4th April, 2012
Governor Peter Obi of Anambra state, southeast has said that it’s good to experience power failure in Nigeria since it enables those in authority, like himself, to experience what Nigerians were undergoing.
He insisted that such experiences encourage them to work harder towards solving the problem.
He appealed to Nigerians to be patient and assured that the government of President Goodluck Jonathan was working round the clock to get the power sector right.
Governor Obi was speaking at the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals, Dr. Precious Gbeneol at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja on Tuesday evening, when they met half way in darkness and had to later relocate to the meeting room of Protea Hotel, Asokoro to conclude the meeting.
Speaking during the meeting, the governor said that Anambra State was set to meet the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015.
Obi said that his government had always been interested in the Millennium Development Goals that prompted Anambra State under him to adopt those goals as the vision of the state.
He explained the efforts his government is making towards achieving various MDG goals. In the area of health, he said that 120 out of the 170 communities in Anambra State now had primary health care centres, each local government area a General Hospital for referral cases and that the state had almost completed its teaching hospital as well as got some hospitals and health institutions in the state accredited by relevant authorities now unlike what it used to be.
He also said that plans had been completed and that cheques would be given out on Friday to some mission hospitals to build a total of 10 hostels in their various health institutions to strengthen those areas to produce quality personnel for the health institutions in the State.
In the area of education, he said his government had done a lot, starting from rehabilitation of schools, provision of infrastructure such as functional laboratories and the recent return of schools to their missionary owners with a grant of N6 billion to them to rehabilitate those schools and return them to the centre of excellence they used to be.
In the area of poverty alleviation, Obi said that the state had successfully done poverty mapping to know the poorest parts of the state and that his government was working hard to remedy their situation.
Giving Anambra West Local Government Area as an example, he said his government would first start with the construction of roads in the area to open it up for development.
Explaining why he decided to visit the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the MDG goals, Obi aid it was informed by his belief that the Government of Anambra State needed to work closely with the office for the good of the people of the state.
“I am ready to visit any institution that has the capacity to assist us in what we are doing in Anambra State,” he submitted.
In her earlier remarks, Dr Gbeneol thanked the governor for visiting them and for working closely with the MDG office and for paying his counterpart funding.
She said the office would strive at all times to strengthen its relationship with the State.
Gbeneol reinterated her commitment to ensure that the country attains the global targets.