By Bolade Omonijo, Deputy Political Editor
Posted to the Web: Friday, February 03, 2006

ENUGU, popularly referred to as the coal city has been in the news for varied reasons in recent times. As it hosted political leaders and statesmen from the three geo-political zones in the South in December, the attention of the whole country was re-directed to the position it had held in the past. The suave governor of the state held the delegates spell bound as he recalled that the state was once the capital of the country.

More recently, last week, Speakers of the 36 states Houses of Assembly gathered at the old Eastern Parliament building which had hosted the Southern Forum to deliberate on matters of concern to the state legislatures. They rose from that meeting with a very significant resolution: That they would not recognise the newly elected Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, and neither would they accord recognition to the bizzare events emanating from that state since January 4 when a panel was constituted to investigate allegations of misconduct against the former governor of that state, senator Rashidi Ladoja,

It is an open secret that leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at all levels, and all the institutions controlled by the party have always tried to avoid anything that would amount to indicting the President. But, in this case, again in the historic city of Enugu, the Chief Legislators spoke. And their voices rose above the din.
It would be recalled, too, that at the Southern Forum meeting, the Southern leaders took the bold decision of calling for retaining the presidency of the country in the South and called on the political establishment in the East and the South South to come up with nominations since the South West would no longer be qualified to field a candidate in 2007.
While avoiding a direct condemnation of the alleged third term bid of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the declaration was seen as a bold declaration by men believed to be very close to the President.

And, as 2005 prepared to roll over, the National Planning Commission, working in conjunction with international development partners and the African Institute of Applied Economics released a report of a painstaking assessment of 35 states of the country and released a bombshell that has continued to reverberate throughout the country.
Scoring the states on the basis of Policy, Budget and Fiscal Management, Service Delivery and Communication and Transparency, Enugu State was adjudged the best performing state in the country. In a memo sent to all the participating states by the Chairman of the National Planning Commission, the organisers said the benchmarking exercise was about an assessment of reform and quality of governance in the states of the federation

Explaining the criteria, the NPC said “Policy was considered significant because it is expected “to ensure that the state government develops, publishes and implements a strategy that advances its policy targets.”
Towards ascertaining this, the assessors set out to ask whether: “the state manages its budget and state funds in a transparent way so that the resources are directed at achieving the priorities of the state. Is there responsible and prudent fiscal management that effectively contains the negative impacts of revenue fluctuation?”
Service delivery was adjudged important because, in the words of the designers of the scheme, “it ensures that government strategises to improve service delivery, both in terms of quality and in terms of reach, is developed and can be implemented.”

The questions asked in the process of assessment were: “What efforts is the state making to improve service delivery to the citizens, both in terms of reach and standards? What is the quality of service rendered?”
On Communications and Transparency, the questions asked were “Does the state plan and implement policies in a transparent and accountable manner? Is procurement open? Are there measures against corruption? Do citizens have opportunity to question their leaders? How easily can citizens obtain information about their state’s finances?
The assessors were experts jointly commissioned by the NPC and reputable international agencies such as the World Bank, the United nations Development Programme, the Canadian Agency for International Development, the British Department for International Development and the European Commission while the African Institute for Applied Economics was given the role of standardising the indices.

After such a rigorous exercise by institutions that could not be said to have been corruptly influenced by the candidates in the examination, the Enugu State government was adjudged not only the best performer but scored almost 57.22 per cent in an exercise in which the second performing government, the Federal Capital Coty was awarded 50.28 per cent. Osun State was adjudged third with 45 per cent scores. In other word, only Enugu State and Abuja were scored above 50 per cent. Were 50 per cent accepted as the benchmark for success in the scheme, only two of the participating governments would have been deemed successful.

Although many of the other state governments that failed in the exercise have cried out about the poor methods allegedly employed by the NPC which they accused of harbouring a hidden agenda, the superlative performance of the Enugu State government could not have been lost on all and could not but rub off on the helmsman, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani. 

The EFCC probe

It is interesting that a few months after that exercise which laid so much emphasis on transparency in transaction of government business and measures put in place by the various state governments to curb corruption and block leakages, a petition from the coal city state has called to question the performance of the state government in this regard.
According to the petitioner who was a former chairman of the Udi Local Government area, supported by press interviews by a former governor of the state, Chief Chukwuma Onoh, the state government has been built on fraud since Dr Nnamani assumed office in 1999.

Specifically, the petitioners alleged that the governor owns vast estates in different parts of the state capital running into billions of Naira, has been awarding contracts to companies in which he has interests and overall, had fraudulently appropriated N52 billion to himself. This, by a state that has received N57 billion in six years.
It is interesting that the governor has publicly taken responsibility for the actions of his subordinates who have been invited by the EFCC.  He equally chose to waive his immunity under the constitution. This is unprecedented and makes the scenario even more interesting.

In the interim, the state governor has denied ownership of the companies credited to him. He denied knowing anything about the ownership of Renaissance University, Rainbownet, a telecommunication outfit, Cosmos radio and estates in strategic parts of the state capital.

So, who is lying, the petitioners or the respondent? This is a question for EFCC. However, the foundation of the allegations is that as much as 52 billion naira had been embezzled by the governor. This obviously cannot stand.
Besides, could it be that the representatives of the international community who have continued to use Enugu as a model of a state where transparency is at work were compromised? Could it be said that they were incompetent? Could it be that the governor’s decision to waive his immunity is sheer bravado?

If democracy must survive beyond 2007, concerted efforts must be made by the general public in identifying good materials. So far, one of those who have shown by the evidence adduced by independent assessors, that they are concerned about the plight of the people and courageous enough to take on political wolves is Dr. Nnamani.
The EFCC owes the nation a duty to ensure that he is not allowed to fall to the antics of the political opposition in the state. If the assessors were wrong, the EFCC owes the general public a duty of so informing the country. But, if the assessors were right, it is a duty for the anti-graft commission to so inform the country that his might serve as a model for others.