SHOW TIME IN ANAMBRA STATE


Recently, a distant uncle of mine came back from the United States of America. He had been in the States, for donkey years. Until his coming, we had spent countless chore hours daydreaming the day he will come back. This man’s loquacity is of legendary quality. He has caused to rise in our hearts, dreams as tall as Mount Everest, and hopes as high as the Tower of Babel. Before he left for the United States, he had taken time to analyze and criticize, all those who had been to the United States before him. His unedited verdict was that all who had been to the United States before him were but unmitigated failures. He was so soft spoken and seemed so innocent.

Alas! What did we see when our utopia inspiring uncle came back? He was still his same old loquacious self. He no longer moralized. Disappointingly, there was now an abysmal rift between our dream uncle and the apparition before us. He seemed to have so comfortably forgotten his promises. When our uncle came out to show off his achievements, what did we see? An impoverished and efulefulous wretch! He had bleached himself to the preternatural. Anybody who never knew him before would never believe he was dark. Although this uncle of ours is well past his youthful years, he still blew out his hair. He had funny shaped rings all over his fingers. He even had pair of earrings. He topped it all with a face cap that has the figure, ‘I love NY’ bold inscribed on it. All we could hear around him was, ‘yeomen’, ‘Americana’, ‘hey nigger’, etc. For his achievements, he showed us an assortment of pictures. He had a handshake with Michael Jackson. He had a handshake with Jimmy Cliff. He had a handshake with Tupac. He was friends with this street rapper. He was friends with that backstreet rapper, etc. When in exasperation our aunty asked him, ’are these all you achieved in the United States?’. In equal bewilderment, he answered, ‘these are my unprecedented achievements my dear, has anybody before me achieved these?’

But this article is not about my imaginary uncle. It is about the show-show going on in Anambra State. A fortnight ago, very high quality colour almanacs and publications, ostensibly re-celebrating Mr. Peter Obi’s three years in office; were distributed free of charge at a heavy cost to Anambra State tax payers. Interestingly, this show-show was not limited to either the confines of Anambra State or to the indigenes of Anambra State alone. Nay. It was taken to major cities all over the country and distributed with fanatic abandon. In fact, the way the show-show went, any goat that cared to look up from its tethers could have courteously received a copy to munch as cud! Of course at the expense of the Anambra taxpayer. It was sad enough that the state’s painfully meagre resources could be expended on such low-headed frivolities, what takes vexation to boiling level, however, are the ‘achievements’ advertised therein.



Behold my governor’s advertised ‘achievements’: A harvest of handshakes. A handshake from a European ambassador, an ambassadorial handshake. Is it a mean achievement in three years? A handshake with the Sultan of Sokoto, a royal handshake. Why not if not? Like my imaginary uncle boasted, which Anambra State governor ever had a handshake before the emergence of Mr. Peter Obi? A handshake with waves making author, Chimamanda Adichie. Why not if not? Was the book, Half of the Yellow Sun not authored by the Mr. Peter Obi administration? For sure our daughter Adichie deserves commendation, but is it what a governor of a state is celebrating as one of his significant achievements in three years? Is this not a poverty of publicity? One would have loved to hear the governor recount how he supported her when she was authoring the book. One would have loved to see the governor beat his chest on how he had been encouraging the arts and intellectual excellence. We would have longed to see a long list of scholarships and academic endowments. A revitalised education system wouldn’t have been a bad advertisement. A cursory look at the execution of the education budget of these three years of ‘achievements’ would show a deliberate relegation of education by this ‘wonderful’ government.



The ‘achievements’ continue: Alms giving to a disabled beggar by Her Excellency, the governor’s wife! This is too annoying to be funny. This is an everyday thing everybody does. But it is an unprecedented ‘achievement’ for our governor. Which governor of Anambra State before His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi ever gave alms to a beggar? Ok, which Anambra State family has ever given alms to the poor? Pictures depicting visits by some staffers of some international bodies. Great ‘achievements’. Aren’t they? Which governor of Anambra State before His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi ever received a visitor, local or international? The show continues: His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi and family in a religious function. A man of God indeed! Is it a mean ‘achievement’? Which governor of Anambra other than His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi has ever been to a church? Some semi-obsolete computers in few secondary schools. Great. How many of these computers have been installed? Where are the generators to power them? How many are still lying fallow in the principal’s house due to security issues? Do you mount computers in dilapidated unsecured structures? What efforts were made to see that these computers are made usable by the pupils?



Another powerful but controversial achievement, though not advertised in the contentious publication is the transportation of whopping 250 million naira cash ostensibly for a contractor in the official vehicles of the governor of Anambra State. A worthy achievement indeed.



Finally, several bungalows and a few storey buildings, strategically photographed from different angles, a few roads and several publicity stunts. That is all our able governor chose to ‘show’ us through multimillion naira propaganda. Why not? Are all of us not object blind in Anambra State? For sure these projects are in the cupboard, that’s why the generality of Ndi Anambra can’t see them. But curiously, this showpiece maintains a rib-racking silence on key principles of measurement: How much did the state receive as revenues in these advertised three years? At what costs was each of the projects awarded and executed? Who are the contractors? Can we find a way of weighing the income of Anambra State with these paltry ‘achievements’? Since the governor had previously admitted taking kickbacks from contractors, can we have a way of knowing if the advertised projects were cost effective?



When Dr. Chris Ngige was doing his infrastructural wonders in Anambra State, did we need special propaganda blitz to see them? The roads he tarred are there for all to see. His projects needed not to be advertised for they were ubiquitous. On the contrary, Ngige became a brand, selling everything it is associated with. Recently, journalists have discovered a goldmine in Anambra State. From time to time, at enormous costs to Anambra taxpayers, the government takes them on a merry-go-round ostensibly, to ‘show’ them what ordinary Anambrarians cannot ‘see’. But Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, needed not to ‘show’ anybody his projects. They are there for all to see. Same goes to Mr. Sullivan Chime of nearby Enugu State. But all we have in Anambra State is show-show!

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