The language of our politics and development must begin to change. Yes, all politics is local, but development that improves the life of all does not necessarily have to be village-based. We must invest in our urban cities, institutions and other shared public goods. Measuring the performance of a government exclusively by what it has done for “my village” needs to change: We have to plan for and transform Anambra as one mega city (less than 5,000 sq km). We commend Governor Obiano for building state-level institutions. I drove through Awka at night from Enugu, and I couldn’t resist joking to a friend of mine from Awka, sitting with me that “Oyibo abata Awka!”

At the business level, we must commend new forms of partnerships, emerging among our businessmen. The Igboman’s unique business model is cooperative competition and networks play key driving roles. We need to reinvent the People’s Club philosophy, except that this time, it is no longer just a social insurance scheme, but now as a Business Council – with members from both the homeland and the Diaspora.

Government’s resources are very small relative to need. The per capita annual budget of Anambra State is approximately N24,000 ($52 – $79) or even half of this if you include indigenes outside the state, while that of the FGN is about N38,000 per Nigerian ($81- $124). But entrepreneurial policymakers in the federal and state governments can become active enablers/facilitators of prosperity through provision of critical infrastructure, law and order, planning and regulation and catalysing the mobilisation of needed finance.

Anambra must be united in insisting that the FGN meets its minimum obligations to Ndi Anambra by quickly completing the Second Niger bridge; make Onitsha sea port functional; dualise the Anambra West- Lokoja Road as well as fix the federal highways in Anambra; speedily grant all approvals for the Anambra cargo airport and contribute to it – Anambra is the 4th largest economy – after Lagos, Abuja and Rivers and all these places have international airports. Anambra can become one integrated free trade zone with dry port facility. These and more, should be the template against which we hold our elected members of the National Assembly accountable.

At the beginning, we identified three key features of societies that are successful transformers. Anambra has begun to get some things right. We have carefully reviewed Governor Obiano’s Medium-term Plan whose vision is “For Anambra to become the 1st choice investment destination and most preferred location to site new industries”: It is a plan for institutionalising modernisation and wealth creation (we recommend that Ndi Anambra carefully study it and also give him inputs). Governor Obiano has demonstrated that he is a business-friendly governor, who is walking the talk on job creation.

The automation/computerisation/modernisation of processes in government and institutionalisation of change are commendable. I am particularly impressed by the effort to collect and process basic statistics: If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it! These soft governance infrastructure are fundamental but often neglected. Like Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, etc. did, we need to sustain the momentum of the implementation of the plan.

Second, we urge Governor Obiano to look beyond his medium-term plan.  We commend him and his colleague governors of the South East for announcing their commitment to active coordination of regional development. Furthermore, he needs to mobilise Ndi Anambra to build upon his medium term plan to craft a Grand 50 Year Anambra Plan – to be broadly owned by Ndi Anambra, as the template for building and sustaining our emerging start-up state. Subsequent governments in Anambra should then derive their medium-term plans from the Anambra Plan.  Obiano must jumpstart the Anambra airport, even if on a public-private partnership. There are several funding options to explore.

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So, we have the first two ingredients in place. The third relates to having governments with reasonably long periods to cement their vision. The Nigerian constitution allows a maximum of eight years for governors and presidents, with elections every four years. So, what do we do with Governor Obiano in this election year?

Obviously, we expect candidates from other political parties to contest the election. Of course, there are many reasons people run for office. But let me say that the argument that Ndigbo or Ndi Anambra need to belong to the PDP or APC in order to be “connected to the national grid” is a false argument. I once thought the same way. But evidence since 1999 has shown that there is no special advantage to any state government simply because the governor belongs to the same party as the president (except, perhaps, 10-30 persons that might be appointed to some federal positions). That is an elite talk, an elite game for the elite interest! Or, perhaps, some might join a political party so that the federal authorities might deploy the armed forces and INEC to write election results for them. It has nothing to do with the people and their welfare, period!

We have carefully gone through Governor Obiano’s plans and performance vis-à-vis the resources at his disposal and in the context of Nigeria’s current economic and political situation as well as in comparison with other states and even previous governors in the first three years of their tenure. Obiano is certainly holding the touch higher! The list is long, ranging from exemplary security of life and property, agricultural and industrial transformation with thousands of jobs, continuation of roads/bridges construction when most states cannot pay salaries, institutionalisation/modernisation of governance, taking Anambra towards fiscal sustainability by raising IGR 188%; extending health and education reforms, etc., etc. And the rest of the country is taking note as well: What with the various recognitions and awards! No governor of Anambra has been so widely recognised in his first three years since 1999! This is what Anambra expects and deserves: That every governor should build upon and probably surpass his/her predecessor.

We have learnt useful lessons from the past and must now forge new elite cohesion and consensus. Let Anambra export a rare form of statesmanship politics. Can we then implore most of the contestants to rather deploy the billions of naira they will soon waste on the campaign trail into building medium scale industries in the state? That way, even the politicians would be adding to the burgeoning start-up companies, and creating high value-adding jobs!

• Prof Soludo was Central Bank governor and former chief economic adviser to the president.

Concluded.