Odogwu Emeka Odogwu
7 November 2009
Awka — KNIGHTS of Saints Paul and Christopher and their Ladies as well as Order of Ladies of Bethany in Anglican Communion were at the Governor's Lodge Tuesday night.
They came for dinner with the Governor under the auspices of Joint Council of Knights and Ladies of the Anglican Communion. They had got a rough day trying to see one or two of the projects of the Governor Peter Obi administration in three years in office.
They were led by their President, Sir Lawrence Okpala and a respected member of the church and the Chairman of Justice , Equity and Peace of the Communion Awka Diocese, Sir Tony Mmadueke.
Armed with data which according to the 'Moses' of the delegation Sir Tony could hardly be faulted , the Knights who claimed to be speaking the minds of the Laity of the church pushed Governor Obi to the wall.
Indeed it was a horrible, below-the-belt blow to the governor, but he was calm, listened, comported and intermittently took some notes on a sheet of paper and never showed a sign that he was ruptured or beaten. His temperament and looks remained same until he spoke.
According to Sir Tony, who led the Anglican Knights less than 20 per cent in Obi's executive council, while the Roman Catholic Church are 75 per cent.
He also alleged that of the 10 Boards in the state, there is only one Anglican Board Chairman and others belonged to the Roman Catholic and that of the 21 Heads of Local Government Administration, Anglican has 1 and Roman Catholic has 20.
And of the 24 Permanent Secretaries only six are Anglicans, while the Education Officers in the local government, Anglican has four out of the 21. He went ahead to allege that the recent recruitment at Nwafor Orizu College of Education Nsugbe, that of the 63 employed, only three are Anglican church members.
He concluded by asking for equity and justice. He noted that it would be uncharitable for anyone to say that Governor Obi has not performed because he has done well for the people of the state as none ever before has done a 10th of his feats.
Sir Tony suggested employment of new breed teachers to take over from the outgoing elderly ones to avoid a generational gap in the classrooms following retirement of old teachers. He advised that people be forced to clean up their gutters and stop dumping garbage inside them for easy flow of flood water and domestic water.
He pointed out that the IGR in Onitsha is enough to tackle many problems in the state arguing that before the creation of the new Anambra state that IGR from Onitsha sustained the old Anambra.
The President of the Joint Council of Knights and Ladies, Okpala was full of praises for the Governor on his humility which he said was striking and pleasant as he never saw that in this clime, describing Obi as a true servant leader
He hailed Obi on his massive developmental strides, describing his administration as the best in the history of the state and commended Gov Obi on the recent hand over of former mission schools back to their owners.
He however pleaded with the government to assist the new owners in refurbishment of the schools, which conditions, he noted, had deteriorated since they were forcibly taken from the missions many years ago.
He expressed happiness that all the projects not only cut across every sector, but were evenly spread among the communities in the state, unlike what obtained in the past. They advised government to ensure that the existing infrastructure were well maintained noting that although they had noted Obi's achievements in newspapers and brochures, they were nothing compared to what they personally saw on ground during the tour.
Responding, Gov Obi thanked them for their visit and re-stated his government's commitment towards transforming the state. He said their visit was the kind needed by his administration to move the state forward as their contributions and advise would go a long way in guiding his programmes and policies, urging them and all Ndi Anambra to remain steadfast and to continue to contribute their quota towards the development of the state and to place love of state above selfish interests.
Obi reminded them that he cannot change his orientation and believe that there is no religious politics in Anambra state hence his best friends had been Anglicans. He told them that he is very close to the Primate of Anglican Communion Nigeria , Most Reverend Jasper Akinola and Archbishop of Lagos and that all the people that nominated him to be Board Chairman in, at least, four world class organizations are all Anglicans.
He lamented that there seems to be a difference between Anglicans and Roman Catholics in Anambra state as it never existed in his lexicon describing it as ways of creating confusion and anarchy in the state by detractors as there should be no reason for that having all come from Anambra state. He told them his personal relationships with all the Anglican Bishops in Anambra state.
He reminded them that he has never interfered in the running of any ministry and the employment they were talking about on Nsugbe College of Education he said he knew nothing about it; and expressed surprise when they told him that 63 were employed as he knew none of them. He said it cannot be true that only 1 Anglican is a Head of local government administration and immediately counted four he had come across at their religious worship places. He informed them that he even recalled an Anglican sacked before he took over administration of the state without knowing his religion, pointing out that he never approved their appointment as he met them there.
On the Education secretaries at the local government, Obi said he has never met them or known them and did not employ them.
He reminded them that all the Boards were not approved by him as he met them in office as he only approved the appointment of two persons in the board of Housing and Board of Pension. He told them that he has never taken a decision based on religion but on what is right or wrong, wondering why people should be using religion to play dangerous politics.
He reminded them that there are Pentecostals, Organised African Religious groups, and those who don't belong in any church but have something they worship hence the need to be cautious in making allegations about religion adding that his closest commissioner Prof Okunna is an Anglican.
He reminded them the millions of naira he has spent on Anglican institutions and churches like Iyienu Hospital and asked them to know if one goes to hospital whether the person would be demanded to say his church denomination before getting treatment.
Governor Obi further disclosed to the visitors his government's decision to build a block of five classrooms in each of the 177 communities of the state before the end of the year and described it as part of his administration's efforts towards resuscitating the education sector into which his government has already sunk a lot of money just as in other sectors.
He stated that he was always ready and willing to welcome anyone with ideas on how to develop the state and assured that his government belonged to everybody, regardless of religious or political affiliation even as he informed them that soonest the N150 million spent on acquiring refuse compactors would yield effects as the cities would be clean adding that he wants to buy school buses for all the secondary schools in the state to the tune of over N500 million before Christmas.
He told them that about four buildings are springing up at Igbariam campus of the state university at the cost of N250 million each and that MTN would be giving the state a kidney dialysis machines, all the efforts of the government in attracting good things for the state.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Prof (Mrs.) Chinyere Okunna, who spoke with passion about Governor Peter Obi's administration lamented that people were not giving him the necessary support he needed to transform Anambra state.
Prof Okunna attributed the successes recorded by the government so far to prudent management of resources and goodwill enjoyed by it. Because of this, she said, donor agencies had been pouring aid into the state as a sign of confidence in the personality and character of Peter Obi. She urged the knights to continue to support the Obi administration which, she said, meant well for the state.
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