By Emeka Odogwu

THOUGH a prophet is not honoured in his people, Okwute Ndigbo, Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State is one man who has been honoured by his own people despite the fragments of opposition from his beneficiaries, particularly the incumbent Anambra Governor, Willie Obiano.

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Obiano, probably misled by his aides, initiated a flurry of attacks on Obi, but all the efforts to rubbish the image and legacies of Obi collapsed like a pack of cards.

Peter, crowned “Okwute Ndigbo” by Anambra State traditional rulers led by the Obi, Alfred Achebe of Onitsha; having survived the attacks on his person and reputation quietly left APGA to the warm embrace of the PDP, which organized a delegation to Obi led interestingly by Deputy Senator President (DSP) Ike Ekweremadu.

Since leaving office as governor, Obi has been involved in many initiatives for societal welfare. Among others, he has supported educational institutions in their areas of need, mentoring the youths and contributing to national international discourse. Across the country and abroad, Obi’s image has soared as various audiences and readers appreciate his well-thought-out and value-added presentations, especially on the developmental challenges of Nigeria and the essence of good governance.

Obi soon became the Anambra Wonder and a Nigerian Project. And we are thanking former vice president and the 2019 February presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar for enabling us to transfer our Anambra pride in Peter Obi to Nigeria as his running mate. With that, Nigeria now in collapse would be restored as Anambra State was restored by the Obi administration.

When some pockets of opposition challenged the choice of Obi as vice-presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar stood his ground. Our brothers and sisters from Yorubaland were perplexed on the foolishness of some Ndigbo and openly requested Atiku to give them the slot should Ndigbo reject their own. Thankfully, those pockets of opposition against Peter Obi have faded as they emerged. But the point must be made that common sense should dictate some our choices.

As the Yorubas would probably do, we should consider whether the choice of Obi by Atiku was the right one in terms of what is required of the office Vice President of Nigeria. In the South-West, Ogun State has dominated the political sphere, but is by no means comparable to Lagos State in development. Ogun State is home to prominent national office holders like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, General/Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Ernest Shonekan, and current Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; yet the other five States of the Zone are not threatening fire and brimstone.

Peter Obi has the credentials for the position of vice president. As governor of Anambra State, he emphatically rejected borrowing to build fly-overs whereas the roads were in a bad condition. He insisted that no nation can survive without savings, and opposed some of his colleagues’ demand for the sharing of the excess crude oil revenue. A look at some of his opinions and stands on important issues reveal a lot:

• “If I must say OK to the government in promoting made-in-Nigeria products, let’s first go to the offices and house of all public offices and ensure that at least 60 per cent of the fittings and furniture made in Nigeria.”
• “There is nothing in the Nigerian Constitution called ‘security votes’. What we have is contingency funds and it is being abused. I gave 257 Anambra secondary schools N10 million annually, N1 billion to hospitals and health colleges. I had only N2.5 billion security vote and I should be invited to account for it”. On the discovery of a huge sum of money in an Ikoyi apartment block:
• “My worry is that that money was dumped and wasn’t yielding profits. If the owner had kept it in the bank, it would by now yield around US$7 million (about N2.8 billion), which can cater for a State’s annual education budget.”

Obi loves education and has invested heavily in it with commendable results, even as he continues to decry that about 11 million Nigerian children are out of school. As governor, Obi took Anambra State from a 26th position in national examinations to number one among the 36 States and FCT. The fruits of his investments in education are still been reaped, though nothing much has been added since he left office.

Obi paid salaries and gratuities as and when due and cleared arrears of pensions. He also paid contractors for jobs completed.  His records as governor and in the board-rooms are there for all to see and read.