WHAT becomes of Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani after May 29, 2007; some people believe you still have political ambition while others say you will go back to your medical work in the United States to avoid your many political opponents?

My priority will be to complete the on-going projects in Enugu State. I am sure when you look at the projects, it will be difficult to imagine that they would be completed within the next six months to one year. That is talking about the university, the teaching hospital, the tunnel, the conference centre, judicary headquarters, the housing estates and the many roads and bridges.

So, my priority will be to complete these projects. If I complete them, then hopefully, I am a professional, I should be able to find somewhere to do some teaching, do some research, engage in some critical consciousness. Those who know me know that I am not one to position for anything. What I want, I go for it. And the issue of political opponents does not really arise because we are in complete control of the polity of the state, so I believe that a successor government will likely come from within us. The opposition will continue in hibernation for a very, very long time. Except for few cases when people masquerading as friends, when they emerge eventually, they turn out to become opposition. If not, one would expect that they won’t be any problem.

You have embarked on a lot of capital intensive projects, one would like to know how you fund them, how much is your state’s allocation or have you taken some loans for this purpose?

Our allocation on the average is about one billion naira every month. It could go anywhere from 800million naira to N1.2 billion. But in Enugu State, we always say ‘to God be the glory.’ We say to God be the glory because we cannot explain how we are, where we are or how we are doing what we are doing. We believe that the inalienable right of anybody is a right to dream. We dream and we dream big. We set challenges for ourselves and we go on to conquer those challenges. So we live on a day-to-day basis struggling to survive. But the most important thing is the determination and then a fine team of colleagues and assistants. But most of the explination would be left to God, and the glory to God too.

What is the position of the South east governors and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo as regards the presidency in 2007, are they angling for the number one position or vice presidency?

I discuss that issue based on merit, based on excellence, based on antecedent, based on achievements. And also based on the current reforms process going on in the country. The movement of Nigerians to join the global community, globalisation anchored on information technology, anchored on privatisation and developmental governance, which is what we call democracy. So, under that reform process, under globalisation, the only criteria that are necessary is merit, achievement, commitment, loyalty – those are the perimetres that I discuss from.

Still talking about your projects, why do you have to wait till the tail end of your second term to embark on these projects. During your first term what did you do?

As you know, when you get into second term, people are on their way out, so it actually shows the level of your commitment to embark on such projects. In the first term, we did over 300 kilometres of alphalt roads, done by Strabag. Roads like Opi--Nsukka, Obollo-Afor, Ozzalla-Agbani road and a lot of others. We did the Law School in the first term – which is a first class university facility and handed it over to the federal government. We did the Airforce school in the first term, we did 24 cottage hospitals, we electrified over 150 communities, we did quite a lot of water projects and so many other projects.

You said that all the major projects in Enugu are handled by one company, an Italian firm, do we take that to mean an indictment on Nigerian indigenous contractors and construction companies?

It is not neccessarily an indictment on local contractors. In the first term, we used mostly Strabag for almost all we did. We are now using Marlum Nigeria Limited. The obvious advantages is that we do not have to mobilise different contractors, the fund will not be easy for us to raise considering the capital that is available to use. Two, if you have different contractors, you have to continue payment for certificates that is generated for each projects. What happens is that you cannot abandon the projects. We are committed to regular payment, and they cannot stop work. I am sure some of you may be aware of the liason office we completed in Abuja. There is no liason office in Abuja like that. There is nothing comparable, there is not even a near second. Even where it stands amongst the federal ministry of finance, it is about the best architectural piece in that area. It was done by the same company. In fact, on the few occasions where they used local companies to sub-contract in some of these projects, we were disappointed. There is always a tendency, maybe due to financial difficulties, for the indigenous contractor to eat into the capital that he is supposed to use and do the job. So, if there is any delay in the payment he just goes down. Also, you have to consider the issues of supervision and use of materials. Two of these international companies, their reputation is on the line and they are not always under pressure like the indigenous companies. It is not an indictment, it is just a secret of how some of these thing are done.

One would like to know the steps you have taken to open Enugu up to investors and also the investment profile of the state.

Thank you. A lot is going on in Enugu. If you look around you will see a lot of containers as roadside shops. When we came here we had only five banks in Enugu, now we have over 45 banks in Enugu. You have an expansion of the building industry. I am sure you saw all the building going on. It is a response to the economic pressure and also movement from Kano and Kaduna because of the disturbances that happened a few years ago. In fact, the largest single investment in this country since this current democratic experiment began is in Enugu State. The Nigerian Breweries Plc, the largest brewery outside Europe. This confirms that Enugu State is indeed an investors’ haven and investments are pouring in.

Since all this projects are going on one hopes that the other sectors are not suffering; are the workers for instance, being paid regularly?

One can say that it is possible that some of the sectors have suffered, if you look at it in a realistic sense, what has been going on in our country is a reverse pyramid in terms of expenditure pattern. The projects have not in any way affected our commitment to our workers. If it had, you would have heard about it. We are current with our emoluments and our workers are certainly not complaining.

Having succeeded in bringing about a new order in Enugu State politics, should your opponents indicate interest to join your group would you be ready to receive them?

Well, I am not in a hurry. Certainly, I am not a trouble maker, but I am not in a hurry to join the house of serpents and very dangerous and heartless actors in the field. I am not in a hurry to commune with them. Let us put it that way. They are over 30 political parties and people are free to join any political party they want to join, but I am not in a hurry to commune with a virulent opposition. There are so many other political parties, that is the essence of democracy.

From: The Source magazine, August 29, 2005