By Valentine Obienyem
I HAVE read Mr. Josef Omorotionmwan many times and I can say that he is a writer to be taken seriously.  He hardly dwells on personalities, but you see him often attacking societal ills and all those that promote them.  He is an angry writer; his anger is directed at vices, betraying his deep-rooted love for the enthronement of a civilized society. 

That I commend  Josef’s bent of ideas does not mean that there are some of his articles that I do not detest.  If I am left to judge, my verdict will be:  “He has written good and bad articles according to my selective bias’’.

Talking about his bad pieces, the piece of January 7, 2010 entitled Choice Before Anambra People was certainly the worst. It is not the worst in terms of contents or flow of his prose, but because he was conned to write the piece.

Possibly, those close to Dr. Chris Ngige must have fed him with lies about Anambra State. Or was it deliberate as he is a member of AC, Ngige’s political party.

He raised so many issues, where the truth belonging to Peter Obi was ascribed to Dr. Ngige.  Comparing both, he said of Peter Obi: “His administration built many houses, particularly office blocks.  “On Ngige, he wrote: “In spite of the shaky nature of his administration, he touched every sector of the economy like never before.”

Let me clarify the foregoing by first explaining that there is no basis for comparing Ngige and Obi.  What Aristotle said that comparing the educated and the uneducated is comparing the living and the dead is apt here.  We may pardon Josef for this comparison blunder because he is neither from Anambra nor resident in the State.

To explain to him and other confused commentators on Anambra as he certainly is,  let me quote Mr. Seth Mbam: “Ngige’s dread of Obi arose from Obi’s tremendous achievements that have rubbished Ngige’s record.  Whereas Ngige did only roads which he concentrated in his Idemili axis, Obi came and embarked on multi-sectoral development which he spread across the length and breadth of the State.

“This is easily verifiable”. Ngige did 191 kilometers of road, while Obi has surpassed 420 kilometers.  This is as far as the comparison can go.  Talking about other sectors, Ngige did simply nothing.  We can use a few sectors to illustrate.
Ngige is a medical doctor, but during his tenure, no single health institution was accredited in Anambra State.

Today, while one can say that he did nothing in that sector, Obi has done a lot.  Obi has completely rehabilitated Onitsha General Hospital, which is today accredited.

Today Amaku General Hospital is not only at the verge of being accredited, it is being built by Obi into a Teaching Hospital.  As I write, Obi has completed nine buildings in the hospital: Central Pharmaceutical Stores, House Officers’ Quarters, Consultants’ Clinic, General Out Patients’ Clinic, Expanded Theatre, Male Ward, Female Ward, Special Ward and Cold Room for storing vaccines.  Just on the 8th of January, foundations for the Pharmacology, Pathology, Administrative, Laboratory, College of Medicine and Radiology blocks, five in all, were laid.

The state had equally taken delivery of ten 40-foot container of hospital equipment containing state-of-the art equipment such as CT scan.

Still on health sector, hospitals were built such as the General Hospital at Umueri, Cottage Hospital at Umunze and Psychiatric Hospital at Nawfia.  For the first time, Anambra State is today renovating 15 General Hospitals in Ossamalla, Okija, Agulu, Amanuke, Umuchu and others.  School of Nursing and Midwifery at Nkpor and Health Technology Obosi were all accredited during Obi’s regime.  There are many other developments in the health sector, where Ngige did nothing.

In the area of education, as in other areas, Governor Obi has done marvelously.  While Ngige did nothing in this area, Obi has built about 15 structures at the Anambra State University.  These are not bogus claims, some of them are the faculties of Law, Mass Communication, Biological Sciences and Social Sciences.

Obi has started the development of the permanent site of the institution with the commencement of five more buildings and fencing of the areas totalling about 27 kilometres.  Other educational institutions are receiving similar attention.

On January 6, 2010,  one hundred and eight  30 KVA generators were provided to the State secondary schools, while many of them have been provided with laboratories, computers and boreholes.  There is no town in Anambra State where school renovation project is not on today and Anambra has 177 towns.

One can take development sector by sector and it is the same story.  I, therefore, wonder where Josef got his information if not from Ngige himself or his supporters who are ardent disciples in falsifying information.

If you may recall, initially, when the Government of Peter Obi was not advertising, Ngige went to town saying he was not doing anything.

The moment the man started advertising, Ngige now says he merely completed his projects.  Peter Obi completed some on-going projects and initiated many others.  Some of the projects he completed were even started in the 70s, example of which is the giant Ministry of Justice building at Onitsha.

As a Governor for  three years, Ngige did nothing, except a few roads he built in his local Government.  He did not do anything else, not even the completion of on-going projects.

Even the government buildings that were burnt down by his rivals during his regime were rebuilt by Peter Obi because Ngige swore that he would never rebuild any of them.

Some months ago, Ngige told the story of how he acquired land for the construction of the State Secretariat and fenced it.  He said this because he did not know how to claim that he set up the building. Ironically, at the time he was saying this, the place had not been fenced.  He claims he did the Zik’s Avenue, started by Governor Peter Obi.  A few weeks ago, in a Radio programe, he claimed he acquired a land for the Goat Sellers of Upper Iweka at Ogbunike and provided them with facilities, when, in fact, that  parcel of the land was acquired last year over which the Nation Newspaper even wrote an editorial congratulating Obi for showing example on the need to provide an alternative for people before relocating them.

Ngige is known in Anambra for inspecting projects Obi even started and claiming them as his.  I have written the foregoing as a caveat for writers to beware of Ngige and his numerous lies.  He sees telling lies as part of politics when it is enough reason for men of goodwill to question his character.

Talking about the money Ngige and Obi received, in his usual lies, Ngige says he received N42 Billion and that Obi received N130 Billion. First of all, one ought to ask oneself if there are other major sources of revenue the country discovered to make it so. Ngige is overwhelmed by the level of Obi’s achievements and created the fiction about money received to convince people on why Obi out-performed him. I cannot go into details of who received which amount, but just to submit that Ngige actually received more money. For those wondering where Obi gets the money to prosecute his numerous projects, let me explain that 40% of what he does is from goodwill donations by people.

The 108 generators were mostly from goodwill and not State’s money just as the new Prof. Keneth Dike Central Library, the refuse disposal vehicles, ANIDS vehicles etc.

But without conceding that Obi received more money, let us be rational a moment and compare what Ngige paid as salary and what Obi is paying – about double of what Ngige paid.  Ngige’s subvention to the Nwafor Orizu College of Education was 15 million Naira, whereas Obi’s is 45 million Naira.  When Obi came in, Anambra pensioners were owed 18 months salaries, which he has cleared.  Under Ngige a bag of cement was N800 Naira, but today it is about N1600.  All I am saying is that any comparison should be objective and matter-of-fact.

Trying to present Ngige as having suffered so much because of the State is laughable.  Ngige suffered nothing; of course he enslaved the State rather than salvage it.  He was justifiably punished for his transgression of going to Okija shrine and trying to play smart among his fellow thieves of mandate.  But Obi is the one who really suffered stolen mandate, unlawful impeachment, tenure abortion midway – he braved all these and ended up enriching Nigeria’s jurisprudence.

Concluding Joseph mentioned that Obi flagged off his campaign on the 21st of November where Governor Godswill Akpabio and Chief Don Etiebet came.  If Ngige told you this, is it not enough for you to understand the man.  Obi flagged off his campaign on the 17th of December. The high point of that flag off was where the foremost Igbo patriot, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, a man not easily deceived and who offers praises in small doses, gave Obi a full dose by confessing his happiness with Obi’s achievement and begged the people of Anambra to vote him for a second tenure – a convincing summary of what Obi stands for.

Mr.   Obienyem, writes from Awka, Anambra State.