Riding on the power of sheer conviction, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has defined both a vision and a vehicle for its delivery – to transform his constituency from a human and infrastructure-challenged land of giants to a modest, modern state inching out of ….. In this encounter with journalists in Awka, he shares compelling insights into the challenges of development, South-east’s political dilemma and his belief in not short-changing the future of his state. LOUIS ACHI was there. Excerpts:
In executing your developmental vision of a new Anambra State, your administration has not borrowed funds and Anambra appears to be the only state that has not borrowed money. Many believe that with your fiscal discipline you could have done much more.
Yes, we have not borrowed. But if we must borrow, it must be for a bankable project, so we know the way in and the way out. You don’t just borrow for the sake of borrowing. And you can’t borrow to finance social welfare. You borrow, first, for project that will pay itself back. Because when you borrow for financing social projects, the consequence is that you are actually bequeathing future anarchy. I don’t want to do that. It is better to sacrifice today for tomorrow than sacrifice tomorrow for today. We are one of the poorest states and we are trying to manage our resources as skillfully as possible by again lowering the cost of governance to everything as possible to ensure that resources are used and applied as efficiently and effectively as possible. It has its own consequences, but I tell you, its pay-off can only be better.
Does your stance of not borrowing for development have anything to do with your personal philosophy?
I believe so. I never believed in borrowing as a person. I never believed in living above my income. Like here, we have shot down the cost of governance. Hardly will you see us engaging in things we can’t afford. For us the consequences are there. Here, we are not just trying to build physical infrastructure. We are also trying to build human infrastructure which is critical in managing physical infrastructure. What do I mean by that? We try to change people – the way they think; the way they live by challenging their priorities; saying this is wrong; this is not what government should be doing. Like I said, it has its own consequences. When you bring a change into a system, all those who live in the old order will now be your enemies. So despite all developments in the state since I came in, there is still a problem, people don’t believe in you. But who are those people; those who live on the old order.
Do you have enough money to finance projects of your dream Anambra State, since you would not want to borrow?
Well the way I will put it is: what is your vision? When I came here, there was no vision. A vision is to achieve the MDGs, on developments that will impact the lives of the people through a strategy. It is a process that allows us to plan properly; budget for planning, execute our plan and ensure delivery. We moved our budget from being supply-driven to being demand-driven. And when we plan and execute, it is because we have proper planning and proper execution. You could see the budgetary gaps and now approach the donor agencies to help us, because the gaps are there and you can see it. And when you see it, you try to fill it by asking people to support us. That is what we are doing.
Can you explain the vision behind Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS)?
Very simply. Our vision, or call it our destination is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. MDGs have eight clear points. In order to achieve this, what is our destination? You must have a vehicle that will take you to your destination. So once you have a vision, what is the strategy for achieving that vision? Our vision is to achieve the MDGs; our strategy for achieving that is ANIDS. Like I said before, it is a process that allows us to plan properly, budget for the plan, execute the plan, ensure delivery and feedback from the people. For example, the first goal says to fight extreme poverty or hunger. The first thing we did was to do poverty mapping. We established Bureau of Statistics, I can tell you the poorest place in Anambra State today and the richest area. When we have done poverty mapping, we decided, how do we now fight poverty in this area. Articulate plans to open it up. That is why, if you go to some of these places, government is opening up the villages; giving them access.
By these, they now have access for their products, goods and services, and we go in there with all sorts of supports. We have also involved them in FERDAMA and NAPEP programmes. We continue to empower farmers and people in different ways through micro credit support grants in order to fight the extreme poverty. We try to bring stability here and attract investors to invest and be able to employ labour. These are things we are doing. If we go to second stage which is education, we took the schools. When we came, no school has a functional science laboratory. Today, all the schools have functional science lab; no computer class room; this year alone we have given out 7000 laptops and about three thousands computers to secondary schools. There are over 120 secondary schools that are connected by internet through Galaxy. About 120 secondary schools are micro soft academy, the highest in the nation.
Over 100 schools have buses, handing over schools to missionary, we try to provide them with library and we are improving educational facilities every day. We have provided over 2000 teachers and so on. In health, the same thing; we are doing in each of the villages, over 140 communities, health care centers to be manned by a nurse; and in each local government, we build a general hospital as well as a teaching hospital in Awka. We are pursuing all these simultaneously. If you go to environment, we did the same thing; we were doing erosion sites, we are putting water. So that is the whole essence of ANIDS, it is the grand vehicle for achieving MDGs, it helps us to measure what we are doing in the state, and there relationship with others.
What is the statistical data of school enrolment and drop out of students in your state? Has the enrolment improved?
I don’t have statistics but it has improved tremendously. I wish you visited the state on a school day. You see what has happened in the past was that the school system was collapsed; people didn’t see reason to go to school but when we handed over schools to missionaries, the schools started coming back. Since then, enrolment is increasing. But you know this will not happen overnight, it will certainly get even better.
Just like the newly inaugurated APGA government in Imo state introduced free education all through the secondary school level, is there any possibility of replicating such in Anambra State?
Education is actually free in Anambra state. Universal basic education is free.
How do you cut the cost of governance?
You know Nigeria is expensive and you know that the success of any business depends on the life style of the proprietor.
What about the welfare of workers and their emolument?
I have increased salaries of workers three times since I came and it has never happened before. Of course they will continue to agitate for salary increase. But now we are waiting for the bigger one which is N18,000 which again until is a law, if people obey it, I will obey it.
Will you obey the law?
Yes, I am a Nigerian.
But can you afford it?
When we get to the bridge (general laughter)
In your government, how do you weigh your capital budget with your recurrent?
Everybody in government, especially the poor states have a huge recurrent budget which is not good for the development of the country. And in terms of percentage, my target was to be 60 percent capital, 40 percent recurrent, but I can tell you it is the other way round.
What is the level of cooperation you get from the parliament both at the state and federal level in terms of constituency development, have they bought into your vision?
I just work with the people in the state. When it comes to vision, really, it takes time for people to believe in a vision. The first is the leader. You must conceive very clear vision and that is what we have done. But let me repeat, when you bring a change, you will become an enemy with all those who live in the old order. For example, if you call the average politician in the state, they will tell you that Peter Obi is not doing anything. Reason? Because they used to live on the government purse, those monies we are using to buy busses and roof the building in schools, do boreholes used to be theirs. Now it is not. So that is why I said that I am changing their priorities, their values, and even all over the world people that have brought change have been challenged. When I came there was no governor’s house and there was no government house.
So how has the federal lawmakers helped in the development of the state through constituency projects?
Well if you went round, I have shown you what I have done, I didn’t show you any constituency projects (laughter), if you want to go for constituency projects, you may have to come back and move around with the parliamentarians to see their own projects. I only want to talk about Peter Obi’s government.
Local Government system here has been undemocratic for a long time. What definite thing are you going to tell the people about the conduct of the local government election in the state?
Ironically, before I became the governor of Anambra State, the last time there was local government election in the state was actually in 1998. When we came, of course, people kept saying that it was a long time. But you will recall that before I could settle down after my election I was impeached. So I wasn’t here in 2006. Then I came back about the end of first quarter of 2007 and before I could even settle down, I was removed again and I went for constitutional interpretation. So I came back to meet with a House of Assembly which I didn’t work with very well. If you could recall, by the end of that year I was still battling with my budget. This government actually started earnestly in 2008.
Since then, the Anambra Independent Electoral Commission tried everything to conduct the election last year; people went to court; the House also passed a resolution that prevented them from using the old register for conducting the election. They insisted that a proper, updated voter register must be used, which is what they have done. They now used the new register for an election. I told them since this is what you have been waiting for, then you must conduct local government election on or before the end of this year. So people believe that I am the cause of the delay but nobody has sat down to look at it from this angle; that I have nothing to do with it. For me actually, it would have been better that we had the local government election because it would have helped me in the last election because my people would have won the election being that we are on ground. If we have had that local government election in 2009 before my election in 2010, we would have done better but unfortunately, the same people who are doing everything to stop it are the ones who are complaining.
Now that the president has passed the Freedom of Information Bill into law, the next hurdle is for the states to pass it, when are you going to pass it?
I believe in that, I believe we will do that. That is a good bill. The state Assembly has the bill already and the will deliberate on it when we inaugurate the new assembly. But we have been practicing that law here. There is already free information here, whatever anybody wants to know, they are free to know. So that law is obsolete when it comes to what is happening here, because anything anybody wants to know, is open.
In spite of these tangible achievements in the states, you have not done much to change the orientation of the elites about governance in the state….
That cannot be said of the youths; they are the people government are made for. But for the elites, they are the people that bring confusion. So all they do is to sustain the confusion. Confusion is there business. I have said it before, I am changing their priorities and values which is faulty. With them the state would have been indebted. I am now working for those the society will take revenge on. The society we abuse today will take revenge on our children tomorrow. This generation must be given the best. This is the first government to hold a town hall meeting with secondary schools students. I am the only governor who has gone to event of physically challenged people, spent time and ate with them. Government is not about the rich, it is about the poor and those who do not have. And that is why they could not appreciate why they cannot collapse government; that is why they are busy drinking champagne when the system is collapsing. When don’t have one guest house in the state again as was the case in the past. As a governor, I have never stayed in the governor’s lodge in Abuja in the last five years. I can’t even afford to carry retinue of aides when travelling and I do all these for the love of my people because we can’t afford the luxury of wastages.
But how do you cope with litany of big shots and high-wire politicking in the state?
You don’t know what it means to govern Anambra State. Anambra is the most difficult state in the whole of Nigeria . Check, where do you have this kind of trouble. Even in parties, you have three, four candidates contesting one election. This is where you have the largest number of siren blowing people. That is why I don’t use it personally, because I have to give way for them to pass, so that there would be peace. They don’t even visit me because I can’t buy them champagne but I visit them because I also enjoy those good things of life they will give me.
The South-East appears not to have benefited from your conception of politics…in terms of the articulation, focus and depth of their group politics. Why is this so?
Again it depends on how you engage, dialogue and make your demands. You see, whenever I hear of marginalization, the question I ask is who is marginalizing whom? You don’t have to go to a competition as a spectator and be demanding the trophy at the end of the game; you have to face the competitors. Are we as a people out there as a competitor or do we go there for our selfish interest? You read my position when they say that South East engages President Jonathan for position. We didn’t negotiate for any position but interest. I am not saying that position is bad – but tell us what you will do for us. You see, in politics, you always look at the greater interest of greater number of people. In politics, you must defile selfishness; in politics, you can’t mix power and money at the same time. When you see people acquiring properties in all the choice places, they get so preoccupied that they have little time for the people. Greed must have a limit in all you do and I believe that reasonable number of politicians are sick because most of the things they are acquiring, they don’t need them. So, one of the greatest challenges of government in Nigeria is human resources.
Unfortunately, you cannot be a governor for ever, and very soon your eight years tenure will be up. Who becomes your successor will determine how all these legacies will be preserved. Are you concerned about who takes over from you?
I can only say I remain prayerful to Almighty God. When I was leaving the banking institution, I left an impression and they imbibed it till today. When I leave government, I will also leave an impression, a way of life and I am sure they will imbibe it. I am not against good things, but you must live within your means and you must be prudent.
