Okonkwo Samuel
By Odumodu Gbulagu
Anambra is a very important and strategic Igbo state that is blessed with best brains in every field of human endeavour.
Some of these notable brains are:
Nnamdi Azikiwe Owelle of Onitsha,
Dr. Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme,
Nwafor Orizu
Ukpabi Asika
Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu
Dim ChukwuEmeka Odumegwu Ojukwu,
Chukwuemeka Ike
Dr. Senator Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo
Professor Chinua Achebe
Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi
Cardinal Francis Arinze
Emeka Anyaoku
Professor Humphrey Nwobu Nwosu
Chuka Umunna
Professor Kenneth Dike
Professor Ben Enwonwu
Pius Okigbo
Chief Jerome Udoji
Chimamanda Adichie
Dora Akunyili
Cyprian Ekwensi
Professor Chike Obi
Philip Emeagwali
These are just a handful of them, as many are purposely omitted so that the post is not unnecessarily elongated.
Anambra would have developed more than what it is today, but the cogs in the wheel of our development immediately the military handed over to civilian rule dragged us back. Dr Chris Ngige broke the yoke, and Mr Peter Obi charted a new course for Anambra as he made us the light of the nation, and cynosure of all eyes. He built a solid foundation that anyone who succeeded him had nothing to do, but key into his well thought out programs to take the state to Eldorado.
We all thought that Governor Willie Obiano was going to preserve the flames that was passed down to him, but to our greatest dismay, he blew it off. He set us back over 2 decades, as he squandered the over 75 billion naira he inherited, and has plunged the state into almost 200 billion naira debt, with massive infrastructural decay littering the corners of the state.
What we are celebrating today as a state is backwardness instead of progress. We are celebrating ruins occasioned by “Willie is working” instead of development. This is not the Anambra of our dreams.
May afflictions like Obiano never rise again!
