Anambra stimulus package working, businesses flourishing – Nnacheta 

Earlier this year, we announced that you can get C of O within 30 days of application and it is effective. In fact, if you can pay within 14 days, you will have it signed and delivered to you with discount. What has happened, the whole of Onitsha is filled up and Nkwelle Ezeunaka is opening very rapidly. In Nkwelle Ezenaka, the landowners are betting government, “come and have it”. What does that supposed to mean? We should be doing the right thing.

We know that Anambra has the second smallest landmass after Lagos in Nigeria. Though, Lagos is expanding towards the lagoon, but Anambra landmass is fast reducing because we have presently over 200 active erosion sites which is eating up the small land we have in the state. So our C of O is important, pay to government what is due because it is from there the security and other aspects of government of the state are being maintained. It is not quite correct therefore to say that people are going to Asaba, Enugu or Ebonyi for landed property investments. What of the security drained days in Anambra, which has been arrested by the present administration of Gov Obiano? So the impression is not quite valid. My position is that the tax regime here has not pushed people out of the state and getting C of O is easier now because the Governor has even delegated his signing powers to the state’s Attorney General to sign C of O on his behalf.

Anambra is an industrial hub, but has very poor power supply. What is the state government doing to arrest the situation, looking at the Independent Power Plant project point?

I hope that between now and December 31,2016, we will embark on tour, all of you in the media. It is going to be 2 days facility tour in Anambra. One of the projects evidently will be the IPP at Umuolum; the first single largest gas base in Nigeria, here in Igbariam. From Aguleri to Umuolum will account for 45% gas in Nigeria, and sooner than later, Nigeria has to admit that and the investors have taken it up. The gas plant in Umuolum will be 84KVA. We have financing difficulties at a point, because the promoters are egg heads who they knew where all the corpses were buried. They come here in 1970, they have gone far. They have invested time and money and they have challenges and that was it. The program was that the gas they were going to get will supply Awada, Onitsha and Nnewi industrial clusters and the smaller ones would reside here at the University in Igbariam and the whole of this area.

But you know the initial project would take off with $600million, the bankability is there, though a bit shaky. But there is a sovereign problem. The “Nigerian risk” is pining the fact that the project is viable, Onitsha, Awada and Nnewi can pay but the issue is what we called ‘sovereign risk’. Now Nigeria has taken about 3 different exchange rates, and that makes it difficult for the investors. We cannot say some of these things publicly or unabashedly but the basic factor are well nurtured in Anambra, just a little bit of help.

What are the impediments in the way of an Anambra as a one city state?

Is it desirable, it open to discussion. We have Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA) which amusedly stretched to about 200 miles. It has large area of land. We don’t have resource to do it. They should even manage the motor park. I think the priority is not just to expand to one city-state. The priority is to make sure as onye Anambra anywhere you are, within the state, you are secured, have access to good roads, pipe borne water. About 2 weeks ago, the state government sent back contractors to about 32 roads, 13 in South, 10 in Central and 9 in North senatorial zones respectively. The theory is that when we get our road network, every other things will flow, economic activity will be there, you can then drive to any part of the state in less than an hour. One city state is not our priority, every city is now getting bigger.

The fact is that Gov Willie is a visionary leader because he has worked in corporate Nigeria. The team he assembled has also been at certain level in corporate Nigeria and many are widely-traveled. The dream is reinforced every day.

We are driven to increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Anambra state. The GDP has changed within 2½ year of this administration. We believed that by next year we could double the GDP more and faster than any other state in the country. We were doing 50,000 metric tons of rice, but this year, it has risen to 200,000 metric tons. The Anambra state Small Business Agency ASBA) has N1.5billion last year, but this year, it received N3 billion to loan out to small Business owners across the state. We have been funding them and that was why small business thrives in the state. Anambra state government is going to disburse N4 billion between November 2016 and February 2017 to 181 communities in the state. Recent record shows that from the N20million choose-your-project program, 169 out of 181 communities have started work and before the end of the year, some of the projects would be commissioned. What we are doing is to put resource back to the communities in order to curtail the negative effect of the presently economic recession on the people.

We are aware that about 4 local government areas are still under the poverty level. These include Anambra West, Ogbaru, Anambra East and Awka North, and our 2017 budget will tackle poverty more than ever before in the state.  

2017 is here, incidentally out of 179 communities in the state, about 120 according to information are having leadership crisis resulting from either town Union or Igweship tussle. What is the actual problems sir?  

No, 120 communities did not have Igweship tussles in the state. I don’t know if they are up to 20 communities that are having problems of leadership/chieftaincy issues. Track back a bit, those have been combustible issues all the time in Igboland. Everybody wants to be an Igwe. However, what happened is that we manage them more tactically and credibly than before. We follow the rules, which is each community’s constitution. The tussles are indigenous; they have been manufactured and concocted by the few in the community. Some people have got powerful because of their nefarious act in the community. So government wants to get it right, not imposition.

Operation ‘Python dance’ have taken over the state with intimidating weapons of war which sends panic signal into the citizen as soldiers flood into the state and the geopolitical zone daily. This has attendant crisis. Is there any war in the South East. How many such are in Kaduna, Niger, Plateau or the North East with established cases of crises?

No, the military is Pan-Nigeria, and we are aware they have been doing such operations here and there across the country within 4-6 months now. Indeed, we are aware that the military has created new divisions at Sokoto, and Port Harcourt. The Navy has also established posts here and there. The military are evolving. It is part of their calendar. The exercise for South East which falls within the festive period should not be mistaken for other thing else. They have done one in Port Harcourt 2 months ago. Stopping and searching of vehicles at bridgehead depict that may be there is security information gotten by them. But to cause long traffic jam, the government could come up with question as -could it be done better, the military will answer that. It is not a regular exercise; it will only last for one month-November to December 2016. We don’t have problems with the military using Prof Dora Akunyili Women Development Centre as their information and logistics centre.

Many would be disappointed if this interview session ends without mention of the Miss Anambra sex tape scandal. Why does it look like  the State government is unruffled by the smear campaign, as no one has been penalized?

I am actually disappointed in journalists serving in the state. I am embarrassed for the lack of investigative journalism on the subject matter. Have you gotten the Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) reports concerning the Miss Anambra and Cucumber saga? It is not all about sacking people because somebody wrote his opinion on social media, unanimous for that matter. The Nigeria journalists should have follow the story religiously, investigate it properly through all available sources, her background, schools she attended, got interim Police and DSS reports and come out with an award winning report that would stand the test of time. Honestly, I am embarrassed. You are calling Governor to sack someone? No, it is not done that way. So the state government have gotten the DSS and Police interim report, waiting for the full report.

There is this allegation that some commissioners, especially those of Health, Commerce and Sports are inactive

Who said it? In what area and aspect? Anyway, go to any ministry, meet the Information Officer there, tell him or her that i said he/she should make available every public document containing the information you are looking for. Then lets meet after that. But let me give you an ‘expo’; in the Ministry of Commerce, trade fair is ongoing, go to Ekwueme square and see things for yourself. At Nkwelle Ezeunaka junction over 200 shops are currently under construction there for shoe manufacturers. At Unubi, the World Bank is building ultra-modern industrial clusters there, amongst others under the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Investment. In the Ministry of Health, Anambra Health Management has gone sophisticated to the extent that the foreign donor agencies have put sophisticated drugs into the state drug store at the ministry’s office, Awka. What else can I tell you. All our ministries are very active and bubbling with activities daily. That is why we are the number one investment destination in the country today. That is why we are the safest state in the country today. That is why Anambra is the most peaceful state in Nigeria today.

From Chuks Collins, Awka

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