Keen observers of politics in Anambra State would have noticed the attempt by a group, Anambra State Concerned Professionals, to dispute the facts contained in ex-governor, Peter Obi’s handover notes to his successor, Willie Obiano, shortly after the new government assumed power in the state. Despite the fact that majority of Anambra people, Ndi Igbo and most Nigerians hailed Obi for his uncommon transformation of the state through massive infrastructural renewal, in virtually all sectors, and his legendary fiscal discipline that left for the new administration investments and cash worth N75 billion, it is absurd that the said group has taken it as its job to paint Okwute Ndi Igbo black and possibly pull him down through spurious adverts and sponsored newspaper publications debunking the contents of his handover notes. Not even the explanation by Anambra State Government and the one by Peter Obi could let the group accept the facts as given. No, members of this group would want to hear only the facts as conceived and presented by them and nothing else.

One thing that marks this group out as being mischievous is their anonymity and facelessness. If these critics of Obi’s eight years of development-oriented reign are serious about their claims, let them come out openly and contest it. The fact that they are hiding from the public is an indication of an ulterior motive, the veiled plot to foment trouble in the state.
The highlights of Obi’s handover notes show that there were N27 billion in local investments, $156 million or N26 billion in foreign currency investments, which are verifiable from Fidelity, Access and Diamond banks respectively, and N28 billion of certified State/MDAs’ balances. Any person having doubts on these can consult the relevant institutions, agencies and bodies for clarifications. Disputations on the pages of newspapers do not help matters in this case.

Therefore, it is not in doubt that those behind this façade do not wish the new order in the state well hence they deploy all tactics including using a location in Anambra North, the zone the current governor hails from to make it appear that there is love lost between the immediate ex-governor and the new one. In fact, their hidden agenda is to cause disaffection between Obi and Obiano. Unfortunately for them, the town the group claims, is their operational base, has openly disowned them. Also Anambra State Government has in a statement signed by James Eze, the Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, clarified the situation. Yet this group that claims to know more than those that are in government are still fighting dirty probably in the belief that propaganda or falsehood when repeated several times may likely become the truth.

They tend to forget that no amount of orchestration will turn falsehood to truth even when repeated a hundred times or more. The more it is repeated the more it sounds like a broken record that nobody will like to listen to again.

Obi’s cowardly critics want reality as constructed by them and their cohorts alone irrespective of the facts on ground. Their intention to twist facts to suit their purpose is political. Their creation of an artificial problem where none exists is nothing but a resort to blackmail that will not fly in the face of truth because truth is immutable. No amount of propaganda and falsehood will eclipse it.

If their aim is to create confusion and disaffection in the state so that the state will, once again, be thrown into anarchy, they are bound to fail woefully because with Peter Obi, Anambra has set a model that all the South-East states are emulating. No group should be allowed to set the hand of the clock back as this group wants to do. Let the mischief makers, rumour peddlers and trouble makers look elsewhere to ply their trade and not Anambra State. The good people of Anambra State are aware of the antics of this group masquerading as angels of probity and accountability and would resist them in their veiled attempt to torpedo the current wheel of progress and development across the state under the highly focused Obiano administration.

Members of the group are all out to destabilize the young administration in Awka. They are among those that oppose Obi’s insistence that power must shift to Anambra North. Having failed in their plot to realize their parochial objective, they have now resorted to arm-twisting to discredit Obi’s administration and by extension put him and Obiano at daggers drawn.

This group reminds one of the proverbial outsiders that weep louder than the bereaved. They abound in every society and Anambra State is not an exception. There is nothing wrong with professional mourners plying their trade but my worry and of course the worry of most Anambrarians is that they are even weeping and wailing where nobody has died. That marks them out as being unprofessional.

Under normal circumstances, it is Governor Obiano that will complain if there is any financial anomaly in the handover notes given to him and not the self-appointed auditors. Good enough, Governor Obiano is not a neophyte to figures. He is a banker of note and chartered accountant. He is, indeed, eminently qualified and in a better professional position to know when and where the books are cooked or doctored. The ‘busybodies’ shouting their throats hoarse and crying wolves where none exists should mind their business and leave governance to those duly elected to do so. Their unsolicited interjection distracts from good governance because they are on a mission to cause confusion, deceive and mislead the unwary public. It is high time these unfair critics of Obi were told to desist from their ‘pull him down’ syndrome now common in the nation’s political praxis.

And since Obiano has not complained, it behooves on these critics to shut up their mouth and keep their silence forever. Their complaint in the absence of any from Obiano is absurd and illogical. What the group is currently doing amounts to clowning and an attempt to divert the government attention from pursuing its set goals to take the state to the next level. All Anambrarians should ignore the antics of the group and support the new administration to realize its set objectives for the state.

By Robert Obioha