Obiano talks tough, as Operation Kpochapu kill 5 Kidnappers, parade 20 other Suspects

 

The war against criminals and criminality in Anambra State by the administration of Governor Willie Obiano has continued to yield positive results and provide the much needed peaceful environment for the 2015 general elections with series of successes recorded by the security operatives against men of the underworld. The latest is the killing of four members of a kidnap gang including a gospel band leader, one Paschal Obinna Offor from Arondizuogu, Imo State in a gun duel yesterday at their den in Eziowelle, Idemmili North Local Government Area.

Leader of the gang who sustained bullet wounds after the encounter were also caught while 18 other suspected armed robbers, rapist and a dealer in counterfeit currency were paraded.

Obiano okays $250 fund for world-class development of Ogbunike Cave

 

 

In what is seen as a practical move to develop tourism sector, create jobs and attract huge revenue from local and foreign tourists, the governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Africa Project Finance and Development Limited for the development of Ogbunike Cave into a world-class Theme Park and Resort at the cost of N250 million. Under the arrangement okayed at the governor’s Lodge, Amawbia, the company will design, develop, finance, construct and operate the state-of-the-art Park and Resort.

 

Anambra Partners Rise Health Corporation of America to Boost Healthcare Delivery

 

Five days to the first anniversary of his administration, governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano has continued to attract investments into the state with the signing of a $1.5 million dollars agreement with an American healthcare firm, Rise Health Corporation, USA.

Obiano’s Agro-Revolution gets Underway as Ekcel Farms Begins $100m Operation

Flagging off the N16 billion ($100m) farm which will exclusively focus on the cultivation and processing of tomato and cassava, Wednesday, Governor Obiano announced that finally, the fire of his administration’s agrarian revolution has started to spread.

Catholic Bishop Commends Governor Obiano for the new Anambra Mass Transit

 

The Bishop told governor Obiano that the buses are already making great impact in the lives of Ndi Anambra by easing the burden of transportation in the state. He narrated the pleasant experience of one of the Seminarians in the Parish who travelled on one of the buses from Ekwulobia to Awka. According to the Bishop, “The Seminarian confirmed that he paid only N70.00 to travel the distance. The bus trip was relaxed with proper ventilation and music for the listening pleasure of the commuters.” Previously, bus trip on that route cost commuters N150.00. Bishop Ezeokafor praised the mass transit initiative, adding that he is looking forward to when he will park his car and travel in an air-conditioned bus to Awka.

Obiano’s Popularity Soars despite Calumny Campaign

As he braces up to present his scorecard in the past one year to Ndi Anambra, Governor Willie Obiano must indeed be one happy man. He has driven himself and his team to unbearable limits in search of results and now, he has a Bounteous Harvest in his hands and a very rosy tomorrow beckons.

 

Obiano’s contentment may not come from the usual satisfaction that a leader gets after giving his all in the service of his people. It comes from knowing that the people he has pushed himself beyond tolerance to serve in the past 365 days are indeed appreciative of his efforts. Once in every while, a cruel twist of fate could turn a hero to a villain in a situation similar to what the peerless poet, Christopher Okigbo might call the “error of the rendering.” But Obiano’s story is different. He has the support and approval of Ndi Anambra.

Catholic Laity Council Honours Obiano, Wife with Rare Titles





(L-R) Chief Sir Victor Umeh, APGA Senatorial Candidate for
Anambra Central, Chief Willie Obiano, Governor of Anambra State and
his wife Ebelechukwu, shortly after being honoured by the Catholic
Laity Council of Nigeria in Onitsha...Saturday

Barely ten days to the commemoration of his first year in office, the governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano and his wife, Ebelechukwu have bagged some of the highest honours to be conferred on anyone by the Onitsha Arch-Diocesan chapter of the Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria (CLCN.

 

The honour is coming on the heels of Governor Obiano’s recent emergence as the most transparent and accountable governor in Nigeria following a report by the Federation of Accounts Sub-Committee on International Public Sector Accounting System (IPSAS) which ranked Anambra atop of the log with an impressive score of 80 percent

 

OBIANO LAUDS MEDIA CONTRIBUTIONS TO DEMOCRACY

 

As the digital revolution puts broadcast media organizations on their toes, the governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano has declared that Nigeria’s nascent democracy would be hanging in the air if there were no robust media institutions to lend firm roots to it.

(L-R) Prof. Pat Utomi,, Founding Senior Faculty of Lagos
Business School, Chief Willie Obian, Governor of Anambra State, Chief Tony Onyima, Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism and Uche Nworah, Managing Director of ABS, during the 30th Anniversary Lecture of the Anambra Broadcasting Service, ABS in Awka

Speaking at the 30th Anniversary Lecture of the Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) to herald its Annual Media Leadership Forum at the Women Development Centre (WDC), Awka, Wednesday, Governor Obiano observed that  “experience has shown that no truly accountable and democratic society can thrive without a robust media. My administration is fully aware of the growing importance of the media in a world that is essentially driven by the hunger-to-know… stimulated by the media and satisfied by the same media.”

Challenging the resurgent State-owned radio and television group to aspire to become the Cable News Network (CNN) of South-East of Nigeria the governor further observed that “without a powerful information dissemination organ, the giant strides we have made in building a New Anambra State will not be known to Ndi Anambra. But perhaps, more importantly, we are also aware that we cannot build a New Anambra without first building a New ABS.”

(L-R) Mr. Willie Nwokoye, Principal Secretary to the governor, Mr. Chidi Ezeoke, Head of Service and Prof. Pat Utomi, Founding Senior Faculty of Lagos Business School

The governor also pointed out that while his government had invested so much in buying new equipment and retooling the processes, “we are aware that equipment alone cannot give us the world-class media and entertainment outfit that we desire. Consequently, we have resolved to train the staff of ABS, hire fresh talents that will bring a new excitement to the airwaves and adopt some global best practices in broadcasting that will make ABS compare quite favourably to CNN and other top Nigerian stations.”

Chief Tony Onyima, Commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism and Mr. Uche Nworah, Managing Director of ABS

He also disclosed was dissatisfied with the current state of the media group and had therefore ‘resolved to overhaul, rebrand and reposition ABS  to fulfill its mandate to the government and people of Anambra State.

Said he, “In line with our resolution, we invested heavily in the procurement of ultra-modern  digital equipment that have just arrived and will be fully installed and ready to use in less than six weeks. I have been assured by the experts that when fully operational, the new equipment will place ABS on the commanding height of the broadcasting industry in the entire South East of Nigeria.”

The State Chief Executive  also observed that as part of his government’s efforts to create a formidable broadcasting brand, he had 24 hours to the lecture event  inaugurated a new Board of Directors for the new ABS under the leadership of Nn’emeka Maduegbuna, a veteran broadcaster and communications guru whose wife is also a famous broadcaster.

Governor Obiano recalled that while inaugurating the new Board, he challenged the new Board Chairman and his colleagues “to turn ABS into another CNN. And I have no doubt that they will give Ndi Anambra just that.”

He also lauded the Guest Lecturer Professor Pat  Utomi, a Director of the Centre of Applied Economics at Lagos Business School saying that, “over the years, Prof Utomi has established himself in the people’s consciousness as an important voice in national discourse.”  

Concluding, the governor called on the good people of Anambra State to embrace the new spirit of Anambra which he said has been his administration’s driving force, in the past one year.

 “The spirit of Anambra is that restless voice inside every one of us that constantly urges us towards excellence. It is a path-finding spirit that leads us to the road less travelled. It is a can-do spirit that nudges us to become masters of our universe. It is the spirit behind the flyovers that are springing up in Awka today and the spirit that will lead ABS  to the commanding height of broadcasting in Nigeria. This is the spirit that everyone must strive to have,” he ended with a flourish.

Speaking on the Theme, “Media, Politics and Nation-building,” Professor Utomi,  recalled that media influence of the society dating back to early 20th century and opined that  a powerful media has the capacity to literally determine society’s orientation and equally administer reality to the audience.

The 2007 Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) however noted that thee has been a paradigm shift of  which indicates a movement from the hypodermic media effect theory to through the perspective of opinion leaders mediating media influence  towards social action and finally to functional media influence of agenda setting.

“Since so much happens in the world, and only a few of these occurrences enter our consciousness, and a fewer still dominate our consideration, the gate keeping function of the media allows it to set the agenda in the sense therefore that the media helps us, or decides for us what is important. The media has great influence,” he averred.

 On the linkage between the media and nation-building, Professor Utomi used the Growth Drivers Framework to illustrate that in advancing the quality of policy choice, moderating contending  voices in a manner that result in boundaries that become institutions, the media advances the possibilities of progress because institutions as Hernando De Sota argues in The Mystery of Capital advance the material possibilities of man. But where the narrative is one of impunity as has been that of our recent history, our institutions atrophy and society’s progress remains putative, justpotential.”  

FULL SCRIPT OF OBIANO’S SPEECH AT THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE OF ANAMBRA BROADCASTING SERVICE

 

SPEECH BY THE GOVERNOR OF ANAMBRA STATE, HIS EXCELLENCY, CHIEF WILLIE OBIANO ON THE OCCASION OF THE 30^TH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE OF THE ANAMBRA BRAOADCASTING SERVICE (ABS) ON WEDNESDAY, 4^TH MARCH 2015.

 

PROTOCOLS

 

Obiano Inaugurates New Board for Anambra Broadcasting Service

 

The governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano has inaugurated a new Board of Directors for the come-backing Anambra State Broadcasting Service, ABS, which marks its 30th Anniversary with a public lecture on Wednesday March 4, 2015.

OBIANO ENDS GLORIOUS 1ST YEAR IN STYLE AS ANAMBRA EMERGES TOPS IN TRANSPARENCY RATING

  

Barely two weeks to its one year anniversary, the pace-setting government of Chief Willie Obiano has scored another first in the annals of good governance by ending a glorious one year in style as the state emerges tops in transparency rating. In a report released by the Federation Accounts Sub-Committee on International Public Sector Accounting System (IPSAS) implementation, Anambra state was ranked highest in the South East. The South East Zone also came first in the overall ranking among the states of the Federation. With an impressive score of 80 percent, the Fiscal merits of the Obiano administration’s commitment came to the fore.

Obiano Charges Pilgrims to Pray for Jonathan’s Victory, Fall of Boko Haram

 

The governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano has charged a contingent of Anambra Christians who yesterday embarked on a pilgrimage to Israel, Rome and Greece as part of this year’s Easter Pilgrimage programme of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission to pray for a landslide victory for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the coming elections and for the immediate and total defeat of Boko Haram in the on-going war against the terrorist sect in North Eastern Nigeria.