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Obiano at 68: A man and his legacies

Published

3 years ago

August 10, 2023

By IfeanyiChukwu Afuba

In spite of Nigeria’s socio economic upheavals, there’s an abiding sense of hope in Anambra State. The belief is strong that Anambra State is safe in the hands of Professor Chukwuma Soludo. Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Paulinus Ezeokafor who tasked local government chairmen on July 30, 2023, to emulate Soludo echoed the widespread view of citizens when he said: “The Governor is performing well especially in infrastructure development and agriculture.” However, this singular opportunity of the Soludo governorship arose from the vision and tenacity of one man, Willie Maduaburochukwu Obiano; who as it were, marks his 68th birthday this 8 August, 2023.

We recall that Soludo was a deliberate choice of Obiano and it took intense nomination battles to secure his APGA governorship ticket in 2021. Obiano was resolute on Soludo because as he said, “I was convinced that he is a very good material.” The Aguleri – born leader stated it loud and clear that “Soludo will do better than myself.” ThisDay columnist and former editor, Olusegun Adeniyi could not help noting that “it takes character to say such things in today’s Nigeria” in the essay, “2023 and Obiano’s Worthy Example” (ThisDay, May 4, 2022).

Anambra’s recent history shows that it took Obiano’s push to salvage the medical programme of the Anambra State University and graduate it’s first set of students. The pioneer class of medical students could not graduate in 2012 after six years of study because the prescribed learning had not been completed. The Nigerian Medical and Dental Council could not grant approval in the face of inability to meet accreditation requirements.

At the inception of Willie Obiano’s administration in 2014, the remaining medical students were in their eight year, many having abandoned the programme in frustration. And in a burst of empowerment and sponsorship of the Faculty of Medicine, the requisite standards were finally attained, leading to graduation of the last standing 13 in December 2015, after almost ten years. The historic set were immediately offered employment by Anambra State Government.

It was a similar experience of eyes on the ball which broke the barriers to the State’s attainment of oil – producing rank. Although the Chinwoke Mbadinuju administration had taken initial laudable steps on the venture, successive governments were unable to execute core demands of the project. Aside making the State’s oil fields in Aguleri – Uno and Ogwuaniocha accessible with good roads and the spectacular 290 metre Aguleri – Otu bridge, Obiano drew on his investment banker reach to ensure that set production levels for recognition as oil – producing were met by the State. Today, accruals from derivation revenue has become an additional source of income for the State, powering development needs.

The list of governorship legacies is long. Constraints of space and brevity will not allow all the details. It will suffice to itemize the agro export initiative of the Obiano administration; opening of Court of Appeal Division in Anambra State in 2018; construction of NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp; boost to micro, small and medium enterprises through the award – winning Anambra Small Business Agency. Mention must also be made of the oxygen plant at the State University Teaching Hospital; International Conference Centre, Awka; statewide light – up – Anambra shower and N40b community choice projects in each of the State’s 181 towns.

Those who had intimate knowledge of his charitable spirit in private life were not surprised by the welfarist bent of Obiano’s governorship. One of the first acts of the new Governor in 2014 was a fifteen percent raise of workers’ pay, without prompting from any quarters. Disbelief unfolded on his face the day Willie Maduaburochukwu Obiano learnt that operatives of the State Fire Service were entitled to just twenty naira as monthly hazard allowance – and the amount had never been reviewed since creation of the State in 1991. There and then, he directed increase to twenty thousand naira monthly. On another day, a briefing led the Governor to know that Basden School of Special Needs, Isulo, had been receiving fifty thousand naira monthly subvention for the past ten years. “That’s unjust” he said when he recovered from the shock. He instantly approved a new monthly subvention of half a million naira. The administration expended N2.6b on arrears of salaries and benefits of workers of the State Water Corporation, Anambra Broadcasting Service and National Light Newspaper denied them by past administrations.

Afuba

A man with a deep sense of community life, Obiano’s leadership was infused with desirable dose of regional agenda. In the uncertainties of Mohammadu Buhari’s upset presidency in 2015, Chief Willie Obiano – led government held a memorial to honour the Igbo who died in the events of 1966 – 1970. No other southeast Governor had committed to a rite of passage for the Igbo war dead before Obiano’s outing. Nor after. As discussion on constitutional amendments recurred in the Fourth Republic, Obiano’s Anambra State hosted southeast summit on Nigeria’s restructuring in May 2018 which produced the Ekwueme Square Declaration. Veterans of Rangers Football Club, a symbol of Igbo solidarity and reaffirmation in post civil war era, enjoyed a welfare scheme in Obiano’s governorship. It was a blast of nostalgia, friendship renewal and music on April 16, 2017 when the people – oriented administration organised a free concert in Awka featuring popular bands and artistes of the 1970s in the former eastern region.

In the past one and half years since leaving office, Akpokuedike has largely been away from the stage. Yet, his low public profile has not diminished his reputation as a man of the people. At the flag – off of APGA’s campaign for the 2003 general elections on January 14, he was mobbed at Ekwueme Square, Awka by hundreds of enthusiasts, many, paying tribute to his live and let live spirit.

Remarkably, the technocrat – politician has not engaged in any spat, struggle or dispute with his successor. In staying out of the orbit of influence and refusing to distract his successor, Willie Obiano leaves us another legacy in Nigerian government and politics.

A man who trusts that the judgment of history will vindicate him is a man confident that his good works speak quietly for him in the present.

Cheers to a pathfinder for the blessing of a new age.

Afuba is Director, Public Administration Circle, Awka

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Prepare for third term! *Tinubu won’t be content with two terms – Odinkalu

Published

6 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Whirlwindnews

Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.

Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.

Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”

To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.

Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”

Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.

Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?

“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”

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I didn’t pay N300million ransom to save my blood brothers from kidnappers – gov

Published

6 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Whirlwindnews

“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.

Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.

Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”

Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.

He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”

Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.

His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”

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Umar, ex-CJN Onnoghen’s nemesis in trouble *Cools off in prison!

Published

6 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Whirlwindnews

Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16^th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.

Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.

Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.

He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.

After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.

His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.

Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.

Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.

Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.

He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).

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