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.