Anambra State: Facts behind the Rhetoric’s

Peter Obi’s administration rather than tackle the issues at hand, which are delivering the dividends of democracy to the good people of Anambra state has chosen otherwise. Facts on the ground attest to this. The Obi administration is rather clever at manipulating the public especially Diaspora Anambra indigenes whose only information about the true situation on the ground is via the press, especially online. Governor Obi very cleverly chose an ex Vanguard seasoned journalist, Chuks Iloegbunam as his chief of staff with the sole purpose of hoodwinking the populace. Chuks has friends in high places within the Nigeria media industry and appears to be earning his keep.

Edith Sitwell (1887 -1964) wrote “The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth”. This appears to be Governor Obi’s philosophy. But truth, no matter what, will always prevail. The truth about Governor Obi’s mis-governance of Anambra state is surely but slowly revealing itself.

Below is an article reproduced verbatim from The Daily Independent newspaper of Tuesday March 18, 2008 and written by Okey Maduforo the Awka correspondent of the newspaper. Readers are invited to peruse the article and decipher for themselves where the truth lies in the governance of Anambra state by Governor Obi’s administration.

Anambra’s Budget Of Controversy by Okey Maduforo

When the stories made the headlines that the state assembly was plotting to impeach Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State last week, the political observers were jolted to their bone marrows as to the authenticity of the report. It was further worsened by the authors of the story as it was anchored on “our reports.” Far from it is the lingering N84 billion 2008 appropriation which has been facing defence at the floor of the Assembly.

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It was alleged that the lawmakers have concluded arrangements to cut the 2008 budget by 50 percent in order to further frustrate the state government in its bid to provide democracy dividend to the people of Anambra State. Interestingly, the stategovernment neither refuted the alleged plot nor did it accept it as true. The allegations against the state assembly have been seen by observers as yet another lingering time bomb waiting to explode in the state.

At a seminar on budget last year, Governor Peter Obi said that he was not part of the process that produced the 2007 budget, adding that as a result of that, he cannot explain what happened to the budget. Obi’s submission was also in reaction to the demand for a defence in the supplementary budget of 2007. However, it is on record that the budget was signed into law shortly after Obi regained his seat, having won at the High Court over his impeachment. The budget was equally expended by the state government with Obi as the man in the saddle but the 2008 budget which is currently before the assembly has again raised controversy over the appropriation of the 2007 budget.

Governor Obi knew for his belief in the due process of the law, told the assembly members while presenting the budget stated that the 2008 budget would certainly be a spring board towards dragging Anambra State from the ashes of economic deprivation, adding that the budget have been so designed to put paid to the gray areas that have been the bane of Anambra State.

Uche Echesi, the state commissioner for Finance, told reporters that the expenditure profile of 2007 budget had been made available to the assembly, adding that every kobo spent in 2007 has been accounted for. Strange as it may be, the state assembly appeared not to have gone on war part with government over what the Appropriation Committee Chairman, Ikenna Amaechi, described as a case of the kettle calling the pot black.

 “It is unfortunate that an organ like the executive arm of government will resort to incorrect and inconsistent statement to disturb the activities of this house of assembly.

“You will recall that we had to come back from break to receive the budget.

The state government requested that we put off the defence to the 16th of January and we obliged them. New we are talking of seven days. We received not less than seven requests on the 11th of January to put off the defence on the 16th by the ministers for their own defence we had ministries that came in here without any documents to justify what they did in 2007 and they said that they need to go back and do their home work and they don’t come back for two weeks and as I speak to you today, the 13th of March, I have a request from the government for another inclusion of N250 million and the assembly is being accused of delay in the passage of the budget.

“You leak information to press telling them that this house of assembly is trying to cut your budget by half but how would you know if you are not a member of the committee? The governor has invited us on three occasions on this budget and we had to honour it even when it is not proper because of respect we have and mutual cooperation and peace in the state.

“The day this budget was presented, the papers had it that we were given N7 million each. Why to pass the budget and right after the presentation of the budget in the speaker’s office, we were having launch with the governor, we gave him the newspaper to him and said, His Excellency, look at it. What did we do, he smiled and said I told you people that you should stop reading those papers. This is an executive that loves publicity but when a governor who likes his cleanness and due process is accused of bribing the House of Assembly, has not for one day come out in the press to refute it even his media men. This is selective docility and it is culpable. You cannot ignore these things because perceptions become reality”, he said.

The House Committee on Information and Re-Orientation, Mr. Ejiofor Egwuatu, went down the line to list areas of anomalies in the 2007 and 2008 budget, contending that the executive is being clever by half. “I challenge the executive arm of government to prove me wrong in all these areas of confusion that they cannot explain or even have any explanation as to how they were appropriated.

“The Board of Internal Revenue (BIR) has no record of funds generated internally in 2007 and there is no explanation on revenue targets for the 2008. There is buck-passing between the Special Adviser to the Governor on Parks and Markets, Chief Nwaobu-Alor, the BIR and the Special Duties office as to the proper account of the IGR. The budget great relies on: Debt recovery of about 21.56, A 13.5 billion loan which has a service charge of N500 million, the house do not have details of this loan and how realistic the two are. N10 billion from savings, this savings is fallout of the refusal of the executive to release funds especially for projects that do not catch its fancy.

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“In the youth and sports, the sum of N21 million was expended on a project not estimated for in the 2007 budget. Funds allocated for over right subheads were vied for the construction of office blocks and so renders every other project dormant. In the water supply and resources, virtually all subheads did not get releases rather N25 million of the N100 million meant for boreholes were said to be used for construction and procurement of generating sets.

 “In 2008, the government is requesting the sum of N1.5 billion for the bogus state independent power project. Another white elephant project is the airport at Igbariam, which would cost N750 million whereas so much of government fund is wasting at Oba Airport. There is also the Amawbia State Football Club, which N125 million was estimated.  In 2007, the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB) had N620 million appropriated but no kobo was released. Yet in 2008, the same ASUBEB was appropriated for N770, 414 million. Also, in 2008, N25 million was put for Anambra State University, Alor campus, which is non-existent. And yet government has failed to explain all these grey areas.

The state assembly is possibly awaiting answers to the allegations raised from the two budgets. The lawmakers who have been accused severally of taking notes from Dr. Andy Uba may be on a desperate mission to prove that they are not errand boys to anyone. But observers are of the view that government and its aides only need to use the 2007 and 2008 budgets and its defence to prove to Anambra State indigenes that the assemblymen are playing the black leg in the upward mobility of the state. Pundits still contend that the clarity and brevity of the executive over the issues raised by the assembly without condescending to name-dropping and kite flying would certainly be the only litmus taste for its honesty.

 

Odenigbo Chidi Anyaeche

London

UK