By Alloysius Ozoemena

Ahead of next Saturday governorship election in Anambra State, issues of physical and social infrastructural development have taken the front burner. Most of the 37 governorship candidates are hinging their campaign on the promise to provide social and physical infrastructure.

Chief Willie Obiano

But for the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, it appears to be   more of a fait accompli. The record of his administration’s achievements in this area in the past three and a half years is evident in all the communities. And he has been trumpeting this as his campaign team combs communities in the state to appeal to the electorate for votes.

Indeed, Obiano has expanded the frontiers of the people’s understanding of infrastructural development in Anambra and   this goes beyond road, water and electricity projects.

Physical and social infrastructure are at the heart of a society’s development. The World Bank advises that the growth in a country’s economy can be directly linked to the size of government investment on key infrastructure, the suitability of such infrastructure to its users and its linkages. Physical and social infrastructure unlock opportunities by boosting productivity, expanding the market, and creating entirely new opportunities.

In Anambra, the government has been keen to stimulate inclusive growth across the state by extending developmental projects beyond the traditional township areas to reach previously marginalized communities. The government’s approach has been to boost investments in physical and social infrastructure to help the most vulnerable in communities to pull themselves out of poverty.

This model is executed through the innovative ‘Choose Your Project Initiative’, the first of its kind and a truly innovative model that puts power back in the local communities by allowing them drive the decisions on the type of projects they want in their areas. No one knows a community’s ambitions, burdens, and aspirations better than the local people themselves, and which projects that suit them.

The Choose Your Project Development Initiative (CYPDI)was conceived due to Obiano’s recognition that the locals know their needs more intimately than policy makers in often far-flung state capitals ever can. In the first phase, projects valued at N20m have been built in each of the over 170 communities in the state. For the people of Ora-Ifite their priority was to build a civic center; Umuoba-Anam community built a laboratory and health centre; while the Ode community of Anambra West Local Government, the building of culverts to control erosion ravaging the area was dear to their hearts.

This proactive and inclusive development model contrasts with the trend in some other states where blanket decisions are taken to drill boreholes, for example, across various communities of the state without regard for the developmental priorities of the locals and the value such boreholes will have in the area in view of the fact that one, for instance, already exists.

As has been noted, the CYPDI projects have high completion rates and a short project cycle.. This ensured that they were quickly completed and handed over quickly to the targeted communities who are now extracting the highest utility from them.

Again the CYPDI projects are executed by local contractors who are known by the project beneficiaries. This has the double effect of ensuring that high quality projects are delivered and families and local communities are empowered through the monies paid to the local contractor and jobs provided to the locals.

The 2017 Anambra governorship campaign may be generating heated conversations led by candidates of the major political parties. But none of the candidates has so far provided a workable plan for high-impact infrastructure of the kind that will touch lives on the scale that Obiano’s CYPDI programme has done. Given the achievements recorded so far, this model beckons to be understudied and replicated by other state governments even as the Obiano administration aims to keep improving on it.

*Ozoemena, a public affairs analyst, lives in Awka