Mixed reactions trail Obiano’s N3.5 Bn gift to Anambra communities

Anambra citizens have continued to react to the disbursement of the N3, 540,000,000 (Three billion, five hundred and forty million naira) released by Governor Willie Obiano to be shared among the 179 communities in the State, with each community getting the sum of N20million for community development.

They are questioning the moral justification behind the governor’s action, especially in the face of the harsh economy and hard times faced by several families across the state. Reacting, Chibude Odemena from Nnewi, wondered why Governor Obiano should have set such sum of money aside for sharing, saying that community leaders would waste the money. “It would encourage corruption and quarrels in our communities. It is frivolous spending and would lead the people nowhere”.

Odemena is of the opinion that the governor is only working for his second tenure and nothing else, and asked when he turned a charitable organization, doling out money to Anambra people. “We all understand the harsh economic situation in Nigeria today, it calls for commitment, good planning and through execution of developmental projects.

This is not the time for money distribution to attract favour. He should look for how to develop the state wholly”. Also speaking in Awka, Madam Rose Ifeonu argued that the politicians would rally round to share the money.

“The community leaders would never remember the sufferings of their fellow village or town members, but rather become ‘selfish’ and share the money among themselves,” she said. “Our governor should be wiser, even if this large sum of money is available in the coffers, common sense calls that he plans well on how to spend it”.

According to Mazi Ifesinachi Kanayochukwu, “The governor is simply running the state into economic stagnation, he does not care about the implications of what he has done to the poor masses and the youths who have no job”.

He further described the largesse as a wasteful exercise, saying the politicians, self styled leaders and the bourgeois in the 179 communities would only become richer. In his opinion, he advised the governor not to be carried away by his ambition in the forth coming elections, and go into spending spree, only to regret at the end, adding “This is an economic waste, wasting our meager economic resource.”