According to Jim Stengel, our legacy is how we spend our time and what we spend it on. Leaving a legacy takes faith, drive, vision, purpose and sacrifice. Everyone’s legacy is different. Your legacy might be your kids. It may be a commitment to be honest and Godly or you might have a traditional legacy of leaving your footprints on the sands of time; so that whenever and wherever, you are, you will be remembered.
Truth be told, Anambra is now a giant among its contemporaries in almost all aspects of development. It is heartening that Anambra can beat its chest today as the only state that started and completed an international cargo and passenger airport in less than two years without borrowing a dime and without owing any of the contractors.
The most fascinating thing about the Anambra airport is not just that it has blazed a new trail in Nigerian aviation but that it is one airport whose viability is guaranteed. So far, the Anambra International Cargo and Passenger Airport, Umueri has continued an Impressive run with improved aircraft traffic and passenger numbers.
Information from the airport management says since the airport was approved by the regulator, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), for commercial operations, from December 7, 2021, up to January 31, 2022, 376 flights and 11,860 passengers have been recorded at the airport for scheduled and non-scheduled operations.
This is amazing in view of the fact that there is hardly another state in Nigeria that has Anambra’s large number of restless, always-on-their-feet population. These people love travelling and convenience. And they would rather fly through Umueri than any other airport.
Moreover, Anambra is the leading economic hub in the South East with 63 active markets and the largest retail market in West Africa, located just a few kilometers to the airport. The cargo wing of the airport meets their needs perfectly. Apart from the centrality of Onitsha in the commercial circles of Nigeria and international trade, Ndi Anambra are major players in global business and having an airport at home is just natural.
Needless to say that most of the cargo and passengers using other airports are Anambra-bound. So the airport at Umueri, not only reduces cost and time spent commuting to airports in other states but also facilitates easy passage for young entrepreneurs to travel and process their merchandise.
Being a cargo airport, it means traders in Onitsha and other markets would short-circuit the time and money they spend in clearing and transporting their imports from Lagos. This will also abridge shipping time.
Furthermore, apart from the new Anambra International Cargo and Passenger Airport, the International Convention Centre and the FIFA-standard Awka Sports stadium, which was commissioned in December, Anambra has also joined the league of oil producing states, the feat that eluded it in the past thirty years; thanks to the proactive and visionary leadership of the Obiano government in the state.
Governor Willie Obiano is nicknamed the alert Governor by workers for his prompt payment of salaries and pensions. Before Akpokudike came on board, workers were on strike for about one year, due largely to non-payment of salaries and pensions. Schools were under lock and key and pensioners were tagged deadwood.
But today, the difference is clear. Anambra, under Obiano, is the only state in Nigeria to have yearly given a bag of rice to every worker and pensioner in the state. Today, drugs are no longer out of stock in public hospitals. The biggest oxygen plant was built in Awka by the Obiano government. With ASHIA, treatments at both public and private hospitals are almost free.
The state is leading in security, agriculture and education sectors, while industrialization is doing well. Again, for the first time in the country, the Obiano administration started a people-oriented program known as “Community Choose Your Project Initiative’’, where every community in the state receives twenty million naira annually to execute any project of its choice. Thus, no community is denied democracy dividends by the government.
The state is still the first in every economic indicator – be it unemployment index, poverty index or cost of doing business in Nigeria. For all these, Ndi Anambra will never forget Obiano in a hurry.
WRITTEN BY DR. NNAMDI NWADIOGBU