Vincent Ujumadu
22 July 2008
Lagos — Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has taken a swipe at his colleagues who, he said, spend hundreds of millions of naira to buy bullet proof jeeps after causing social problems of arming political thugs to gag the electorate during elections, saying that Nigerians deserve better than they are getting from politicians.
The governor, who spoke during a dinner he organized for the delegates of the West African College of Physicians (WACP), who held their meeting in Awka, identified corruption and faulty electoral system in Nigeria as two cankerworms frustrating the nation's growth, arguing that 80 percent of public office holders, who dubiously hijack electoral system, merely squander public funds to pursue self aggrandizement.Obi lamented that unbridled corruption had robbed the country great opportunities to attain infrastructural and industrial leap, citing an instance with the power sector whereby, he said, only 20 percent of the nation's electricity requirements was realizable, compared with South Africa and Ghana with many years of uninterrupted power supplies.
He observed that Nigeria was not yet serious with the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), regretting that it is the only country in the African continent that is attracting global concern of the possibility of not meeting the deadline.
According to him, corrup-tion undermines enterprise, professionalism, hard work and honesty because fraud-sters confuse the populace with ill-gotten enrichment.
He requested members of the WACP to give equal thought to the survival of the country as they plan for the improvement of the medical profession and welfare of the citizenry.
He reminded them that noble ideas could be dashed by vicious politics of partisan antagonism and inept leader-ship arising from super-imposition of misfits into esteemed elective public offices through election mal-practices and godfatherism.
He recalled that Anambra State was in a very deplorable situation at the inception of his administration, without any accredited hospital or tertiary academic institution.
In addition, he said school structures were collapsing with no science laboratories for even special science colleges, while public infrastructure were virtually non-existent as most struc-tures, like the Government House, radio and television station, Judicial headquarters and State House of Assembly complexes were burnt down by hoodlums in November 2004.
The WACP delegation, led by newly-elected president, Dr. R.A.O. Makanjuola, commended what they described as Governor Obi's transparency and commitment to the aggressive develop-ment of the state and urged other governors to emulate his humility, simplicity and resourcefulness.
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