The Etiabas are ‘Thieves’, ‘Hypocrites’

Senior Special Assistant to Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State on Media and Publicity, like other political appointees of Governor Peter Obi, until he resigned, served briefly under Dame Virgy Etiaba when the Governor was unconstitutionally impeached. He was re-appointed into the same post by Governor Peter Obi when he came back from his unconstitutional impeachment. In this interview, he profusely speaks on the Government of Mr. Peter Obi, why he resigned under Etiaba and other issues. (Photos show left Obienyem, down left, Dame Virgy Etiaba, Deputy Governor; down right Emeka Etiaba, Etiaba's son) Excerpts:

May we meet you Sir?

Well, what do I say other than that my name is Valentine Obienyem, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Peter Obi on Media and Publicity.

How has it been working under Governor Peter Obi?

I have been lucky when it comes to working under people. I was the Personal Assistant to Dr. Okey Ikechukwu, a first rate brain. Under him, I cut my journalistic teeth. He is so intelligent that even if a moron were to work under him, he must at least manage to absorb some intelligence by osmosis.

I have worked under Mallam Abubakar Jijiwa, the current Direct General of Voice of Nigeria, the man who actually loaned me to the Governor. Again, a man of high intelligence and one of the most humane and understanding of men I have ever met.

I must say that working under these two great Nigerians prepared me adequately to work under Governor Peter Obi in every way.

And you ask me, what it has been working with the Governor. I can shout it from the rooftops that with him, I am like a student, while he is like a towering university. I am learning everyday under him. I cherish his subtle pertinacity, stubbornness when it comes to principles, prudence in the management of resources. I have been able to learn to see realities from higher perspective from him. All in all, I can say that working under him – the travels, the opportunity to meet people of all shades and his insistence that one must do the right things at the right time will ensure that I will remain indebted to him.

People complain that he is frugal and tight-fisted. How do you cope with him considering these attributes?

This question is like describing a man who blocked a moving vehicle and got crushed as brave, when he only demonstrated his bravado, foolhardiness. Our people should learn to differentiate between words. Peter Obi I know and work for is not tight-fisted or frugal, he is simply prudent. People should not mistake prudence or parsimony for being wasteful. Let me give you an example. Mr A and B both have One million Naira, Mr A used his to buy drinks for his friends and froliced from town to town, while Mr B invested his and is reaping from the investment. It is wrong to say that Mr B is frugal, because he used the money wisely. Those past Governors of the State that shared money could not provide the type of infrastructure the Governor is providing today. He is developing all sectors and is even turning the State into an Eldorado. Eldorado in no metaphorical terms.

But some people say he is not doing anything?

Who are those people?

The opposition.

I am glad you said the opposition. What are their grouses? They are simply wailing on the ground because the Governor has stubbornly insisted that he would not share the State’s money to them. Not that the Governor does not empower people, he does, only that he says you must add value to the State and get paid for that. What our people want is to be given money when they have not done anything. If you look around, all those crying that he has not done this or that are all those that feel he stopped their honeymoon with the money belonging to the State, including those that their honey moon lasted for three months.

While they shout he has not done anything, the reality on ground shows that he has done more than what the previous Governors of the State did added together. Some people get annoyed when we say this, but that is the truth and I am infinitely ready to challenge any person who says the contrary in any manner, especially through debate.

Could you tell us some of those things?

These things are so clear that one can reel them off the tips of one’s tongue. There is no area or sector that the Governor is not exceptional. If I want to be frank with you, I may tell you that we are doing a lot to improve on sanitation and security. But don’t forget that we are discussing a State where the Governor has has cleared refuse that accumulated for over 10 years in some parts of the State. Even with the present state of sanitation, it is an improvement on what it used to be and it will continue to improve.

In the area of Institution of Government, in three years he has completed a magnificent secretariat. He is doing the second phase. He has built a new governor’s lodge at Onitsha and has provided official vehicles to many categories of workers in the State.

Though the State is having the effect of the influx of militants from the Niger Delta, Governor Obi administration is relatively the number one in terms of support to the police in the country today. When other States of same income were donating twenty petrol vehicles to their State’s police commands, he has donated about hundred, not just to the police, but to other security agencies in the State – the army, the civil defense, road safety etc.

Just last week, the State took delivery of two Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC).

Why is security situation still bad in the State?

It is not as bad as it is painted. There is nothing that happens in Anambra that do not happen in other part of Eastern Nigeria and many times magnified in the Niger Delta. Our problem is that we have a deadly opposition without conscience. Now they cannot puncture the Governor in terms of delivery in any area, they now resort to raising claims over security and are attempting to impugn on his integrity as they try doing with the 250 Million Naira saga.

I can go on and on and tell you what the man is doing. In the area of Health, he has done excellently. You need to visit the Amaku General Hospital and see the eight buildings he erected in the Hospital preparatory to turning it into a teaching hospital. You need to visit Umueri hospital he built from the scratch, the Umunze Cottage Hospital. As I speak, he is renovating 15 selected hospitals from across the State, some of which are Ossamalla, Enugu-Ukwu, Okija, Umuchu and so on.

Talking about health sector, let us always bear in mind that when he became Governor, no health institution in the State was accredited, today Onitsha General Hospital, School of Health Technology, Obosi; School of Nursing and midwifery and more are all accredited after massive provision of infrastructure. I will give you an example, at school of Nursing and Midwifery, he built a Demonstration Block, Hostel blocks, classroom blocks, a giant auditorium. At the School of Health Technology, he provided, among others, classroom blocks, hostels, a clinic and a giant 200-bed hostel. Besides all these, the State is awaiting delivery of ten 40-ft containers loaded with all manner of hospital equipment to be shared to hospitals. Not done, he offers support to missionary health institutions in the State to serve the people of the State better. Recently, he gave them 20 Million Naira each.

Another area we must congratulate the Governor is on education. If you visit our State University and other higher institutions, you would not believe it is possible to provide the type of infrastructure he has provided in them in three years.

At the State University, one talks about the giant Faculty of Law, Mass Communication, Social Sciences, biological Sciences buildings, the library and the new classroom blocks.

In our secondary schools, don’t it sound incredible that he has been able to equip over 100 secondary schools in the State with laboratory equipment, computers, and other amenities.

What else? In roads Obi has done over 360kms of roads, not just roads, the roads were properly designed and masterfully executed to last. Even in Local Governments that past Governors avoided constructing roads because of their terrain, like Anambra West, he is building roads in them. He has disvirgined many virgin roads in the State, such as the road to Liru and the road to Amaokpala from Awgbu.

In the history of governance in Nigeria, Anambra State has become a State where Government was able to recoup over 70% of the money it invested on a project – Onitsha Business Park and ploughed it back into the building of another business park.

This is a State where the Governor is facing abandoned projects with the same seriousness as he pursues new projects. There is no project site you visit today in the State that work is not going on.

This is a State that started the ANIDS Transport Scheme with 90 vehicles, without a kobo from the State. Within three months of operations 20 more vehicles have been bought from the money realized from the 90.

The is Governor that is building the first library in the State named after Prof. Kenneth Dike, the last being the Onitsha Central Library built since 1966.

If you go to the Government lodge, you will see that 100 transformers are packed there ready to be distributed to communities with electricity problems.

One cannot exhaust what Governor Obi is doing, no page of the papers can adequately explain them, it is only through visiting these projects, “eye marking” them that these projects may be properly appreciated.

Permit us to take you back to those you said you worked under and ask why you did not mention Dame Virgy Etiaba

The three names I mentioned are not the only ones I worked under, there are others I would not want to mention, because they can give one psychic encumbrances.

Is Etiaba one of them?

Not just one of them, she is the first of those I hate to remember that I worked under, yes, I hate to remember that, but I also appreciate that the opportunity of working under her allowed me to observe the worst aspect of humanity. It was a disaster working under her but it has its own lessons.

May we share in some of those lessons?

I will rather be comfortably discussing the Governor’s projects than discuss a subject that makes one shed tears in remembering that such a character was once inflicted on the State.

We only want to share the lessons with you for our own edification

Working under Dame Virgy Etiaba is a lesson on how mischievous human beings can be. Working under her is a lesson on how wicked human being can be. Working under her is a lesson on how perfidious human being can be. Working under her is a lesson of what politics is without any tinge of morality. Working under her is a lesson on what some of those that govern States do with our money. Working under her is a lesson that sometimes those that are satanic call God’s name more than the righteous. Working under her is a lesson on what a State will be when governed by dunces that do not know their left from their right. Working under her is a lesson on the dangers of giving jobs that are above people’s mental capacities to execute them. Working under her showed me the true colour of betrayal. If you read the Story of Alexander the Great, you will shudder at the indignities he suffered for his love for power and working under Etiaba confirms that men can really do anything when they are desperate for power.

Are you saying that Madam Etiaba is a dunce?

That is for want of worse word to describe her. I worked as her Special Assistant; I know what I am saying. In fact, apart from expressing my solidarity and belief in Peter Obi, part of the reasons while I resigned under her was that I saw myself retarding rather than advancing. Just as one can acquire intelligence by osmosis from intelligent people, one can also acquire stupidity and idiocy from those with such unbearable qualities if you do not extricate yourself from them. There are however other reasons why I resigned from her.

Could you tell us those reasons?

When it became clear that they were part of those that impeached Governor Peter Obi as Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh authoritatively revealed, I had to resign. In fact, I started nursing resignation the moment she dismissed Barr. Peter Afuba, the then Attorney General of the State for filing in court, on behalf of the Government, what would aid the Governor to come back to office after his unconstitutional impeachment. It became clear they were fighting Governor Peter Obi.

Beyond the foregoing, her Government paid the legal bill of the lawyers the then House of Assembly hired to fight against Governor Obi’s coming back. Do you know that the Governor instituted many cases against the impeachment, and he needed many lawyers? One of the lawyers to handle one of the cases was paid double the amount the Governor agreed to pay him by the Government not to handle the case all in the bid to stop the Governor from coming back.

I remember one day I was in court to witness Obi’s case against impeachment. It had become unbearable to the Etiabas and some of those working under her, that one of them sent somebody to ask me if I were the only person sympathetic to Governor Obi. At that time, miscreants were actually funded to protest against Obi’s continued court case, begging him to allow Dame Virty Etiaba to continue.

In a bid to mount a robust hate campaign against Governor Obi, she gave appointment to all those that felt marginalized by Governor Obi.

The Government of the day felt so uncomfortable that Governor Obi remained in Anambra State after the impeachment that they wrote countless letters to the EFCC to hound him out of town. In the calculation of the Government of the day, if Obi were out of the country he would not follow his case diligently.

While the Governor was making efforts to come back, those close to the Government called me for a meeting. At that meeting, one of Etiaba’s sons was there. I was given Five Million Naira (N5m), which they said was for my family. They brought another Twenty Million Naira and said I should go to Lagos as Etiaba’s Assistant on Media and get the Media to mount serious campaign of calumny against the Governor. I told them I would not take the money home, that they should keep it till morning for security reasons. I knew they were planning to use me against the Governor, because at that time those that were enjoying the fruits of impeachment were ever ready to give to those still supporting Governor Obi anything to turn them against him. The next morning, I submitted my letter of resignation.

Before my resignation, they even sent emissaries to some of us counseling us that loyalty is 100%, that is to say that working for Etiaba that we should completely forget about Peter Obi. They also promised us 406 cars, but when they sensed that our heart and minds were still with Gov. Obi, they gave others excluding us. Beyond this, as I said before, working under Etiaba was affecting me adversely. I was simply working with a dunce.

Why are you so uncharitable to her?

It is only a person who does not follow what one of her children says about the governor that will say I am uncharitable to her.

How do you mean?

I do not know how to dissimulate things. Of course, you know that Etiaba was just the de jure Governor before the courts pronounced her an illegality that never existed. Her son, Emeka was the actual Governor. I remember on one occasion she had a meeting with the Director General of Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru. They discussed about training opportunities for Anambra State. The DG requested that she should write to NIPPS on the matter. When the DG left, she called me to draft the letter; expectedly I asked her to give me the points, but she said she had forgotten what she discussed with the DG. She gave me the DG’s phone number to call him to brief me. Things like this did not happen once, it happened severally. This is why they now drafted one of her sons to always be by her side at all times. She does not have a mind of her own; she is being controlled by her children.

On another occasion, organizations that entered into strategic partnership to help the State visited the State and were thoroughly embarrassed by her. I give you an example, when the UN-Habitat people drawing the structure plan for Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi came, she said she did not know what structure plan was. That was why the project stopped until Obi came back. I told her she should be reading files of such projects before the people visited, but her reply was that Emeka who should be doing that for her was always busy. Indeed, he was very busy.

How busy?

The young man abandoned his legal profession and was living at the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia. Ask anybody that had anything to do with the Government House at that time and the person will tell you how dull it was. It was only Dame Etiaba and her friends that were coming to the office to chat and drink. The real action was at the lodge, where Emeka ruled like an unchecked despot. He treated the files and Commissioners and other officials of the Government reported to him reverently. He did all the appointments. On many occasions, the mother did not even know those appointed. Her only duty was to read their names and direct whoever is responsible to sign their letters. Only what he did was to write a piece of paper and attach it to the files, which were sent to her mother to copy into the files proper and sign. This ritual soon became tedious for her that they had to hire somebody who learnt her writing, did the copying for her to sign.

You are painting the Etiaba Administration dark. Does it mean that there was nothing she did very well?

The only thing I can say that went on very well and smoothly was the exchange of Ghana-must-go bags. If you have conscience, you would not stay in the office for a day, because while Emeka treated files, received reverence from Commissioners at the lodge and parleyed with contractors, his mother was in the office receiving visitors and displaying her profound ignorance about everything, Ghana-must-go was always on the move. I think they did that one very well.


She dodged events in order not to display her ignorance. Those that she must attend, like the presentation of the 2007 Budget, she could not even understand the figures in the budget. As a sign of his mental capacity, she did not, throughout the time I worked for her, make any form of input in speeches written for her.


Does this exchange of Ghana-must-go account to about 40 billion said to be missing from the State treasury?

I have seen some people try to prove that whopping amount was not missing by calculating the State’s monthly income. They forget to tell us that Governor Obi recovered Billions of Anambra money from many sources. While the impeachment lasted, it was bazaar in Government House. I think that Politician who saw politics as “come and Chop” was describing Etiaba’s era without knowing that.

Again, to create the image of an action woman, she flagged off many roads without paying mobilization to the contractors. Her era marked the era when contractors without shovels were given multi billion Naira road contracts in the State. When Obi came back, he had hectic time trying to clear the mess that she created.

As the Governor, His Excellency Mr. Peter Obi evaluated claims of past contracts done and not paid for thoroughly, but as the Illegal Governor, she paid at will simply to make those people hate Governor Peter Obi and see him as uncharitable.

If you remember, that was the time the Source magazine had her on the cover page as Mama Christmas. She was just signing vouchers even when she did not know how much the State had. The then Accountant General, Mrs Obinwa at a point refused to release money, insisting that if she continued that way, that the State would soon go bankrupt.

Sir, but what you are saying is different from what the Etiabas want us to believe

What do they want us to believe?

They say that they cooperated with the Governor and voluntarily handed over to him after the judgement of the Court of Appeal.

All I can tell you is that men lie most when they govern States. 99 percent of their account of the impeachment, the squandering of the treasury are all lies. I have told you their efforts to frustrate His Excellency from coming back. Even when the Court of Appeal gave its judgment, they refused His Excellency from entering the premises of the Government House to take over. It was when Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and Chief Victor Umeh came that the Governor gate crashed into the Government House, otherwise they would have left him and go for inspection, which was what she had put on her track suit to do, so that by the time she would come back, Abuja would have perfected plans to thwart the handover.

Even shortly before the handover, they got in touch with Abuja and told them that Ezeigbo Gburugburu, Chief Umeh and His Excellency had come with over 2,000 thugs trying to force her out of office. By the time the Police sent to stop the event could come, the handover had already been done.

How far does Etiaba work cordially with the Governor now?

You know the Governor, his patience is legendary. In the midst of this madness around him, he remains calm. It appeared that after the impeachment, the woman now sees herself as the Governor. With her children, they do not respect the Governor again. Today, EXCO meeting would still be on and the progress of that meeting reported on the net. Other Commissioners confirm that she continually send text messages while the meeting is on. She has gone to occasions where she was announced as representing the Governor only for her to say she was not representing anybody. At a point, some people suggested it was senility or something dangerously close to that.

Are you blaming her or her children for this turn of event?

All I can tell you is that she is enjoying every bit of it. Her impossible mission is to scatter the Government and that is why she is increasingly being unhappy with herself. If you do psychoanalysis of the action of some of her children, you will agree that in spite of material comfort, one of them is not happy with himself, he wounds himself in the name of being unhappy with the Governor. I do not know what the Governor did to merit this. One good analyst describes that person in question as psychopathic. I think the evils he did against the Gov. is pursuing him. Thank God the Governor is also rebuilding some psychiatric hospitals in the State should the madness go out of hand.

Would you react to some of the things Emeka Etiaba say against His Excellency?

I even read his interview where he was referring to me obliquely. My position remain the same, I cannot bandy words with him to avoid abuse, which is becoming his pastime. Look at what he says about the national Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh on the pages of the newspapers. The laughable thing is that he tells lies about people, but when you tell the truth about him, he will rush to court or threaten court action as if he is the only lawyer in Igbo land. I have thoroughly studied him and I think he is a good specimen for gauging the incipient signs of under 50 depression.

Will Governor Obi contest with Dame Virgy Etiaba again?

A deity that request sex from his male devotee is only planning to kill him for asking him what he has not got. Obi would rather retire from politics than do it with the likes of his Deputy again. Anybody suggesting that woman to him again is that Deity demanding sex from a male devotee.

Sir, finally how prepared is Obi for 2010?

When we reach the bridge, we shall cross it. But evaluating the strength of those that are say they are contesting, I think the Governr should go home and sleep. As we approach the election by each passing day, some of these people would have realized that elections are much more than shopping for endorsement or dropping of people’s names.