I urge you to pardon my humble submission as in my commencement of this address by inviting you to the injunction of the Almighty Maker, upon whose power and unchallenged decision all good efforts of men get crowned. I take you to this particular case, as ruled in time and by divine tide: "...promotion cometh neither from the East, nor the West, nor the South, nor the North; it cometh by God..." (Psalm 75 v 8).

With deep gratitude to God Almighty, and upon my understanding of my lowly origin, not skewed off by the flamboyance of the environment I was raised but made more realistic by the historical spirituality of the endeavour of my kindred, the Wawa people, I see this moment from the prism of the great Biblical writer of Ecclesiastes: "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all."

Attendant upon this then, I have had my mind race back in history, to the very day, April 30, 1789 in the Federal Hall, New York when in total submission and supplication, through the first Inaugural Address, George Washington bellowed across to the then disorderly American nation, "... I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow citizens...my error will be palliated by the motives which misled me, and its consequences be judged. ..with some share of the partiality in which they originated."

Of course, ours is not the supremely American government and power. It is not the distinct government for a distinct people. It is not the distinct government of a unit of our larger society which has been created for the elevation of the welfare of the mankind of the Wawa stock, their environment, their friends, their visitors and their drive at joining the expanding exercises in globalization.

I want you to look at me without pity; without pity because I stand here before you with the deepest sense of heritage.

To that effect, I make bold to declare to you today that I stand before you, tall and proud, as a Wawaman who has been humbled and unsparingly challenged with a second democratic mandate, which has been pre-seasoned by the plums as well as the vicissitudes of a past hectic four-year tenure.

As appointed unto us, one by the great Maker, to perpetually engage in taming our world for love and brotherliness, and secondly, by our statute books, to compellingly seek the perfection of the modern society through the extension of the resources of the State for the benefit of each member of the society, we could not have gathered here for the mere platitudes usually associated with landmark political transitions.

What we witness today, being a remarkable departure point for the actualization of the fuller texture of our democratic enterprise, is a deep commitment to the bonding of a people who must, much as ordained by providence, but more as cultivated in a way of life of our race, be anchored on individual and group initiatives.

We have been through a tough time trying to appreciate our political environment and seeking to assert our political will, each man for the benefit of our society. In the course of this, certain impressions of each man were formed, rightly or wrongly.

Our immediate electioneering experience reveals that we still have to pick much of the bits which remove tension in politicking and which leave the impression that "frontline political players are charging bulls, unkind, hard men,' unperturbed about people's plight,' unbothered about people losing their jobs or people not getting their pensions...but so uncaring, strange and remote," to the people.

It is even possible that conducts of men and women who were in close touch with government or who may have had much to do with politicking and electioneering, did reinforce the belief that government is a matter for them and not for us all. It is also possible that our larger number may have missed out the fuller elements of the modern trend in small but better coordinated government, which is not necessarily exclusive as it could not have been for the rich and powerful alone.

Granted that these may have had their impact on the people's mind and possibly negated the craved rapport between government and the people, the deeper intentions and innermost motives, when informed by the need for public good, should be taken into account.

When we started out four years ago on this same podium, the avowed intensions and all efforts we deployed in governance were for the good and upliftment of the Igboman and the other Nigerians in this our unit called Enugu State. The purpose which informed the focus is to set the base on which the greater foundation of a developed Enugu State would stand.

Today, as we stand before you, definitely on the measured space offered by this glamourised podium, we could not have disappointed you. We did give a proper account of the mandate which you gave us. We did fulfill the democratic (social) contract which stood binding on us to provide for elevation of this State.

Consequent upon the truth of the complexity of government and governance, also attendant upon the infallible fact of the enormous cultural base on which our environment was set, it became imperative that more than light efforts would be expended in appreciation of the relationship between government and the governed.

It could not have been the best of times for the government and governed to misunderstand one another. But despite the full swing of vicissitudes, sometimes occasioned by our little grasp of the fuller elements of democracy and its plural values or the deliberate intensions to negate efforts of government, it became established in time that we were set on our track to build the base as the foundation on which the greater Enugu State would stand.

Today, we clad our visage with the truth that we are Wawa men and women. We are Ndigbo. We are humane, we love ourselves, we love our neighbour, and we love our women and children.

I am Chimaroke Nnamani, just a kid from Agbani, your brother and your neighbour next door. We all belong to this Wawa community and we have today formed this government whose dominant purposes will be to promote peace, build hope, strive at continuity on that which is good and crave at reaching that which assures posterity for the benefit of our people.

It may be necessary for you to know today that we take on this challenge of a column embodying a second but decisive democratic mandate anchored upon the cultural reflections of Prince Fyodor Piere Analtov of Smorlensky in the then imperial Russia: "If it has now been ordained that I assume this mantle of leadership, believing in the heritage of the kindred which bore me, accepting that this is a divine injunction that I build a will of man refined through the belief in the God above the sky, then I vow now that your worries shall be mine and that this is a : crown of God to do nothing other than the good of the children of God."

From today, we shall not go to sleep if our youngsters are not settled at school. We have elected to bear your burden for the social elevation of our environment. We now assume this challenge of protecting our aged by regular payment of their pensions.

Mind you, we are from this clean environment formed in the mighty hills and valleys of Udi and Nsukka. We are, all, of this healthy culture, good climate, good food culture, fertile and rewarding soil, kind people, the most friendly temperament and promising economy. We are not removed from the dominant Igbo journey of life. We are faced with the same adorable and cherished challenge of adventure, challenge of creativity, challenge of service, challenge of logical thinking and inquiry and the challenge of moral development and moral judgment.

It has been attested that our people are good neighbours wherever they reside. We are also industrious, tenacious, creative and loyal. The government we produce, therefore, shall be one of kind heart, patience, forgiveness, hope, peace, justice and equity. But it shall be resolved that the ultimate objective is the good for the larger number. That, to us is democracy and that, we shall seek to sustain for the perpetuation of this mankind of the Wawa genre.

The last four years in our history have been the most eventful in the annals of this region. For the first time since 1966, a government had emerged from the ashes of institutional neglect and decay and has given a proper account of itself in building sound infrastructure base for our society.

We have moved modem, asphalt-nylon tar roads to places where today's kind of civilization never existed. We have taken electricity to erstwhile remote and blighted communities. We have established the track for diffuse health programme for all and we have laid the track for spread of other amenities, which previously were the exclusive preserve of a select clan of leadership persons. It is today the faith on hope, the faith on greater infrastructure development and the faith anchored on a resounding and decisive second mandate, which we have come to celebrate today.

In the words of Jefferson Davies, February 22, 1862, "to show ourselves worthy of the inheritance bequeathed to us by the patriots... we must emulate that heroic devotion which made reverse to them, but the crucible in which their patriotism was refined."

With sweetness and attachment to the reality of the force of our true environment and in submission to the social injunction chanting our journey through time, we cannot but succumb to the seasonal beckoning of our values heralding the approach of our new dawn:

Kpakpando kpachiri enu igwe,
ma o bia chighi ani k'owa
n 'obu nu Chimaroke Nnamani,
bu owa echi ani
n 'egbu 'ji -ma y'egbu nu ede
Chineke yehuonu eka...
Enugu o'kwae bu ka odu
(nefu o o) n'ekwuo o...;
Ochichi kakwa mma nuo
n'onye odoro eya
ufu na efia ogodo na efia
ana eyo eziokwu eyo
ifukwara uzo Agbani ye rurua
Awgu-Ndeabo ye rurua
Uzo Opi-Nsukka ye rurua
Aguobu-Obunofia ye rurua
Law School ye rurua
Miri Nkwere Inyi ye rurua
Ebe-ano Housing ye rurua
Enugu okwae bu ka odu
N'efu oo

Ndi banyi kwado Chimaroke
n ' oka g' erne kwa ozo ihu
anyi ni ne ketachaa oke anyi
Enugu okwae bu ka odu
N'efu oo

Biko sh aha onye bu eze
nobu chie shi ya buru eze
Nwata du kanyi n'adu
N erne kanyi ji erne
Chimaroke be anyi
anyi ahaworo eya
Onwa netiri oha
anyi ahaworo ye
Enugu okwae bu ka odu
N'efu oo

It is my vow never to underrate the values attendant upon the cultural tone underlining this rendition. I have never mistaken the fact that this springs from the same iron cast cultural admonition, which reinforces the Biblical injunction,

"it is never by our might..."
onye chi ye nyere Eze
nya biko burn eze
a na a zo k'Eze a zo!!!

Today, the affirmation is loudly made and we shall set out at once on our track to the middle ground on which we shall confirm the foundation of the base formed in the last four years. My people let me not mince words with you. Work begins the moment we leave here. We cannot wait any longer.

If we broaden our minds to admit that all, which took place in electioneering were mere interplays in the struggle for power, that the path to the greatness of our State lies in refined attitude to government and governance and that the aggregation of the efforts of fellow citizens marks the ultimate road to social elevation, then we shall ride the crest of our mandate, decisively and so continue to say:

To God be the Glory.