The Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, and members of the Anambra State Executive Council (ANSEC) have further reflected on the proposed Anambra Rebirth Programme and determined that its blueprint should address a number of important issues to achieve its main objectives.
This was disclosed at the 12th meeting of the Anambra State Executive Council (ANSEC) held at the Light House, Awka.
According to the State’s Commissioner for Information, Law Mefor, the rebirth framework would include the restoration of the Igbo Apprenticeship system (Igba Boi), the return to hard work and integrity, the criminalisation of obscenities, especially the flaunting of money, and warped ideologies of wealth without work.
Recently, at the Council’s 11th meeting, unveiled plans to commence the Anambra Rebirth Programme, to restore the Igbo values of integrity and hard work, based on the Igbo saying: “Aka aja aja na-ebute onu mmanụ mmanụ,” meaning that happiness and success are based on hard work.
Mefor stated that this is to preserve the core values that cherish hard work among the Igbo people, against the norms of earning free money without working, or through nefarious activities, as ways of building a better homeland for all.
Consequently, Governor Soludo affirmed that the culture that celebrates and expects something for nothing or wealth without work must give way to a culture that rewards and celebrates hard work, enterprise, and integrity.
The governor argued that there is a powerful connection between “freebies culture” and criminality and that beneficiaries of these crimes become lords of the manor, brandishing unexplainable wealth and phantom titles for validation, while society cheers in celebration.
He said institutions that underpin the new (magical) principles for wealth are booming, and they include native doctors, marabouts, and prosperity pastors promising a crown without the cross. “These merchants of wealth by magic deceive millions of youths to shun hard work, expecting free money. Also, a horde of youths throng into politics to loot and not to serve. Are these the youths to build the new Nigeria?” he asked.
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