GOV. PETER MBA'S ECONOMIC GRAND PLAN: AGENDA FOR GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
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By Okenwa Cyril

So far so good is a common parlance. Quite commendably and, as expected, Governor Peter Mba's government has taken off with the right step and in the right direction. Appealing to President Tinubu for the release of Nnamdi Kanu among other initiatives so that Mondays be put back on track for economic activities, reaching out to the federal government to become Enugu State's core partner in tapping and developing the vast economic potentials of the state, vigorously commencing the cleaning up of the metropolis, embarking on on-the-spot assessment of all the water stations in the state pursuant to the fulfillment of his campaign promise of ensuring that water scarcity becomes a thing of the past in the metropolis within 180 days into his administration, seeking the federal government's activation of the cargo wing of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, seeking British partnership, technical assistance and support for the growth of the state's economy through the hosting of the British High Commissioner to Nigeria to that effect etc are "all things wise and wonderful". All these indicate a purposeful take-off of a government on a mission for rapid, disruptive and transformative change. As an administration, his priorities in the area of economy summarily are to grow the state's GDP from its current size of $4.4 billion to $30 billion in the next eight years and also to achieve zero percent poverty headcount in the state's Poverty Headcount Index.

The new government looks so promising and has the potential to do exceedingly well owing to the fact that in Peter Mba we see for the first time in Enugu State a governor who prepared with a very rich and flamboyant CV, and indeed worked real hard for the job of the governorship, and a man who offers us a novel and unique perspective on governance especially as it relates to today's globally winning politico-economic paradigms. His glowing success story in the private sector, political shrewdness, brilliance, courage, rare determination and leadership skill mark him out as the ideal man to chart a new and auspicious beginning for our dear state. Therefore, I feel and convincingly too, Gov. Mba's administration has just marked the beginning of our state's transformative journey towards the next level of our statehood. This optimism is hinged on his visionary, audacious and result-oriented approach to leadership. And naturally, expectations are high on all fronts and Ndi Enugu expect the new administration to fire on all cylinders as it begins the process of addressing some of our pressing problems bordering on economy, security, infrastructures, and even integration and cohesion after a heated electioneering season.

Against the foregoing, this discourse focuses on the appraisal of Gov. Peter Mba's economic blueprint and pronouncements to enable us gain deep insights into his economic concept album and thoughts about the essential roles of government in economic growth and development especially in this economically-challenged time. As an aspirant then, and now the governor, Peter Mba has harped on Digital Economy, the gains thereof and the need for Enugu State not to be left behind in this trending paradigm in economic objectivity. He has not hidden his advocacy for Digital Economy as a modern and prevailing economic vehicle, the reason he has set out to run a very smart and innovative government that engenders, nurtures and supports Digital Economy. To precipitate digitalism in Enugu State's economy, Gov. Mba plans to empower a minimum of 40,000 youths annually on Information and Communications Technology, ICT. To achieve this according to the governor, the state government shall establish a cluster of innovation and incubation centres across the senatorial districts of Enugu State. Digital Economy provides those limitless, quick, easy and guided connectivities and inter-connectivities between buyers and sellers of goods and services across the globe. It interestingly has reduced the wide world of sellers and buyers of goods and services to a global village of economic possibilities. It is the stimulus for accelerated economic growth in today's computer/internet-driven world.

Gov. Mba has earmarked that Enugu State's financial base has to be extended and broadened, and that its economy shall be private sector driven. Also he declared that emphasis shall be on the Ease of Doing Business factoring infrastructural development, security, review of taxation policies, construction permits and contract performance enforcement as key enablers. The governor's idea of all this is that his government shall ensure a more enabling environment for private capital and foreign investors. This implies that the business environment aided and buoyed by the state government has to become more viable and competitive in order to make the desired progress. The governor has pledged to improve on the Ease of Doing Business in most profound manner and within the shortest possible time.

Further still, His Excellency seeks leveraging on the financial sector to promote industrial development in a risk-minimized, orderly and result-oriented manner. He strongly seeks a comprehensive transformation of the state's financial sector through the adoption of modern technology, improvement in credit facilities and other financial services to the private sector businesses and individuals, increase in insurance penetration level to enhance risk taking as well as improvement in pension coverage. It is commendable much as it is convincing that Governor Peter Mba is putting up a crack reform package that is aimed at strengthening and de-risking the sector as an engine and propeller of economic growth and development in line with modern and prevailing paradigms. All these shall be premised on sound and disciplined fiscal policies.

His Excellency, Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mba advocates strongly for a mutually rewarding partnership between the government and the private sector to promote the attainment of mutually agreed goals. The state in partnership with the private sector will set and agree on symbiotically-reinforcing economic and social goals to be met under the supervision and guidance of the state through government-approved incentive schemes. The goals when set in motion would normally include production target, export target, employment amongst others. All these would be encouraged and accelerated by the industrialization agenda of his government. The governor is keen on industrialization and reindustrialization, and export promotion as strategies for economic growth. In his manifesto, he declared there shall be a viable Industrial Estate in the state. I think we are in for an era when ageing and moribund industries both government-owned and private-owned shall be revived, rejuvenated and modernized, and surely new ones established. This initiative engenders among other economic developmental gains, employment.

Gov. Mba's pledge to unlock Enugu State's Rural Economy is visionary. And making it attractive surely is hugely part of his administration's urbanization agenda. Rural Economy essentially holds a crucial and significant place in Economics. Nature generously and richly favoured Enugu State's rural economy with economic advantages in variables as agriculture, forestry, fishery, mining, enormous labourer base (both skilled and unskilled) etc. Gov. Mba has severally said that his administration shall vigorously pursue Agricultural Revolution. Agriculture is a critical sector of the economy. Enugu State has a very high index of agrarianness supported by appreciably arable land and agro-friendly climate. The state has the potential to pride itself in food security and agro-economy. Copious in the mind of Gov. Mba in the issue of unlocking the rural economy is bridging the infrastructure gaps between the rural areas and the urban areas. No wonder he emphasized a 10,000 km road agenda in his manifesto. Roads, efficient and reliable power supply, effective communication networks, loan schemes and grants, variegated trainings on skills etc are critical in meaningfully harnessing and unlocking the rural economy. All these and many more the governor has indicated the readiness to put in place pursuant to unlocking the rural economy of Enugu State.

Gov. Mba targets improved Internally Generated Revenue base of Enugu State. He aims to achieve less or no dependence on federal government allocation. Through his well-articulated policies, all the state's dormant revenue sources are to be reactivated, active ones made more viable and hitherto non-existent ones created and enhanced. He hopes to tackle corruption and plug all lopeholes in this key area.

As Gov. Mba has sought, the federal government is expected to reinvent itself in the state in a greater dimension for collaborative efforts with Enugu State Government at exploring, tapping and development of vast economic potentials in Enugu State. The Nigerian Coal Corporation, Enugu is begging for attention. The coal deposit in the belly of Enugu State's soil remains the best of its kind due to its low sulphur content. Also the Natural Gas recently discovered at Emene yearns for drilling and production take-off. It is expected that the federal government as soon as possible forges a take-off framework with the Enugu State Government in order to key the oil and gas resources into the national grid of petroleum industry for industrialization, job creation and other inherent economic benefits to the state and the federal governments.

A careful analysis of Governor Peter Mba's economic blueprint exposes a well-articulated and calculated economic reform agenda aimed at redefining what should be the roles of government in economic development and growth in view of a developing country specifically in this highly digitalized modern time. It indicates that the governor is carefully and studiedly inclined to the creation of a developmental state that is propelled by digitalism in a strong bid to catch up with, or rather to borrow possible leaves from the West and some Eastern states like China, Singapore, South Korea, etc.

In the context of a developing country, Governor Peter Mba's economic agenda is targeted at economic prosperity, progress, and development for Enugu State at a period the whole world is in a rat race for economic survival and advancement given various debilitating global economic crises and challenges. He aims for the maximum exploration and utilization of all known economic potentials of Enugu State in terms of both human and material resources. As an economic genius and natural go-getter, he believes in the possibility of indexing Enugu State as the most economically attractive state in Nigeria within the shortest possible time in his tenure. And I believe he can!

Tomorrow is here!

OKENWA CYRIL writes from Lagos.

Here's a glance at GOVERNOR UGWUANYI'S ROBUST TRIANGULAR EDUCATION LEGACY: A REALITY BEYOND PERORATION.

By Steve Oruruo

*“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people”* Chinese Proverb

The legendary South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, social commentator and prolific writer, Nelson Mandela once averred that *“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”*. Just like MALCOLM X opined that *"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it"*. The above submissions are unequivocal depictions of the pivotal place of education in the advancement of human civilization, life sustenance, and societal development. Beyond enabling upward socio-economic mobility towards nation building, education is the antidote to the debilitating effects of poverty and the fiercest driver of harmony and cooperation within and among nations. The above view was succinctly captured in candour by the great Thomas Jefferson *"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people......They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty"*. The incessant imbroglios, catastrophes and disenchantment which have defined Nigeria’s political cum leadership sphere over the last few decades are not disconnected from the nation’s pathetic educational ideologies which have bred defective systems, epileptic institutions and insipid workforce.

Consumed by greed, parochial inclinations, ethnic sentimentality and lust for power, some of Nigerian leaders appear to be on a mission to nourish illiteracy in order to perpetuate servitude and political apathy amongst the citizenry. An uneducated population share a common defeatist mentality, deserted of the fire and grit necessary to trigger revolutionary reforms, upturn exploitative systems and kick ignoble leaders to the curb. Apparently, Nigeria exudes the unmistakable trappings of a failing nation, significantly attributable to massive illiteracy propagated by a successive and wobbly leadership which views the people as pawns on a chessboard to be manipulated, rather than resources to be cherished and harnessed. Events emanating from all quarters of this country show that Nigerians are clearly tired of living in denial or watching, arms akimbo as their fundamental and cardinal institutions crumble. Interestingly, God is also watching with keen attention to land his hammer of justice. Every Nigerian is on trial as to which side of history he or she wishes to belong. No wonder, Chinua Achebe once opined that *"one of the truest test of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised"*.

The new Chinese nation, one whose sneeze sends the world into jitters, emerged on the backbone of education. During the reign of Deng Xiaoping, who is considered the “Architect of Modern China”, education was integrated as the foundation for the *‘Four Modernizations’* – modern agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology. The core message of Deng’s Outline of Education Reform and Development in China was *‘a strong nation lies in its education and a strong education lies in its teachers’.* Deng Xiaoping created a nation whose obsession with education permeated its fabrics and manifested in countless innovative strategies and action plans. By 2018, the adult (ages 15 and above) literacy rate in China had risen to 97%, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, a figure which dwarfs Nigeria’s corresponding 62%. Yet, while the entire country is gripped with the fear of another looming strike action in the education industry, a few leaders are tenaciously glued with spirited attempts at rediscovering the post Independence enthusiasm in the sector.

*Governor Ugwuanyi’s feats in Enugu’s education sector since 2015 replicate the Mandelian philosophy and mirror the Chinese experience, streamlined for the Nigerian context. Ever poised to maximally deliver dividends of democracy to Ndi Enugu, the former top-tier lawmaker has operated a regime-defining triangle; connecting education, leadership and the economy with several linkages of synergism. The triangle functions on the principle that education fuels economic prosperity through the training of the labour force and enabling systems for innovative research. On the other hand, education is the foremost facilitator of credible leadership recruitment. Not only does it endow a society with a limitless pool of reliable ballot-paper options, it fabricates an informed electorate that is sufficiently equipped with discernible impetus to see through the intrigues of the often-staged political circus and make sound election decisions.*

Infrastructural rebirth is at the epicenter of the resurgence masterminded by Governor Ugwuanyi in Enugu’s education sector. In the light of this, his regime has completed several infrastructural projects spanning all local government areas and levels of education in the state. The Ugwuanyi administration constructed, renovated and equipped 1001 classroom blocks and other school facilities under the Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board (ENSUBEB) led by Chief Ikeje Asogwa, an eccentric administrator with a deluge of leadership experience and unconventional achievements. It is unprecedented that in the 2020 fiscal year, ENSUBEB has paid counterpart funds for two different projects phases.

In addition to this, secondary schools across the six education zones of the Post Primary Schools Management Board (PPSMB) have benefited from construction and reconstruction of hundreds of classroom blocks, offices and hostels, and provision of key social infrastructure like boreholes. These were executed under the watch of the dynamic Chairman of the Board Barr. Nestor Ezema; a very unassuming, visionary and consummate technocrat. Furthermore, in line with the global trend of educational digitization operationalized via the infusion and integration of technology into teaching and learning, the Barr. Ezema-led PPSMB procured and supplied ICT tools and accessories to 215 public secondary schools, offices and zones in Enugu state to underline the unyielding resolve of the administration to rewrite the waning credentials of the sector.

At the tertiary level, Governor Ugwuanyi devised strategies that initiated and snowballed into extensive infrastructural development and upgrade of facilities in the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu. This was the primer for the consequent transitioning of IMT to a degree-awarding institution and recovery of hitherto-lost accreditation for several courses. Various infrastructural transformations are also evident in other state-owned institutions including the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), the Enugu State College of Education Technical (ESCET) and the Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo in Ezeagu LGA. The Ugwuanyi administration is currently constructing state-of-the-art administrative buildings of the first degree-awarding institution in Education in the South East zone, the Enugu State University of Education in Ihe, Awgu LGA. It is a generational legacy project whose impact will be felt across sectors of human endeavour and constitute the content of our proud history for posterity.

Governor Ugwuanyi has matched the proliferation of structures in numerous schools within Enugu state with the supply of indispensable accessories, instruments and equipment, creating a palatable narrative of reform in perfect totality. His administration procured and distributed 51,985 sets of teachers' and pupils' classroom tables, desks, chairs, books, instructional materials and sporting equipment, etc. to 1, 226 primary schools, 296 secondary and 38 technical, science and vocational schools in the 17 Local Government Areas of the State. Science equipment and computers have been supplied to over 200 secondary schools in the state to complement the reconstruction of Science laboratories; a key element of the administration’s comprehensive STEM-promotion strategy.

As schools in Enugu state are geared to reopen in the aftermath of the flattening of the COVID-19 curve, solid strategies have been put in place to recoup lost time and ensure the safety of school children in their academic environments. Under ENSUBEB, Chief Ikeje Asogwa saw to the fumigation of all 1, 230 public primary schools in Enugu state; and procured and distributed one thousand buckets, bowls and sanitizers, in compliance with all relevant COVID-19 protocols. The Board has also invested massively in continuous sensitization, workshops, trainings and capacity building of teachers to fortify them for the vagaries of the new normal and narrow the yawning but unfortunate chasm between the public and private schools.

Contrary to the persisting realities in other climes, teachers are not unsung heroes in Governor Ugwuanyi’s regime; rather, they are the major protagonists in his epoch-making narrative, with whom he enjoys a cordial relationship and shares a common bond of solidarity. Over 5000 primary and secondary school teachers have been recruited and dispersed to all the education zones in the Ugwuanyi era. Also, existing 1000 volunteer teachers were converted to permanent staff while outstanding arrears of promotion were released.

As far as remuneration goes, teachers in Enugu state receive their salaries on or before the 24th day of every month and continue to enjoy the uncommon annual 13th month salary, a tradition which stemmed from the governor’s honorary verdict on the immortal profession. All these are without prejudice to subsidized housing schemes for civil servants/ teachers that graced the Governor's first term .

Raging to see all indigenes of Enugu state access quality education, Governor Ugwuanyi has deployed the instrument of scholarships as bulldozers to dismantle boulders of financial obstacles besieging the less privileged. In the words of PERICLES *"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others"*. Through the Enugu State Scholarship Board, hundreds of Ndi Enugu have been awarded scholarships worth millions of naira; as such dimming hopes have been rekindled and cracks of broken dreams mended. This is in spite of the steadily declining allocations accruable to the state and lean internally generated resources, occasioned by the recession which heralded the Ugwuanyi regime and the notorious COVID-19 pandemic. The list of beneficiaries, cutting across all local governments and levels of education in the state, is endless. They include: 38 students of Imilike Inland primary School and Ozoduru Esther Uchenna in Ikolo Community School: 340 indigent students of Iwollo Polytechnic and 340 indigent students of IMT, Enugu;

Furthermore, Governor Ugwuanyi’s administration offered 300 indigent Enugu students spread across the country, scholarships covering 2nd year to final year. Also 22 indigent Enugu students were sent by the Governor to study medical courses in India. Not less than 246 Law School students received one hundred thousand naira bursary allowance to ease the financial pressure on them and their sponsors. One Miss Ali who came first in WAEC SSCE and another Miss Nneoma who was maltreated by her guardians, were awarded scholarships to university level. There are several other brilliant and first class scholars destined for Cambridge and other international universities courtesy of the Governor's current efforts.

The industry, experience and character of Governor Ugwuanyi’s trusted adjutant, Barr. Levi Abonyi who is the Executive Secretary of the Scholarship Board, has cultivated innovative problem-solving approaches to modern educational challenges. This is exemplified by the launching of a robust application, Enugu Scholarship Access App, which is a one-stop shop for all scholarship opportunities in the world. The app will ensure that Enugu indigenes receive timely and relevant information regarding scholarship applications, and guides for accessing them. The state’s scholarship strategy is multifaceted - in addition to direct scholarships from the government, indigenes are primed to take advantage of the avalanche of other opportunities, nationally and globally. The number of persons captured may still be a far cry to the number of persons on the waiting list. But those already studying in different academic environments are being well connected into the realm of intellectual property and discipline. And GEORGE WASHINGTON succinctly embellished his take on Discipline when he reasoned that *"Discipline is the soul of an Army: it makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak and esteem to all"*

Only two days ago, the principal of Urban Girls Secondary School, Enugu Mrs Chioma Ebue made the state proud in the 2020 edition of President's Teachers and Schools Excellence Award held at the Eagles Square Abuja to commemorate this year's teachers day celebration. She was decorated as the 1st runner-up best administrator in public school category in Nigeria. The above feat is an unequivocal testament of Governor Ugwuanyi's unflappable commitment to the education sector.

Governor Ugwuanyi’s reforms in the education sector of Enugu state, has already yielded a bumper harvest of both short-term and long-term dividends. It came as no surprise that Model Secondary School, Nsukka won the 2019 President’s Teachers and Schools Excellence Award. This was as conveyed by the Director, Education Support Department, on behalf of the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu. The Nsukka-based school was ranked the best public secondary school in Nigeria, on several assessment indicators including infrastructure, E-library, quality teaching and learning. The state is on course to attaining the education targets of the Sustainable Development Goals under a gentle but highly proficient Commissioner, Prof Uche Eze, whose conduct on the saddle has been both magnificently professional and evidently professorial. The standard of education in Enugu's urban, suburban and rural areas is on a progressive rise. With the governor’s continuing efforts, the potential of Enugu’s economy is endless and the leaders of tomorrow are guaranteed quality intensive training, critical for navigating the challenges of governance in the 21st century.

Steve Oruruo is the Special Adviser to the Governor on Information.

By Steve Oruruo.

Breaking with decades of unjust political norms and traditions, urban-centric exhibitionism and empty rhetoric, Governor Ugwuanyi without any equivocation, has made a quantum leap at reshaping the rural-urban narrative in Enugu State. Communities at the grassroots are now being integrated into the political and economic spine of the State, on an unprecedented scale, ending years of systematic exclusion. The rural merchant, subsistence farmer or civil servant now has at his disposal an array of infrastructural and socio-economic imperatives with incentives to provide for his household and expand his portfolio. Rural kids are receiving quality education which stands them in equal stead with their counterparts in the urban metropolis.

*Rural-urban chasm, a seemingly intractable global challenge, is being bridged in Enugu State at an uncommon pace. All thanks to the ingenuity of His Excellency Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi, who is raising the bar for governments and political leaders in Nigeria and beyond. For decades, the political elites have operated on two retrogressive canons of democratic feudalism - wanton looting of our common treasury and mimicking phantoms of development in the metropolis in which they and their cronies cavort and frolic. The rural dwellers are thus invariably left in an isolated world where trickles of their rightful share of our common patrimony agonizingly dry up en-route . But is economic growth a function of the wealth of our few rulers or the general wellbeing of the poorer majority? The answer inexorably places an irreversible guilt on the ruling hegemony.*

*Therefore, rural neglect is a perennial sore in Nigeria, festered by years of misrule, crass absolutism, sharp practices, nonfeasance, intellectual dishonesty and elitist deceit. Despite constituting almost half of the national population (48%), according to data sourced from the World Bank, the rural populace remains largely ostracized from the socio-political mainstream and condemned to scraps from the national cake, which is even far-fetched. Governor Ugwuanyi is challenging this repugnant status quo with a motivation driven from his antecedents as a kid from the grassroots who had the audacity to dream big in defiance of the odds stacked against him and his ilk, his devotedness to the Almighty God, natural sense of social justice and somewhat iconoclastic courage. For his entire eminent political career, he has remained a staunch advocate of egalitarianism and a vehement voice for the voiceless. His enduring goodwill and engraved empathy towards the poorer majority, which inspired the Nrashi coinage, endears him to his people and stands him out as a leader with an interventionist conscience of hope. Truly, the Ugwuanyi regime arrived on the heels of an astronomical and unrivalled history of permeating sense of benevolence; accentuating an engraved and pervasive assurance of succour to the underprivileged. A feat already reasonably fulfilled.*

It came as no surprise then, that upon claiming the reins at the Lion Building in 2015, the Ugwuanyi administration wasted no minute in launching a comprehensive grassroots development campaign, targeting most of the rural terrains in every local government area of the state. He aggressively sought to re-balance the skewed rural-urban scale, thereby righting generational wrongs, and establishing new conventions of political inclusivity.

*This rural development agenda seeks to re-balance the scale and spate of egregious rural-urban migration. Buoyed by the Governor's philosophy of leadership rectitude, probity, equity and inclusivity, the drive for the elevation of rural life has been multi-sectoral, opening up new vistas of economic growth and human empowerment in even the remotest of terrains. The fruits of his administration’s massive grassroots development efforts are evident in all sectors of human endeavour, encompassing every facet of the economy. Targeted investments, tailored to community-specific needs, have cut across asphalted road networks, pipe-borne water provision, electrical power, healthcare facilities, education, agriculture, and industry. As a result, the micro-economies of small towns and villages all over the state, which were isolated and asphyxiated , have been revitalized and connected to the urban nerve centre. To aver that the barest thrust of a good government is easily the welfare of the majority is not only axiomatic but a recycled truism.*

Some of the roads built by the Ugwuanyi administration to alleviate the various prongs of economic maladies afflicting rural climes, include: the newly constructed/rehabilitated Amufie Road-Local Government Roundabout-Japan Road-Umuida road; the 12km Opi-Nsukka dual carriageway; Ebonyi River Bridge, Ikem; 31km Udenu Ring road with two high-tech bridges; the 8.8km Nkalagu-Eha-Amufu road which was neglected for over 35 years; the 26.66km Ukpabi-Nimbo-Ugbene Ajima-Eziani road in Uzo-Uwani LGA (RAMP-2); the 22.443km Neke-Mbu-Ogbodu Aba-Obollo Etiti inter-community road linking Isi-Uzo and Udenu LGAs (RAMP-2); the Amaeke-Ngwo-Nsude-9th Mile and Amankwo-Amaeke-Amah Brewery Junction-9th Mile bypasses in Udi LGA; the 8.2km Inyi-Akpugoeze road in Oji River LGA; the ‘miraculous’ Amechi bridge linking Awkunanaw communities in Enugu South LGA; Enugu Road (Nsukka) Junction-Umuezebi-Nru Junction-University Gate road; Ituku Road in Awgu LGA; Orie Market-Nkwo Ida-Afor Inyire road; Ndiagu Akpugo and Amurri roads in Nkanu West LGA. But it's the 2.85km last Bus-stop( Abakpa Nike)- Nkwo Nike Junction Road in Enugu East Local Government Area newly reconstructed by the Ugwuanyi administration to strategically divert traffic from the ongoing construction of the first Enugu State Government's flyover bridge that bears repetitions of the Governor's unwavering intent to ameliorate the sufferings of the masses.

Others constructed in joint sponsorship with Rural Access and Mobility Project -2 (RAMP-2) include: Premier Junction – Umabor – Mbu Road in Eha-Alumona; Umaji-Umuida Road, Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area; Ihe-Ogbaku rural access road in Awgu LGA; Neke – Eha Amufu bypass across the thick forest of Umualor Community; the 16km Eha-Ulo/Eha-Etiti/Eha-Ndiagu-Mbu road; and Premier Junction – Umabor – Mbu road.

The quality of education at the grassroots in Enugu State has also been upgraded by the Ugwuanyi regime to the taste of urban standards through infrastructural renaissance and a string of other reforms. Several buildings have been constructed and rehabilitated for use as classrooms, offices, and science laboratories. Thousands of accessories critical for effective teaching and learning, including chairs, lockers, marker boards, ceiling fans, computers, and science equipment, were procured and distributed to all the rural education zones in the state. On even loftier frontiers, the first degree-awarding institution in Education in the South East, the Enugu State University of Education, is under construction on the rural landscape of Ihe, Awgu LGA. Also, the Ugwuanyi administration through relentless advocacy attracted the siting of a new federal polytechnic at Ohodo Igbo-etiti LGA.

*Indeed, Governor Ugwuanyi has tremendously revamped the education sector. These days when the glitz, trappings and the alluring glamour of the entertainment industry and politics appear to have visibly eclipsed intellect, it is so refreshing to see an emerging generation from the hitherto marginalized spectrum of the geographical divide, embrace the offer of a golden opportunity to restore some kind of mental parity and hoist a deeply ingrained and firmly entrenched academic foundation.*

Part of several interventions in the judicial sector by the Ugwuanyi regime include; the construction of the first Enugu State Customary Court of Appeal Headquarters Complex; establishment of Multi-Door Court House in Enugu, renovation of the State Judiciary Headquarters Complex and construction of several other court buildings across the rural, suburban and urban landscapes in the State. *All these laudable projects were not only delivered to buttress the government's commitment to the Rule of Law and to uninhibitedly accentuate a Judicial system trademarked with inalienable freedom; they go further to signpost the Governor's awareness that social justice flows more from the estuary of judicial activities than from the firth of religious crusades.*

New realities are also undeniably emerging in the health sector of rural communities. Governor Ugwuanyi has constructed and renovated several district hospitals and health centres. Life-saving policies such as immunization and the Free Maternal and Child Health Programme have been sustained and expanded to accommodate every concerned rural dweller. Some of the infrastructural projects currently ongoing in the rural health sector include: 200-bed Specialist Hospital, Igbo Ano, affiliated to the ESUT College of Medicine being instituted in Nsukka, and the construction of 7 units of Type 3 Primary Health Care Centre in 7 rural LGAs. Upgrade and rehabilitation of general hospitals, including the General Hospital Ogrute, Enugu Ezike and Nsukka District Hospital, now near completion. Early in 2021, a free health care initiative for the elderly in rural communities - a highly vulnerable demographic - was launched in Enugu State.

Challenges facing security of lives and properties in the rural areas have been tackled by the Ugwuanyi administration through the institution of a 1,700-personnel Forest Guards empowered with hundreds of motorcycles and bicycles, repositioning of the Vigilante/Neighbourhood Watch Groups, and construction of new facilities for security operatives in the state including the 76 Mobile Force Squadron at Ekwebge, Igbo-Etiti LGA. Likewise, agriculture – the mainstay of the rural economy – has been boosted through strategic policies and projects. Approval was given and counterpart funds paid for the establishment of two World Bank projects, namely IFAD and APPEALS programme for women and youth agricultural empowerment. Also, over 20 tractors have been purchased to promote mechanized agriculture to automate processes and enhance productivity. The 5,000-seater ultramodern Nsukka Township Stadium, which is almost completed, as well as one motorized and seven solar-powered water boreholes constructed in some rural courts and markets, further exemplify Governor Ugwuanyi’s unflagging resolve to multi-faceted grassroots development.

*The hallmarks of Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s era - pacesetting, inventiveness, and inclusivity have crystallized a glut of achievements across all sectors of the economy, which are instigating ripples of change rifling through all socioeconomic echelons of the South East region and the nation at large. By successfully tackling the rural-urban bias in Enugu State, which had outlasted previous political dispensations and regimes, Rt. Hon. Ugwuanyi has demonstrated the might of political will and set uncommon precedents that will shape electoral decisions and leadership agenda in the state and Nigeria for many decades to come.*

For the first time in the history of Enugu State, rural dwellers are no longer considered as mere disposable appendages, but rather and rightfully so, indispensable part and parcel of society, and treated as such. Hopefully, this legacy of the inimitable Ugwuanyi regime will serve as working template for succeeding regimes, to ensure that deliverables of governance continue to reach every nook and cranny of the Wawa clime without bias or inhibition.

STEVE ORURUO -is the Special Adviser to the Governor of Enugu State on Information.

ENUGU'S MAY 29: A SPOTLIGHT ON UGWUANYI’S SIX YEARS OF NONPAREIL GOVERNANCE.

Until June 6, 2018 when the President Buhari-led administration declared June 12 as the new Democracy Day, Nigeria commemorated the restoration of Democracy on the 29th of May, every year. That day celebrates the solemn and remarkable rebirth of our participatory leadership, to honour the courageous heroes who altruistically championed and chaperoned the noble course of our cherished freedom, with famed fiestas, and critical discourses on statehood. The declaration of June 12 as the new Democracy Day in honour and memory of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola GCFR, notwithstanding, May 29 is still special, not only for nostalgic sentimentalities or because it is sometimes a date with effluxion of term, tenure, or both, but also because it remains the day for unavoidable introspection, unforced accountability, inward regeneration, inquests on performance, probity in governance, rectitude and finally, a testament on the real patrimony and mood of the citizenry.

*The only thing that is worse than being blind is having sight without vision"*--- *These evocative words of HELLEN KELLER, an American scholar and philosopher could not have been more revealing of the country's inexplicable profligacy despite the enormity of her human and natural resources; culminating in the frittering of golden and yawning opportunities to internalize and accentuate the solid foundations that had been institutionalized by our heroes past. Unfortunately, Nigeria still exudes the unmistakable trappings of a failing Nation, sandwiched by ethnic chauvinism and religious bigotry on one side, and of course engraved corruption, inherited mistrust and sweeping insecurity on the other. In all, the people like the proverbial grass, suffer under the lumbering, slumbering elephants.*

Driven by the enduring impact of an elongated struggle, Pro-democracy elements in the country have commemorated the date May 29, as if it were a vent for the yearnings for democratic rebirth.

Paradoxically, majority of those in power today, are either those who backed and profited from military authoritarian rule or those who were hiding in the comfort of their homes when Pro-Democrats ruled the streets and the media space in peaceful and sustained protest against widespread violations of the rights of Nigerians by the military. Their action and inaction have curiously devalued and violated this democratic essence, thereby emasculating the public space and engendering widespread poverty and underdevelopment in the midst of plenty.

*So, today provides us an ex-cathedra opportunity to review the state of our democracy under the incumbent state actors.Under these intense circumstances and the rising crescendo of disapproval by the masses, emerges the courage to dignify some Leaders who are defiantly ignoring sacrifices for self, in search of sacrifices of self, for the good of the rest of us.*

It was on this 29th day of May, in 2015 that Governor Ifeanyichukwu Lawrence Ugwuanyi for the first time, willfully and conscientiously entered into a social contract with Ndi Enugu, swearing to preserve our cherished socio-cultural heritage, sustain our sense of pride, and steer Enugu towards the vista of a new epoch. It marked the beginning of an epic chapter in the history journals of the state.

At that time, Enugu was deeply mired in dire financial straits, pummeled by dwindling federal allocations, poor internally generated revenue (IGR) and caught in the whirlwind of a national economic recession exacerbated by drastic decline in crude oil price. Governor Ugwuanyi boldly embraced the challenges head-on. Instead of cowering or resigning to fate, he set out to reinvent and re-strategize. He found uncommon inspiration and energy in his sworn commitment to enduring peace and sustained development, employment generation for the teeming youths, aggressive rural development, security, and all-round good governance. Four years later in 2019, Ndi Enugu defied all the encumbrances and the political tensions to vehemently pass a concordant, resounding vote of confidence on Governor Ugwuanyi, by delivering a historic victory to him at the gubernatorial polls.

*Governor Ugwuanyi’s impact was first felt in the political climate, system, and institutions when he began to synergize priorities and interest, reconcile foes, forge new bonds, cultivate a sustainable culture of peace and trigger a new wave of youth inclusiveness in the political leadership trajectory. He successfully sold the vision of a united Enugu to the political elites, engendering conciliation and fostering goodwill. He demystified politics of dynasties; throwing the doors open for the privileged and ordinary men alike who had the motivation and content to deliver, regardless of socio-cultural background, religion, orientation, and inclinations. This has perhaps set up a seeming parity in competitive survival; a clear departure from the routine elitist deceit and intellectual dishonesty that had previously massaged the whims of political correctness. Governor Ugwuanyi set off a chain of initiatives and strategies to cut the cost of governance, plug loopholes of misappropriation, and systematically grow Enugu’s IGR profile.*

The outcomes of Governor Ugwuanyi’s creative strategies, shrewdness, prudence, and painstaking efforts are unambiguously manifest even to the unrepentant brotherhood of naysayers. In 2019, Enugu was ranked 9th out of 36 states and the FCT, in terms of IGR performance. In Enugu state, politics is no longer the exclusive prerogative and cash cow of the Lords of the Manor. Diversification has been given an unconventionally practical interpretation, with massive investments yielding tremendous returns in sectors such as tourism, and commerce and industry. The successful organization of the globally acclaimed first Enugu Investment Summit in concert with several other initiatives put Enugu on the global business map. Consequently, Enugu State leapfrogged from its 2014 World Bank Ease of Doing Business ranking as 27th out of 36 states, including FCT Abuja, to 2nd in Ease of Starting Business and 3rd in Ease of Doing Business in the 2018 World Bank Ease of Doing Business sub-national ranking. Also, the Lion Business park, an integrated industrial/commercial hub driven by public-private partnership initiative, was just recently unveiled, to further promote businesses in the state.

*Rural renaissance was central to Governor Ugwuanyi’s robust development agenda from the get-go, alongside urban renewal. He has consciously discountenanced with the naive and parochial misconception that development can only be viewed to have been firmly accomplished only if assessed via the tainted prism and warped precincts of a recycled metropolitan redevelopment.*

*Unrelenting in his quest to rebalance the skewed scale of the urban/rural contrast, the Ugwuanyi phenomenon has charted new territories, connected communities, established economic-oriented rural/urban linkages, and lifted the typical rural personnel from the shadows of the traumatic and inglorious abandonment of the past to the springs of Olympian heights.*

From the first state government asphalted road with solar-powered street lights in Ohodo to the 12km Ugwuomu Nike-Go Uni Road; from the valleys of the Milliken Hill to Opi Nsukka dual carrieageway; from Ebonyi River bridge Ikem to the bridges in Udenu ring roads; from Iva Valley road in Enugu North LGA to Nkalagu-Eha Amufu road neglected for over 35 years; from Ukpabi-Nimbo-Ugbene Ajima-Eziani road to Neke-Mbu-Ogbodu Aba-Obollo Etiti inter-community road linking Isiuzo and Udenu LGAs; from Inyi-Akpugoeze road in Oji River LGA to Ituku road in Awgu LGA and down to Amurri road in Nkanu West LGA to mention but a few, Governor Ugwuanyi has reintegrated the hinterlands into the affairs and benefits of governance through infrastructural rebirth and multispectral socioeconomic easements. The ultramodern Nsukka Township Stadium project currently under construction is expected to be completed before the end of the year. In his urban/rural dual-frontier approach, construction of the first flyover bridge project is currently ongoing at Nike Lake/T Junction in Enugu East Local Government Area, to provide reprieve from long-standing traffic congestion.

The now abating COVID-19 pandemic which ravaged the world and made a mockery of global superpowers met a resilient health sector in Enugu State, the fallout of a series of sound strategic decisions and rigorous investments by the Ugwuanyi administration. The ultra-modern Diagnostic Centre inherited from the previous administration was completed and equipped in time to function as a COVID-19 Isolation and Treatment centre, complementing two other centres in ESUT Teaching Hospital and Nsukka. In addition to massive reconstruction, new structures were erected at the acquired Colliery Hospital, Enugu, which operates as the biggest Infectious Disease Isolation and Treatment Centre east of the Niger. The construction of 7 units of Type 3 Primary Health Care Centre in 7 LGAs nears completion, true to Governor Ugwuanyi’s unalloyed commitment to total recovery. Enugu was among the first states to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine in the country, typical of the governor’s rapid and strategic response to the pandemic.

*Governor Ugwuanyi has not only invested in Enugu’s future through employment generation, but he has also revamped the education sector. These days when the glitz and alluring glamour of politics appear to have eclipsed intellect, it is so refreshing to see an emerging generation from this side of the geopolitical divide, with a profound penchant and flair not only for esotericism but also for science and technology.*

Scholarships have been offered to 680 indigent Engineering students of Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo and the Institute of Management Technology, Enugu. Only 3 days ago, about 7 Enugu youths were selected to go to US sequel to the mentorship programme unveiled by Governor Ugwuanyi through the State Scholarship and Education Loan Board (ESSELB) anchored by the young and dynamic Executive Secretary of Scholarship Board Barr. Levi Eboyi and his colleague Dr Kelechi Ugwuanyi of the mentors council. The State has secured both the admissions and scholarships of the aforesaid persons with full funding. As it currently
stands, more that 1,400 verifiable projects have been executed in various primary and secondary schools across the 17 Local Government Areas of the State under ENSUBEB and PPSMB. Over 7000 primary and secondary school teachers have been recruited with an additional 1000 existing volunteers converted. Also, several classroom blocks, offices, laboratories, and hostels have been constructed, renovated, and equipped.

At the tertiary level, through consistent infrastructural and human resource development, the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) under the watchful but dexterous chairmanship of Deaconess Mrs Ifeoma Nwobodo, transitioned into a degree-awarding institution and recovered hitherto-lost accreditation for several courses. Other state-owned institutions including the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu State College of Education Technical (ESCET) and Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo, have also seen their pedigrees elevated through uncommon transformations.

*Being a government of many historic firsts, the Ugwuanyi administration is constructing the first degree-awarding institution in Education in the South East zone, the Enugu State University of Education in Ihe, Awgu LGA, with supersonic speed. A new campus of the recently decentralized Enugu State University of Science and Technology is under construction in Enugu North Senatorial Zone, with the speedy erection of a world-class ESUT Teaching Hospital and College of Medicine in Igbo-Eno. Through Governor Ugwuanyi’s influence and relentless advocacy, a Federal Polytechnic has just been established and sited in Ohodo, Igbo-etiti Local Government Area.*

The Ugwuanyi administration has jealously guarded Enugu’s historic reputation as one of the most secure states in the Federation and stayed ahead of emerging dynamics, through intentional and strategic re-jigging of the security architecture. The government procured and donated 100 units of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) patrol van with communication gadgets to security agencies in the state. Enugu was the first to implement the Forest Guards initiative in the South East geo-political zone with Governor Ugwuanyi empowering the 1,700-personnel brigade with 260 motorcycles, 300 bicycles and other appurtenances.

Cautiously aware that social justice flows from the estuary of Judicial activities than from the firth of religious crusades, Governor Ugwuanyi has uninhibitedly accentuated a Judicial system in Enugu state trademarked with inalienable independence, robust infrastructure, unquestionable competencies, untainted probity, unscathed transparency, glaring incorruptibility and unflagging commitment to rule of law, due process, rectitude, enduring peace, and sustainable orderliness. This comes on the heels of several interventions such as the construction of the first Enugu State Customary Court of Appeal Headquarters complex, establishment of Multi-Door Court House in Enugu, renovation of the State Judiciary Headquarters complex and construction of several other court buildings across the rural, suburban, and urban landscapes in the state.

Governor Ugwanyi has remained an advocate of agriculture, not only to guarantee food sufficiency but also to boost the agrarian economy. Enugu has witnessed in the Ugwuanyi era the greatest agricultural reform since its creation nearly three decades ago. The administration has provided low-interest loans and grants to agripreneurs, approved the establishment of two World Bank projects, namely IFAD and APPEALS programmes for which it regularly pays counterpart funds, and launched the Coal City Rice, a commodity which remains in high demand in the entire South East and beyond. Thousands of women and youths have been empowered through various initiatives such as the Enugu State Traders Empowerment Scheme and the United Nations’
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Just recently, Tech Hubs and Youth Innovation Centers were inaugurated by the governor at Independence Layout, Enugu North LGA and Obollo Afor, Udenu LGA, to empower the youths with in-demand skills of the 21st century digital economy.

On the housing and water supply frontiers, Governor Ugwuanyi has left structural legacies such as the rehabilitated facilities at Ajali and Oji River Water treatment schemes, ongoing rehabilitation of the 9th Mile Crash Programme Water Supply Scheme, and the numerous housing projects initiated and completed in response to deficits arising from the steady influx of people into the state.

Under the governor’s watch, Enugu regained its pride of place in national and global sports, with Rangers International, the flagship sigil or terra-sigillata of our post-war resilience, the symbol of our collective bravery and a movement of our fraternity, winning the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and the Unity League Federation Cup (Challenge Cup ) titles in the 2015/2016 and 2017/ 2018 seasons, after 32 and 35 years of inglorious wait, respectively.

The past six years of Governor Ugwuanyi’s leadership has been the cynosure of the Wawa narrative in its nearly 30-year history as a template for prodigies worthy of replication. The impact of governance has been felt from the highbrow metropolis to the rural fringes, manifest in a complete revamp of critical sectors and infrastructural rebirth across the rural and urban terrains. Governor Ugwuanyi has also reprogrammed Enugu’s political landscape, using his leadership acumen, sagacity, and divine gift of diplomacy to close the chapter on political elitism, electoral violence, unnecessary schism and mindless killings. The Ugwuanyi regime will forever be remembered for its pro-people priorities and policy thrusts, which have restored hope and put the state on the path to irreversible prosperity; thus deepening ENUGU IN THE HANDS OF GOD!


STEVE ORURUO is the Special Adviser to the Governor of Enugu State on Information

heniford2:
The man Ugwuanyi is a failure in and out had it been he did what Sullivan did in Enugu just half imagine how enugu would look like now what he knows is usually wearing white saying Enugu is in the hands of God

What do you know about Enugu State? Do you stay in any of the 17 Local Government Areas of the State? Closer attention should have put you in order.

What do you know about Enugu State? Do you stay in any of the 17 Local Government Areas of the State? A closer attention should have put you in order.

ECHOES OF NIGERIAN TRAVAILS @ 60 AND GOVERNOR UGWUANYI'S SILENT STRIDES

Sixty long years after gaining Independence from the protracted shackles of British colonialism, Nigeria remains a nation gasping for breath aboard a ship in the foggy horizon of turbulence despite all the spirited efforts from one administration to the other. Still trapped in the debilitating matrix of neo-colonialism and bedevilled by the hideous monsters of ethnocentric jingoism, religious bigotry, flailing institutions, ideological vacuity, economic malaise, indiscriminate killings and social instability, Nigeria at 60 should be justifiably headlined by a sombre reflection rather than fireworks ripping across the skies. Perhaps, it is the seemingly insurmountable deficits in governance, from the post-independence republic through the military interregnums to the current political dispensation that epitomize our multidimensional catastrophes.

In the words of the literary sage, social critic and activist Chinua Achebe, _"The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership."_ Uninterruptedly across six decades, not only have some corrupt elements within the political class remorselessly embezzled our common patrimony, they have weakened the beacons of our nation’s democratic institutions, robbed the people of their dignity, jeopardized our economic potentials, squandered our collective prospects, and eroded the cherished values integral to our proud African heritage.

The socioeconomic class polarity in Nigeria portrays a deepening chasm between the haves and the have-nots; overlords and serfs, political gladiators and minions; the privileged and the downtrodden caught in an unmatched battle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Millions of our people who are born into destitution in the midst of unharnessed resources, misappropriated wealth and needless wastages, see their chances of a dignified living slide into the oblivion of hopelessness with every setting of the tropical sun. The Nigerian humanity is hence defaced by a spectre of suffering, malnutrition, diseases, injustices, depression, suicide and preventable deaths. Such agonizing imbalance is also manifest in the rural-urban contrast.

After decades of being afforded the rare privilege of fresh starts, the nation remains several light-years away from attaining political freedom, security of lives and properties, civil liberties, press freedom, electoral sanctity, practical egalitarianism, and inclusive economic sustainability. Insurgency which has survived three regimes consecutively and claimed thousands of lives, continues unabated while increasingly assuming dangerous political undertones and nomenclature; culminating into Boko Haram, armed banditry, kidnapping, wanton annihilation of human lives, and roguery of diverse dimensions. If answers have not been provided for the repeated massacre of tens of security personnel attached to the convoy of a serving Governor, what becomes the fate of the masses in total consternation as fear and terror run a giant of a nation ragged? The rights of the people to self-determination over the years are flagrantly subjugated through the abuse of political power and horrendous shades of electoral fraud in spite of the frantic attempts by the present administration to curb the menace. Yet, INEC's performance in Edo State Gubernatorial election in conjunction with the unshaken resolve of the electorate remains a glimmer of hope. Some quarters of the Fifth Estate, entrusted with the mandate of curbing the excesses of leaders, are utterly compromised and often recruited as leprous arms of repressive cum insipid political regimes.

Still operating a monolithic economy since the advent of oil exploration, the Nation, 60 years after Independence, reels on the throes of economic recession, deficit balance of trade, regular astronomical hikes in fuel price, outrageous electricity tariffs, and unstable commodity markets; no thanks to the ravaging and debilitating effects of the pandemic mixed with human error. As at June 2020, Nigeria’s total debt stock, both foreign and domestic, stood at an appalling 31.01 trillion naira. In what defines anomaly, only about 19% of this debt load has been invested in infrastructural development; the rest have been funnelled into recurrent expenses. A new proposed Chinese loan of $5.3 billion for the Ibadan-Kano railway is still a subject of nationwide scepticism and contention, for its potentially enslaving clauses that raise national sovereignty concerns. Nigeria already owes China about $3.1 billion, more than 10% of the $27.6 billion external debt stock, many of which we will be servicing till around 2038. We are rapidly creeping back into the dungeon of colonization, disguised in contemporary times as unserviceable indebtedness. We are already borrowing the future of our generation unborn. Then who will pay? Certainly not those who are old and may be logically set to leave the political stage any moment from now, rather the younger ones who have no say in the leadership of today and out of school without a white collar job. These are the links to part of the massive and unbridled crime rate staring at all of us today.

As a people, have we honoured the painstaking labour of our heroes past who doggedly championed and chaperoned our independence or have we condemned their unmitigated commitment and industry to the bottomless doldrums of vanity, in stark contradiction to the proclamation of the national anthem? Those radical icons, activists, liberal minds, eccentric thinkers, true patriots and socialists were united above ethno-religious alignments and primordial sentiments, to liberate the most populous nation in Africa from the manacles of the British feudal lords. They were committed to nationalism and democratization geared towards nation building. Today, persisting realities are at odds with antecedent projections; our democracy and political institutions remain infantile and feeble; leadership integrity is rarer than astatine; to quote Chinua Achebe's immortal masterpiece, _Things fall apart._ In the most recent 2020 Fragile States Index, powered by The Fund for Peace, Nigeria is ranked 14th, only above volatile hotspots like Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Congo (Democratic Republic), Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Burundi and Haiti. This indexes what is our voluminous compendium of woes and degeneracy negligently incurred from one regime to another.

The nation continues to fall short of modest expectations, in even the most critical sectors of the economy. For instance, aggregating the pathetic fact that 47% of Nigerians do not have access to grid electricity, the economic cost of power shortages in Nigeria according to World Bank is estimated at around $28 billion, equivalent to 2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Even with daily electricity generation stalled at an insufficient average of 3,600 megawatts (MW), the electricity tariff was increased from 30.23 Naira per kwh (kilowatt unit of energy per hour) to as much as 62.33 Naira per kwh, a compounding burden on the impoverished masses. The education sector, which should be the mitochondrion of economic development, catalyst for credible leadership recruitment and chaperone of digital evolution, has not received deserved attention. In the 2020 appropriation bill, as if in conformity with the precedence since 1999 till the last administration, only 6.7 percent of the budget (671.07 billion naira) was allocated to education, a far cry from UNESCO’s benchmark of 26% of the national budget or 6% of the gross domestic product, GDP. With 10.5 million children out of school, Nigeria has approximately 20% of the total out-of-school children population in the world.

The electorate, the masses; victims of maladministration must speak the truth to the volume and vortex. The people must rise up in support and constructive criticism to spur governments at various levels into optimal performance. Nigerians should not reduce themselves to a generation of impotent and lachrymal people now weeping about "bad governments" and rueing our historical standing without first rejigging the regressive strategies of apathy, indolence, docility and all shades of criminalities. It is a kind of nostalgia that is both deadly and defeatist because it continues to romanticize the past while the future speeds away. We must not forget to appraise our leaning as to whether we are on the side of positive resistance to enthrone functional institutions with patriotic citizenry or part of the gruesome and installmental decimation of all historical heritage of our fatherland.
It is a brazen incongruity to watch a very informed populace, led by her inferior and still maintain a deafening silence while democracy is routinely eviscerated by a bunch of characters riding on the crest of the electorate's ignominious acquiescence.

("Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber" - PLATO

This is a debacle that places guilt on all of us. Therefore, under trial is not only the quality of our Government or leadership models, but that of our citizenship too.

It is thus apt that on this 60th commemoration of a historic milestone, we congratulate all the leaders who are the embodiment of the visions, values and character of our founding fathers. Steadfastly committed to the philosophy and ideals that underlay the Independence movement, His Excellency Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi remains the epitome of progressive leadership; a proponent of political probity, accountability, integrity, credibility, ingenuity and transparency.

In 2015, through the instrumentality of victory at a gubernatorial election, Governor Ugwuanyi entered into a social contract with Ndi Enugu, sending signals of reinvigorated hope, unprecedented tranquillity and sustained growth to the people. He committed himself to enhanced social services, good governance; rural development; employment generation, security and justice. Ndi Enugu renewed their implacable trust in the personality of the Governor by delivering a resoundingly flawless mandate to him at the 2019 polls; thus imbibing in His Excellency a robust impetus to further stretch the frontiers of good governance.

For the five brilliant years he has been in office, Governor Ugwuanyi has wilfully donned the toga of all encompassing peace, frightening honesty, judicious management of taxpayers’ money, accountability and ascription of relevance on all persons no matter how lowly placed. In spite of the dire financial straits which heralded the beginning of his two terms, he has skilfully grown the IGR profile of Enugu state through curbing of unnecessary expenditures, plugging loopholes of misappropriation, diversifying the economy and diligent removal of bureaucratic duplicity. He has fostered goodwill and imbued conciliation across the socio-political spectrum.

The governor has constantly acknowledged the civil service as the kernel of his government and indispensable stakeholders in potent leadership. No wonder he invented and sustained the culture of paying salaries on or before the 24th of every month and the novel additional 13th month salary. His government’s promptness in implementing the New National Minimum Wage depicts his unflappable commitment to this pool of extremely resourceful, very dedicated and consummate workforce.

The most recent credible indices show that Enugu is one of the safest states in Nigeria; a reward of Governor Ugwuanyi’s deliberate, assiduous and strategic efforts at rejigging the state’s security architecture in resonance with rapidly-evolving dynamics. In discharge of his constitutional responsibility to secure lives, properties and interests, considered primary by our nation’s founding fathers and as the Chief Security Officer of the state, Governor Ugwuanyi has been investing massively to sustain Enugu’s thriving amity. It is no longer news that he procured and donated 100 units of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) patrol vans with communication gadgets to security agencies in the state; instituted and enabled the pioneering 1,700-personnel Forest Guards and repositioned the Vigilante/Neighbourhood Watch groups in the state.

Governor Ugwuanyi’s rural development agenda is systematically rebalancing the scale of the discriminatory rural-urban contrast. He has wilfully discountenanced with the parochial misconception that development can only be justified to have been achieved if weighed via the precincts of urban renewal. In his regime, rural communities have been remembered with basic social amenities; new territories charted; villages connected; and economic-oriented rural-urban linkages established. The governor’s rural development agenda has been in measured sync with his urban renewal goal, both coalescing into inclusive non-discriminatory movement. From the valleys of the Milliken Hill to Opi Nsukka dual carriageway; from Ebonyi River bridge Ikem to the bridges in Udenu ring roads; from Iva Valley road in Enugu North LGA to Nkalagu-Eha Amufu road neglected for over 35 years; from Ukpabi-Nimbo-Ugbene-Ajima-Eziani road to Neke-Mbu-Ogbodu Aba-Obollo Etiti inter-community road linking Isi Uzo and Udenu LGAs; from Inyi-Akpugoeze road in Oji River LGA to Ituku road in Awgu LGA and down to Amurri road in Nkanu West LGA, to mention but a few, Governor Ugwuanyi has courageously toppled the biased structure of the rural-urban dichotomy, deploying reticulate road networks to liberate rural dwellers from years of socioeconomic strangulation. He is fulfilling the earnest wish of our founding fathers that no one be left behind, regardless of demographic, socio-political or ideological leanings.

The agenda to deliver quality, accessible and affordable healthcare has been pursued by the Ugwuanyi regime with unyielding determination and resolute poise. The Governor completed and equipped the ultra-modern Diagnostic Centre inherited from the previous administration; upgraded seven general hospitals; constructed and renovated district hospitals and health centres especially in the rural areas; and reconstructed and erected new structures at the Colliery Hospital. Confronted by the strange daunting challenge of the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic, the governor has been innovative and diligent in proactive planning and management, implementation of strategies and inspiring collective action against the vicious foe.

Across all levels of education in Enugu state, Governor Ugwuanyi has championed the renaissance of quality academic training and research in the southeast capital. He has inter alia constructed, renovated and equipped several classroom blocks, offices and hostels across the state via the lethal and proficient expertise of the Chairman of ENSUBEB Chief Ikeje Asogwa and the blistering professionalism of Barr Nestor Ezema who pragmatically but effectively superintends over the affairs of PPSMB. Over 5000 primary and secondary school teachers have been recruited, and another 1,000 existing volunteers converted to permanent teachers, to compensate for yawning shortfalls. Extensive infrastructural development efforts continue to breeze across the latitudes of tertiary education in the state, encompassing the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) under the enterprising and dynamic chairmanship of Deaconess Mrs Ifeoma Nwobodo, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Enugu State College of Education Technical (ESCET) and Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo. In what is one of many historic firsts, Governor Ugwuanyi is building the first degree-awarding institution in Education in the South East zone, the Enugu State University of Education in Ihe, Awgu LGA.

With a sweeping judiciary reform which is accentuating a judicial system renowned for inalienable independence, robust infrastructure, untainted probity, unscathed transparency and unflagging commitment to Rule of Law, rectitude and due process, Governor Ugwuanyi is building legacies that consolidate on the democratic nationalism and forthrightness envisioned by our founding fathers. Most recently, out of dilapidation emerged a modern edifice that is the State Judiciary Complex, Enugu, the perfect quintessence of Governor Ugwuanyi’s transformations within the realm of the state judiciary. His humongous achievements in other sectors, including agriculture, housing, water supply and sports bear further testament to the integrity, credibility and political will of Enugu’s preeminent servant-leader.

What Governor Ugwuanyi has diligently and pragmatically done to keep the economic shape and peaceful balance of Enugu in a peak period of economic quagmire and security challenges will convincingly resonate in the reckoning of the naysayers when he leaves the Lion building. The Governor has contrived to unite all contending foes with his weaponry of peace, shouldered the burden of chilling tranquillity at the expense of his convenience and sacrificed the paraphernalia, glitz, glamour and exotic trappings of his exalted office at the altar of disarming humility.

As Nigeria attains the diamond age of retirement, it is contingent upon us, on this day of our 60th Independence Anniversary, to reflect on the vagaries of our journey thus far, examine our collective efforts and deficiencies, and to set loftier standards and goals. Even for dedicated leaders like Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, the desire and commitment to remould our nation should remain rife and unfading beyond the commendable interventions on ground. Even as I sense a divination of renaissance and rebirth of this great Nation, the facts before me present a fragile country on the precipice or fringes of collapse if we do not rally around our leaders. At no time in the history of this Union has the fate of this country been so tenaciously nestled in the hands of both the government and the governed. We must collectively rise beyond the confines of ethno-religious sentiments, sectarian barriers and the attendant recriminations, to commit to a charter of redemption where everyone will carry his share of the cross. We must shrug off the barriers of protracted despondency to rediscover our confidence in God's infinite powers to navigate this country to safety. In the words of Martin Luther Kings Jnr "I have been driven to my knees too many times because I have no other place to go". NIGERIA CAN BE GREAT AGAIN. I already feel the drift.

Steve Oruruo weighed in from Independence Layout Enugu

APOSTLECHUMA:
STILL ASTONISHED THAT BIG SCHOOLS IN ABJ AND LAG,WHERE SCHOOL FEES ARE UP TO A MILLION OR ABOVE, DIDNT WIN THE AWARD.

No be small astonishing, one with God is majority. Enugu is in the hands of God.

ObinnaOkenwa:
Good outing by His Excellency Rt Hon Dr Lawrence Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi and the government of Enugu State celebrating Nigeria @59 yesterday.

Haven gone through some comments above which was posited on attacking and smirking the image of the Gov rather than fact based or points iliciting, pouring vertuperation and enuedos against the image and the name of our dear governor is not only uncultured but unnecessary at this point in time. We the citizens must grow up to learn the workings of our leaders, and the policies of the government. I bet most you commenters are not residing here in Enugu and of course are just wagging tongues without points to buttress their criticism against the governor based on hearsay.

The government is elated to be on high speed, I'm sure the set of the newly appointed and sworn in state excos by the Governor will hit the ground running soon, so it's incumbent on us the citizens to show absolute trust and believe in their ability to move the state forward as well as putting our own ideas and good suggestions forward rather than allowing calumnies and propagandas to dominate our sense of reasoning/ judgement.

Enugu State is peaceful and kudos to the man steering the ship. Indeed Enugu State is in the hands of God.

Good outing by His Excellency Rt Hon Dr Lawrence Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi and the government of Enugu State celebrating Nigeria @59 yesterday.

Haven gone through some comments above which was posited on attacking and smirking the image of the Gov rather than fact based or points iliciting, pouring vertuperation and enuedos against the image and the name of our dear governor is not only cultured but unnecessary at this point, we the citizens must grow up to learn the workings of our leaders, and the policies of the government. I bet most you commenters are not residing here in Enugu and of course are just wagging tongues without points to buttress their criticism against the governor.

The government is elated to be on high speed, I'm sure the set of the newly appointed and sworn in state excos by the Governor will hit the ground running soon, so it's incumbent on us the citizens to show absolute trust and believe in their ability to move the state forward as well as putting our own ideas and good suggestions forward rather than allowing calumnies and propagandas to dominate our sense of reasoning/ judgement.

May i use this opportunity to express my unflinching gratitude to Ndi Enugu, especially the good people of my Nkanuland for their relentless solidarity and unassailable love bestowed on me during the swearing in ceremony of the Governor's Cabinet.

While clinging on your benevolent goodwill in total obeisance to God Almighty, i promise that the job shall be dispatched with honour and dignity.

I shall thread and trade on the path of deliberate and strategic thinking that shall resonate with our hallowed consciousness and mobilize value for the hardworking Governor of Enugu State.

I shall strive to protect Enugu' s pedigree while denouncing all matters profaning or demeaning to our esteemed heritage.

This rising crescendo of blessings shall never abate unless and untill it reaches your door steps.

May i therefore thank His Excellency the Executive Governor of Enugu State, Rt Hon Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi and the entire people of Enugu for finding me worthy.


Steve Oruruo