Remarks By Hon. Oseloka Henry Obaze
Secretary to the Anambra State Government
And Chairman of the ANSG Handover Committee
During the Presentation of the 2014 Handover Report to H.E Mr Peter Obi, CON
Governor’s Lodge, Awka 15 March 2014
[Protocols]
Your Excellency let me begin by thanking you on behalf of my twelve colleagues and myself, for the singular honour and privilege given to us to serves as members of the 2014 Handover Committee.
The 78-page Report before you is comprehensive and covers all areas stipulated in our Terms of Reference.
We undertook our work cognizant of the solid foundation and prevailing enabling environment created under your able and visionary leadership. Hence, in our methodology, we took a forward looking approach, with a view to identifying lessons learned, missed opportunities and best practices, while mapping out spheres of possible pitfalls and challenges.
This Report has been made possible because each member brought personal insights, great professional acumen and diligence to the task at hand. Above all, they exhibited a passionate zeal to see Anambra State succeed, well beyond the high level where you have brought it.
Committee Members also shared a commonality of interest in ensuring that we contribute to the achievement of a seamless handover. What you have before you is a consensus report; but one that would have not been possible without your personal insights from your vantage position.
Your Excellency, this presentation exercise may seem like a mere formality; but that is hardly so. Indeed, this presentation and the report itself are both historic and rare in the context of Anambra’s politics. So, your requesting this report is nothing but admirable ethic.
Before now, aiming for and achieving a seamless handover in Anambra would be wishful thinking. But today, under your able leadership both are possible, and will henceforth serve as precedents for future outgoing and incoming Administrations.
Sir, as you would glean from the Executive Summary of this Report, our findings and recommendations focus on five critical spheres, namely: achievement of a seamless handover; review of existing structures and programmes models; government financial status and outstanding obligations, how to address the challenges of low IGR and recommendations for improving service delivery by MDAs.
We have summarized our key recommendations into five critical clusters. However, our assessment of each MDA we interacted with is a standalone. You may wish to know that all the MDAs were forthcoming and presented information requested of them.
We did, however, encounter some difficulties in eliciting information that would allow for composite assessment of the state’s financial status. With the benefit of hindsight, we now understand why; having witnessed your rendering of that account on 8 March 2014, at the End of Tenure Report event. Nevertheless, Sir, we hasten to add that this report would have been far more complete, were it to have contained that financial information. We are, however, glad that we did not steal your thunder!
We have faithfully reflected our views in the body of the present report, in hope that they would offer the incoming administration clarity on how it may wish to proceed. We hope therefore, that you and the Governor-Elect Chief Willie Obiano will find the Report useful, as a tool for consolidating and moving forward the administrative and governance structures in Anambra State.
We have the honour to present formally to you, the Report of the Handover Committee; and in so doing, thank you for your meritorious service to Anambra State and Nigeria.
We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours and, as always, God’s abiding Grace and Blessings. Thank you Sir.
