AS is evident across Anambra State and demonstrated severally by those who should know, Gover Willie Obiano has steered the ship of State backwards right from his assumption of office. He made so much noise in his early days in office that he seemed to have forgotten about governance in the ecstasy of victory.  Sadly, he is still celebrating; and marked this Month with the appointment of several more aides. Presently, he has a retinue of over 1,000 aides, more than 500 of whom are from his home town, Aguleri. Such are his nepotistic and parochial inclinations that even as he has practically neglected the infrastructural needs of the State, he has completed over 35 roads in his native Aguleri. In the meantime, most of the abandoned roads have since developed gullies that are threatening to cut off several communities; compelling them to embark on self-help palliatives. Indeed, Gov. Obiano’s oppressive policies have had debilitating effects on the majority of Anambrarians and their communities.

On the government sensitivity scale, there is no gainsaying that Gov. Obiano will rate abysmally. How is it responsive to the yearnings of the people?  Is the government prudent or how does he see the treasury ? What is the government’s response to the provision of infrastructure? What is the government doing to attract investors to the state? Comparing the administration of Peter Obi with that of Obiano’s, the people of Anambra identify Obi with the pleasure of wisdom, while Obiano with that of wisdom of pleasure. While Obi used must of his time exploring means of improving Anambra, Obiano is drenched in Hedonism [pleasure-seeking] and Epicureanism [Let us eat today for tomorrow we die].  As Governor, Obiano has lived it up to a gross  and  unwholesome scale. Consider some of his tastes and idiosyncrasies at public expense: 50-vehicle convoy, party-orgies, imported customised wines, blew N5 billion to celebrate his first 100 days in office in 2014, sponsored 160 persons, including a musician to the USA for his daughter’s graduation ceremony, procured over 400 vehicles for his re-election campaign but not even one for the public schools, to mention a few.

For over three and half years, Gov. Obiano persistently denied he inherited about N75 billion [some of it in US Dollars] from the Obi administration. Then the bubble burst with the courageous expose by The Nation Newspapers of his surreptitious sale of the Dollar Savings meant for the State and at a discounted rate for that matter. Confronted with the ultimate truth at the gubernatorial debate of 12th of November, he admitted lying to the people. Is that not enough reason for a decent person to throw in the towel and ask for pardon? Not the Willie Obiano we now know: He is even brazenly seeking a second term in office. Would Anambra people give him another mandate he has abused for four years?

Among his other shady claims is that he had completed 51 roads. I personally went through the list to discover that about 48 of the roads he mentioned were actually started and completed during the Obi years. He further claimed that he exported Ugu [Pumpkin] leaves worth US$5m even as no one in Anambra State has identified the farm or garden where he cultivated such a volume of the highly-perishable vegetable. Goaded by his aides , he also boasted of an order to export 10 million tubers of yams. Sadly, none of his aides reminded him that Anambra State is not even self-sufficient in yam production; as the bulk of its supplies come from Benue and Taraba States.

Gov. Obiano outdid himself when he declared that Anambra was the only State unaffected by the recent recession, which effectively means that Anambra has become a State within a State. Is he suggesting that while the price of rice, for instance, doubled in other parts of Nigeria due to the recession, it remained the old rate in Anambra State?

It is also open to question whether Obiano thinks about the future, with his hedonistic and Epicurean inclinations. How can he? Is he not the same person who justified the squandering of Anambra Dollar Savings to the effect that saving for the future is “useless?”  Peter Obi had a great vision for the State and set out to realize. One of the tragedies of the Obiano Government is the abortion of  that great vision.

In the last three years or so, the Obiano government has consistently insulted the sensibilities of Anambra people by its oppressiveness, and insensitivity.  But with the election at the corner, Anambra people now have a golden opportunity to  remove Obiano and end the long and terrible nightmare of oppression.  Who do we look for? In Oseloka Obaze we have a higher man. People and organizations that have worked or interacted with him can assert with surety that he pursues with dedicated ardour the tenets of good governance.

Mr. By Valentine Obienyem ,wrote from Agulu, Anambra State.