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By Sam Nnamani

Observing the current good governance-driven shockwave sweeping across the length and breadth of Nigerian, with the possibility of an unpredictable apotheosis in the 2023 general election, it doesn’t take much of an effort for a keen observer to decipher a common bottom line in the multitude of demands reeled out daily by the citizenry – The masses are desirous of genuine change. This is so as the All Progressives Congress, (APC)- led federal government has conspicuously failed in the performance of its fundamental functions. There is today, a breakdown of the Rule of Law, so much so that not only innocent citizens but lawyers could be sent to prison without being docked for a fair hearing or possible recant. The insecurity situation now jeopardizes even the presidency as bandits keep threatening and making attempts to overrun Abuja, the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory and seat of power. The cost of servicing Nigeria’s external debt recently toppled her income. The Nigerian state, a scene for all manner of crimes and abode for all sorts of criminals is hanging on a precipice and looking dangerously into the deep blue sea. From all statistics and economic performance variables available, the Nigerian nation is gradually heading to a halt while the said APC government is busy trading blames and playing the Ostrich.

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However, within the largely complicated labyrinths of economic cum political woes currently bedevilling the country are found concerted efforts by the state governments and their respective governors, to rejig a sustainable roadmap to navigate their states out of the troubled waters; taking into consideration the peculiarities in political party allegiance, sources of income generation, fairness, equity, social justice system and most importantly, continuity. This is to facilitate a successful 2023 political transition that will further strengthen and elongate the legacies of the present administration. There is no gainsaying the fact, as evidence abounds, that the transition from one government to another, if not well-conceived and carefully consummated by a reigning government, with the balance and challenge of power in line with the political culture of a given state taken into unbiased cognisance, may negatively impact on the acceleration of such state in the road to future development. Transition, when ill-intended, poses an existential threat to the peace and tranquillity status of not only the state government but also impedes the development of all of its subsets and apparatuses, leading to a state where life would be ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’ as Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher once put it.

From the foregoing, Governor Ugwuanyi’s attention to the details of the yearnings of the bulk of the Enugu people, and the consequent composure with which he successfully and peacefully harnessed the strengths of the Enugu people and pacified diverse interests in the build-up to the ever-treacherous contest for the baton of succession, is predicated on his burning desire to have an Enugu State of greater heights in the future dispensations rather than for his gratification or appeasement of politically powerful few to the detriment and utter neglect of the majority. Ugwuanyi’s ever-present far-sighted approach to keeping Enugu peaceful informed his jettisoning of his ego and subduing the pressure mounted on him by a few to enthrone clannishness and mediocrity. He rather, as a bridge builder, embraced the continuation of Enugu on the path of fairness and equity which has engendered peace, growth and development. One wonders, therefore, what it will take for the penny to drop among those who find Ugwuanyi’s proactiveness and sense of perfect judgement so objectionable and believe his interest transcends the collective gains of the people of Enugu.

Against all odds, Governor Ugwuanyi’s choice of a seasoned technocrat and a private sector scion as his potential successor has been widely written upon, curated and praised to the high heavens by analysts as a tactical tweak capable of pulling the strings for massive development of Enugu state and further preserve her institutional memory going forward. In so doing, It’s however his insistence on the gentlemanly agreement of the Enugu zoning template to prevail is seen as a coup de maitre for balanced infrastructural and human development. Nigeria and other African countries are replete with evidence which attests to the fact that the zone of a state governor or the president witnesses a sudden and massive development which could trigger the emancipation of the said zone from the shackles of abject poverty and could be launched onto the national or global scene as a fast-rising urban or suburban centre. For Example, Agbani, Udi and Udenu, the birthplaces and in the zones of the fourth republic governors of Enugu in His Excellencies Chimaroke Nnamani, Sullivan Chime and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi respectively, undoubtedly are witnessing astronomical economic growth and vibrancy to date. These cities have become satellite towns and hubs of mammoth economic activities, spreading the reach of quality living to the ever-burgeoning population of Enugu state while easing off the pressure on Enugu metropolis which is still the commonwealth of the old Eastern Region.

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As exposed and devoid of any negative sectional inclination in building an Enugu state of our dreams, I strongly believe that Governor Ugwuanyi and Enugu stakeholders, while charting the course for transition, did not struggle to appreciate the glaring backwardness, especially in physical infrastructure in Nkanu-east part of Nkanu cultural zone. For example, Nkanu-east local government has the poorest road connectivity in Enugu state. A foremost agrarian community with the potential of feeding the whole state and contributing to beefing up her GDP is sadly reeling at the lower wrung of Enugu local administration’s development indices. This is majorly a result of poor infrastructural development premised on either deliberate or inadvertent lack of meaningful federal and state government establishments there. Governor Ugwuanyi correctly understands that one of the ways to alter the Enugu development pattern is to incorporate and integrate the Nkanu-east local government by supporting their son to emerge as the PDP standard bearer in the upcoming 2023 gubernatorial election. What is needed at this juncture is for the Nkanu people to see the trophy as theirs and fight together with the teeming support of other zones to wrestle home the much-coveted prize. To reciprocate Ugwuanyi’s good gesture, all atoms of divisiveness and political shenanigans orchestrated by the cacophonies of mushroom political parties being championed by those dissatisfied by Ugwuanyi’s benevolence to Nkanu and Enugu state, in general, must be shunned completely. For to whom much is given, much is anticipated.

With the possibility of the emergence of another suburban city towards the eastern border of Enugu state with the neighbouring Ebonyi state, due to the streaks of varying degrees of developmental activities that will be triggered when Mr Peter Mba assumes office, Governor Ugwuanyi would have strategically midwived a balanced Enugu developmental plan which invariably will relieve the people of Nkanu-east and its environs their long-standing suffering; giving them that much-needed confidence and sense of belonging as indisputable part and parcel of the larger Enugu state. With this, the far-reaching effect inter alia will be a surge in internally generated revenue of the state in the face of nose-diving allocation from the federal government.

It is instructive to note at this juncture, however, that Enugu’s developmental history, success and political culture thus far, are embedded in the PDP. The gubernatorial success which will engender the opinionated development, therefore, is the political-cultural heritage of the PDP, which must be sustained. It’s only with this that the intended infrastructural emancipation of Nkanu-east local government already engineered by His Excellency, Lawrence Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi, could be achieved. All hands must be on deck.

Sam Nnamani, a public affairs analyst, writes from Evu Iyovo in Agbani.

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