Nicknamed a civil servant state because of the underdevelopment indices that pervaded the state, seven years after, the Midas touch of the young surgeon called Chimaroke Ogbonnia Nnamani, has straddled the length and breadth of the state. Funnily however, he is hated by a rapacious elite but adored by the common people. His list of traducers includes a theo-political clergy who is a marionette in the hands of men Chimaroke himself loves to describe as journeymen and accidents on the scene of power, old land-grabbers, frustrated former aides of his, as well as an elite not enamored by his atypical people-oriented politicking. At the rate he is transforming the state, this elite would soon become museum pieces. A few ‘whys’ would suffice.

In the 70s when the New Haven road in Enugu was conceptualized, the master plan projected it as a dual carriageway. Administrations came and went – military and civilian – but no one thought it fit to ensure the dualization. Today, this commercial hub of Enugu is a beehive of activities and traffic goes on unhindered.

Again, Enugu State University of Technology (ESUT) is about the first state university in Nigeria. Established over 20 years ago, its neglect compares only with the Nigerian state. It occupied a borrowed space and its implosion of students has made the university burst at its seams. Readers may be interested in knowing that since Jim Nwobodo made a lipstick establishment of that university, which incidentally became the first state university in Nigeria, it had lacked everything that a university should not lack, chief among which is a permanent site.

That was before Nnamani peered the searchlight on ESUT. It was for decades tenanted at the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), its decay and rot watched to deteriorate through several civilian and military regimes that Enugu was unlucky to have. None of them was as committed as to earmark money for its construction. However, as I write this, a brand new ESUT, built on a 600 hectares of land, one of the most modern universities in Africa, with hostels for 20,000 students en suite, 8 faculty buildings, professors’ lodges, over 50 junior staff quarters, senior staff duplexes, etc, is almost completed.

This writer has been to the site of the university being built with an energy exertion that borders on the obsessed. Patterned after the University of Ibadan in its metropolitan, all-inclusive, city-like likeness, the university boasts of one of the most sophisticated, modern structures ever built in Nigeria. The contractors confessed that they were patterning it after the eye-popping structures at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Its four hostels would accommodate about 10,000 students, a church, an electricity system of its own, a complex water supply of its own and diverse facilities of exotic breed. Anyone reading this piece who doubts the veracity of my claim should spare a transportation to Enugu.

So is the multi-million naira brand new teaching hospital at Parklane started only recently but which has been completed. Its massiveness is not something one can begin to paint with a pen, except a visit to this seventh wonder of the world which, however, the Enugu geriatric opposition and frustrated favour-seekers, have refused to acknowledge.

Nnamani has an acute dread of being vilified by history. What would people say of him, say in twenty years time? What finger (of commendation or condemnation) would they point at his grave when he dies or when people see his children? As you read this, the construction of an underground tunnel – a double carriageway – has been completed. It is another wonder of man. Built underneath a rail line, it takes willpower of a man thirsty to leave legacies to have such construction realized in less than two years. It was constructed to link Artisan Market with Ogui road.

Michael Okpara did a master plan for the completion of an envisaged 3-Arms zone, built the Government House and the massive House of Assembly complex but couldn’t build a judicial headquarters. Government came and went and no one found the judiciary fit for a quarters. As I write this, one of the most modern court chambers in the country, equipped to taste, an 18-courtroom chambers, excluding the Chief Judge’s chambers, has been completed, waiting for commissioning.

Considering Enugu’s growing importance to conferees and corporate event holders, an international conference center is nearing completion in Enugu. This conference center is not only an architectural wonder, it is one of the massive structures of the Nnamani administration that puts a lie to the horde of concoctions that enemies of the government peddle on a daily basis. The only remaining hurdle for the completion of the masterpiece structure is a glass curtain that would bring home to roost its exotic exterior.

Aware of the importance of housing estates to the quest of providing accommodation to the teeming number of residents of the state, the Nnamani administration has built many estates in the state in the last seven years. Two notable ones are the Golf Housing estate and the Loma Linda, the latter which is still under construction. A 324 flats estate, upon completion, it would go a long way in easing the problem of accommodation among civil servants in the state. It is such legacies that annoy the opposition, made up essentially of disgruntled people who feel that governance is all about shoveling the collective heritage of the people into their pockets.

The people of Enugu know that yes, some land grabber emeritus could hold a thousand and one rallies, pour whatever invectives they like on Chimaroke Nnamani; they could climb the roof top and embark on a peregrination of vacuity, the truth is that, no governor has ruled this clime with the same level of commitment to the fate of the common people like him. Enugu state had never – perhaps, except of course in the days of Michael Okpara as Premier of the Eastern region - witnessed this level of developmental face-lift as Nnamani is sowing on the sand of the Coal City.

The Ebeano by-pass is patterned after the long-lasting roads of the old Eastern region. Left to congeal after the laying of sand on it, the by-pass, one of the major rural roads of the Nnamani administration, is meant to boost the morale of the rural dwellers of the area. Several massive bridges were constructed, as well as culverts, to get to the present stage of the by-pass. This writer was told that after the initial fermentation of the earth laid on the surface, the road would then be ripe for the final phase of asphalting.

Any need to talk about the Nyaba bridge? One of the notorious bridges in the state, this bridge links Ken Nnamani, the Senate President’s village, Amaechi, with other villages in the area. It is where Nwobodo hails from too. It was so impassable that the communities felt that no government would ever remember them again. The genuineness of their apprehension was based on the fact that even their son, Nwobodo, could not bring succour to them by building the bridge while he was the governor of the state. The Nnamani administration constructed the bridge from the scratch and anyone that travels to this community would hear the brimming gratitude of the villagers who had for years suffered delinkage by successive governments.

The Agbani-Ugbawka-Nara/Agbani roads were done by the Nnamani administration, so also the Enugu Urban linking Nike Lake to Ehamufu, Abakpa Nike and Trans Ekulu layout, the Ngbemena, Kenyatta, Robinson, Achara Lay-out, Ozalla – Agbani road, the Obollo-Afor – Ogrute road in Uduenu local government, the Oji River – Achi – Awgu road, the Udi – Ozalla road were some of the road projects built by the Nnamani administration. It also constructed the Opi-Nzukka road, otherwise known as the Nwodo pancake, a euphemism for leadership failure in place before Nnamani came on stream, the Nsukka-Ogurute-Obollo road, the Ninth Mile-Aguobu Owa-Umumba-Obunofia roads, Awgu-Ndeaboh-Nenwe-Odume road, among others.

The water-electricity projects of Nnamani are far from being mere propaganda machinery. Villages that hitherto had no access to light like Akwuke, Ugwuaji, Ugbawka, Nara, Amodu, Obuofia, Akpugo (extension), among others at the Enugu East senatorial zone; Ebe, Abia, Nsude, Umuabi, Umuaga, Umana Ndiagu, among others at the Enugu West Senatorial zone; Iheakpu Obollo, Amalla, Umuida, Umuogbo Agu, and so on at the Enugu North zone and several others were provided electricity and water by the Nnamani administration.

Space constraint would not allow this writer to recount the qualities of the administration of Chimaroke Nnamani, a man that opposition politicians are peddling a whale of hate about. But like everyone upsetting the apple carts of entrenched societal vermins and blood suckers, the kinds of lies and hate peddled by frustrated elite in Enugu State is always the lot of reformers trying to say bye to the idiocy of the past.

*Onovo is an Enugu based lawyer and media consultant.