Never in the political history of Anambra State has there been the emergence of gubernatorial gladiators with the sole intent of seeking a place in the government house at Awka than what is currently playing out in the race to take over governance from incumbent Governor Willie Obiano whose tenure ends in about a year’s time.
Interestingly, one of such heavyweights in the race is Dr. Winston Ndubueze Udeh whose credentials stand tall and intimidating with evidence of readiness to change the narrative of Anambra State from the modest level it occupies today to a much better rung of the ladder that would glaringly see the average Anambrian as the centre-piece of governance.
Born in the year 1961 into the family of Mr. & Mrs. Henry Mmadukaegbu Udeh of Ndiowu in Orumba North Local Government Area of the State, Winston began his early education at WTC Primary School, Enugu, and later moved to Nike Grammar School, Enugu for his secondary school education where he came out with Grade One. His immense intellectual capacity made him finish his basic education in flying colours and subsequently travelled to the United States of America where he obtained a degree in Architecture in 1980. He later obtained a post-graduate degree in Law from Thurgood Marshal School of Law, Texas, the United States in 1992.
As a certified architect and with his experience from Wall Street, Udeh has chaired an array of profit and nonprofit ventures with investments in private equity funds, energy, and construction. At Wall Street, his experience was vastly concentrated on areas of Stocks, Bonds, Auctions, and Future Derivatives, and as a practicing lawyer with a specialty in Criminal, Civil, and Family Law, Udeh has really proven himself to be a man that can be trusted with the management of the affairs of a state like Anambra.
With multiple competencies that cut across disciplines, he sits as the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Walton Derek Allied Construction Company Limited, a registered Engineering, and Construction company with major concerns in building, construction, and general contracts. He is also on the board of many corporations with interests in Real Estate, Construction, Banking, and Telecommunications etc. Udeh is a Non-Executive board member of Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services (EMTS), owners of 9Mobile network.
He is also a member of the Global Agenda as well as the Council of Anti-Corruption and Education, with a strong bias for citizens’ rights in the dispensation of justice.
This seasoned lawyer of Ndiowu dynasty, a technocrat, and philanthropist has over the years done a lot for humanity. For instance, many young people have benefitted from his scholarship programme under the auspice of the Winston Udeh Foundation; just as he has assisted in building, renovating various healthcare facilities, and in providing medical equipment for these healthcare facilities. Incidentally, given his usual modest nature, Udeh has not been in the public space to flaunt his achievements or benevolent gestures over the years.
However, like the saying ‘that a golden fish has no hiding place,’ Udeh’s philanthropy and love for his people can no longer be consigned to the unpublished pages of history as a man like him is what the people of Anambra State need now to take them higher in the realm of governance. With his vast experience and capacity for infrastructural development, financial management, law, philanthropy, and community development, it is not in doubt that he has placed himself on the map of Anambra State. He is presumably the best man to meet the needs of the people of the State in all sectors at this point in history.
As the Anambra governorship race has begun with more people emerging on the centre stage, Winston Udeh does not feel threatened in any way as he exudes the self-confidence of a man who means well and hopes for the best for his people, having tested a bit of good things of life in the past years of his life. Perhaps, this underlines his declaration wherever he goes that the people of Anambra deserve the best.
As he continued his tour of Local Government Areas, at Ogbaru, Onitsha North, and Onitsha South where he met his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) delegates and stakeholders, Udeh told them that “we can no longer continue to stay by the side and continue to complain. We have to be responsible for our own welfare. Anambra State has gone beyond some of the things we are asking for, currently. Good roads, electricity, and other infrastructural facilities are things we should have had a long time ago. In this dispensation, we should be discussing technology, production, and exportation of agricultural products and other items manufactured in Anambra State. Anambra has both human and natural capacity to place the state in the center of the nation’s wholesome development hub.”
His promise to ensure that Anambra smiles again by focusing on the human capacity development of Anambrians residing both within and outside the State cannot be taken as a pedestrian statement as Udeh readily knows what would make his people happy. According to him, “They are little things we neglect which we are lacking today and these things are the security of lives and properties, free and quality education for our children, employment for our youths, improved workers’ welfare, standard healthcare services and so on.”
Obviously not enthused with the state of things currently, he told his people that the “revenue we generate in Onitsha is enough to give our children free education from primary to the secondary school level. This election is about you. Our government will be about you, ndi Anambra demand for what you need. Over the years most of the leaders we elect focused on re-election, consequently, they abandon the people they were elected to serve.”
“Onitsha is the most progressive city in Anambra and Southeast. Our sons and daughters are the ones who developed Lagos and Abuja. They left because they did not get support from the government; there is no ease of doing business in the state. What does a business need to grow? Stable power supply, good roads, security and the lack in these plus over-taxation stunts business development.”
As a strong party man, Udeh prior to the commencement of his tour of local government areas where he has been interacting with the people of the State had donated Sienna SUV to each PDP chairman in every local government of Anambra State ostensibly to ease the difficulty in their movement towards working for the victory of the party irrespective of who would eventually emerge the party’s candidate in the forthcoming election. The gesture, to many Anambrians can only come from a man with a good heart and cares for the need of others.
Perhaps, this could obviously be the reason Onochie Chukwudi; the PDP Youth Leader in Anambra West Local Government Area took time to express his gladness in the modest nature of Dr. Winston, stating that he was “amazed at a man who gifted 21cars to 21 Local Government Chairmen, yet, has not more than four cars in his convoy. This tells a lot about the person of Dr. Winston; a man who does not engage in vain gloriousness, but always think about others first, will surely make a good leader.”
Quite mindful of the fact that his State is not lacking in terms of human resources, Udeh would not fail to tell people in the various local government areas he visited so far that “Anambra State is blessed with so many resources that need to be harnessed for our economic growth. One of such resources is the human resources which rely solely on improving our local content either for the development of the State or for counter objectives.”
“Essentially, local content is about securing direct and indirect opportunities for employment and procurement to home nationals, at the same time as fostering the development of local skills, technology transfer, and use of local manpower and local manufacturing in capital projects.”
“With almost every LGA hosting a technical college across the state, there’s the need to pay more attention in grooming and nurturing raw potentials at our disposal for the good of the State,” he said.
With visionary instinct as a potential governor of the State, Winston Udeh’s road map in governance is unambiguous as he would continue to declare that “the Anambra of my dream is a state that will be well coordinated by the policies, leadership, and practices my government if elected, will put in place. The Anambra of my dream is a state where basic and secondary education cannot be compared to any, in terms of learning, good environment, quality and effective teachers/coaches, quality and affordable education, it resultant effects of scoring high in WAEC, NECO, and JAMB with the state tertiary institutions having the best and most effective facilities, equipment and training that will help shape our children to be the best and go the right way. According to his vision, “the government will also inculcate morals and disciplines in our student’s curriculum as the country and state need it most now.”
“The Anambra of my dream is a state of low crime rate and even zero crime rate as we are going to put in effective and efficient measures to help reduce crime and crime-related activities drastically. My government will work with all security agencies in the state to tackle the crime menace. We will provide all the necessities including equipment, vehicles, funding, and support to make sure the security agencies do their jobs without complaints.’
As a manager of human and material resources, Udeh realizes the importance of harnessing the potentials of beings if the best is expected from them. Hence he would not hesitate to say “we will also introduce a reward system into all our institutions. The reward system gives way for more dedicated services, so we are going to push and implement it in our educational, security, civil service, and other institutions to motivate our people to do more.”
“The Anambra of my dream will create employment opportunities. We cannot work round the clock to equip our educational system without making provision for employment for our people. Our employable graduates and youth must see well-structured employable environment and atmosphere when done with their studies or training. First, as a government, we are going to provide enabling environment for investments to thrive, we are going to bring in investors from all sectors to invest in our state and create jobs for our teeming youths.”
Speaking with every sense of optimism in his governorship ambition, Udeh would also want to declare that “my government will provide all the needed supports to the investors including the provision of a secured and safe environment, lands, funding, and empowerment. We will also empower individuals who wish to go into private practices, we are going to provide them with training, coaching, funding, and all the needed supports because we want Anambra to work and for the state to move forward, the government needs to make things easier for the people and that is what we will do.”
Not unmindful of the fact that unemployment and idleness breed criminality in many cases, the man of the moment as Winston Udeh is fondly described would quickly say that “to have a secured environment, we must engage our youths purposefully and for us to do this, we must create a well-structured enabling environment for investors to key in and develop and as a government once you fix the mentioned, you are assured of a safe, secured, peaceful and thriving society. Anambra, it’s time to smile again. We will smile again’” he declares wherever he goes.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/winston-udeh-people-centred-governance-in-anambra-is-my-dream/
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