 20th Anniversary of the creation of the State were based outside.

A concerned citizen of the State woke me up from my sleep on the day the write-up was published. The way he talked about the write-up made me to develop goose bumps. I immediately read it online. I may not agree totally with the writer, but as far as I am concerned, besides the screaming title, he told the truth. Let us take the piece seriatim.

On the issue of indiscriminate blaring of siren, he was right. According to the law, only the Governor and his Deputy, the Speaker and the Chief Judge are entitled to the use of siren. This informed the reason why the Governor recently reiterated the ban on the use of siren by people not entitled to it. He has instructed the Police as well as other security agencies to monitor its abuse.

Perhaps the writer should have said that the situation is now under control. It is bad for our people to use sirens against the provisions of the law. It is infinitely worse when those that are hungry to become governors are at the forefront of this condemnable act. If one wants to stretch it a bit, one can note that most of those that do this are not resident in the State. How can one explain that a serving senator, for example, who should be conversant with the law, insists on using siren whenever he is in the State? What is most distressing is that the senator, as well as those that belong to his tribe, does not use siren in his place of residence. How do we explain this? It is even more perplexing when the Governor who is institutionally permitted the use of siren, does not use it.

The use of siren is one clear example of the type of characters we have in Anambra State. When the Governor was pursuing hooligans that took over the State in 2007, a popular columnist and now the Edo State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Louis Odion, wrote a piece entitled: “Apostle Peter and the Gentiles of the Upper Iweka”. Odion commended many good projects of the Governor, how he is striving hard to restore the glory of the State. He almost cried that a tribe of men he called the gentiles did not believe in the change he was determined to bring to the State. All through the State, we have gentiles, including the siren blower, who by the very act is manifestly infringing the laws of the land. He is no doubt a gentile in his own right. Often they take such nonsense as status symbol, when it is foolishness in the eyes of the enlightened. I enjoin people like Obe, to write more on this and name more culprits. Such are the recklessness Governor Obi is striving hard to obliterate from the State.

Obe further reeled out names of illustrious people of Anambra, dead and alive, as the Governor was wont, in order to demonstrate that Anambra people are industrious and could be the best in whatever they do. Beyond the seeming vanity in acclaiming those accomplishments, the Governor is merely reminding all of us that we must continue to strive for excellence. Every underlining note in the Governor’s reference to our illustrious past is to encourage us to become worthy progenies of our forebearers.

As far back as we can pry into history we shall find an Anambra man striving to excel in whatever he does. An Anambra man prizes honour and accomplishments; this is why we have names like Dimgba, the master wrestler; Diochi, the master wine-tapper; Dike, the master warrior, etc. If our ancestors did it so well to become leaders in various fields, why can we not do it? This is a key to Petrine philosophy of reeling out names of illustrious Anambra people.

“Created on August 27, 1991, Anambra is the only State among the nine created in the same year that has not built its own Government House and the official Governor’s Lodge. The Government House still operates from a site abandoned by the construction company that constructed the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway more than 31 years ago. It was only three years ago that the first phase of the Secretariat complex was completed,” thus wrote Emma Obe.

What do I say to the foregoing? I agree with him. In fact, part of the problem Obi is experiencing today is that he inherited a State without any foundation for growth and development. I expected Emma Obe to point out that even before Obi, no hospital was accredited in Anambra State. Indeed, before him, no secondary school in the State had a functional library. Apart from the one built in 1966, the new Kenneth Dike Library was built by the Obi government. Until Obi became Governor, no public secondary school owned buses, computers or connected to the net. Some local governments did not have a single network of road, no water scheme was functional, and no teaching hospital was built.

All in all, Obe’s article was right, but he needed to place issues he reviewed in contexts. Anambra has not developed in a manner commensurate with her abundant human resources.

Today, the story is different because a Governor who understands development, management of resources and the demands of development, Peter Obi, is in the saddle.

Azubike Cajetan is a lawyer, wrote from Awka, Anambra State.