The primacy of politics in Nigeria is a constant reminder that where government is the most lucrative business in town, where the control of state power guarantees easy access to wealth and status, politics inevitably assumes the character of warfare while all manner of stormy buffetings and red herring become legitimate weapons of engagement. Sadly, government has remained the most glittering hub of elite economic and political activity, consuming the attention of all and sundry, including traders, contractors, builders, company chief executives, as much as sidelined politicians. It is the latter, the loser elements of the political class, who should in a mature democracy provide a principled and focused opposition, keeping the government on its toes while offering constructive criticisms and more reasoned policy alternatives as the pedestal of their claim to power.

In our usual parody of the ideal, however, our democracy has thrown up the monstrosity of opposition that has itself become an albatross on our necks. Almost everywhere, what passes for an opposition are a motley collection of yesterday’s journey men who have been temporarily disconnected from their government supply line; political jobbers who possess neither scruples, principles nor any discernible ideological conviction on any issue; and duplicitous desperadoes who are ab initio predisposed to underhand deals with our supposed tormentors. We are faced with an opposition that would rather ply in virulent lies, deceit, name-callings and vicious propaganda.

But nowhere has an opposition been more disingenuous in beguiling and misleading the unsuspecting public than in Enugu State where they are at their wits end to diminish the administration of Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani. In the build-up to 2007, they have desperately resorted to the antics of denial. Reading the cover stories of four recent consecutive editions of The Week magazine, all of which, in the face of more interesting developments elsewhere that should excite their readers nationwide, were oddly focused only on Enugu State, one could not but shudder with disgust at the degeneracy and idiocy of an obviously obdurate opposition. The said publications either outrightly denied the existence of key projects of the government, or questioned their motives, or even credited them to past regimes. Structures at the new Judiciary Headquarters and the permanent site of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), we were for instance told, were still at foundation levels, while two or three buildings at the Parklane Hospital, so the story went, were merely repainted and re-branded ESUT Teaching Hospital and College of Medicine.

One inadvertent gain of the antics of the Enugu opposition is the immortal self-admonition of the British statesman and thinker, Edmund Burke. He said: “He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.” Indeed, that Governor Nnamani has survived all the landmines laid on his path by the destructive elite factions is because he had from beginning put his administration at the service of the people while calling the bluff of supposed power brokers.

For though the mischievous counter-claims of the hack writers were beginning to sow seeds of doubt about the genuineness of government’s advertised projects, a weekend drive by this writer to the sites of the projects however sufficed to reassure one that Governor Nnamani is pursuing developmental governance with the drive of a sprinter racing against time. In fact, the brand new permanent campus of Enugu State University of Science and Technology, my al mater, is no longer a promise but a fait accompli. The sprawling new university which sits on 600 hectares of virgin land parades a total of eight faculty buildings, each designed to suit the unique tastes of the faculties, with basic facilities such as a 1000 seater auditorium, four to expansive large classrooms, and office suites for the teaching staff. Five of the faculties are already completed. There is also a road network which was already being asphalted as I drove round the vast campus, two completed 1000 seater cafeteria, a students’ multi purpose centre and a health centre. The living quarters are a spectacle to behold as over 50 units of duplexes for professors and principal officers of the university are ready for painting, while the 50 units, twin one bedroom flats and the over 35 units three bedroom flats had long been completed. However, the real wonders of Ebeano City, as the campus is called, are the four massive octagonal-shaped hostel blocks, each room with its own toilet and bathroom, the first of its kind in our clime. The hostels are to accommodate about 16,000 students. When it is considered that all the structures in the university which was commenced in mid-2004 are proceeding simultaneously, alongside the electrification, borehole system, roads, drainage channels, and perimeter fencing, then the picture of a massive construction site can be better appreciated.

But if a university sounds too distant for the mass of the people struggling to eke a living, not so for the popular Parklane Specialist Hospital, Enugu, the site of the new State University Teaching Hospital and College of Medicine. The new hospital project flaunts many finished towering structures including the 350-bed wards with a women and children section, as well as an intensive care unit, three hostel blocks, again with en suite facilities, estimated to accommodate about 1,000 medical students, a library complex, pre-clinical laboratory, an administrative block and lecture auditorium, a pharmacy block, two cafeteria blocks and two administrative blocks, one for the Teaching Hospital and the other for the Medical College. If the ESUT permanent site is already a reality, the Teaching Hospital is already bustling with activities. In fact, not only is the road network already asphalted, with sidewalk kerbs, flower beds and street lights to boot, but the wards are already filled with patients while the hostels are already in use by students. Against the opposition’s cheap fabrication, one could easily count more than sixteen new buildings.

It has to be stated that in the normal run of things in Nigeria, a new university campus and teaching hospital/medical school with such range of modern facilities are an uncommon feat in the life span of one administration. Simultaneous, speedy execution of the two projects is certainly unprecedented in Nigeria where notable teaching hospital projects have been going for the last ten to twenty years. But the story of Governor Nnamani has always been a departure from the norm. With eyes fixated on history, he has continued to defy and perplex cynics and skeptics who dismissed the projects two years ago as a deception that would end up in the usual notoriety of abandonment. It is interesting to note that the opposition is no longer talking about project abandonment.

On my return journey from the ESUT permanent site to Enugu metropolis, one had taken the liberty of detouring from the Ozalla-ESUT-Law School, which is by the way being dualized feverishly by the same government in anticipation of increased traffic to the campus, to the Amechi-Obeagu-Amodu-Umueze road, passing through the famous Nyaba Bridge which was only last year commissioned by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Back in Enugu, I drove to the site of Loma Linda Estate, an on-going low income estate with 324 two bedroom flats. From there, I headed to the newly completed State Judiciary Headquarters complex where landscaping, street lighting, planting of trees and flowers, drainage channels and finishing touches were being made on the massive edifices consisting of 18 courtrooms and office suites which will soon house the entire judicial branch of government.

Not far from the judiciary complex is another project which when completed will completely turn around the tourist potentials of Enugu State. It is the gigantic International Conference Centre overlooking the Michael Okpara Square. Beholding the massive structures which are visible from afar, the safest conclusion one can make of the opposition is that they must be either blind or their envy has made them so. Because apart from the towering main bowl of the conference centre, as well as another oval-shaped theatre adjoining an extensive office complex which were all being roofed as I visited, another beautiful dome-shaped theatre was virtually ready.

As I continued my Saturday cruise through the newly dualized Rangers Avenue, with a long flower bed and street lights in-between, and drainage channels on both sides, it occurred to me that the project was commenced only some three months ago. It was however the Ebeano Tunnel Crossing that made the most lasting impression on me. The tunnel which was constructed by first boring through the mound of earth under a rail track is obviously a major triumph in man’s quest to conquer and recondition his environment. In magnitude, rock solid construction, neat finishing, and of course great relief to motorists of Coal City, the Ebeano Tunnel is a legacy for posterity. With such a projects, Dr. Nnamani can afford to sleep with his two eyes closed, knowing that no matter how hard his detractors try, the projects on the ground will always stand in derision of the so-called opposition.

* Nnam, a public affairs commentator lives in New Haven, Enugu