Encomium
+ His intimate secrets
Chief Willie Manduabughichi Obiano was elected Anambra State governor at the end of Saturday, November 30, 2013, supplementary governorship election. The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) guber candidate beat the PDP flag bearer, Comrade Tony Nwoye, APC’s Senator Chris Nigige and the candidate of the Labour Party, Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah to emerge victorious at the polls.
Though some of Obiano’s opponents had boycotted the last lap of the election and called for outright cancellation of the Saturday, November 16, 2013 Anambra governorship election, the polls went on smoothly with the majority of the aggrieved candidates’ supporters surprisingly voting en masse for them.
In the final results, APGA’s Obiano polled a total of 180,178 votes to become the next governor of Anambra State. Comrade Tony Nwoye of the PDP came second with 97,200 votes, while APC’s Senator Chris Ngige found himself in the third position with a total of 95,963 votes. The Labour Party’s governorship candidate polled 37,495 votes in the November 16, 2013 Anambra gubernatorial election.
Chief Willie Obiano would be sworn in in March 2014, when the incumbent governor’s tenure Peter Obi, formally elapses.
It is also certain that the PDP, APC and Labour Party candidates would jointly and severally challenge Obiano’s landslide victory having expressed their displeasure over the conduct of the election.
But like ENCOMIUM Weekly predicted, Governor Peter Obi’s APGA would continue to lead the state until the court cut short their sweet hard fought victory at the polls.
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT GOV. PETER OBI’S SUCCESSOR, CHIEF WILLIE MADUABUGHICHI IBIANO
Chief Willie Obiano started his banking career with First Bank of Nigeria Plc in 1978 as supervisor from where he moved to Texaco Nigeria Plc, an oil marketing company as an accountant. He rose to the position of Chief Internal Auditor in Texaco before joining Fidelity Bank where he worked in various departments from operations to marketing and internal audit. Those who knew Chief Obiano at Texaco revealed that he was promoted four times in his eight-and-half-year service at Texaco.
It was also there he established himself as a specialist in bunkering, lube-blending and refinery audits. Chief Willie Obiano was part of the team that audited Texaco Refinery in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 1989. He was promoted manager in 1991. Obiano joined Fidelity Bank, where he would become Executive Director, Business Banking in 1991. In just three years, he became Assistant General Manager, Deputy General Manager in 2000, General Manager in 2002, and Executive Director in 2002. Between 1991 and 2002, Chief Obiano headed the following groups and divisions at one point or another:
Inspection and Audit, Operations and Information Technology, Division Head, Commercial and Consumer Banking, Division Head and Eastern Marketing. Other areas Obiano manned included Financial Control, Risk Management and Transaction, Support, Corporate Finance and Non-Bank Financial Institutions.
He was part of the great team that saw Fidelity Bank through its consolidation process. He is said to be a no-nonsense tactician you cannot miss in a crowd.
Very influential in Fidelity Bank, while an Executive Director, all the regional managers of the bank were reporting through his office to the MD/CEO. Chief Obiano attended numerous banking courses including the following: Credit and Trade Services course, Citi Bank, New York (1994), Treasury and Money Market, N/West London (1996), Correspondence/Trade Services, Emerging Market course FimBank, Malta (2002), Managing Integration Process Houston, Texas (2006), amongst others.
Married with two children, a beautiful daughter and a young son, Obiano holds a BSc (Second Class Upper) in Accounting from the University of Lagos (1979) and an MBA in Marketing also from the same university.
The Anambra governor-elect is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). Obiano has always distinguished himself in all his endeavours. For instance, he was John F. Kennedy Essay winner 1974 at the Christ the King College. He also holds a National Merit Certificate for Outstanding service during his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Benue State in the 1979/80 service year. He has been the President of Advance Management Programme (AMP8) of Lagos Business School for 10 years running. The new Anambra State governor is equally a 2006 Building New Ventures (BNV) class member of Harvard Business School, Boston, Texas, USA.
He is the patron of ICAN, Lagos Mainland District and National Youth Council of Nigeria, Anambra East Chapter.
A devout Catholic, Obiano is also a patron of the following Catholic groups:
St. Anthony of Padua, Catholic Artistes and Entertainers Association, Catholic Women Association, Priests and Rev. Sisters of Aguleri Origin, Mission of St. Pauls Society, Catholic Women’s Organization, Our Lady Queen of Peace, Ifako, Gbagada, Lagos, Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria, Onitsha, Archdiocese and Grand Pillar, St. Gerald Catholic Church, et cetra.
Obiano’s community, Aguleri conferred on him and his wife separate chieftaincy titles for outstanding community services in 2000. Chief Willie Obiano is presently the President of Aguleri Council of Chiefs.
Interestingly, on January 2, 2011, Chief Willie Obiano and his lovely wife, Mrs. E.V Obiano were adopted into the cabinet, Igwe-in-Council of the Idigo Dynasty of the ancient kingdom of Aguleri. The high chief investiture made Mrs. E.V Obiano, the new Anambra First Lady, the only woman in the 120 years of the Idigo Dynasty to be so honoured. The couple were also conferred with the Otunba Atayese and Erelu Atayese by Oba David Adegboyega Oyewumi (Fasemi II) Obadu of Ilemeso-Ekiti.
– UCHE OLEHI
