THIS is justification could be likened to the decision of the Obasanjo Presidency at the twilight of his second tenure to award the repair of Onitsha-Owerri road to a local contractor, RCC at about N25 billion against a quote by Julius Berger to the tune of N55 billion.

When prominent Igbo citizens protested, and wondered why the South East did not deserve such quality of work done by Julius Berger for the same government in Abuja and elsewhere, Obasanjo explained to them that the nation would save about N30 billion from his wise decision.

About three years later, the sign became ominous forcing same government to bend backwards by sharing the job between RCC and Julius Berger.

Two years later, Julius Berger completed its Imo State portion and left site. Seven years down the line, RCC is still battling with its Anambra portion. The difference between the two portions is very clear. The amount spent is no longer being discussed!

Awarding a contract for a hotel and convention centre estimated at N5 billion to a local contractor at N2 billion, less than two years to the expiration of Obi’s tenure speaks volumes about the intentions of his government towards this project.

To imagine that the government would complete a five-star hotel and a convention centre with all the amenities and facilities with N2 billion is also a huge joke.

Everybody in Anambra State is still at a loss at the decision to construct a mega hotel in Onitsha. Using Onitsha as a metaphor for misplaced priority of the government, given its prime location and importance in the economics of the South East, and its position as the regional gateway to the South East, and most of the South-South, with full complements of its commercial status in the entire West African sub-region, what explanations would the government at Awka give for contributing more than 90 per cent to its woes? How does a hotel become a priority in Onitsha?

Even if four of such mega hotels are built in Onitsha, where are the roads to access them? Which customers would abandon hotels in a more serene and secure neighbouring Asaba, the Delta State capital for Onitsha? Onitsha is a state-imposed squalor of our time as it is denied the most basic ingredients of development.

Even with an annual provision of a whopping N800 million for provision of water in the state( about N5.5 billion so far), there is no public pipe-borne water in the city. A city with a bustling and overflowing population is yet to have clean drinking water. This is the same for Awka, the State capital, as well as any location within Anambra State.

The boreholes being claimed to have been built in some communities are so far inbetween that the amount being mentioned for provision of water in the state has kept mouths agape.

With no roads, and basic transportation modes available in the biggest market in the African sub-region, where is the focus of Obi’s government? In Onitsha, the sight of residents ferrying buckets and gallons of water for domestic use up residential apartments sitting atop five storey buildings is as common as the sight of wheelbarrows being deployed as the biggest mode of transportation in the city.

Lack of access roads restricts vehicular movements in Onitsha and inflicts debilitating traffic jams in all corners of the city. Since nature does not abhore vacuum, the absence of the state government in Onitsha has been filled by the criminal command to the detriment of the citizens and visitors!

Onitsha has also been at the receiving end of one of Governor Obi’s insensitivity to the feelings of Anambra people, and by extension, all those who transit through it. The total abandonment of the Onitsha- Enugu Expressway by Obi since his assumption of duty, on the pretext that this road belongs to the Federal Government, is condemnable.

When the Governor felt that there was no excuse, he invented one when last year, he spun a controversy that his request for permission to repair the road was being delayed by the Federal Ministry of Works.

This is coming six years into the administration of Obi, with two years to go! While Obi is still waiting for the permit, those transiting from Lagos to places in Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi, Abia, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and parts of Benue State, spend five hours to come into Onitsha from Lagos, and spend at least three extra hours in Onitsha traffic owing to the deplorable state of the city’s end of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway.

This is why Anambrarians have lost hope for reprieve from this governor as it is difficult to understand how a governor of six years in power, who is reputed to be close to President Jonathan, would give such a lame excuse to defend his misplaced priority to the suffering of all.

As a member of the Economic Team whose photographs adorn newspapers each time he attends the meeting, Governor Obi ought to resign from that committee if he finds it difficult to obtain a simple letter from a minister authorizing him to repair the main artery connecting Anambra State to other parts of the country.

It is a truism that Governor Obi is more associated with businesses than education but the ordeal of both the students and lecturers of the only state university, Anambra State University, and indeed, all the universities in the South East, in the hands of Obi, would not be forgotten in a hurry.

Mr. EJIKE NNAJIOFOR a commentator on national issues, wrote from Anambra State.