Who is afraid of Nnamani?
By Debo Abdulai, Tribune, February 12, 2006

Chimaroke Nnamani is a governor who has taken the centre stage of political discourse since he assumed office in 1999. Aside being the only governor who successfully dealt with the godfather syndrome, he has established himself as one governor who did not find himself on the political turf by accident.

He appeared for the task of governance as he established a brilliant and more realistic means of getting Nigerians to talk, discuss and listen to the problems, solutions and greatness of their country through his novel lecture series which has taken him to virtually every part of the country. Affectionately, he ends each lecture series with: To God Be The Glory, a cliché that has become very popular, and relevant, in the political lexicon of the country.

The Enugu State governor did not stop there; he made sure that he consistently provided the means to make life worth living for the people of the Civil Service state so much so that within few years, Enugu became not just a commercial centre but the hub of political activities in the South East. The very cerebral governor not only turned the state around, he positioned himself among the Prima Dona of the political scene so much so that his voice became a must.

Nnamani, it was, who turned the Southern Governors Forum into forum for serious debate with his first lecture aimed at redirecting the state of the nation.

Ebeano, as he is fondly called, not only emerged as a veritable candidate for the leadership of the country, and a major player in the affairs of his party, the PDP, he emerged as one of the foot soldiers of the president, which he has never hidden. At a forum where this writer was present, Nnamani had eulogized the president and when he was asked why he was so much in love with him he explained, “I love his vision, I love his commitment, he means well and I know what he is going through”.

It is therefore not a surprise that this governor who has turned around the fortunes of his community has also ensured that his state, in 2005, emerged as the leader in a thorough assessment conducted on the 36 states by the National Planning Commission in conjunction with the African Institute of Applied Economics. Their assessment was based on such criteria as transparency, service delivery, fiscal management etc. In short, it was an assessment based on quality of governance.

This state pretty deserves the award, if facts on ground are anything to go by. According to figures released when Obasanjo visited the state last year, the state had embarked on projects estimated to cost about N30billion. The projects included construction of roads, buildings for the judiciary, an international conference centre, housing estates and projects that had to do with the state university. Official documents obtained by Sunday Tribune showed that the dualisation of Chime Avenue, New Haven Road, had been completed. The first road tunnel in Nigeria linking Ogui Road with Okpara Avenue was 97 per cent completed; the International Conference Centre is only eight per cent from completion; the 162 building project of the permanent site of ESUT was 94 percent completed; and the 324 unit Loma Linda Housing Estate had 58 percent completion stage. Also over 400 kilometers of asphalt roads had been completed by the Enugu State Government.

And like no other state in the country, the EU ambassadors who were in Enugu on a fact finding mission returned a verdict of praise just like President Obasanjo and Chief Anthony Anenih had done.

It was therefore a surprise to many political watchers that this same governor was dragged before the dreaded Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by the suspended chairman of Udi local government area of the state, Mr. Oscar Egwuonwu, who alleged that Nnamani diverted local government funds; that the government had misappropriated N52billion since 1999. He was also accused of various other allegations which all had to do with the very impressive projects of the state government.

Nnamani however announced to a bewildered nation that he was ready to divest himself of his immunity status and dismissed the allegations as, “a frenetic desperation by the opposition to muckrake, mudsling and tar-brush a government that is adjudged to be at the vanguard of democratic performance.”

While the projects on ground, the testimony of eminent Nigerians and the very robust defense of the state government, are enough to deflate the arguments of Egwuonwu and his group what appears evident, especially from the reactions to the unfolding events in Enugu state, is that some people are afraid of his rising political profile and are bent on tarnishing it before the jigsaw of 2007 are put in place.

The Enugu state government, in a document it released said, “it must be taken into cognizance, and verifiable too, that the state government spends about 60 per cent of its monthly revenue on payment of salaries and emoluments to its civil service”

While stating that it has spent over N30billion naira on its several projects, the government said, “the opposition in Enugu is one of the most fertile-minded in the history of opposition in Nigeria, attributing misappropriation of about N52 billion to a government that has so far collected about N58 billion from May 1999 till date (excluding December 2005).

The truth is that Nnamani, with his outstanding achievements, his very cerebral approach to governance, his unapologetic likeness for the president and his rising political profile, he is a man who must be hated, especially as the nation moves towards 2007.

When the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Ogazimorah was asked whether there are other forces at play in the matter apart from the petition raised by the suspended local government boss? He said,

“The government of Enugu state is judged the best-governed state, in term of husbanding resources, development of human resources by donor agencies. This is a state that is third from the bottom of allocation in the federal account allocation scheme. This is a state that gets an average of about N900m per month and which has a salary bill of about N540m but has excelled in terms of infrastructure building, human development and poverty reduction. It is possible that these may not go down so well with certain individuals, but then, it is not unexpected, things will happen and they will be addressed as they come.

“Success generates a kind of attention and that is what is happening now. What is happening now is a matter of probity. Anybody is welcome to come and take a look at what is happening in the state and if crime is alleged, it should be investigated and proved.”

He was also asked, “with the massive construction going on around the state coupled with the high wage bill of the civil servants of the state and the low allocation from the Federation Account, some are alleging that the state government has been dipping its hands into the local government accounts. How true is this?”

He explained. “there is a statutory provision in the local government accounting system for Joint State and Local Government accounts. The state has a role to play but the state has ensured that it does not exceed its role.

“The state government is getting the money it is applying in infrastructural development from federation account allocations, some elastic financial measures, short draft with banks, contractor financing deals which sometimes we engage in.

“I am aware that people have raised the question of why the state is using one contractor for all its construction jobs. The secret is that if you have a contractor already working for you on some projects, you don’t have to mobilize him again for another new project. If you bring in a new contractor, you will be forced to mobilize him to site again.

“Most of our projects are being executed by one construction firm because we are trying to avoid paying multiple mobilization fees.

“When we were using Strabag, an international construction firm, it was the same thing. The arrangement is that it is convenient for us that if we have mobilized you to start on ESUT permanent site and we have mobilized you to start on ESUT Teaching Hospital, if we have to start the Judiciary headquarters, we can then strongly argue that we don’t have to mobilize you again because we believe you have the resources to take off on the new site and that is the simple logic.

“Coming back to the issue of the local government account, the relationship between the state and the local government is very clear in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In Enugu state there are 17 Local Governments. For the purpose of even extensive development, the state government, by administrative measure, created three Development Centres in each local government. This is to avoid the past situation where the activities of local governments are restricted to their headquarters. With this arrangement, development is taken to all the nooks and crannies of the state through these DCs. All these DC have a uniform development programme backed up by local valuation.

“In Enugu state, each DC is embarking on a cottage hospital, every local government is also erecting an agriculture extension facility in all the DCs. Past local government creation did not favour Enugu State. For example, Udi Local Government is almost as old as any state you can think of in Nigeria, created in 1931 with boundary with Warri Division, the land mass is as large as one or two states I would not want to mention. With the DCs arrangement, development is extended to far flung places. The distance between Udi, the headquarters of Udi local government and another town on its border is as far as Enugu to Onitsha, with the DCs, there roads are regularly maintained, hospitals are within their reach.

“In all these, the state government involvement in the administration of the LGs is restricted to the statutory provisions.”.