Governor Willie Obiano Is Fighting Former Governor Peter Obi Over ....?

                             

Long before the expiration of his tenure as Anambra governor Peter Obi had started shopping for his replacement as has become the practice these days. He first settled for his SSG, Oseloka Obaze, but soon the then simmering APGA crisis put paid to Oseloka’s choice and Obi quickly settled for the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, who was accepted by all parties in the dispute.

Obi had been Obiano’s boss at Fidelity Bank for some years and so one would expect both of them to know each other quite well. According to sources close to Obi, he was on the look-out for a successor who knew his onions, who understood and spoke Obi’s language and who had the same international connections he had. In other words, Obi was looking for a worthy successor that would build on the foundation he had laid.

Thus when Obiano was unveiled as Obi’s choice well meaning citizens nodded in appreciation, especially after knowing Obiano’s back ground which generally stood him out as the best candidate in the contesting pack. But while the majority who appreciated Obi’s earth shaking achievements in Anambra felt that God had answered their prayers for a worthy successor to Obi, a tiny minority who never saw anything good in Obi sought to discredit Obiano’s candidacy by attempting to create an unhealthy nexus between the two men based on their Fideliy Bank back ground.

To these men Obi chose Obiano as a desperate measure to cover up the crimes he committed as governor. When they felt the public was not buying their crap they queried why Obi should force someone on the state. In pursuing this argument they forgot that Obi’s choice would be decided by the people’s votes in which case if they liked Obiano they would elect him and vice versa. So if that was going to be the case why castigate Obi for choosing someone? Was Obi the first man to choose a successor?

Among those leading the chorus against Obiano’s choice were members of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) who conveniently forgot how their Bola Tinubu chose Fashola to succeed him, Tinubu, as Lagos State governor.

For the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) naysayers they also seemed to forget what happened in nearby Enugu State when Chimaroke Nnamani produced his former commissioner, Sullivan Chime, as his successor. In fact the same scenario has been playing out across the states in the country and so no one considered it as strange. They forgot that what mattered were the back ground, experience and capability of the successor rather than their choice.

Before he left office Obi at a ceremony beamed live on television and with Obiano and prominent Nigerians in attendance told the world how he saved a whopping N75b for the state in both cash and bonds. The world marvelled at how Obi was able to that with the lean resource base of the state.

Rather than borrow money Obi had generated it from development partners to put the state on the path of economic recovery through his revolutions in such sectors as health and education (recall that Anambra has come first in both WAEC and NECO for two years now).

When Obi’s slayers saw that their lies could not convince the electorate to reject his candidate they resorted to saying that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would handcuff Obi immediately he lost his immunity as governor. Well, it is now close to three months since Obi left office and no one has heard anything from either the EFCC or the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).

Rather what people started hearing was how the president planned to make Obi a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or the secretary to the federal government! These were sure signs that the federal government which earlier appreciated Obi’s worth by appointing him a member of the nation’s economic management team and an honorary adviser on finance was still appreciating him.

This was the last straw for Obi’s disgruntled opponents and what did they do?

They quickly went to the pages of the newspaper to place faceless advertorials claiming that Obi rather than saving money for the state had indeed left her in debt. In claiming this they assumed the role of Obiano who should have been the one to be crying wolf if indeed Obi left him piles of debt.

The faceless advertorials were aimed at dissuading the federal government from making Obi a member of the federal cabinet as though their world would end if Obi became one.

While flying that kite of Obi’s lie that he saved money they were also frantically trying to insinuate that Obi and Obiano had fallen out. What they stand to gain from their imagined face-off between the two men, I do not know but I put it down to an incurable desire to cause mischief even when it cannot work and when such mischief is unnecessary.

Thus even though Obiano is still settling down in office yet some people are simulating a fall-out between him and Obi as well as secretly attempting to goad Obiano into ‘being his own man’ by disagreeing with Obi.

I’m not against Obiano being his own man. In fact, it is necessary he does so.

However he needs Obi’s influence in the presidency and internationally to succeed.

Obiano can be his own man by continuing with the strides he is making in the area of security. He can be his own man by fashioning out his own blue print for transforming Anambra but he shouldn’t be his own man by abandoning projects initiated by Obi. If he does that, he will be acting rather foolishly and will hurt Ndi Anambra and not Obi.

But then I know that Obiano is no fool. He may be new in the office but he is a proven manager of men and resources which was why Obi endorsed him in the first place and Anambrarians accepted him.

Rather than flex muscles against Obi, Obiano should do so against the present rabble rousers and continue keeping them at bay like Obi did. It is the only way to succeed.

They are people who will quickly derail his government and rush to the media to tell how badly he is performing. They did it against Chinwoke Mbadinuju. Obiano must ensure that those who have no business in the corridors of power are kept out. Governance is serious business and not one to be used in favouring and settling kinsmen, friends and well wishers. Do that and you collapse as quickly as a house built on a sandy soil.

Like Fashola has maintained cordial relations with Tinubu, Obiano should hold on to Obi who I know will always mean well for him and the state. He should indeed make Obi Anambra’s special ambassador whose wide connections will continue to attract goodies to the state. That way Obiano will be disappointing those trying hard to return the state to her days of anarchy.

From my findings Obi and Obiano are still friends despite the picture some never do wells are painting. It should continue that way. With the way Obiano is continuing with on-going projects started by Obi, I can rest easy that at least for now there will be no cause for alarm.

Once things continue the way they are Anambra can only be the winner and the jobless, mischievous and thieving crowd masquerading as Anambra Concerned Citizens will bite the dust as losers do.