USAfrica: Environmental Sanitation drive by Anambra’s Obiano deserves commendation

Environmental Sanitation drive by Anambra’s Obiano deserves commendation.        By Okechukwu Anarado

Special to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine,  and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow Twitter.com/Chido247,  Facebook.com/USAfricaChido

USAfrica: The Governor of Anambra State of Nigeria, Chief Willie Obiano, does not conceal his determination to effectively steer the affairs of the state to better outcomes. Also, he does not shirk from his sworn responsibility to lift the state to an enviable status. The Governor’s multifaceted interests in advancing the state, in addition to the unique promptness of his actions, present a man who rests less to nurture his vision for Anambra to tangible terms.

Though Chief Obiano has, from the day of his inauguration, maintained heightened commitment to the ‘four pillar’ thrust of his administration itemized as: ‘aggressive mechanized agriculture, oil and gas, trade and commerce, and industrialization,’ he has personally led crusades to inculcate environment friendliness in Ndi-Anambra; just as he has equally demonstrated commitment to the security of lives and property in the state.

The effects of these efforts are recognizable in the reinvigorated life among Ndi-Anambra who, apart from celebrating the minimal crime record in the state, have bought into the Governor’s ‘free the environment of filth’ campaign.

Environment, in its sheer immensity and bountiful accommodation of life, could pass for the most expansive as well as the most charitable habitation for life on planet earth. Indeed, life cannot be outside the context of an environment, for even a vacuum depicts an environment of emptiness, absence or nothingness. Vast and vague, environment has been in the front burner of issues of grievous concern to organisations and governments across the globe in their advocacy for wholesome life.

The challenges of making environment pliable to the demands of humans are as diverse as the particularities of distinctive human habitations and the consciousness of people to the environmental peculiarities they put up with. The economy of the environment in human life is therefore as immense, convoluted and probably as relevant as life itself suggests. And mindful of the interface (more of fluidity) between its socio-geographical pedestals, our target here is the implication of human actions or inactions on the environment in Anambra State.

A few days into the life of his administration, Obiano defied turbulent rainfall to embark on ‘Keep Awka Clean’ exercise. He replicated the environmental discipline campaign shortly after in the metropolitan cities of Onitsha, Nnewi and Ekwulobia where he enjoined residents of the state to wake up to the challenges of reviving an environment that has experienced continual depreciation.

His persuasion on the subject is apt: ‘Hygienic environment is a sine qua non for pleasant neighbourhoods and good health.’ Governor Obiano’s passion for a wholesome environment, physical and social, conduced to his choice of ‘Kpochapu’ (evacuate, remove completely) as a codename for a joint security group comprising the Police, other arms of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, Civil Defence and other relevant groups. This octopus subset of the State security apparatus enforces the maintenance of a safe, decent and civilized polity.

While ‘Operation Kpochapu’ might fundamentally be referencing containment of criminality in the State, the nomenclature which explicitly points at the maintenance of decent neighbourhoods underpins the Governor’s consummate passion to turnaround the environment and the people to a blend of civilised entity.

Anambra State of Nigeria is unfairly burdened with multiple natural ecological constraints. The State has over one thousand active erosion sites whose persistent escalation, particularly during the rains, continues to threaten lives and property of Ndi-Anambra. Conscious of the non-cohesive texture of the soil in many parts of the State which exposes it to malignant erosion, Governor Obiano, in his ‘Save the Environment Campaign,’ stresses the imminent danger a harassed environment poses to its abusers.

He encourages individuals and groups to duly dispose refuse at designated points to avoid blockage of the water channels and the consequent erosion. In response to the Governor’s message, it is now common to see people de-silting the drains that run through their neighbourhoods, and properly disposing refuse at designated spots from where the appropriate Government Agency promptly evacuates same.

Anambra State leaves nobody in doubt about the difficulties its governance poses; the enviable constellation of stellar intelligentsia it boasts of regardless. This privilege, in addition to the significant value of the wealthy and ‘know-some’ people (who, indeed, might know very little) has ensured a clog in administering the state.

It is, therefore, not strange to see people, particularly the rich, encroach on public land in erecting private structures, with the haughty mindset that ‘nothing will happen’. At times these structures are placed on water or other service lines, or even on deliberate green parks reserved for public use. As Governor Obiano superintended the demolition of such illegal structures at Onitsha and its environs, he admonished perpetrators of such illegality, and sternly warned that his administration ‘will not tolerate flagrant violation of the law and encroachment on government property by anybody, irrespective of social status.’

In furtherance of Chief Obiano’s passion for safe and decent environment, the Anambra State Government has ordered an immediate removal of immobile vehicles along major roads in the state; it has also ordered the removal of random posters and billboards which deplete the aesthetic dispositions of the cities. Given Governor Obiano’s compulsive persuasion on the primacy of well groomed, decent and safe environment in the attainment of great health and pleasant life, and upon Ndi-Anambra’s warm reception of the noble counsel encapsulated in ‘Operation Kpochapu’, Anambra State is surely on course to the haulage of laurels in environmental friendliness.
•Anarado is based in Adazi-Nnukwu, Anambra State.

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VIDEO #CNN special #CHIBOK Girls n #BokoHaram Live intvw wt the Founder of USAfrica multimedia and public policy networks Chido Nwangwu. CNN anchors John Berman n Michaela Pereira, on May 6, 2014 

 

On Chibok Girls kidnap, terrorism and Boko Haram crises, President Jonathan should launch ‘Operation Iron Fist’, not this committee. By Chido Nwangwu https://usafricaonline.com/2014/05/04/on-chibok-girls-kidnap-terrorism-and-boko-haram-crises-president-jonathan-should-launch-operation-iron-fist-not-this-committee-by-chido-nwangwu

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On Nigeria’s Boko Haram, New York Times Nick Kristof misanalysis on CNN Fareed Zakaria’s GPS.  By Chido Nwangwu

Special commentary to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine,  and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow Twitter.com/Chido247,  Facebook.com/USAfricaChido

A few minutes ago, today May 11, 2014, on #CNN @FareedZakaria, the continuation of fanciful misanalyses and non-factual views about the root causes and “explanation” for the unrelenting mayhem unleashed by the violent Islamic sect #BokoHaram in #Nigeria were repeated by the award-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof and Eliza Griswold, author of the new book The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam.

Kristof especially, wrongly, argues that Boko Haram and similar groups are driven by economic disparity in Nigeria. not true in fact and logic.

Griswold says with a certain antiseptic disdain that Boko Haram is a “mess.” Simply a mess? After killing at least 2,000 Nigerians within 5 years.

Griswold adds it is more a struggle between moderate and extreme Muslims…. Seriously? I disagree.

First, I know that targeting and slaughtering and bombing, primarily, christians and demanding they leave the mainly Islamic northern region of Nigeria and visiting “unholy” fire and thunder on others they consider “Children of a lesser God” is mechanized, religio-political bigotry.  It is not economic; it is not moderates versus extremists.

Second, as a child survivor of the 1967-1970 Nigeria-Biafra war, I know the familiar consequences of mis-analyzing and understating the militarized, offensive moves of bigots, especially armed and well-funded groups such as Nigeria’s Boko Haram.

I will close this brief response, for now; and available to debate the Boko Haram and Nigeria’s religio-political crises, here and elsewhere.  

•Dr. Chido Nwangwu, moderator of the Achebe Colloquium (Governance, Security, and Peace in Africa) December 7-8, 2012 at Brown University in Rhode Island and former adviser on Africa business/issues to the Mayor of Houston, is the Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks since 1992, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com; CLASSmagazine, AchebeBooks.com, the USAfrica-powered e-groups of AfricanChristians, Nigeria360 and the largest pictorial events megasite on the African diaspora www.PhotoWorks.TV . He was recently profiled by the CNN International for his pioneering works on multimedia/news/public policy projects for Africans and Americans. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/29/mpa.african.media.bk.a.cnn         e-mail: Chido247@Gmail.com wireless 1-832-45-CHIDO (24436).

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Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com and the Nigeria360 e-group. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/ 
IF any of the Nigerian President’s 100 advisers has the polite courage for the extraordinary task of reminding His Excellency of his foremost, sworn, constitutional obligation to the national interest about security and safety of Nigerians and all who sojourn in Nigeria, please whisper clearly to Mr. President that I said, respectfully: Nigerians, at home and abroad, are still concerned and afraid for living in what I call Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. FULL text of commentary, exclusively, at USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/

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USAfrica: BOKO HARAM’s latest killings sharpen divide for security team at Nigeria’s presidency.
By Chido Nwangwu

USAfrica: BOKO HARAM’s latest killings sharpen divide for security team at Nigeria’s presidency. By Chido Nwangwu

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Dancing with “ghosts” of BOKO HARAM, President Jonathan, Sultan Abubakar and Nigeria’s national security. By Dr. Chido Nwangwu

Dancing with “ghosts” of Boko Haram, President Jonathan, Sultan Abubakar and Nigeria’s national security

The Boko Haram radical islamic sect has destabilized parts of Nigeria’s north east region. USAfricaonline.com has published several detailed insights and analyses of the Boko Haram and Nigeria’s national security.                             https://www.google.com/webhp?tab=ww&authuser=0&ei=79JiU77MDcmYyATN3oDQDQ&ved=0CBcQ1S4#authuser=0&q=Boko+Haram+USAfrica+Chido+Nwangwu

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Nigeria’s bin-Laden cheerleaders could ignite religious war, destabilize Africa. By USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/chido.binladennigeria.html http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=USAfrica+Chido+Nwangwu+al-qaeda+terrrorism+nigeria&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 https://usafricaonline.com/tag/al-qaeda/ 310 killed by Nigeria’s ‘talibans’ in Bauchi, Yobe n Maiduguri; crises escalate. USAfricaonline.com  on  July 28, 2009. www.usafricaonline.com/chido.ngrtalibans09.html http://www.groundreport.com/World/310-killed-by-Nigerias-talibans-in-Bauchi-Yobe-n-M/2904584

Jonathan’s Boko Haram problem and firing of Ringim. By Chido Nwangwu https://usafricaonline.com/2012/01/25/jonathans-boko-haram-problem-and-firing-of-ringim-by-chido-nwangwu/

 

WHY I CELEBRATE THE LIFE AND WORKS OF NELSON MANDELA. By Chido Nwangwu  https://usafricaonline.com/2010/07/15/mandela-why-i-celebrate-his-life-works-by-chido-nwangwu/

——  2014 book: In this engaging, uniquely insightful and first person reportage book, MANDELA & ACHEBE: Footprints of Greatness, about two global icons and towering persons of African descent whose exemplary lives

and friendship hold lessons for humanity and Africans, the author Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and consequence to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.”

He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being close to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.”I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that historic Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief executive of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when President Bill Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and came to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes  Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the internet, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/

 

There’s a compelling political trinity to Nelson Mandela: the man, the messiah and the mystique. https://usafricaonline.com/2013/07/18/mandela-95-hearty-cheers-to-his-footprints-of-greatness-by-chido-nwangwu/

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Why Obama’s late to symbolic, historic meeting with Mandela.  By Chido Nwangwu.  https://usafricaonline.com/2013/06/26/obamas-late-to-symbolic-historic-meeting-with-fit-mandela-by-chido-nwangwu/

USAfrica: Awolowo’s Starvation Policy against Biafrans and the Igbo requires apology not attacks on Achebe. By Francis Adewale.

Why Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa’s writer of the century. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, and first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/chido.achebebest.html

USAfrica: As Egypt’s corrupter-in-chief Mubarak slides into history’s dustbin.  By Chido Nwangwu.  https://usafricaonline.com/2011/01/30/chido-nwangwu-as-egypt-corrupter-in-chief-mubarak-slides-into-historys-dustbin-egyptians-not-waiting-for-obama-and-united-nations/

Obama’s Africa agenda, our business and democracy. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfricaonline.com and CLASS magazine and The Black Business Journal

How and Why Romney beat Obama in first presidential debate. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica. https://usafricaonline.com/2012/10/03/how-and-why-romney-beat-obama-in-first-presidential-debate-by-chido-nwangwu/

Jonathan’s Boko Haram problem and firing of Ringim. By Chido Nwangwu
https://usafricaonline.com/2012/01/25/jonathans-boko-haram-problem-and-firing-of-ringim-by-chido-nwangwu/

Related insight: USAfrica’s October 17, 2001 special report/alert: Nigeria’s bin-Laden cheerleaders could ignite religious war, destabilize Africa. By USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu.  https://usafricaonline.com/chido.binladennigeria.html

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=USAfrica+Chido+Nwangwu+al-qaeda+terrrorism+nigeria&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

https://usafricaonline.com/tag/al-qaeda/

• For seasoned insights and breaking news on these issues, log on to USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica powered e-groups including USAfrica at googlegroups. Follow us at Facebook.com/USAfricaChido, Facebook.com/USAfrica247 n Twitter.com/Chido247 

 

USAfrica: As Egypt’s corrupter-in-chief Mubarak slides into history’s dustbin.  By Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/01/30/chido-nwangwu-as-egypt-corrupter-in-chief-mubarak-slides-into-historys-dustbin-egyptians-not-waiting-for-obama-and-united-nations/

Related and prior reporting on the Jos crises on USAfrica, click here: https://usafricaonline.com/2011/08/16/10-killed-in-renewed-violence-near-jos/

News archives related to Jos, here https://usafricaonline.com/?s=jos

310 killed by Nigeria’s ‘talibans’ in Bauchi, Yobe n Maiduguri; crises escalate. USAfricaonline.com  on  July 28, 2009. www.usafricaonline.com/chido.ngrtalibans09.html

http://www.groundreport.com/World/310-killed-by-Nigerias-talibans-in-Bauchi-Yobe-n-M/2904584

Trump looks foolish and crazy screaming about Obama’s birth certificates, college records and Muslim connection. By Raynard Jackson

• Nigeria’s bin-Laden cheerleaders could ignite religious war, destabilize Africa. By USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/chido.binladennigeria.html

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=USAfrica+Chido+Nwangwu+al-qaeda+terrrorism+nigeria&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

https://usafricaonline.com/tag/al-qaeda/

310 killed by Nigeria’s ‘talibans’ in Bauchi, Yobe n Maiduguri; crises escalate. USAfricaonline.com  on  July 28, 2009.

www.usafricaonline.com/chido.ngrtalibans09.html

http://www.groundreport.com/World/310-killed-by-Nigerias-talibans-in-Bauchi-Yobe-n-M/2904584

Follow Twitter.com/Chido247,  Facebook.com/USAfricaChido