The Risk Taker
By Dan Agbese

I asked Chimaroke Nnamani, Governor of Enugu State, to tell me what he is and what he stands for in three words.

Silence, long silence. It was the only question for which the governor did not have a ready answer. We had been talking to him for nearly two hours. He is an engaging interviewee because he loves talking about his state and what he is doing for his people. He is passionate about his plans and his accomplishments. He has a large map of the state in his office. On it are coloured pins depicting roads, hospitals, health centres and rural water supply. With an electronic pointer in hand, he gives his visitors a tour of his project sites throughout the state. In his living room, he has a sheaf of papers on a black board. He talks about what he is doing and why - and he illustrates his points with a marker. This is a profound lecturer that answers all the questions an interviewer would like to raise with him.

The silence is broken.

“Can I do it in four words?”

“All right.”

“Man. History. God. Glory.”

It is not easy to see how these four words describe a man and what he stands for. But if you talk long enough with Nnamani and if you see him at work and if you listen to him espouse his philosophy, his choice of the four words tells you something about this most intellectual of our current breed of political leaders. Nnamani has about him the casual confidence of the successful. On this day, he drove himself to all his new project sites -the teaching hospital, the tunnel, Loma Linda housing estate and Ebeano City, the permanent site of the state university. Such men tend to give the impression that they wrestle with a pleasurable doubt, best expressed by the rhetorical question: why me? They resolve this little doubt by attributing their successes and achievements to divine favours. God at work. Nnamani has no doubt about this. He signs off his speeches with an expression of eternal gratitude to God: “To God be the glory.”

Maureen Chigbo, the general editor, suggested it was all politics. Nnamani restrained himself from losing his temper. I had a sneaking feeling he felt Chigbo had questioned his sincerity. His elaboration on his famous slogan showed he felt Chigbo was unfair to him. I think he exudes sufficient sonority to be believed. Success tends to make some men humble, even if, as in the case of Nnamani, they had worked hard for it. The mystery of being the chosen man of the moment does indeed belong to a higher power. Humble men recognize it. Haughty men do not.

At 39, Nnamani became the governor of his state. He was not the youngest governor in the country, to be sure. But he was a breed apart. He came from a background in medicine. He specialized in fetal surgery. It is a branch of modern medicine considered pretty risky. Surgery of the fetus, the unborn child. Nnamani chose it because he likes taking risks. Thus, when he decided to leave his high risk medical practice in which he had been so successful in the United States to venture into third world politics, a body of water home to piranha and sharks, he knew he was taking a risk. He felt that if he succeeded in fetal surgery, he would succeed in politics too. Same risk, same courage, same preparation.

Well, he proved it. Fortune, as the saying goes, favours the brave. Twice he contested the governorship election and twice he won. He succeeded in reducing the political godfathers in the state to pitiable irrelevance. But political success exacts a price too. Six years in politics have changed Nnamani in certain fundamental respects:

“When I came back, I was a much younger man, full of youthful energy, full of vibrancy, had the American can do spirit. I came to Nigeria with my game face on. And I can say that six years later, it has been tempered. I don’t feel six years older. I feel say 16, 20 years older. I have been battered and weather beaten by the political environment in Nigeria. I am more realistic. I am more in tune with the realities on the ground than when I came.”

It has been a big and positive learning experience for him too:

“I must say that I am more humane. I have to bring a more humane outlook to whatever I do than when I came back. I have become more patient; there is a greater need to carry even those who are slower. There is a greater awareness that we are not all moving at the same pace and we might have the slow down.” What does give? Has Nnamani learnt to do things the Nigerian way?

“There is a tendency to say that the Nigerian way is bad. It is not bad after all. What is wrong with the vibrancy in the Ogbete market? When I see a six-year old holding a five-year old and they are heading to school ten kilometers away and coming home safely, is that not Nigeria for you?”

Undoubtedly.

In his first four years in office, Nnamani concentrated his attention on providing roads, water, light and health facilities for his people. The state now has 56 rural health centres and 24 cottage hospitals. In his current and final term, he is concentrating on legacies-building a permanent site of the state university on 600 hectares of land donated by six communities, building the state university teaching hospital, completing the road network in Enugu, building a conference centre complex where he plans to hold pre-inauguration banquet and post-inauguration luncheon for his successor, building the state judiciary headquarters. All these gigantic projects are going on simultaneously and will be commissioned by March next year. Only a man who loves taking risks can take on so much with such lean financial resources within so short a time.

And that brings us to his four words: Man. History. God. Glory. “Man in search of history not for himself but for God and the glorification of God.”

Got that? To God be the glory.

A Governor’s Race Against Time
By Mike Akpan

Governor Chimaroke Nnamani is determined to turn Enugu into a state that will be the pride of Nigeria

Chimaroke Nnamani, governor of Enugu state, has an overwhelming passion to make history in a hurray. This passion started to build up within him since 1985 in the United States of America where he studied and later worked after he became exposed to the dynamics of popular democracy. In American democracy, basic and fundamental needs of man such as uninterrupted electricity and water supplies, good health facilities, roads, communication, security among others are taken for granted. But in Nigeria, that is not the case.

In a country which prides itself as the “giant of Africa,” electricity and water supplies are erratic if ever they are available, healthcare delivery services are in shambles, there are no all-season reads, communication facilities are poor and security to lives and property is suspect. This is the situation which fired the passion of Nnamani to decide to come back home to be part of the decision-making body that could change the status quo and give Nigerians real benefits of popular democracy.

Nnamani told a Newswatch team in Enugu: “I came back from America to make a deal rather than staying outside to make it. I felt that just succeeding in America with my practice, a house, a family, a car, there was more to it, that my history was back home. That I needed to get back to land, become part of the history of my people and implement history, history of political power to use any project as a model of what change democracy can make in the so-called third world”

With that passion still burning in him, Nnamani left America and was lucky to be elected governor of Enugu State in 1999. What gave him the confidence that he can succeed to make history as governor of Enugu State? His answer: “I am an Enugu boy. I grew up here. I was already in tune with Enugu society. I knew what differences I could bring to bear on the society if given access to power in Enugu State. And, of course, my American background and training gave me the confidence that I could come here and move with the guys and succeed.”

Besides, the governor said, in the USA he had imbibed the enterprising spirit and philosophy of the Americans that man is a perfect being which God created for a purpose. “I don’t believe God’s decision to create man was just for the purpose of sleeping and waking up to eat, rest, build houses, drive cars, marry wives and create problems. I believe this being must do more than just existing. God’s purpose of creation, I believe, is that man should leave society better than he met it.” Nnamani added.

The American philosophy is that if there is no rain, make rain and if there is no food, provide food. Nnamani said this philosophy of care first is what sent the Americans and helped them conquer the earth. “This is what came into my philosophy,” he explained.

Even before he became governor, he had articulated a clear vision of his programme for Enugu State. But what worried him was whether democracy in Nigeria would be stable for him to implement the programme.

Nnamani’s American exposure and belief that government is a social contract between the rulers and the people, informed his determination to pursue an aggressive development programme that would immediately impact positively on the peoples’ lives. The people of Enugu State, he reasoned, deserved to get something in return for their votes which gave him victory in the 1999 governorship election.

He did not disappoint. The score-card at the end of the first four-year term showed that, in spite of the distractions caused by the titanic battle for the political soul of Enugu State which pitched the governor against Jim Nwobodo, his estranged godfather, and the tragedy at the Adoration Ground in the state capital, the government had something concrete to point at.

These include a – 500 kilometre road network linking all the local government headquarters and 24 new cottage hospitals. In addition, the healthcare delivery system in the state was reorganized to enable healthcare services to reach the grassroots. Inn the ensuing reform, the state was carved into 56 health districts for primary healthcare while general hospitals became the focal points for secondary healthcare. For the tertiary healthcare service, the Enugu University Teaching Hospital became its focal point. In order that each level of the healthcare system should perform optimally, the administration regarded rehabilitation, modernization of equipment and facilities in hospitals and healthcare centres as well as the training and re-training of the needed manpower in the health sector as a high priority. To cope with the high demand for doctors to manage the healthcare system, government came up with the idea of setting up what it called “Enugu Corps of Doctors.”

Like the health sector, the education sector was also organized along the district system. Knowing fully well that it could not provide computers, laboratory facilities, modern science equipment, libraries and gymnasiums in all schools because of the lean resources at its disposal, the government came up with what it called “School District Centres”..

Under this arrangement, groups of schools were made to share facilities provided at the schools district centres located in their area. It became necessary also for the government to hire more than 6000 teachers for both primary and secondary schools in the state in response to the phenomenal increase in school enrolment which also prompted the building of more classroom blocks.

The electrification of more than 200 communities within the period and the massive water schemes undertaken by the government had the additional purpose of giving support services to both the educational and healthcare systems in the state. Perhaps, the most visible project undertaken by the administration in its first term is the building of the Enugu campus of the Nigerian Law School in Agbani, which had since handed over to the federal government. Other projects of note completed during his period were two new middle-class housing estates at Otigba junction and GRA Golf Course, all in Enugu.

Despite these remarkable achievements, Nnamani is still a worried man. His worry borders on the verdict of history. He told Newswatch in Enugu: “Our time will pass and when the story is told, what will they (people) say of us? How do we get counted? The major driving force is the urgency of history, urgency of our part. How does man remember us? How is our story going to be told knowing fully well that we will never pass this way again?”

From all indication, Nnamani wants to use the second four-year term to make a clear statement for posterity. That is evident in the projects the administration is currently executing. One of such projects is the permanent site of Enugu State University of Technology, ESUT. Founded in the early 80’s, the university has been without a permanent site in spite of promises and assurances by past administrations in the state to develop it.

Nnamani has seen the urgent need for a befitting state university which will be a masterpiece and a reference point for other higher institutions in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. He is already making history in a hurry by developing a 600-hectre piece of land donated by four communities for the permanent site.

Within 18 months, Nnamani wants to complete the project with 162 units of houses all going on at the same time. The houses comprise lecture halls, offices and hostels to accommodate about 16,000 students. There is something unique about the hostels. Each of the rooms is en suite. This arrangement will place a responsibility on the students sharing the rooms to keep the toilets and baths clean always. The vice-chancellor’s lodge, accommodation for academic and non-academy staff of the university at the permanent site known as “Ebeano City,” are all under construction. Also to be completed before March 2006 when the university is expected to move to its permanent site are a 13-kilometre road and drainages as well as landscaping. More than 2,500 workers are handling various jobs at the site.

Nnamani told Newswatch while on inspection of the N14 billion project: “We are making history. No administration in this country has started and completed the building of a university’s permanent site. We are building the entire university all at once. It never happened before.” The project, started in August last year, is due for completion and commissioning next March. Marco Beccarelli, managing director of Marlum Construction, an Italian company handling the project, told Newswatch that at the rate work was progressing, he had no doubt whatsoever that the March 2006 deadline would be met.

During an inspection tour of the project site on October 19, the governor was particularly elated about the design of what he called the “freedom square” of the university. He told Newswatch jokingly at the site: “This is where students will always gather to make speeches before moving out on demonstrations.” He said he would derive great joy the day he comes there to see both students and lecturers gathering for relaxation at the freedom square.

Park Lane Hospital in Enugu, is the site of the state university teaching hospital, and the College of Medicine. Park Lane Hospital had bungalows for offices and wards. Now these are gigantic structures with state-of-the-art facilities including an auditorium with a sitting capacity for 500.

Nene Obianyo, provost of ESUT College of Medicine, could not hide her joy when Newswatch met her at the project site. “It will be the biggest college of medicine in Nigeria,” she said. The college has a hostel with a capacity for more than 1000 students. All rooms in the hostels are en suite.

Obiayo explained that the innovative plan for personalized lavatory takes care of the necessity to employ cleaners and places the burden of keeping the facilities clean squarely on the shoulders of the students.

Patrick Udeh, chief medical director, ESUT Teaching Hospital, is amazed at thee rate of transformation of what used to be known as Park Lane Hospital. “The transformation is amazing. It is good for the state. It has placed ESUT as the foremost university of science and technology in Nigeria. Ever since the building started, many people have been coming to the hospital,” Udeh said. The hospital has facilities for a modern blood bank and chemical pathology. The project which started in April last year is due for completion at the end of this month.

Another innovation Nnamani is bringing to the state is the first ever underground dual carriage way which his administration is currently building in Enugu as a link road between Ogui Road and Okpara Avenue. The underground tunnel of about 80 metres long and 20 metres wide has a height of about six metres. Marcum Construction is also handling the project.

“We over-designed the tunnel because we don’t want to take chances. I don’t want to take chances. I don’t want anybody to come and call me when I am retired to say that the tunnel I built had collapsed,” Nnamani said.

Beccarelli said the tunnel would be built to last for more than 1000 years. He explained that the project design made provision for crash barriers to protect the pillars supporting the tunnel. There is also provision for a triple cell culvert to prevent future flooding of the tunnel. The project is due for completion on November 20, this year.

Apart from the underground tunnel, the governor is also building connecting roads and bridges in other parts of Enugu city. One of such bridges is the Nyama Bridge. It provides a direct link between Amechi, Obeau, Amodu and Umueze villages.

For several years, the land on which the state judiciary headquarters was to be built had been lying fallow. Lack of political will and funds had been the usual excuses of past administrations Nnamani has recognized the project as a priority and has mustered both courage and funds to confront it.

The judiciary headquarters complex now under construction has 18 digital courtroom chambers with a separate entry point for the chief judge. It will also have a modern law library. There is provision for the entire judiciary to be modernized and equipped with computers and gadgets that are in vogue with the prevailing technology in standard courtrooms. That means the people of Enugu will soon feel the positive effects of paperless courtrooms which would invariably reduce the burden of judges writing proceedings and judgements in long hand. In turn, litigants will have speedy trials and disposal of cases in courts. Already, arrangements are on for all judiciary staff to undergo training for verbatim reporting.

Beccarelli whose company is also handling the project, said he has mobilized fully to ensure that all that needs to be done at the site is completed before the November this year deadline. Nnamani said the completion the project will also complete the arrangement for the emergence of a Three Arms Zone in Enugu.

As an attraction to boost tourism in the state, the administration is also building an International Conference Centre in Enugu. The centre has provision for three auditoriums with sitting capacities for 5,000 and 600 guests respectively. Each of the auditoriums has a unique design. For example, one of the auditoriums has a broken egg shape design while another has the shape of a bowl.

Nnamani is already thinking along the possibility of handing over the International Conference Centre to a foreign manager for proper management. He is also planning that the banquet hall would be used for part of the handing over ceremony to his successor. The governor hopes that with the state-of-the-art facilities that would be installed, many Nigerians especially from the South-East and South-South geo-political zones would prefer to use the conference centre for important events and conferences instead of going to Abuja.

Whatever the governor has achieved in life, he believes that the Loma Linda University in the United States where he studied foetal medicine has contributed greatly in shaping his future. To bring home the memory of his alma mater, Nnamani has named one of the three housing estates he is building after it. The Loma Linda Housing Estate located in a section of the Independent Layout, Enugu, has 360 units of two-bedroom flats in 19 blocks.

One thing is very apparent about these projects. Nnamani is on top of them and knows everything even to the minutest detail about each project. He told Newswatch in an interview: “”I can say I am fully aware of what is going on whether you are putting a window here, or doing a drainage. I was involved in the design of the projects. I was involved in the briefs of all those projects and so I understand what is happening. Whenever I am in town, I visit all the projects on a daily basis.”

Why has the governor chosen to concentrate all these major projects in the hands of one company? Newswatch wanted to know. Explained Nnamani: “I am glad you have raised this issue. I have tried to refrain from discussing this. When you came in 2001, you saw that we were using Strabag but Strabag had left the state. So we are now using Marlum, an Italian company.”

The governor said it is the policy of his government to make sure every contract is advertised and the tendering process made transparent. Before every contract is advertised, he added, government would first of all work out its actual cost and add 10 percent for contingency.

Why has the governor decided to rush the projects in his second term? Where will he get the funds to see the project in his second term? Is he not biting more than he can swallow? Where will he get the funds to see the projects through before his tenure expires in 2007? These were some of the questions Newswatch put to Nnamani during a briefing session.

The governor said he has no doubt whatsoever that the current projects would be completed before 2007. According to him, the biggest project, which is ESUT’s permanent site, has a March 2006 completion deadline. All the other projects in the series are to be completed before the end of this year.

On funding, the governor said his government depended entirely on recycling overdrafts. What this means, he explained, is that whatever the state gets as its statutory allocation from the federation account every month, the government sets aside money for payment of workers’ salaries and allowances, makes allowance for payment of subventions, warrants either in the form of donations, redemption of promises made by him or the government, travels by the governor and his staff and the running of the government house kitchen. Whatever remains after these deductions is paid in bulk to the contractor. It continues like that every month. “We are going to recycle overdrafts until probably we leave office,” he stressed.

Explaining the need for the rush to complete the projects before leaving office, Nnamani stated: “It takes a lot of courage to start a university with all the master plan implementation because if anything happens another government can come and just move it to somewhere else or may not even see it as a priority. It takes courage to start an International Conference Centre, a judiciary headquarters and an underground tunnel. It takes a lot of courage and a sense of history to do all these.”

Moreover, the governor argued that he believes that there was need for an urgency in what he was doing. “It is like racing against time. Suddenly we realized that we are leaving office in 2007 and that the power we sought was the power to do good. Maybe there may be no other time again. Our time will pass and when the story is told, what will they say of us,” he asked.

The story is already being told by his admirers and political foes alike. His lamentation: “Our experiences have been that even the elite understand the need for the positive development we are bringing to the state. And it is the same people that will write all sorts of advertorials accusing us of all sorts of things. And when you add up the figures they publish, you are talking of about N80 billion whereas what the state has earned as its own share of statutory allocation from the federation account from 1999 is only N43 billion. That brings me to what I had earlier described as elitist. Their purpose is to disconnect.”

Is he worried by this development? “Not at all. The so-called elite or power class have no reason to question what we are doing in Enugu State. What they should be doing is to ask us where we get money to do all these projects,” he said.

Nnamani takes consolation in the fact that the common people in the state appreciate his efforts. This is generally expressed in the “Ebeano” greetings which his admirers shout at him whenever and wherever they come in contact with him. What is “Ebeano” and how does Nnamani feel whenever he acknowledges the greeting?

“Ebeano is a statement of fact that something is good. Ebeano is something that connotes good feelings.”

The governor confessed to Newswatch that he never knew the dimensions and depth of poverty in Enugu State in particular and Nigeria in general until he started to accept invitations to give public lectures in various parts of the country. Nnamani said it was at this point that he ran into poverty prompting him to carry out some research in the area of poverty, its depth and implications in an emerging democracy.

The research findings, according to the governor, were mind-boggling. Poverty in Nigeria was much deeper than what he had thought and that the efforts of his government to address the issue during his first term was a mere scratching of poverty on the surface.

What the government did was to set up what it called Community Development County Council as a sustainable development partnership. At the ward or community level, the council comprised the councilor, and representatives from the age-grades, traders’ association, the clergy, state security and the vigilante group. There was also a co-ordinating council at the state level. It was the responsibility of each community or ward council to propose a project the people wanted. It could be a school block, a hospital block or a bridge. It was also its responsibility to draw up the budget and contribute part of the project cost either in terms of human resources or cash payment. This was always matched by contributions from the local and state government, and the development partner which, in this case, was the United Kingdom-based Department for Foreign and International Development, DFID. This was how the government approached the issue of poverty reduction in its first four years.

The impact this strategy created in the state did not meet Nnamani’s expectation. He knew why. From his study of poverty, it became clear to him that the palpable restiveness in Nigeria, the disquiet and general hostility in the land were all about poverty. What has aggravated the poverty over the years, he also found out, was poor political leadership, the result of several years of recycling of leaders who were bereft of vision. All these findings informed his decision to adopt a multi-dimensional approach to reduce poverty in the state since 2003.

What he did first was to call a stakeholders’ meeting to define poverty. Participants at the meeting included legislators, civil servants, non-governmental organizations, traditional rulers, traders, drivers and motor cyclists among others. Series of dialogues were held after the inaugural meeting. Thereafter, the meeting broke into work groups. Each work group was given the task of coming up with its own various definitions of poverty.

Once the various dimensions of poverty in Enugu state were identified, government set up what is called Poverty Reduction Strategy, PRS. This arrangement preceded the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, NEEDS, and its state counterpart, SEEDS. PRS was broken into different segments like health and human services, female development and poverty reduction, wealth creation, criminal justice system, access to justice and equity among others. Each of these segments had a responsibility of drawing up an intervention programme to reduce poverty associated with it.

Besides, there are also other organs like Local Environmental Empowerment Monitoring Programme,, SLGP, Rural Water and Sanitation, RUWASAN, Schools Meal Plus, Partnership for Transforming the Health System, PATH, and DFID whose strategic partnership roles are very helpful in the multi-sectoral battle against poverty in Enugu State. The intervention programmes have created much impact in the lives of people in both the urban and rural communities. It may not be out of place to say that with the interconnectivity in the various programmes and strategies, the race against poverty in Enugu state is approaching the home stretch. That explains why Nnamani is the toast of the people.

I Can’t Be Misled By the Elite
by Chimaroke Nnamani

Chimaroke Nnamani, governor of Enugu State, speaks to Newswatch editors Dan Agbese, editor-in-chief, Maureen Chigbo, general editor and Mike Akpan, editorial consultant on his achievements and his legacies. Excerpts:

From what we have seen this afternoon, it is like it is the second phase of your development plan?

Nnamani:
I came back from America to implement a vision, The vision to rather than staying outside and looking in, to at least come within the corridors of power and be part of the decision making process. In America, I have gotten used to dividends of democracy that you do take for granted like turning the switch and you have light, running water, roads, mothers going to the hospitals to deliver and going home safe, kids going to the emergency room and going home. Those things they took for granted in America. Being in America, I realized that home was different, where kids still die routinely from diarrhea; mothers still die routinely from childbirth. And when Americans demonstrate fighting for democracy they can demonstrate over things like the right to wear uniform, whether or not to pray at school.

I felt that things were more fundamental at home and I wanted to come back and be part of it. I also realized that the human system, man is born perfect; God created a perfect being right from the eggs, fertilization through the various stages if human development through maturity, the human system is perfect. I felt God should not go through such a process only to produce something that is imperfect, that man has greater calling to uplift society. Man has a responsibility to leave a better society than he met it. I felt just succeeding in America with a practice, a house, a family, a car- that there was more to it if it were back home. I needed to come back and be part of it and implement the vision of my people and implement the vision using political power to use Enugu State as a model of what change democracy can make to the so called third world. And being an Enugu boy growing up here, I was already in tune with the Enugu society. That was why I left America and came home. And of course my American background, training gave me the confidence that I could come here and move with the guys and succeed. When I came back to Nigeria and was blessed enough to become the Governor of Enugu State, we articulated a clear vision of our programmes for the state. We also felt that democracy then was essentially transitory, in motion, it is inherently unstable because it is experimental. And coming from America I was also a little bit anxious about the permanence of that democracy, about the stability of that democracy. I was also a little bit worried. And we felt that to defend that democracy; it must be protected by something more than the armored cars, artillery guns, and men in uniform. Democracy needed to be anchored by the people. And for the people to rise and defend that democracy it must be protected by something concrete for their investment. That was why we talked about dividends of democracy. That is when people vote something they get in return, what their vote represent not just equality, justice, freedom. Something that they can touch-water, roads, health facilities. When we talk about dividends of democracy, there are the new-look roads. We have the ring road network connecting all the local government headquarters. We are already building about 500 kilometres of asphalt road. We talked about our health district system, where we divided our state into 56 health districts, for primary health care. For secondary health care we use general hospitals. We ended up having 24 cottage hospitals. That was how we started. We did the same thing for education – school district system. Knowing fully well that we couldn’t put computers in all the schools, laboratory facilities in all the schools, modern equipment, libraries in all the schools, so we did what we called school districts centers, where group of schools will share these facilities. We also identified more than 200 communities, hired 2000 teachers for both primary and secondary schools. Many water projects made up of twin boreholes, 50,000-gallon tanks, and some as much as 14 kilometres of pipeline circulation. We built the law school; we built the Air force school and so many other things. That was what we did during the six years of our lives. And of course, two years into the first tenure I gave a presentation to the southern governor’s meeting. The presentation was so well received. The palpable energy generated during the speech was so good. So we started our lecture series. The lecture circuit became a form of self-education, self-enlightenment for me. It was in the cause of the lecture circuit that I ran into poverty. I had to do some work and had to study poverty and its implication in an emerging democracy. At the same time, DFID was also getting interested in Enugu State. So the whole thing happened at the same time. So by the time we were starting the second term we had become exposed to the DFID. I now became convinced that it was all about poverty. It was no longer dividend of democracy. It was all about poverty. Of course, in our first term of office, we were talking poverty but we didn’t call it that. We just didn’t click on it. So what we did with DFID was to try to define poverty? There are several definitions of poverty. People could be excluded either because of race. It could be capability –that is where the state fails to provide enabling environment for people to actualize there minimum capability either in terms of their reproductive rights, health, education facilities, environmental sustainability. So we defined poverty using a participatory means. What we did was that the stakeholders tried to identify what it means to poor and not poor. What we did was to get all the stakeholders – civil servants, okada riders, traditional rulers, NGO, traders etc. We called the whole society and locked ourselves up and held a series of dialogue, broke into groups to define poverty. We went into all definitions of poverty. Once we defined poverty in Enugu State, we set up what we call poverty reduction strategy. First of all, we set up what we call ministry of human development and poverty reduction. We broke it into health and human services, wealth creation, criminal justice system. We had immediate intervention programmes.

Were you able to determine the level of poverty in Enugu?

Nnamani:
Yes and no. You have to look at the genesis of the poverty rate over the years. Starting from poverty rate of about 15 percent in 1952. The growth rate of the eastern regional economy was at par with the advanced economy of he world, far advanced than that so called Asian tigers –Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore. Going down to 24 percent in the 70’s. By the time the civilian administration was coming in it was questionable between 60 and 87 percent. This was where it was until a few years ago.

But, of course, you know these figures have become politicized with people in government trying as much as possible to keep it down and people outside trying to keep it up. Of course, those that are pro-government and those anti-government. But the bottom line is to look at the human development index, which looks at 189 countries. Nigeria is in bottom 18. If you look at access to computer, access to electricity, Nigeria could be way down there above Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan and one more country. Look at computer technology, which you know is n index of globalisation. If you look at globalisation as a major tool for countries getting out of poverty and look at computer needs, you will see that we are number four from bottom, which, of course, forms the three cannons of globalization - privatisation, information technology and democracy.

So we came up with our poverty reduction strategy. At the same time we looked at the Millennium Development Goals, several indicators – reducing poverty by 2015, training students up to JSS 3, reducing infant mortality by two-thirds, decreasing maternal mortality by three-quarters and providing homes for hundreds of millions through global partnership. Government still has to provide for people in the rural areas. That was what we did through a holistic poverty reduction programme. There are several agencies. One is the DFID intervention programme.

There is a programme called LEEMP – Local Environmental Empowerment Monitoring Programme. I believe DFID also has a programme called SSLGP. Let me give you an example how it works. We have what we call school meal plus. We call it school meal plus because it is more than a meal. It is a programme where an index child in a community gets a balanced meal a day. That child upon being integrated into the programme and on a yearly basis gets medical preparation to get medical records of what they call morphormetric data in terms of weight, height, hearing, document things like colour blindness, attention disorder and what it means to that child. We also need the documentation to buy vitamin supplements, if necessary provide malaria drugs. We want to make sure that the siblings are within the educational system. If the mum is pregnant she will need the help of the health system. That is why it is called the school meal plus.

In addition to that, we have early child school learning system. That is, little kids at what we call the kindergarten, so that when the little ones are going they go with their smaller ones. So within the community, when the school meal plus is going on through DFID intervention programme, the SSLGP will provide rural roads within that community, provide electricity either in form of transformer or generator. LEEMP could also have an interventionist programme through a community committee. It could be health, electricity or water facilities. The rural water sanitation agencies, RUWAN, will come to that community and do a VIP latrine either within the school premises or within the community. Even though the target programme is school meal but SSLGP comes in to boreholes or shallow wells. This is a holistic approach to rural development. Another example of our intervention is the public service reform like the fire service, which went through a reform supported by DFID. Reforms that involve physical rehabilitation of the facilities, training. Capacity building to achieve service standard delivery in terms of response time, management of internally generated revenue. We also did public service reform in our civil service with computerization of our civil service records and proper IDS and services. They also did a charter in terms of service charter. What does the civil servant owe the general public?

In the area of wealth creation, we had what we called neighborhood associations. But what we did was to formalize this neighborhood association in terns of factors – either contiguous or homogenous factor either in terms of number. So given this neighbourhood association, we can now plan for micro credit scheme or we can plan for security / vigilante. I am sure that Enugu State is the pilot of pilots in community policing.

So in the area of wealth creation, we set up what we call business pack and also SME advisory center and what we call community business organizations. Working with DFID, we set up competition for young entrepreneurs. And those who won got N5 million, N3 million and N1 million to set up business ideas, monitor it and implement it.

In the area of criminal justice system, working with what we called Access to Justice, which is now called Security, Justice and Growth, we did some reform of criminal justice system starting with automation of the office of justice. Refurbishing of the Ministry of Justice with computers and generators. We also did an update on the Laws of Enugu State. We have always used Laws of Anambra as it applied to Enugu State. Working with the DFID we produced Laws of Enugu State. I think they gave us N7 million and we brought N7 million to produce Laws of Enugu. We also did capacity building in the areas of alternative dispute resolution, record keeping . We also did capacity building for customary court judges. We set up a Citizenship Rights and Mediation Center that was commissioned when the ambassadors came. So we did a lot and also computerized our land registry.

I believe we are going to work with DFID to computerize the judicial headquarters. In the area of health working with DFID we had a programme called PATHS (Partnership for Transforming Health Systems). Working with PATHS, we now went through the whole dialogue so when you are doing a report, what you do is to call stakeholders. Remember what I told you about the sectors, after having the stakeholders meeting, each of these sectors had to do its own series of dialogue to further identify poverty reduction strategy. So the health sector went over its stakeholders meeting again and decided that 56 health districts were just too much and they brought it down to seven health care districts. So by law we have seven. Health districts are to decentralize healthcare to the locality to make it easy for data collection. We got a lot of help from DFID. Initially, they gave us 500,000 pounds and later to spend up to four million pounds to furnish the Health Districts. What I am giving you is an overview of the major projects we are doing apart from the major projects you are seeing.

Have you been able to assess the impact of your poverty reduction strategy?

Nnamani:
Yes. A few weeks ago we had a visit from 14 European Union Ambassadors, who requested for raw data. It is being collected but I can tell you that when you look at the effect on school enrolment, we have the highest percentage of the female members of the house of assembly and of the females in the local governments as chairmen or supervisor. It is part of poverty reduction strategy. We have women who are customary court judges. It is mostly unheard of. They are seven. Enugu State is the leading state in terms of sustainable development with development partners.

There is this federal government poverty reduction programme. Is Enugu State not part of this programme?

Nnamani:
Our programme is factored into federal government’s programme for the state. Of course, when you go round the state I am sure you will see those mama and papa stores. Those containers, business containers. It’s everywhere. For us it is good business. It is a dilemma as to maintaining the aesthetics of the city than giving people their fundamental right of doing business in the sun and put food on the table, especially in a society where there is failure of the social contract.

What is that telling? Is it the right thing to do?

Nnamani:
People looking for space, economic space. It is population growth. Those that came back from the north. It is the economy. When we came into government, we had five banks, now we have about 50. I am sure you have heard of the Ama Brewery. The biggest single foreign investment since 1999.

Will you be able to complete all the projects you have before you leave office?

Nnamani:
We are going to finish them. My commitment is to make sure they are finished. I am hoping that the government here will maintain it. I am looking at a bright future with a lot of enthusiasm and optimism.

How much is your state allocation of the Federation Account and how much have you spent on the projects alone?

Nnamani:
We are way down in terms of allocation. As you know, Enugu state is way down there in terms of allocation. We have received about N43 billion since 1999. So, we are way down in terms of allocation. We may be one of the five states sharing the number three position from below. It is just some financial re-engineering and a l lot of credit to the staff that work with me. The accountant-general, commissioner for finance, the economic team and as you can see, I am fully aware of work going on, whether you are putting window, doing drainage. I was involved in the design of projects. Whenever I am in town I visit all those projects on a daily basis. I was involved in the briefs of those projects so I understand what is happening. Whenever I am in town I visit the projects.

How successful is…

Nnamani:
Very successful. Most of those programmes were finished. We had problems here and there. Vandalisation, community crisis. We have problems here and there. But programs are on.

How much did you spend on the university?

Nnamani:
The bulk pack is about N14 billion.

The projects we visited are being handled by one contractor throughout.

Nnamani:
When you came in 2001, we were using only Strabag. I have tried to refrain from discussing this because it is part of the secret of our success. I am never enthusiastic letting out secrets until the job is done. But because of questions of transparency which I am sure that they could release the result of the bench marking, it could show clearly that in an era of transparency in the projects, we are way up there. What we needed to do was to award the contract and made sure that it was advertised. We also wanted to be sure of the actual cost of building that university. We put 10 percent on top of it for profit and 10 percent for contingency. So when you go through the bidding process, the contractor we started with has an inherent advantage, because he is already mobilized. So even if we go through the bidding process and all the bidders fall within range that is not outrageous then we award the contract to him because it makes sense. When you have 13 projects and you have 6-13 contactors, for each new project you are going to mobilize. Mobilization could be anywhere from 10 to 30 percent. So how do you mobilize the contract for teaching hospital of N6 billion? So how do you mobilize the contractor for the university project of N14 billion? Mobilize the contractor for the judiciary, conference centre. It is not possible. So once the contractor meets that parameter we award the contract. We started with one contractor, then added two more. The advantage is to make sure that we pay the contractor monthly on certificate produced. The way he spreads it among the contract he is doing. We did not mobilize him for each contract. But we make sure he maintains cash flow. And as long as he maintains cash flow he is going to continue working on all the sites because that’s the only way he can generate certificate. If he concentrates on one site, he runs out of certificate. So you keep working. He is not going to make profit until all the contracts are done. We are also in a hurry because we are a government that is leaving and we don’t want to run into problems of cost variations.

These projects are very major projects and I was wondering why you did not tackle them in your first term.

Nnamani:
Only God knows. Even at some of my quite moments I wonder why I didn’t start earlier. I believe we had a full plat. That’s what we call experience, that’s what we call age. I believe that leadership comes with experience. I believe that it took us time to really zero in. we were building roads, building health centres, water projects. How to finally put together is like a painting on canvass. It is like a big puzzle. If you put it together it will work for you. First of all, it was very challenging. It takes a lot of courage to start a university, start judiciary headquarters. It needs a lot of courage. And a sense of history. Only God knows. But if we had started it early it would have been cheaper. It would have been best. But God’s time, they say, is best.

I thought maybe it reflects your personal confidence that you have achieved the basic things and you can now concentrate on you legacies.

Nnamani:
I wouldn’t take credit for it. That’s why we always say to God be the glory. I cannot explain it. The honest truth is that I cannot take the glory. I believe that it is an urgency. Suddenly we discovered that we were leaving in 2007 and that the power we sought was the power to do good and there may not be another time in history.; we may never have this opportunity again. Our time will pass and when the story is going to be told what would they say of us? How does man remember us? How is our story to be told? One thing is clear: we will never pass this way again., we are not doing this for five years, 10 but 100 for posterity. We are not doing it for mere mortal because man cannot understand this. The elite don’t even understand it. They are putting up all sort of advertorials accusing us of all sorts of things and when you add up the accusation, you are talking of almost N30 billion, for a state that got N43 billion; accusing me of building this, building that. They themselves know it is not true. But we do not reply them because what they want is to drag us into an argument. There is what you call elitist deceit, disconnect. If there is no elitist deceit one will believe that the power class would have no reason to question what we are doing. Rather what they should be doing.

How much do you spend on projects?

Nnamani:
I spent everything on projects apart from salary. When the money comes every month, I told you that we live on recycling overdraft. What that means is that we get a bulk pack of about N1 to N1.2 billion. When you get excess crude, it adds up to about N1.4. we pay salaries of teachers, civil servants, state subvention, warrant, bring out money for donations, travel to Abuja, for governor’s staff or for whatever, once we do that the whole money is taken in bulk to contractors. Whether it is N500 million or N1 billion, it is taken like that to the contractor. And we start waiting for another one. And that’s how we are going to do it till we leave office. The bulk of our payments will go into these projects. The rest will go into salary.

You inherited some debts when you came into office?

Nnamani:
Five months wages arrears for civil servants and more than that for teachers, parastatals, water corporation, universities, some as high as nine months. 13 months.

You have cleared all that?

Nnamani:
We have paid. We have discharged all those.

By 2007, you would have ruled this state much longer than anybody else.

Nnamani:
No, no, no, I would have been in service for the state, not rule. Service not rule.

Service. I thought that in the process you must have acquired the status of Godfather?

Nnamani:
No. I am not going to do that. I don’t believe in that. Even in Igbo, we say that it is the prayer of the father that the son should grow to be greater than him. May me some level of mentorship, advisory sort. I see a bright future for Nigeria. A bright future for Enugu state. Where people see dusk I see dawn. Where they see rainstorm, I see rainbow inn the sky. I believe tomorrow will be better than today. That is the essence of hope. It is that hope that is guiding us. It is hope that tomorrow will be better that makes you go to bed and sloop. If you don’t have that hope you won’t sleep. You just toss and turn until morning. It is the hope that is guiding all of us. I believe that by the grace of God, whoever is likely to be here will be better educated. May be younger, maybe more hardworking. May approach governance form a much better standpoint that there will be little need for interference. If it works out the way we want it. Unless he comes to Agbani once in a while to say hello, I am unlikely to be a guest at the government house. I am not a jobber. I will likely find something to do to keep me busy. If he comes to see me fine, if I run to him and I have to give advice fine. If ther3e is absolute need for me to come and see him I will come and see him. But I am not going to sit down with somebody sharing commissioners or sharing local government chairmen. Or picking candidates for election or begging him to come and put water in my town, in my village or begging him to do electricity or do road. I have done all those things. If there is a pothole on my way, I can arrange to get asphalt somewhere and fill it. I can do that.

Are you actually telling us that you will not have a say in who becomes governor in 2007?

Nnamani:
Highly unlikely. We have a political group here and I appear to be the oldest. I have been nominating ministers. I have been involved in sending people to the senate, one of whom is the senate president. After eight years in office, what will I be out there struggling for? Is it to be a minister? Is it to be senator? Is it to go to House of Representatives what is there that I will be out there struggling for that I don’t have younger men who can be out there doing it?

Are you telling us that you are not interested in who succeeds you?

Nnamani:
I am. As a group we are. I do not have a personal interest. But as belonging to a political group, it is inherent that we will be struggling to have one of us sitting here. It is done all over the world. We are going to struggle aggressively to ensure that one of us sits down here. He is likely to pursue our programmes and give us peace of mind. If that is what you want to know.

You talk as if you are going into political oblivion.

Nnamani:
I will go into political oblivion. But I won’t go into social oblivion. I will still remain a social being.

Are you interested in becoming the president?

Nnamani:
No, I am not.

Are you interested in becoming the vice-president?

Nnamani:
Far from it.

So what is it you want?

Nnamani:
I have gotten what I want. God has given me what I want. By 2007, I would have been governor of Enugu state for eight years and still in my 40s. I have a skill, acquired skill. I will go and use it.

When we were inspecting projects, we heard people shouting Ebeano. What does it mean to you?

Nnamani:
Ebeano is like a “feel good” phenomenon. Ebeano, you can describe it. It is like describing how Coca Cola tastes. What you know is that there is certain thing that coke does to you when you are thirsty. Ebeano is something good. It is something exhilarating. It is something that comes with a level of confidence, affirmation something that is good. Something that is categorical. Something that is not equivocal. Ebeano is a statement that something is good. It is clear and simple, either black or whit.

Is it a slogan?

Nnamani:
Well, you can call it a slogan. It is a statement. It is good feeling. Something that connotes good feeling.

How do you feel when they shout it?

Nnamani:
I feel good.

What percentage of our vision have you realized?

Nnamani:
Unfair question, very unfair. A vision is not talked in percentage. A vision is the totality of a concept. You cannot talk of what percentage you realized. Everything has to come together. Come back March next year. My greatest day is the day I go to Ebeano in the university and I see a group of students at the freedom square happy. Drive through the tunnel to Parklane Teaching Hospital. Go to the conference centre. Loma Linda, then the vision is met.

What has been the most frustrating experience so far?

Nnamani:
Frustrating experience or impediments which one? We can’t talk about frustration. But we can talk about impediments. Impediments have been finances. Frustration carrying people along, getting people to move along at my speed, at my energy, keeping up. When I came from America I didn’t really realize the level of elitist deceit going on in Nigeria. I only realized that only when I came here and became governor. There is nothing wrong in being a elite. But the true elite will want to carry people along. So you don’t have to carry copper wire on your fence. You can have your big house and your small pump out there serving from your borehole in the house. You can still have a driver and be concerned where your driver’s children are going to school. You can still do that contract and may be take 15 percent or 20 percent. You can still decide whether you want to be a senator or a member of the House of Representatives or governor based on the programme. I believe there is an elitist deceit.

The Nigerian elite has to understand that it is in his own interest to carry his people along in order to enjoy his money. It is the same thing with debt relief. Debt relief is not because the western nations love us that much. You have to understand that right from slavery, colonialisation that the problems of territory, urban unrest all has to do with poverty. So, again it is possible that by taking acre of debt relief and other problems of poverty we are building an environment for holistic peace.. so, for you to be comfortable you have to carry the masses along. There is an elitist deceit.