- Commends state's zeal for ease of doing business, innovative boundaries' crisis resolution
By Rose Oranye
NDỊ Anambra have been urged to utilize the opportunity provided by the Christmas and New Year holidays to visit home for family reunions, community development, and to explore vast investment opportunities.
A concerned citizen of the state and Managing Director of the defunct Anambra Newspapers & Printing Corporation (ANPC), Sir Chuka Nnabuife, gave the advice while interacting with journalists in Awka yesterday. The fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (FNGE) spoke as a veteran, urging younger colleagues against a wave of publications and messages on various social media platforms that deter people from traveling to parts of Anambra and Imo states due to insecurity.
Nnabuife condemned the attitude of such campaigners, maintaining that the deliberate manipulation of the social space and portraying Anambra as a 'war zone' to discourage homecoming is satanic and will not help the state.
He emphasized that the Yuletide is the biggest opportunity for NDỊ Anambra and NDỊ Igbo to return en masse to their homelands, engage in family reunions, discourse, and initiate plans for the development of their communities. Sons and daughters in the diaspora also utilize the opportunity of homecoming to assess opportunities for investment or assistance.
"This is a season that we shouldn't play politics with. Our people say that 'opportunity comes but once.' We need not lose this opportunity. We can't have it better given the realities of our time.
"What you will understand is that Anambra is radically progressing in terms of security of lives and properties. Recall that there was a time when at least seven local governments in the South, North of the state were almost inaccessible. That was when the government of Soludo came on board.
"At a point, the terror of 'unknown gunmen' spread to Anambra Central, with places like Nnobi, Obosi, Nkpor, and Oba in Idemili witnessing attacks and deadly operations. But now, apart from one or maybe two local governments, such as Ihiala and parts of Nnewi South where you still have hiccups, the unknown gunmen factor has actually ebbed, conspicuously.
"But may I ask, is there any place that is more challenged and intense, in terms of security than the Central Africa region, say Congo DR or places like Angola, yet we still see people, big corporations, investors moving there to do business? They rush into the countries to invest in their mining industries and other ventures. We have Gaza boiling today. We have Israel, which has been combustive for over 60 years. It's still boiling today but you see investments heading there. Go to Palestine, go to Israel, Russia and Ukraine, people are doing business. So why would somebody try to deter people from investing in Anambra State currently?
"Moreover, this is the best opportunity anybody can have because the current Anambra State government under Prof. Chukwuma Soludo is one of the most purposeful and focused to have. The governor has made it very clear that he has an intent to attract our people in the diaspora to come home and invest and reap profitably. Hence his 'Solution is Here' government makes ease of doing business a priority.
"Government has also mapped out business zones, while supporting facilities are being developed with zeal and unprecedented speed. This is, therefore, the best time that somebody should come and key in... and all citizens should support.
"But why will somebody, a citizen for that matter, be engaged in such a destabilizing campaign and telling people not to come into Anambra? Is it all about politics? I don't believe in playing politics with our collective patrimony. I don't believe in playing politics with opportunities that will help me, my society, my children, and grandchildren. I don't believe in playing politics with truth. We don't need that kind of macabre rhetoric and ogre of bad reportage about Anambra."
He praised the state government for the innovative way of resolving communal clashes in the state through the Boundary Commission, led by the deputy governor, Dr. Onyekachukwu Ibezim, emphasizing the settling of such crises through roundtable talks. Such deployment of arbitration and negotiations, instead of resorting to violence, Nnabuife reasoned, is a smart way of making the society better, peaceful, and more conducive for business.
Nnabuife, reacting to media reports alleging that Governor Soludo said he would not pay severance allowance to political appointees who served in Anambra Government from 2014 through 2022 under former Governor Dr. Willie M. Obiano, clarified that he was one of the political appointees addressed by the governor at the Prof. Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre, Awka, on Sunday, December 17. He was annoyed that most reports misrepresented the facts or presented the exact opposite of what the governor said.
According to Sir Nnabuife, Prof. Soludo didn't say he would not pay the former appointees. Rather, he gave them a scorecard of what he has done in office so far, which the appointees applauded because it aligned with the promises he made during his campaign. Gov. Soludo added that he met a backlog of pensions and gratuities from 2018 that he has to settle first before addressing the severance allowances due as of March 17, 2022.
"The governor told them that he will regularly engage all former state government appointees. He also noted, as a good politician would, that if anyone was rallying or participating in the former appointees' forum hoping to twist the state government to get money and use it to work for another political party apart from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), he would not encourage that.
"And I perfectly understand Gov. Soludo on that because, if you probe the new aggregation deeply, you would notice some things that indicate some people could be trying to bring people together, get money to strengthen their new political interests that may not be the APGA which originally brought them to their appointments.
"Gov. Soludo told them that APGA remains the political bastion of Anambra State and will still be. Hence any erstwhile appointee that still craves to enjoy the goodies from office should unambiguously identify with APGA, from the ward to the local government and state levels. He was unequivocal. I don't think there's anything more plausible than the lucid explanation the governor gave on the matter while assuring that as the state's economy improves, he will pay the severance allowances.
"But go and read what some people are writing on social media. Does it not clearly indicate that some came with an intent to skew the report or that their hands are sullied to deliberately do the disinformation? I can't call it misinformation. It's a terrible manipulation of the situation that doesn't help everyone and our state," Nnabuife observed.
He urged journalists to take it easy to avoid destroying the house they built, noting that the reason why Anambra is among the top five states in Nigeria is clearly because of the efforts of the state's government. Hence, the need to encourage Prof. Soludo's transformational government to do more because one good turn deserves another.
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