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1. PROTOCOLS
2. On behalf of the government and great people of Anambra State, I am greatly honoured to welcome you, our dear President, to Anambra State – the Light of the Nation! Nnoo Asiwaju! Nnoo Omenife Awka! Welcome to Anambra, the land of enterprise, knowledge, and leadership. Welcome to the home to many of Nigeria’s and Africa’s founding fathers and leaders past—Zik of Africa, Nwafor-Orizu, Odumegwu Ojukwu, Alex Ekwueme, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, Kenneth Dike, Margaret Ekpo, Chinua Achebe, Pius Okigbo, Chuba Okadigbo, etc. Welcome to the home of Africa’s statesman, Chief Emeka Anyaoku. Welcome to the home of the Cardinals— Arinze and Okpaleke, as well as Blessed Iwene Tansi. Yes, welcome to the home of West Africa’s largest market and automobile hub as well as home to thousands of Africa’s shining entrepreneurs and innovators. Welcome to Anambra, the land of infinite possibilities! Yes, welcome to Anambra, reputed over the past three months, as the safest state in Nigeria! Finally, welcome to Anambra, the land of the progressives!
3. Your visit to Anambra State today is historic and consequential. The last state visit by a President was in 2012, ostensibly to commission a brewery and another private enterprise. This visit is not just to commission projects. We have over 500km of roads, flyovers/bridges completed and waiting for commissioning; five new general hospitals and world class trauma centre completed and waiting for commissioning; smart schools and water projects waiting for commissioning; new markets and bus terminal; etc. Previously, we have insisted that the users of our roads and projects should be the ones to commission them—keke and bus drivers, farmers, traders, etc. We are strategic in our choice of projects deserving your attention. Today, Mr. President, you have unveiled two mini-cities (the brochure for this event describes them fully), the 8-lane boulevard, the tower of light and monument of heroes—as symbolisms of the audacity of our dreams for a new Anambra. Like the Americans would say, and as we repeatedly affirm to Ndi Anambra, “you ain’t seen nothing yet”!
4. Ours is an agenda with a deadline. With a vision of Anambra as African Dubai-Taiwan-Silicon Valley (ADTS)— next axis of sustainable prosperity– and with a 50 Year Master Plan (which I chaired the drafting), we are in a haste to lay solid foundations. In simple terms, we are determined to change the trajectory of Anambra from a departure lounge to a destination of choice (see the brochure for this event for basic outline of the road travelled so far and parts of the road ahead—- we don’t need to repeat them here for want of time). But what is unmistakable is that Anambra is clearly on the rise.
5. We are here also to celebrate you, Mr. President, and we will demonstrate our appreciation shortly. Thank you for all the hard work you put in to move Anambra and Nigeria forward. We know the state of Nigerian economy with all its unsustainable dysfunctionalities when you assumed office. You had the courage to tame the Atlantic Ocean in Lagos and now, you are systematically getting the economy to work again. There is still a lot of work ahead but there is no doubt that in less than two years, important building blocks are already falling into place. We urge you to stay the course, Mr. President. Many thanks also for appointing many Ndi Anambra into your administration, especially the appointment of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb Bianca Ojukwu and MD, Southeast Development Commission, Mark Okoye. Your Pan-Nigerian disposition was evident when as Governor of Lagos, you appointed an Anambra son, Ben Akabueze, your commissioner for Budget and Planning. Similarly, here in Anambra, one of my new Permanent Secretaries is from Osun State—Bayo Ojeyinka. We are deeply grateful for several road projects currently being executed by your administration that benefit Anambra state, running into hundreds of billions of Naira especially the Enugu-Onitsha Road, Rehabilitation of Onitsha-Owerri Road, Phase 2b access road to Second Niger bridge, rehabilitation of Oba-Nnewi Road Section II in Anambra, etc. When completed, they will be important gamechangers for our people. We are complementing your efforts. Part of our transport masterplan for Anambra is to dualize all trunk A roads (state and federal) in the state, and so far, we are spending over N170 billion on sundry federal roads including ambitious dualization projects.
6. No doubt the partnership between Anambra State and the federal government works well. We benefit fully from all federal programmes including education, health, ICT, agriculture, infrastructure, flooding/ecological response, social interventions, etc. A few months ago, the federal government with donor agencies rewarded Anambra with a cash prize of $500,000 as Southeast regional champion and $700,000 as national champion in primary health care national challenge for 2024.
7. To leapfrog the process of our transformation, there are however a few critical areas we would need further federal interventions to unlock huge opportunities. Anambra remains, possibly, the gully erosion capital of the world, with one-third of our land mass under persistent threat and the resource requirements to deal with this are far beyond the capacity of a state government. We are already spending tens of billions of Naira on this but a lot more is urgently needed. The Southeast, and Anambra in particular, is bypassed by the national gas masterplan despite abundant reserves of natural gas. We are not part of the national rail system. The Onitsha River port, commissioned by President Shehu Shagari in 1982 remains a proposal ostensibly because the federal government has been unable to undertake the required dredging. Only Asiwaju, the man who tamed the Atlantic, can break this 43-year-old jinx so that badges from Onne and other seaports can easily discharge at Onitsha. There is an abandoned strategic federal road project that links Anambra with Kogi state. Upon completion, the journey between Anambra/Southeast and Abuja might be shortened to about three hours —down from the current nine hours! The list is long, and we are convinced that systematically, these issues will be addressed.
8. Mr. President, fellow Nigerians, beyond Anambra, Nigeria must survive and prosper. For the sake of Nigeria and future generations, President Tinubu must succeed, and we are prepared to support him in every way possible to succeed and excel. Our support for President Tinubu is rooted in history, principle, and ideology. Both of us served in government (2003-2007) and as President’s economic adviser and later Governor of the Central Bank/member of the National Economic Council, I greatly admired the principled stance of then Governor of Lagos and now President Tinubu, on federalism. He was our professor on federalism at every NEC meeting and he fought the federal government, at great costs, to promote principles of federalism. Of course, his political party, first the AD, and later AC, ACN and now APC— consistently professed progressivism. On my part, I am an unrepentant federalist and centre progressive. Before I joined the party in 2013, it took me 12 months of review and reflection on the Manifesto of the All-Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) which was registered in 2002 as the first party to profess “progressivism” (at least in its name), and a commitment to federalist principles. That’s why even when I joined the party in 2013 and I was disqualified from contesting its primaries, I stayed put on ideological grounds and principle. Today, I am its national leader and in Anambra, we are intentionally giving our party an ideological soul with policies and programmes strongly rooted in centre-progressivism. While laying the meta-level foundations as leaders in commerce, industry, technology and leisure, we are (in the traditions of Awoism and M.I. Okpara) building the people sustainably— through absolutely free and qualitative education from primary to senior secondary leading to lowest out of school children in Nigeria with bursary awards for tertiary students soon; free antenatal, free delivery services benefiting hundreds of thousands of women; training and empowering thousands of youth-preneurs as millionaires; distribution of millions of palm and coconut seedlings set to lift hundreds of thousands permanently out of poverty; prioritizing infrastructure to uplift agrarian communities; exempting the poor and vulnerable from taxes and levies; etc. The people are better and happy. In Anambra we are firmly and comfortably progressives.
9. In 2011 (before I joined in 2013), APGA took an official position to support and work with the political party/government at the centre. Indeed, in that year, APGA adopted the sitting president then as its presidential candidate. That policy has not changed. Coincidentally at this moment in history, the party/government at the Centre is one that also professes “progressivism”. As the foremost progressive party in Nigeria, APGA is ideologically and strategically aligned with the Centre. So far, the progressives are working well, together! It is indeed time for all progressives, federalists and all parties with social-democratic, centrist, and left-of centre credentials to unite—to advance the purpose of a united and progressive Nigeria. Mr. President should lead us in this new movement.
10. Finally, thank you again Mr. President for this great honour to Ndi Anambra with this historic state visit. The Presidential lodge is ready, and we are looking forward to your next visit. Perhaps, it won’t be a bad idea to relocate your office and operate from Anambra for a week or two. May God continue to bless you and may Nigeria continue to win!

God bless Anambra State!

God bless Asiwaju, our own Dikesimba!!

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!