Obiano’s Unanswered Questions 2

 How Obiano Recorded Monumental Failure In 43 Months As Anambra
Governor (Concluded)
      (In Response To Obiano’s Unanswered Questions In Our Open
Letter Of 23rd October 2017)
(Intersociety, Onitsha Nigeria: Wednesday 8th November 2017)-In-spite
of availability of over N420B or $1.4B cash excluding the State’s
N11.3B share of the Paris Club refunds, all at governmental disposal
of Gov William Mmaduabuchi Obiano,  Anambra State under him had
recorded a monumental failure in governance of the State in the past
43 months or between 17th March 2014 and 31st October 2017.
This position of ours is sequel to findings of our Organization as it
concerns the state of governance in Anambra State in the past 43
months and refusal of the Governor to present the scorecard of his
first tenure, which is in line with international best practices. The
demand for the Governor’s scorecard was contained in our open letter
of 23rd October 2017 with seven days notice within which he was
expected to have comprehensively responded. Another open letter was
also addressed to 36 other governorship candidates with similar
probing governance questions.
It must be stated clearly that we had before the issuance of the two
open letters especially that of the incumbent Governor of Anambra
State; carried out a comprehensive investigation into the state of
governance and finance under the Administration of Governor William
Obiano, but decided to put our findings on hold so as to give the
Governor a benefit of doubt and an opportunity to publicly present the
account of his stewardship.
Governor William Obiano’s monumental failure in governance of Anambra
State is rooted in flamboyance, squander-mania and fiscal
recklessness; leading to diversion of greater part of State funds
traditionally meant for public good and capital development of the
State into alarming governance costs including collection of
outrageous monthly security votes of N1.35B (Gov N1.1B and his wife
N250M) and needless expenditure of over N400M monthly to service over
1000, if not 1500 non statutory political appointees and statutory
others .
Through same squander-mania and financial recklessness, Anambra’s over
N420B cash wealth plus N11.3B Paris Club refunds and undisclosed
locally borrowed loans running into billions of naira was grossly
mismanaged; leaving the capital development of the State including
provision and maintenance of key infrastructures (i.e. roads) in acute
state of despair and decay.
The Governor lost focus and direction from the beginning when he
allowed some political contractors and detractors to deceive him into
forming and running “a government of settlement and merriment” as
opposed to his predecessor’s “araldite government”. With “a government
of political class” in place, Governor Obiano totally lost governance
direction and recruited over 1000, if not 1500 cooks to cook a pot of
soup. This marked the beginning of his monumental failure in
governance.
When the governance expectations of Anambra People became so intense
and loud, the Governor  imported and applied deceit, lies and
propaganda to blindfold the People of the State, especially the
un-attentive public, from noticing his gross governance deviation and
monumental failure. The Governor also resorted to laying claims to
projects with verifiable records executed by his predecessor as his.
In our investigation which heavily relied on the fundamentals of good
governance in civil democratic government, Governor Obiano performed
abysmally in most of them. They include management and safety of
inherited public assets and liabilities (from past Obi
Administration); cabinet size, monthly wage bill and governance cost;
infrastructural development and social services delivery; fiscal
discipline and accountability; agric, health and educational
development, industrialization and foreign direct investment; water
safety and security; environmental management and urban planning;
security and welfare of Anambra People (human security); and human
rights and rule of law.
Few Areas Where Obiano Scored Good Marks
The Governor’s performance is high only in the areas of street
lightening, traffic markings and nonviolent response to political
opposition. To an extent, Governor Obiano is politically intolerant,
not nonviolent. His good marks in the area of absence of State
sponsored political killings is noted but still shaky and hugely
dependent on his Government’s reaction to the outcome of November 18th
Governorship Poll.
The Governor also earned some reasonable marks in the control of
violent crime of violent kidnapping (immediacy) but scored less in
checkmating nonviolent kidnapping (remotely). In other words, the
policing intelligence in the State is still a monumental failure under
Governor William Obiano; whereby kidnappers are only pursued when they
are on rampage but let off the hook when in their hideouts. That is to
say that crime of kidnapping in the State is only suppressed via oiled
media blackout and fire brigade approaches.
To show off and over-sensationalize security in the State so as to
corner Anambra’s billions monthly as “security votes”; many innocent
members of the public are swooped on by police SARS and others;
arrested, detained and paraded arbitrarily as “armed robbers and
kidnappers”; tortured alive or to death in custody. If survived from
custodial torture, they are incarcerated for over six months before
being judicially incarcerated further by way of “magistrate court
arraignment and remand”.
The Governor’s laying of claims as having drastically reduced crime of
armed robbery in Anambra State is utterly mischievous and deceitful
because patterns and trends of armed robbery and carjacking or car
armed robbery clearly show that while the car armed robbery has become
scientific and is on the steady increase in the State; armed robbery
is drastically reduced on account of electronic banking or ICT powered
banking which has lowered the indiscriminate carriage of cash by blue
collar practitioners or those who transact businesses in cash. These
have further thrown up high incidences of cybercrime in the State with
police doing nothing.
Patterns and trends of car armed robbery or carjacking have also
changed in the State. In most cases, cars are no longer snatched at
gun-points but quietly and scientifically unlocked at their parking
lots and made away without traces. These new patterns and trends are
highly sophisticated and syndicated in the State that policing
intelligence has failed woefully to unravel or demystify them till
date.

Communal restiveness is also very rampant in Anambra State under the
Obiano Administration, to the extent that many communities are
presently at loggerheads. Governor Obiano is at the center of
accusation including his alleged reckless imposition and recognition
of imposed persons as traditional rulers of the affected communities.
In the area of protection of lives and property, Governor William
Obiano scored negative. Under his watch as the Chief Security Officer
of the State, not less than 140 defenseless and unarmed Igbo citizens
were massacred by the State Joint Security Taskforce under his
chairmanship. While over 110 were massacred with most of them
criminally buried inside the Onitsha Military Cantonment between 29th
and 30th May 2016 when they were massacred and Wednesday, 1st June
2016 when they were criminally interred; over 30 others were massacred
on 30th August and 2nd and 17th December 2015. Members of Gov Obiano’s
Joint Security Taskforce especially soldiers also crossed over to
Asaba on 30th May 2016 and killed not less than 30 others. Most of
them were criminally buried on 26th June 2016 in secret mass graves in
Asaba, Delta State.
Infrastructural Decay & Abandonment Under Obiano
Anambra State is one of the highest motorized States in Nigeria. It is
also very notorious when it comes to soil fragility in Nigeria. Over
95% of its population use road or land mobility. Till date, it has no
single railway line and its marine or waterway transport is still at
subsistent level. Totality of these puts pressure on its road network;
requiring steady expansion and adequate maintenance of same. These
also explain Anambra citizens and residents’ craze over good and
expanded road network. Road construction is done by kilometer coverage
or measurement. Road construction in non river-line/gully part of the
State goes for average of N200M per kilometer, while construction of
same in Ogbaru and Omambala river-line areas goes for as much as
N300M/N350M per kilometer or more especially with bridges.
For instance, construction of Abazuonu Street (0.275km), Ihitenansa
Street (0.53km), Ibekwe Street (0.1km) and Acha-Madonna Cath. Road
(0.905km) by IDC Limited; totaling 1.8km awarded in January 2013 and
completed by the Obi Administration in February 2014 at the total of
N705M was on  average of N360M per kilometer while construction of
Ekwulobia-Ezinifite Road in Aguata LGA, which is measured 6.3km; done
by Obi and Obiano Administration and executed by the same IDC Limited
at cost of N765.5M was done on average of N130M per kilometer.
In all, development, expansion and maintenance of Road Network in
Anambra State under Obiano Administration since March 2014 are nothing
to write home about. Following our recent in-depth investigation into
the state of governance in Anambra State in the past 43 months, it was
discovered that while the Obi Administration inherited 13 uncompleted
roads from Chris Ngige and had them fully completed before awarding
new road contracts; the Obiano Administration inherited 69 with most
of them at advanced stages of completion, but abandoned most of them
(about 95%) till date.


One of the minutest few, if not only two completed by Gov Obiano is
Ekwulobia-Ezinifite Road in Aguata LGA. The contract for its
construction was awarded on 13th July 2013 with 30 weeks completion.
As at the time the Obi Administration was leaving office on 17th March
2014, a total of N557.3M, out of total contract sum of N765.5M had
been paid to the IDC Limited; leaving N207.9M balance so as to ensure
its speedy completion as timed.
The work on the Road was delayed due to an intra communal disagreement
over choice of a site for burrow pit; forcing the contracting firm
(IDC) to leave the site with a promise to return to the site as soon
as the issue was resolved. It was finally completed by the Obiano
Administration this year (2017) from former Obi Administration on
40/60 completion ratio or 40% for Obi and 60% for Obiano). This Road
is one of the minutest few, if not two completed by the Obiano
Administration out of 69 uncompleted roads inherited from the Obi
Administration.
Of the 13 roads inherited from Chris Ngige and continued and completed
by the Obi Administration, the likes of Atani-Ogwuikpere Federal Road
and Mmili John State Road were awarded without mobilization of
contractors to the their sites. They were taken over and completed
alongside others including Umunze-Umuchu-Uga-Ezinifite-Igboukwu Road
and Awka Zik Avenue (dualization) Road.
But in the case of Obiano Administration, reverse was and is still the
case. Our findings show clearly that the Obi Administration had as at
January 2013 awarded contracts for a total of 99 roads across the
State; with total contract sums of N93.3B and paid contractors as at
17th March 2014 a total sum of N47.4B and left a balance of N45.9B.
Out of the 99 awarded roads, 30 were fully completed while the
remaining 69 were at advanced levels of completion with vast amounts
paid to their contractors; leaving them with a total balance of
N45.9B.
For instance, the Atani-Ozubulu Road (Part 1) with bridges, valued at
N2.3B, a total of N1.57B was paid to the contractor as at 17th March
2014; leaving a balance of N723M. In its Part 2 with bridges, out of
total contract cost of N2.92B, a total sum of N2.29B was paid to its
contractor as at 17th March 2014; leaving a balance of N631M. The
two-part Road is totally measured 11.2 kilometers with about three
capital intensive bridges. Today, the important Road is one of the
abandoned road projects in the State under Gov Obiano.
We had in the course of our in-depth investigation, stumbled into
records showing that Gov Obiano had between 17th March 2014 and 2015
abandoned most, if not 67 out of 69 inherited uncompleted roads;
inherited from his predecessor. The Gov not only abandoned those
important roads, but also awarded 30 new road contracts valued at
N65.4B; out of which only N10B was paid then leaving a staggering
balance of N54.3B. Till date, most of them have not been completed
except those located in his hometown of Aguleri.



Purported N127B Inherited Road Contract Debts With Uncompleted 101 Roads
This is found to be untrue going by our findings as highlighted above.
That is to say that there are no N127B unpaid inherited road contract
debts from the previous Administration; there are no 51 inherited
roads completed with expenditure of N44B; and there are no 101
uncompleted roads inherited from Obi Administration. The truth is that
67 out of 69 uncompleted roads valued at N45.9B have been abandoned
till date; likewise Nnewi and Awka Shopping Malls and Onitsha Hotel
Project.
As we speak, there are no access roads to Amanuke, Urum, Mgbakwu and
from Achalla to Mgbakwu; all in the State Capital City of Awka. Esther
Obiako Estate Roads are in shambles; likewise Amawbia-Nise-Agulu Road
to mention but few. Across the State, 80% of drainages and public
gutters are blocked; forcing floods to flow on and damage the road
surface. Many, if not most urban city roads in Onitsha Zone including
Ede and Obodoukwu Roads in Ogbaru; Port Harcourt and Bida Roads, to
mention but few have all failed.
Purported 179 Ongoing Road Projects
Gov Obiano had last Friday, 3rd November 2017 at Uke Adoration Night
Vigil, informed Reverend Father Emma Obimma (Father Ebube Mmuonso) and
his congregants that “he is presently building 179 roads in Anambra
State”. This literally translates to 540 kilometers on average of
three kilometers per road. When multiplied by average of N200M per
kilometer, it means that Gov Obiano is constructing roads worth over
N108B; whereas the total budgetary estimates allocated to road
construction in Anambra’s 2017 budget of N115B is N24B.
It also means that Gov Obiano is “building (constructing
simultaneously) over half of Anambra’s total Trunk B or State Road
network”. Gov Obiano’s latest policy of “campaign bulldozers” is the
height of governmental deceit and fraud in governance; whereby
hundreds of roads worth over N130B (Anambra’s total non loan revenues
for two years) are indiscriminately being “flagged off” without due
processes and outside enabling laws and availability of adequate funds
for their execution and completion. There is no supplementary budget
showing that Anambra State generated more than its budgeted revenues
for 2017; requiring award of more capital projects especially roads.
Direct Foreign Investment Inflows
We found Gov Obiano’s claims of “attracting over $7B FDIs to Anambra
State” to be a height of government falsehood and fraud. Apart from
liquor joint “MOUs”, nothing else turned out to be real regarding such
bogus claims. There is no single sight of any FDI company in the State
under Obiano; comparable to that of Intafat Breweries in Onitsha
(makers of Hero Beer).



Industrial Rice, Ugu & Yam Export
Our investigation cannot locate the industrial export of any of these
in any part of the State. In the recent rating of industrial agric
States by Federal Government in Nigeria, Anambra State was
conspicuously missing from the list.  Our investigation only found
pockets of individual rice mills with acutely low tonnages and no
government industrial involvement; likewise Pumpkin or Ugu and Yam
cultivation and harvest in the State that are still at subsistent
levels with no State government industrial partnership or involvement
till date.
State Of Education & Health Under Obiano
Health and education growth and development under Gov William
Mmaduabuchi Obiano also recorded stunted, if not retrogressive growth
and development since mid 2014; in comparison with their state under
his precedessor.
Signed:
For: Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
Emeka Umeagbalasi, B.Sc., M.Sc.
Board Chairman
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Email: [email protected]
Chinwe Umeche, Esq., LLB, BL
Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
Email: [email protected]
Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esq., LLB, BL
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
Email: [email protected]