Immediate past Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, has disclosed what contributed to his success as the Governor of Anambra State from 2006 t0 March 17 this year. Speaking yesterday at an interactive session with World Bank Youth Forum at the Office of the World Bank in Abuja, Obi said he decided at great personal discomfort to shoot down the cost of governance and invested the money in other areas.

The former governor said that he decided to join politics in order to contribute to the creation of public wealth for the enrichment of the people and the return of sanity to the society harassed by all manner of barbarism.

Obi, who said that any country that does not take care of her youth does not have a future, advised the members of the World Bank Youth Forum to remain focussed about their future and the future of the country. Explaining further, Obi said the easiest and most effective way to build a future for the country is through investment in education.

He said: “In countries like Singapore, which we celebrate as moving from Third to First World, they invested much in education and always recruit those with first class into their public services. Because of the place of education in advancement of civilisation, we, realising the rot in our education system, decided to return schools to the missionary and gave them money to rehabilitate those schools. Due to what I call toll gates on the way, I insisted that assistances to schools by development partners should go straight to the schools. We did so many other things, including provision of buses, computers, Internets, generators, sick bays, laboratory equipment, among others to all the public and church-owned schools. The result is clearly manifesting as Anambra took first in WAEC and NECO examinations.”

Obi also called on the youth to cultivate the spirit of savings always bearing in mind that there must always be the rainy day. He thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for the institution of the Sovereign Wealth Fund and called on Nigerians to view it from the perspective of its benefit to our children who might not benefit from the country’s depleting oil deposits. He said that he tried to institute subnational funds for savings for the state.

The World Bank Youth Forum is made up of young professionals between the ages of 18 and 35 who are. They said they decided to invite Mr. Obi to talk to them by consensus based on what they called his spectacular performance in the State.

About 50 youths were in attendance. The World Bank a Country Director, Francois Marie Nelly, also attended. She encouraged the youth to remain steadfast and challenge the authorities in a positive manner that will bring forth progress and development.

•Photo shows former Governor Obi (middle) , after speaking to the members of the World Bank Youth Forum at the Office of the World Bank in Abuja, yesterday.

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