The News: You have been in the saddle for the past seven years. How have you been able to weather the storm?

Gov. Nnamani: I believe you were here a few years ago during one period of crisis or the other. So you can see that we have come a long way. We cannot lay claim to weathering any storm in Enugu State. I believe that God weathered it for us and I believe primarily, that we remain focused to govern with a clear vision and focus. We saw power as an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our people. So we came in and stayed focused all through. That is why we have been able to put things on ground. I am sure when you came here a few years ago, I enunciated my vision and my dreams for the people of Enugu State. I did talk about seeking power to do good. I also talked about my personal philosophy of daring to achieve and of changing our environment and leaving our footprints in the sands of time. I believe we have stayed focused since then. We defined dividends of democracy as what the people get, something concrete in exchange for thier votes. So we knew that in order to hold the people, we must give them something in return for their support by building roads, providing water, logistics, and an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive. That was what we did for the first four years of governance.

The second four years became much more cerebral, with a lot of intellectualism. We started talking about poverty, stakeholder developmental governance, stakeholder-driven reforms and we got exposed to the Millennium Development Goals - the over 40 indicators by the United Nations Millennium Summit. During our second term, we became even more focused and decided to stay close to the issue, which is the essence of governance – welfare and security of the people. We decided to target decisively the MDGs, which is to reduce poverty, hunger, provide universal basic education, provide an avenue for gender empowerment and gender parity, decrease infant or child mortality, decrease maternal mortality, tackle HIV/AIDS and malaria, provide programmes that will support environmental sustainability and also continue development partnership, which is essentially what we are doing with our development partners.

The News: When you came in, you promised a lot of things. I remember reading one of your essays where you said your idea about what poverty constitutes became different when you came in contact with the Department for International Development….

Gov. Nnamani: I knew that in America, certain things were taken for granted. Things like water, road, health facilities, electricity. I knew about that. I also knew that back home in Nigeria, it was the norm for women to die during childbirth. It was also the norm for kids to die at birth and from malaria. These are things taken for granted in the developed world, but for us at home, they are luxury. So I was determined to, rather than stay outside the system as it were and criticize or talk about home, come back home and contribute, and get into the corridors of power as it were and help implement those things. So, by the time I was sworn in as governor, I already had a programme laid out. I had the health district system, the road network system – what I described as the primary, secondary and tertiary roads. I had the water programme – the urban and rural water programmes – looking at production and distribution. I had a programme for rural electrification which was simple – one more pole, wire, transformer etc. That was what we did. And we did quite a lot in terms of network of roads.

And of course you know we were battered and bruised by a virulent opposition. So we had to keep our eyes on the prize to hold the masses. We were also battling for our own survival and the lifeline, as it were, was the dividends of democracy, what we give to our people so that people would not listen to all the criticisms; because whatever the opposition did, they never said that we were not working. So we held tenaciously to that lifeline. But we matured in governance – remember we came into government as young men with a lot of idealism. I came in before my 39th birthday and we came in with a lot of youthful idealism and energy, what the President described as the can-do spirit. We came in ready to move on, aggressive, eager, highly enthusiastic and ready to move on. But as we matured in governance and settled in, we became more intellectual and the lectures started coming.

It was in the process of that self-rediscovery that we started a partnership with DFID and it suddenly occurred to us that all the struggle, aggression, hostility, disquiet in the land, were all about poverty. The basic question is about poverty and struggle to share resources. Having gone to the great and golden University of Nigeria, where in essence the goal is to restore the dignity of man, I knew that poverty can wreak havoc on the dignity of a man. And a man who has lost his dignity has lost his soul. Then of course, we went into a period of self-rediscovery, with inspiration from DFID. We had to try to define poverty within the context of Enugu state. I am sure, as you know, poverty could be defined by using several parameters. You can use the monetary definition, which is less than one dollar a day and you can equally use the capability approach, where the system does not provide an environment for you to express your minimum capability – whether lack of basic education, amenities, denial of rights or even things as little as birthrights. Poverty can also be defined through social exclusion, where the system has otherwise excluded people, whether by race, ethnicity, infirmity or any other social yardstick. Poverty can also be defined by participatory yardstick. And we, using our own parameters, decided on who is poor or otherwise. We had to review a lot of work and a lot of people who have done some works on poverty. So we did a lot of soul-searching. So that was the first thing we did in Enugu State – working with the DFID.

We had several stakeholder-driven dialogues involving legislators, people in the criminal justice system, people in the area of wealth creation, traders, traditional rulers. We all sat together at the same table, no chairman, no supporting staff, mixed. You can see the governor and the next person could be a junior civil servant or even a driver. We defined poverty and even did so in the Igbo context. It was interesting.
We thank God that these things happened within the first two weeks and that was how we started the second term. We spent one week in Nike Lake Hotel, governor sitting side by side with other members of staff, with each person making his or her own point for three days. After the general one, it now became sectional, the legislators, traditional rulers and civil servants had this respectively. At the end of it, we set up what we called a poverty reduction strategy for Enugu. We went through sensitization and process of implementation. Let me give you an example. We set up the first Ministry of Poverty Reduction and Human Development, working with DFID in the area of health and human services development. We also started the School Meal Plus Programme – the first state to do that. We started with three local governments per senatorial zone and the idea was to provide one meal a day. We called it the School Meal Plus because in addition to the meal, we provided vitamin supplementation, malaria prophylaxis if necessary, and other nutritional supplements if necessary. But before the child enters the programme, he or she must go through an initial medical evaluation, including things like weight, general nutrition, dentition, visual acuities and of course attention deficit disorder or other problems with the kid. And that was now documented so that when you look at that child three to six months later, you will see the difference. For the siblings, we were able to use that programme, whether or not they were in school or in the health system (for the mother, if she is pregnant or in the ante-natal care system). It was a partnership between Enugu State government, DFID, with participation from the United UNICEF and other agencies. It was holistic in the sense that the other partners brought something to the system – rural sanitation agencies brought boreholes or VIP latrines; rural electrification agency brought transformers or powerlines. I believe UNICEF brought vitamins. Each party brought something. The major sponsor was the DFID.

We also developed the early childhood learning centre, about the only early childhood learning centre in the country today. What it means is that in our primary schools, when the kids go to school, they take the younger ones along, so we had arrangements for the two-three-year-olds. We have somewhere they stay while the older ones are in their classes. Of course the result is 200 percent increase in school enrolment. It was not absolute increase because some of the increase was due to diversional relocation: some kids had to move to those schools where we had School Meal Plus programme. There were also documents of increase in the weight of children in six months for the kids under the programme. All these came into the MDGs because by feeding the child, we decrease hunger, since it is a home-grown programme, which means the mothers cook the meals, thereby reducing poverty. Because there is an increase in enrolment, you are also looking at a positive impact on the Universal Basic Education. Because of its effects on the health of the child, we are decreasing child mortality and morbidity. And of course, because of the maternal components, we are decreasing maternal mortality.In terms of the health benefits, we are also looking at HIV/AIDS and malaria. Because it is home grown, the parents bring fruits or whatever they have within the system. With the components of the VIP toilets and others like provision of water, we are sustaining the environment. It’s a partnership with development agencies with global connection. So you can see how with one programme, we complied the MDGs together. That is one of the examples of what we did.

Another example is what we did in the area of wealth creation. Working with DFID, we set up an SMEI advisory centre and we are also working on business partners. We set up what we call CBOs – Community Business Organizations. These are set up around junction towns like Oji River, Ninth Mile, Emene Fuel Depot junction area, to set up a cluster of businesses.

In the area of criminal justice system, we worked through a programme called Access to Justice (A2J). It is now called the Security, Justice and Growth programme. One of the things we did was to build capacity in the traditional rulership system in the area of alternate dispute resolutions and even in documentation of their functions and duties. We also did something in the rehabilitation of the prisons and provision of drugs. We also had some stakeholders’ dialogue in the area of juvenile justice, so as to provide alternatives to incarceration. We also did some works in land registry – some reform processes in the land registry. Part of the result is that we set up the first Citizenship Rights and Mediation Centre here in Enugu State. We also have our brand new judiciary headquarters – an 18-chamber court building and also a separate building for the Chief Judge that will be fully computerized. It is also part of the concept of the reforms in the criminal justice system.

Here we also started community policing. Remember Enugu State is the pilot for community policing, a programme we did with the former IG, Tafa Balogun. The programme was quite successful and I give credit to him in that regard because he helped us a lot in community policing. We also did the neighbourhood system or association. It was what I called a holistic reform. What we had to do was to formalize it either in terms of homogeneity or in terms of contiguity or contiguous areas. We use it for data collection, statistics, security surveillance and we also use it for micro-credits or cooperatives.

We equally did so much in the area of public sector reforms. We did budgetary reform and we set up what we call BEAT – Budgetary Evaluation and Assessment Team – to look at our budget, which we have to publish and give it wide distribution. So it makes it possible for government, NGOs, members of the civil society to track and look at our budget. We also had to get our priorities right rather than have an inverted pyramid, where about 99 percent of budgetary cost went into salaries and operating cost and little percolated down to the people. Also, as part of the public sector reforms, we did right-sizing and computerized our payroll system, with finger print identification. So with that, our wage bill also dropped because we put to rest the issue of ghost workers. Also, we did some reforms on service delivery for some of our agencies like the fire service, library and some other agencies so as to reduce operating costs and encourage revenue generation, improve service delivery, turn-around time and others. Without being immodest, I must say here that we have done a lot in the area of reforms.

We also went into partnership with several partners using programmes like LEEMP – Local Environmental Empowerment and Management Programme – and we also have our Community Development Councils and some other World Bank-assisted programmes. Being a state with a lot of universities, we did some work on HIV/AIDS. Essentially, that is what we did but in order to secure the future of our children, we commenced work on other infrastructure by building the permanent site of the university where for over 20-something years, our kids were living in garages and boys quarters. We had to build the permanent site of the university and the permanent site for the teaching hospital, the judiciary headquarters, a lot of road dualisation, of Chime and Rangers Avenues. We did the first underground tunnel in Nigerian including a conference center with a total capacity of about 8,000. We also did a housing complex – the Loma Linda Housing Complex.

Clearly, the reforms worked here in Enugu State because there is a benchmark for assessing our performances. They looked at the other 35 states, including the FCT, looking at the parameters of budgeting and fiscal policies, service delivery, transparency and communications and Enugu State scored highest. One can say that the state is the best governed state in Nigeria, based on that assessment. So when the president said Enugu state is Working, you can say it is the truth.

The News: Given all that you have listed, one wonders how you got the money to finance all the projects.

Gov. Nnamani: Part of the reasons we say ‘To God B the Glory’ is not that we are trying to sermonize or to appear virtuous. It is because we know it is true. We cannot explain it or rationalize how we were able to accomplish all the projects in a 15-month period. But in trying to explain, one can say that if you remember when we came into office in 1999, our monthly allocation was about N100 million. It went up subsequently to about N300 million, N500 million and it is at the moment N1.5 billion allocation and VAT. In the same manner, our wage bill also went up so that right now, out of N1.5 billion, our salary component for civil servants and teachers is a little over N500 million. By the time you talk about subvention to parastatals like the State University, Polytechnic and the new College of Education, bursary, impress, overhead cost, we are talking about N800 million to N1billion. The rest we use for our projects and emergencies. The same thing we did during the first tenure that I explained, that is the same we did with the second, essentially using Marlum Nigeria Ltd, an Italian group with one or two other subsidiaries. So what we did was to subject the contractual process to a bidding process by first advertising, after which, based on the bidding process, contracts are awarded through tender. The SEEDS benchmark in assessment also confirms that where we have deficiencies, they are pointed out for us to correct. So we could not have come first if we were not transparent and there was no communication.

What we did was to essentially mobilize on a major project and the contractors work on the others without initial mobilization. But you can see that if you have 10 mega projects and the same number of contractors, for them to start, you have to mobilize the 10 different contractors. There is no way Enugu State could do that with N500 million or thereabout. If there are different contractors and certificates are generated, you must pay for work to continue. But if it is one, work can continue at the various sites. In effect, it is the contractor financing your project. After mobilization, we now maintain monthly payment with the contractor based on the certificate generated. That was how we were able to do it. And of course we also recycled overdrafts a lot. We do a lot of overdraft recycling to pay our bills. And of course, the excess crude also contributed to our ability to finance the projects.

The News: Unlike other governors, it has been observed that you rarely travel out of Enugu State, and don’t go abroad to seek global investments…

Gov. Nnamani: I don’t know, but I guess I have a lot to do here. I enjoy it here and I was out for quite sometime. I hardly go to Abuja or Lagos. I just enjoy it here but I can’t explain how. It’s just my style and it has been my style. I enjoy the ambience here very much and I can’t stand the boredom of long travels and being in a state that could be unpredictable whatever, I don’t want to be somewhere and something is happening in Enugu and I will have to be rushing back. So I got used to being around.

The News: I asked that question because many governors who travel out claim to go in search of foreign investments. Now what is the extent of global investment in Enugu.

Gov. Nnamani: No, it hasn’t affected us. You have to remember that the largest single investment in the country, the N80 billion Ama Greenfield project (Heineken BV of Holland and Nigerian Breweries), is in Enugu State. It hasn’t affected us at all. But there is a case for those who go out there seeking foreign investment. It does work. But for us, keeping the home front and providing an enabling environment, maintaining security, protecting lives and properties, providing some level of transparency and excellence has also attracted development partners to us, because these partners do have wide and far-reaching contacts and exposures. That has also exposed the state. Of course you know that Enugu itself is a brand. You know what I mean.

The News: How widespread are your projects? How come they are concentrated in the state capital?

Gov. Nnamani: Where do you build a tunnel if not the capital city? Where do you build an international conference centre if not the capital city? Where do you build judiciary headquarters if not the capital city? We had to put the Teaching Hospital here because the same consultants are in our hospitals, the same teachers are also working in the University Teaching Hospital. Services are shared-academic and teaching services. If you go all over the world, if you go to Boston, you have a cluster of hospitals – Massachusetts, Brimingham, etc., they are all in the same area. If you go to New York, hospitals are in the same area – Harlem, NYU, Columbia, etc. You come down to Brooklyn, the same thing. So you have hospital clusters. The reason that led to hospital clusters is that the same physicians cover the same hospitals. In emergencies, they can reach these places at the same time. The same lab facilities. They may share lab facilities. I realized that that is where the future is going. So that is why we have to put the Teaching Hospital in Enugu.

But they don’t talk about what I have told you now about the School Meal Plus programme. They don’t talk about wealth creation or the reforms we want to achieve in the criminal justice system. We don’t talk about the expansion of our economy from five banks when we came to about 40 banks prior to consolidation. They don’t talk about the expansion of the tourism and building industries or the transportation industry for that matter. We are still building roads in our rural areas, we are still providing water in the rural areas; we are still providing micro-credits for agriculture and extension programmes. We are still working on the cassava processing plant. So, there is a lot going on but there is a tendency for journalists when they come, to stay around the capital city and they identify only these city projects.

The News: Inspite of all you have achieved, the Chairman of the EFCC made a statement in Abuja that you are one of the most corrupt governors. How do you react to it?

Gov. Nnamani: The big picture is that we subscribe to the vision of President Obasanjo that has done a lot in terms of globalization, moving Nigeria into the global community. We have targeted vision, anchored on the three cannons of globalization – information technology, privatization and stakeholder-driven governance. Anti-corruption is just part of it. What the EFCC is doing is part of it. So we support it and the general vision of the President because we understand it and we are part of it. We support what the EFCC is doing.

The President is our political leader and he is the political father of Nigeria. I am sure our party decided that and we supported it. We are part of his vision and if we are part of his vision, we cannot complain about EFCC because EFCC is part of that vision. There is no doubt that the anti-corruption fight has yielded a lot of fruits. You talked about foreign investments, certainly the pariah status has been removed completely and eroded from the Nigerian image; government economic diplomacy has yielded debt relief; you have seen expansion in the telecommunication sector; there is liberalization and deregulation in the energy sector; we have seen expansion in the energy sector, tourism; reforms in banking with the consolidation programme. You have also seen the master plan for the transportation sector – rail, road, waterways and of course the roads. So we look at the EFCC as part of the holistic reform programme. And we look at the Enugu experience with EFCC. It has been a rewarding and maturing experience which I recommend for everybody. Even though it may be unpleasant; I recommend EFCC evaluation for everybody before you leave government. It provides you the opportunity to set you thoughts right. Certain things you assume, to have a rethink, dot your ‘i’s and cross your ‘t’s, get your papers together as it were. It affords you the opportunity for self-criticism because you don’t have to do it. But when you know that the EFCC is an agency that demands as a matter of law that you do it, then you must. You go check your papers, have proper audit and documentation and you are careful for future actions. So EFCC, from the first day they came to Enugu State, a lot of good things have happened. What otherwise were administrative lapses had to be fixed. Believe you me, what otherwise were routine decisions had to be checked and rechecked. So in terms of sensitizing the public, awareness, deterrence, the EFCC is certainly working. So we have nothing to complain about. We are a major stakeholder or shareholder in the Nigerian state, we cannot complain against ourselves. The EFCC is a prgramme we support. So how can we complain? We went through it but it certainly was not a pleasant experience, but we don’t complain and you will never see us complaining. Rather, we will use that experience to enrich us.

The News: EFCC does not act uninvited. It relies on petitions. There were certain petitions written against your government…

Gov. Nnamani: Let me help you. Let me make it very easy for you. The EFCC looked at four or five major areas – contractual obligations, area of my wealth… my personal wealth. I don’t want to trivialize it. If I had that kind of money personally, I am sure Enugu State would benefit. I am also sure that certain foundations, health foundations, like sickle cell, malaria, motor traffic accident etc. would have benefited. I would have been thinking of how to use that money. I am not trying to trivialize it but I am thinking about how to use the money if I had it. HIV/AIDS, malaria research, research into sickle cell, rehabilitate some primary schools or even rehabilitate some prisons and provide for some of these guys who are looking at me and even doubting if this guy really has this kind of money and they are all suffering (general laughter). You know some of these guys may be wondering this thing may be true. Everyday, this man comes and would just be looking at us.

But seriously, they examined the areas of contractual obligations, net assets or asset value, issue of relatives in business, local governments and even reforms. So they looked at five areas. There is a difference between looking at the EFCC report and reading or studying it. You may think you read but you just saw the work, looked at it but you didn’t read it. But study it. By the time you read it three times, you will know that it is an exoneration of Enugu State Government. You know it is a relief. Do you know why? Simple. Total contract value, N30 billion. The EFCC hired experts who spent three days, saw 70 per cent of the projects, had a price variance of N2.8 billion. It’s a good deal. But remember it is also subject to re-evaluation by other experts.

The News: But the public won’t understand. They will think the differential went into a private pocket…

Gov. Nnamani: That is why we are here now. That is why you are here. That is the joy in democracy – communication and transparency. It is now left for us to communicate them the other side of the story, that what you have is price variance of N2.8 billion, which is subject to further expert evaluation. The contractor can get his own experts and the government can get its own experts. We can say your experts are not qualified enough. What is their experience or background? An expert is an expert depending on how you define it. The contractor and government can have their own different experts, then you go through arbitration. They will now decide which they will accept and how to meet each other. So a variance of N2.8 billion is acceptable to us, to the government of Enugu State; which is a legitimate entity with full powers and jurisdiction to award contract based on tendering and due process. We don’t have to consult outside agencies to do that. We have the competence to do that. So, these contract prices are subject to many things. They are subject to energy cost – diesel fuel, to soil testing – and they are also subject to the cost of materials, requirements, and they are subject to even weather – whether it is rainy or dry season.

We were doing soil testing as we were working, doing structural designs as we were working. That is the only way you could have done all these in 15 months. Sometimes we had to change location after starting. After discovering that the soil was not suitable, we would go and start in another place, all in an effort to get the thing done before the end of our administration. So for me, it's and exoneration. If you will recall, they claimed I own Marlum Nigeria Ltd. The EFCC report does not support that. So in terms of the contractors, look at the report, they say they were good quality jobs and they even talked about under-pricing, if you read the report carefully. So I believe we can live with it because, for us, it is good and the report communicated. But you need to look at it without hysteria, without drama, and you will understand that it is good with us.

The News: What about the allegation that members of your family benefited from government contracts?

Gov. Nnamani: I am coming. Relax. The next issue is that of wealth – N50 billion. I am certainly not worth that amount of money. If you know what N50 billion is, that is $400 million in the US, there is no way anybody from Enugu State Government or any state governor will be worth that amount of money because essentially in that report, between 2003 and now, they agreed that that money could not have been made through those contracts; that only N2.8 billion could have been available. That is, if that price variance was swallowed by the governor alone. Then the rest of N47.2 billion could not have been made between 1999 and 2002 because the total allocation for that period is about N30 billion, which includes salaries, emoluments and everything. And what was the contract value we did – maybe N69 billion. This will need to be verified. But certainly if you understand what N50 billion is, what $400 million is, looking at the total budget or allocation for the seven-year period of governance, you will know certainly that it is not realistic.

We have had time to look at the issue of relatives in business, but we have said time and time again that we welcome those businesses in Enugu state. We are certainly happy that these businesses are here and they are contributing to the economy of the state. They have a right to do business in Nigeria or Enugu state for that matter. The issue is the telecoms company. Are they government contractors? They are not government contractors. Is there a trace of government money in this investment? But I believe relatives of those in government do have legitimate rights to do business in Nigeria. But then again, I have to look at it from a holistic point and that is the issue of ethics, morality. So what we have learnt from the EFCC revelation is to do self-criticism, criticize ourselves.

You know they also mentioned that car dealers supplied some cars to the government of Enugu State. That is the area I am worried about. I had to go through some critical consciousness, some self-criticism. Was it proper for them to supply vehicles to the government of Enugu State? But I had to rationalize it in the sense that these vehicles were supplied at current and proper prices. There was advertising and due bidding process and there were also other suppliers in addition to them. Also, because of the confidence they had, they were supplying on credit and government had to pay later. But is it possible that leverages of contacts in government did help them? So, it became a moral and ethical dilemma which I had to resolve myself. Ethical and moral problem which you resolve with your God. I told you that we learnt from it and it is an area (ethical governance) the country has to look into. If we decide that this is where we are going to draw the line, then we will draw the line and maintain it. As a person, it is a learning process. Are we going to do it again? No. If I have a relative that runs a business and comes to government, I will say: no, go, I don’t want to talk to you. That is one of the things we learnt from EFCC. Even though legally there is nothing you can do about it, it does raise ethical questions and I believe as a Nigerian, since there is a thin line, I really suggest that we try as much as possible not to involve our relatives in activities of government.

The News: Are you saying you don’t have any link at all with Capital City Automobile…?

Gov. Nnamani: I am telling you my relatives do have shareholdings in those companies. And those investments are welcome in Enugu State. But what about the ethical issues? The ethical issue is that people would write petitions and have the perception that they have undue advantage. And I am saying that in order to remove such perceptions, it is better not to even engage in that practice.

The News: There was the allegation that your government tampers with LG funds….

Gov. Nnamani: The local government fund, as you know clearly, the constitution and the various Supreme Court judgments and interpretations have made it clear that local government falls within the purview of state governments. Funds given by the formula prescribed are distributed through Local Government and State Government Joint Account and also supervised by the House of Assembly through the House Committee on Local Government. So within the limit of those modalities and parameters enunciated in the constitution, we are satisfied with our distribution of our local government funds.

The News: Generally speaking, some of your critics say you may not be able to finish some of your projects.

Gov. Nnamani: They may say that because of the distractions we have had through the years, but I must tell you t hat the EFCC experience was certainly not pleasant. We had occasions where officers of government had to spend some time in Lagos. We had also occasions where contractors had to spend some time in Lagos too, going back an forth. And we lost a lot of weeks as a result of this exercise. We can thank God that at least, the university is almost done, the students have moved in there and I hope you will visit there. The Teaching Hospital is done and students are also there. The medical school students are also there. The tunnel is finished and in use; the roads are done and the Conference Centre is 75 per cent done because basically, the structural work is done and they are doing the skin frames. Maybe in the next week or so they will be putting the cutting walls. The second auditorium is done, only minor finishing remains to be done. The third auditorium is being raised. So we are getting there. What has really been bogged down is the Loma Linda Housing Estate which is very dear to my heart, having been named after an institution that gave me the opportunity to be somebody. So, Loma Linda is bogged down but we will get there.

The News: What do you plan to embark on when you leave office? Will you return to the United State?

Gov. Nnamani: I am not going back to America. The evaluation process we’ve gone through since January, the EFCC review, is part of that disengagement, because it is providing an avenue to clear my name and retain my reputation. It is a part of that transitional process. That is why I said the EFCC was unpleasant but it was helpful in many regards. So the EFCC evaluation is also part of that disengagement. It’s almost like a handover to be able to go through our paper works, contractual obligations to make sure all the documents are correct. And whatever findings they have, one will be able to subject oneself to the justice system and clear oneself. That is the first thing. Of course you know I am a professional. We have two Teaching Hospitals in Enugu where I can teach or do some research. It’s unfortunate I don’t have N50 billion. If I had the money, I would have put it in some areas like sickle cell, malaria research, prison rehabilitation, primary school rehabilitation and other commitments close to my heart.

TheNews Vol. 27 No. 14, October 16, 2006