By Ifeanyi Afuba

Does Nigeria give you hope? The incurable optimists in our midst particularly those of “the unity of this country is not negotiable” tribe, are wont to say an unqualified yes. Many sobered Nigerians would say that all is not well with Nigeria. And that would qualify as an outstanding understatement. One could as well say that AIDS is a harmful disease; that the Mafia is not opposed to violence; or that Hitler did not treat the Jews nicely.

Nigeria is a veritable tragedy, a perfect state of what it should not be and what it is capable of not being. This is a country at once wealthy and poor; a land prosperous and famished; a population free and in chains; a people so religious and yet so corrupt; a system steeped in statutes, laws, conventions and rules, yet so disorderly. Do you sigh with frustration?

As you try to cope with what seems an exhausting trial, take a good look, not a glance at Anambra State, and see if you recognise her. There stands an estate beginning to bloom. There stands the purposeful woman embracing new vistas of health of mind and body. A sense of confidence flowing from a new lease of life is unmistakable. The recovery of Mr Peter Obi’s stolen mandate in the April 19, 2003 election and the recent designation of Anambra as an oil producing state stand out as watersheds in the recreation of the state. Between these two highly significant signposts lie the secrets of Anambra’s success story. Robust, enterprising and the toast of investors today, it is easy to forget Anambra’s nightmarish past and thus downplay the state’s recent strides. Anambra’s journey, however, offers some useful lessons for the Nigerian project.

Gov Obi met Anambra on the brink of a failed state when he assumed office in 2006. Between 2003 and 2006, Anambra State was a war zone with two factions of the PDP battling for retention of Obi’s mandate. Several state of emergency plots were hatched, leading to the burning of the state’s few public infrastructure in November 2004. Investors and donor agencies took flight from the state. As at March 2006, no public school in the state had equipped and functional laboratory; no government-owned health institution had professional accreditation. The state university was a glorified primary school with a barren Igbariam campus existing only in name. Pensioners were owed accumulated arrears of 22 months pension while permanent secretaries and magistrates lacked official cars.

And how was it so easy for Anambra State to be reduced to a banana state where government and governance could be undermined by cabals and political cartels? How did the breed of godfathers who sought to convert the state to their playground assume the levers of power? The immediate cause should lie in the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency’s mindset on the South East, the hitherto rebellious heartland of Biafra. And in the prelude to Obasanjo’s presidency, it was a citizen of Anambra State, Alex Ekwueme, who mounted a stiff challenge for the party’s presidential ticket. The remote cause, however, is to be found in the dislocations arising from military rule.

The combined effect of the arbitrary nature of military rule generally and the discriminatory measures against the Igbo segment of the population in particular was traumatic on the people. State marginalization provoked in the victim an attitude of withdrawal from the public estate. The elite of the society opted for a temporary leave from the public domain until such a time the system was more tolerant. But the stragglers on the path of fame moved to ingratiate themselves with the military lords as civilian lieutenants and foot soldiers. This was a collaboration that paid off handsomely for the actors but was disastrous for the society. Fronting for the military chieftains in juicy contract deals (read abandoned projects) opened the eyes of the group to the connection between arbitrary power and stupendous wealth and their appetite for both grew by the day. As this nouveau riche sought to fill the leadership vacuum at the time, they began to influence sections of society with some of their obscene ways.

A cabal was on the rise in the South East. The degree of anomie prevailing at the time is best illustrated in the more than casual reception of a highlife number popularized by its fatalistic lyric: Ana enwe obodo enwe, roughly translating to, there are lords who own every community. With money to burn, the new lords created spectacles in the streets, suddenly flinging wads of currency in the air and deriving tremendous kick from the mass scramble that followed.

But military rule would soon draw to an end. Cognizant of their personal inadequacies, this rascally club realised that the only way of satisfying their appetite for power and wealth in a democratic order seemed to lie in becoming some sort of kingmakers. As the emergent princes of power bestrode the landscape with blaring siren and mobile policemen at their beck and call, the average politician obsessed by being part of any government in power, came to the conclusion that if these powerful men were not already kings, they were veritable kingmakers. The ensuing alliance between the two camps as a strategy for securing political power and its benefits was, of course, presumptive of the democratic process. Inevitably, the cabal sought to impose the authoritarian ways that afforded them easy wealth on a traditionally republican people. And things fell apart in Anambra.

The journey of recovery had commenced in earnest on March 17, 2006. Sometimes it has been slow, painful and perhaps laborious. Many battles have been fought along the way, including the November 2006 impeachment and tenure interpretation saga. Through careful planning and prudent management of resources, Anambra has risen from the dust of neglect to the course of sustainable development. Public institutions have been revived with the various sectors of the state economy sufficiently injected with lifelines. Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade’s recent description of Anambra as a major player in the nation’s industrial quest is an apt reflection of the state’s progress in the past seven years. With respect to her new oil producing status, Governor Obi takes the deserved credit of realizing a deep-seated aspiration of the people.

Against the backdrop of the discriminatory politics that earlier placed Anambra’s oil on national reserve, Obi has proved himself a force to reckon with in leadership. Indeed leadership has facilitated the orientation behind the new outlook to the common good in Anambra State.

Mr Afuba, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Nimo, Anambra State.