Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State yesterday presented 200 Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) to all traditional rulers in the state. He said the gesture, which was free from any charge, was in recognition of the pivotal roles of traditional rulers in the state and the need to ensure they work in relative comfort for the good and progress of the state.
He said the choice of Innoson manufactured vehicles was to tell Nigerians that with a motor manufacturing company in the state, they needed not search elsewhere. He said the state government had unofficially adopted Innoson vehicles as the state brand and revealed that the next set of official vehicles he would use would be bought from Innoson and called on Nigerians to be proud of their own.
On the source of finance for the projects, the governor said it was mainly from the money he attracted to the state.
Using the education sector as an example, he said the budget was N3 billion but that by the end of the year, N13 billion would have been spent. In his remarks, the Chairman, Anambra Traditional Rulers Council, Obi Alfred Achebe, described what the state was witnessing under Obi as unprecedented.
He said he was particularly thrilled not by the vehicles but by the revolution in schools, which he noted, would be for the benefit of the children of the state. He assured the support of traditional rulers for what he described as renaissance of learning taking place in the state. In his own remarks, the traditional ruler of Umuoji, Igwe Cyril Iwueze, thanked the governor for his attention to all sectors.
Agreeing that what was taking place in the state was a revolution, he said that after witnessing billions given to the Church to rehabilitate schools handed over to them, it was encouraging witnessing the extension of the same gesture to public schools in the state. In another development, the governor yesterday said what would happen to the state by the end of the year would be revolutionary by all accounts and that all sectors would benefit.
He said this at the Women Development Centre, Awka, during a town hall meeting at which he explained to critical stakeholders – traditional rulers, presidents general of towns, religious leaders, among others, how his government intended to carry out comprehensive rehabilitation of 253 government-owned secondary schools in the state.
This followed the rehabilitation of the schools already handed over to the churches by the government. The governor, who at the event flagged off distribution of N10 million, totalling N2.53 billion, to principals of those secondary schools, said it represented the first phase of the exercise. He explained the delay on the need to set up a monitoring group for proper deployment of the money and warned that any principal who would be found wanting would be dealt with accordingly with the money similarly given to them.”
