Governor Peter Obi and his unmerited Zik award

Last weekend, the Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, made frustrated efforts to exhume  his unpopular political image when he solicited and acquired an unmerited 2011 Zik Prize Leadership from some Lagos-base Igbo merchant  on the platform of Public Policy Research and Analysis Centre (PPRAC), led by Professor Anya O. Anya, a Zoologist, who is purportedly runing Nigerian economic summit group.

Ordinarily, nobody would have bothered about Peter Obi and his dead-on-arrival 2015 vice presidential ambition, which is now pushing him into doing all sorts of things, including the abomination of acquiring a Zik award, but it is important to buttress that, Peter Obi is not worthy of a Zik award.

Peter Obi has never hidden his hatred, lack of respect and opposition to Zik even in his grave. In his six years as governor of Anamnra State,  Peter Obi  has never visited the famous Inosi Onira residence of the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in Onitsha, which is now a shadow of itself.

Peter Obi himself knows that the greatest evil he has done was to acquire a Zik award, because his newly found northern political allies, have advised him to eschew his hatred for the late revered Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, ahead of his 2015 political aspiration.

As chairman of the South-East Governor's Forum, Peter Obi has never spoken up or led any action to ensure the completion of the abandoned Zik's mausoleum, 14 years after the late General Sani Abacha awarded the contract.

The Anambra State Government under Peter Obi, has also not deem it fit to fix the dilapidated Boromeo roundabout in front of the famous Inosi Onira residence of the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in Onitsha.

It therefore calls for questioning  of the qualification of Peter Obi for this award. This has exposed the integrity of the giver of this award and the receiver.

It is left for Ndi-Anambra to testify the good governance of Peter Obi in the state that qualifies him to be given a leadership award for good governance.

One wonders why Peter Obi had to spend Anambra State fund to sponsor advertisement of the so-called award when two other governors who were given the same award never bothered about media hypes, despites their giants developmental projects in their various states, which is obviously not the case in Anambra.

Now, with the demise of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Peter Obi has suddenly realized the importance of Zik and now wants to ride on Zik popularity in Nigeria and beyond to feather his unpopular 2015 political aspiration.

We therefore call on the givers of the award, who have been using Zik's name to make money from public office occupants yearly, but have never thought it wise to speak up against the neglect and abandonment of the the famous Inosi Onira residence of the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in Onitsha and his mausoleum, to cease from selling Zik award to unmerited politicians.