Sunday Ani
The spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council in Enugu State, Nana Ogbodo has described the recognitions accorded the Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, by four different national newspapers as testimonies to the governor’s sterling performances in the state.
He said The Sun, The Independent, Vanguard, and Leadership Newspapers have all conferred on Ugwuanyi the ‘Governor of the Year 2019,’ arguing that such recognitions only confirm Ugwuanyi’s unparalleled achievements since May 29, 2015, when he assumed office as the governor of Enugu State. He speaks on other issues.
As the spokesperson of the PDP’s Campaign Council in Enugu State, what are your permutations on the forthcoming governorship election in the state?
As an incumbent running for a second term, what the 2019 election means for Governor Ugwuanyi is a referendum. A referendum on how much he has lived up to his promises; how much he has sustained the confidence of the people; and how much their approval rating has either soared, remained what it used to be or lowered. And I will tell you that taking these things as they are, we are quite happy to meet the electorate because we know that the referendum will be a resounding victory for us. He made promises and he has kept them. The governor is a man who is blessed by God to have the vision of where he is taking his people to. He has the passion to pursue it and the compassion to feel the pulse of his people. These are the compelling virtues that have defined his leadership. He shuns guiles, and intrigues and with him, there are no broken promises. He promised Enugu people peace and today, Enugu is the most peaceful state in the country, arguably so. He promised Enugu people rural development and today, Enugu is like a construction site.
How is the state a construction site?
When about 480 autonomous communities in the state are involved in one construction or the other, of their specific choices of projects at the behest of the governor’s financial support, how do you define that? This is a governor that slated N10 million each for the communities; already released first tranche of N5 million each and those who have fruitfully deployed their own have been given the second tranche. Besides, the governor promised civil servants good fortune, and he pays salaries on the 24th of every month, whether the day falls on a Saturday or Sunday and whether there is allocation from the federation account or not. He even goes further to pay the novelty salary of 13th month. So, whereas other states’ workers reeled under the pangs of accumulated arrears of salaries, Enugu workers smiled home with 13th month pay. He promised pensioners that he would look into their plight, and he has taken pensioners’ gratuities that were forgotten over the years, and deployed almost everything he got from the Paris Club refund to fulfill that pledge. Today, the governor has paid the local government pensioners, from 2001 to 2006. To the state pensioners, he has made it a monthly affair that he deploys N100 million each month, in the gradual payment of gratuities that had ossiffied over the years. To those workers, you can see that he has lived up to his promise.
In the political space, this is the first time that Enugu has remained a salubrious enclave for both the opposition and the ruling party. Times were in the past when the state was embroiled in the miasma of misplaced confidence and arrogance of power, where opponents had the prudence to escape from the state in order to save their lives; where being in opposition was tantamount to being somebody else’s enemy. Today, all those have changed because of somebody’s temperament, which is purely democratic. The governor has been able to permit people the luxury to belong to another political party and still have friendship and relationship that is cordial enough with the person who is in the other political party. So, the lines of demarcation between PDP members and members of other political parties have been so blurred in the state, that you hardly know the difference in party affiliations. This is what I call political ecumenism – being able to understand that we are first, human beings before we are politicians; being able to grant somebody the privilege to swing his arms and seek permission from the person to protect his own nose in spite of the fact that he wields the power. This is unique. So, is it in the physical infrastructure transformation. Governor Ugwuanyi has lived up, perfectly, to his promise.
Do you think that hard work and visible popularity, as you have ascribed to Governor Ugwuanyi’s candidacy, are enough to secure victory under the current dispensation, considering the much-touted APC magic?
Well, APC magic is a notional fixation in the minds of some lazy politicians. There is nothing like APC magic in the forthcoming general election. What I want to assure you is that hard work matters and hard work will prevail over indolence. It is said in law that delay defeats equity but equity aides the vigilant. So, in Enugu State, equity will aid the vigilant because we have delivered on our promises. We have moved the people ahead and showed that democracy works. We have granted people peace, created enabling environments and even institutionalised internally-generated revenue collection system, such that Enugu that is not an oil-producing state, is not shaken when there is no allocation coming from the federation account. That is not a mean feat. There were two months that money did not come from the federation account and many states could not do anything but Enugu was firing from all cylinders such that nobody noticed that there was no allocation. That is creativity, and I do not think that Enugu citizens would like to slip back to Egypt. Do you think the workers who receive their salaries as and when due and even enjoy 13th month pay would not want continuity? Do you think that there is any community that has received the N10 million grants that would not want their project to be completed? Do you think that those who sleep with both eyes closed in Enugu would not want to enjoy continued peace? That is what has made Enugu thick; everybody wants to have a home in Enugu. So, would you say that a candidate that has enjoyed approval across board, including party lines, will not win election? Where will the APC magic come from? Will it come from the air? I want to disabuse people’s minds from lazy contemplations.
Are you not afraid of APC in Enugu State?
APC in Enugu State is made up of emergency godfathers that are perpetually at war with one another; I think that is her major misery. So, they have to put their house in order before they can think of any magic. As we speak, we do not know who the APC chairman is. And I ask: can a house divided against itself stand? Even if it is standing, can anybody wish away the transformation that has visited Enugu under Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi? To that extent, PDP in Enugu State has no reason to be bothered. There are even some more credible parties than APC, such as All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
Do you mean there are more credible parties than APC in Enugu State?
Certainly yes; they are cohesive and they have some good candidates too. But in all, why it appears like APC exists at all in Enugu is because it is the ruling party at the centre. If you remove that, tell me what exists again in Enugu.
You sound so confident about the quality of your candidate. Do you have the same confidence on the INEC, considering the level of concerns that have been raised in some quarters about its preparedness?
You do not write history in a hurry; history is not story but a synthesis of events. Given the caliber of people in INEC, I do not feel it is justified to begin to complain at them continually. I have not seen anything to make me so much afraid. It is given that the institution should be fair to all. If indeed they fail to be fair, it is no longer because we did not prepare well, it would be that some individuals were perfunctory in the national assignment they were given.
Nigerian Elders Forum, speaking through Chief Emeka Anyaoku, after its recent meeting, raised strong concerns over INEC, with reference to its performance at the recent Ekiti and Osun governorship elections. Are you saying that such concerns do not exist in Enugu?
INEC is supposed to manage a national election, where perhaps, about 90 million persons are going to vote. As such, you cannot expect that in our clime, where most things are not even digitalised, that there would be perfection in everything. I think the manner of experience is that you keep on tweaking some aspects of your operation that you noticed were not in good shape. Thank God that the elections you referred to held. However, they are still before the courts and it may be prejudice for me to comment authoritatively on it. But, speaking hypothetically, what if there were some lapses and those lapses have been identified and plugged ahead of the forthcoming elections? One expects improvement in everything; even as a reporter, you keep improving by the day. I have no doubt that INEC will do a great work, especially in Enugu, because there is no reason why they should not.