As Anambra State indigenes generally await the swearing-in of the governor-elect, Prof. Charles Soludo on March 17, the indigenes of Anambra West Local Government Area, particularly, want the incoming governor to put their area in his priority list. They want the governor to remember his promises when he visited the area during campaign and urged him not to renege.
Their reasons for requesting for special and urgent attention are based mainly on the level of underdevelopment. They are alarmed at the pitiable absence of motorable roads, electricity, hospitals, good schools and other social amenities which give the people nightmare. According to them, it is worrisome that an area with over 87,687 registered voters as at 2011 and numerous teeming youths is only remembered during the campaign but abandoned immediately thereafter.
Their disappointment is not only against the Federal Government and the State Government. It is also extended to their elected representatives at all levels and political appointees, who year-in, year-out, make frivolous promises, only to become incommunicado once they get into the positions. The people challenged their politicians, both past and present to point at verifiable developments attracted to the area or people they empowered while in office.
The indigenes allege that they only hear about constituency projects’ allocations and many others but hardly see projects done with the funds. MultiChannels247 investigations revealed that the only tarred road that leads to several communities in this food basket of the state including the local government headquarters at Nzam is not more than six kilometres. Another one is a 13km road started by former governor Peter Obi which has remained a campaign tool for the politicians. Every politician in the area has different versions of excuses regarding non-performance; even the Otuocha-Ibaji-Lokoja- Abuja Federal road, started many years ago, had since been abandoned and the gully and potholes on the road have become death traps.
The worst hit is Umudora-Umuikwu-Onono axis. Apart from being extremely narrow, with gullies on both sides of the road; motorbikes do not dare ply the road if it rains, not to talk of cars. It is slippery and cars risk slipping into deep canals on both sides. To worsen the matter, a construction company (name withheld by us) dumped sand, pretending to be working on the road, only to abandon it, thereby leaving the road worse than they met it. A source alleged that the company was not mobilised by the State Government led by Governor Willie Obiano because the money earmarked for projects at the area was diverted to the Airport project at Umueri/Aguleri/Nteje axis.
A poet and Anambra West indigene, Eliada Chukwuma Ozoemena, while lamenting the level of infrastructural absence, said: “One finds it difficult to control tears whenever one embarks on journey across Omambala River, the level of neglect numbs the mind. I am bewildered as to what and who must have been the cause of our underdevelopment.”
Prince Egbunike Nnose, a criminologist and security expert, was more emphatic that the problem of Anambra West is the political class. “Our politicians both elected and appointed right from the advent of democracy in 1999 are self centered,” he said. “All what they are after is just their personal gain, not the welfare and progress of Anambra West.” Prince Nnose said that until they change their mindset, the area will not experience meaningful development.
“An area with a huge population has no functional primary healthcare centre, no form of government presence, no tangible constituency projects sited and nobody is asking questions as regards the collective funds allocated to the local government. But I am quite optimistic that no matter how long a criminal matter lasted, it can still be reviewed and all those involved will pay heavily.”
An indigene, Chief Okafor said: “Our youths need to get involved. They only make contributions on social media and abuse their elders which make no impact. Majority of our people do not have voter’s cards and therefore do not vote during elections. Everybody should go home and register in his ward to increase our voting strength which is very low. The political space is not owned by anybody or group of people, that is the only way to attract meaningful growth and development,” he said.
An entertainment entrepreneur, Mrs Tessy Aniesi said, “The politicians won’t avail the elected or appointed ones the necessary atmosphere to do real jobs. Our politicians, I mean career politicians, hungry politicians who unfortunately are more in number, against those who were already ‘big boys’ before joining politics, they are our problem. They know our people are under-informed and exploit it. Our politicians do not prioritize our development. Rather, they are more interested in their titles, personal benefits, intimidation and winner takes. They focus on distractions. There are only about 5% of them who prioritize infrastructural development but the greedy and selfish ones weigh them down. Everyone must not be a politician. We voted for you because you told us you know how to get the job done. Why then will you not deliver?
An engineer, Ekene Emmanuel Nnaemeka said the people do not hold the politicians accountable and that is why they take everything for granted. He argued that development issues have nothing to do with the number of people that voted in an election. “Until we begin to task our politicians on issues of accountability, we are going nowhere as a people. Imagine from 1999 till now? Where are the allocations being applied?
“Please my people these people are taking advantage of our ignorance, ineffectiveness and reluctance in confronting their inadequacies, irresponsibility and recklessness in handling what belongs to us. No governor will develop our place for us while we cannot account for allocations received. It is a daydream. No governor will take us seriously until we start speaking up, taking it harder on the people involved. They are not ghosts or faceless. They are the same people we chose to handle our affairs. Let us organise a front to reach out or else, we’ll remain like this waiting for one saviour that will never come.
A teacher, Mr. Ifeanyi Aniesodo said the people of Anambra West are hardworking people who are endowed with both human and material resources but to achieve any meaningful development, the people and politicians must change their orientations and ways of seeing political offices.
Former chairman, Anambra West, Chief Simon Onuora in his view stated that it is the pastime of many citizens to blame the woes of the nation on its leaders. “Yes, blaming others for collective deficiencies gives some people the feeling that they are better. Yes, our leaders are corrupt, selfish, unfeeling, greedy, arrogant and more,” he said.
“We tend to forget that there is no special tribe, town or village where leaders are bred and groomed before they are released into public office. We also forget that there is no special school where elected or appointed leaders are sent to go and learn how to be bad. When we elect a leader we do so because we believe he/she is good; nobody has ever been elected anywhere in the world because he/she was perceived to be bad. Also a person is not appointed into an important office because he/she is known to be evil. If the leaders we perceived as being good ended up as evil men and women, it all means that the majority of us are evil. Mango trees cannot bear pawpaw fruit! In every country the leaders are a reflection of the led. If the leaders are thieves it means the land is populated with mainly thieves.
“Most of those criticising persons in authority are much worse than the people they criticise, but are incapacitated because it’s not easy to get there. The thieves outside are far more in number than the few inside. Quite often their agitation is just a ploy for attracting attention or an expression of bottled up frustration, envy and jealousy. The kind of leaders a people get is the type of leaders they deserve because you can’t import leaders from outside your country. What you have is what you give. The loudest criticisms are mainly borne out of sour grapes. Those who had sought for one kind of favour or the other from leaders but failed, tend to become very hostile critics.”
He concluded that the reformation of leaders should start from our individual homes. “The disciplined children we raise today is the quality leaders we’d have tomorrow. The campus cultists and special centre exam candidates of today should not be expected to be saintly leaders tomorrow. If we elect leaders based on who has more money to throw about, we should be wise enough to know that they are not Father Christmas.
“If a society that is populated with inherently corrupt people elects a leader that is clean, it cannot work because you can only reform a person that is ready and willing to be reformed. In most cases such a leader would end up being negatively reformed by the people he sought reform.”
An insider who pleaded anonymity told the reporter that the biggest problem facing the local government areas in Anambra State including Anambra West is that the LGAs receive monthly Federal Allocations but do not decide how it is disbursed. This is in total disregard to President Muhammad Buhari’s directive that local governments should be responsible for spending and accounting for federal allocations. According to the source, the situation is different in Anambra State and the local government chairmen are afraid of speaking out because they were appointed and not elected and could be removed overnight by the person who appointed them if they refuse to play along.
