Ohaukwu People Will Continue To Celebrate Nwifuru For Constructing Okwo/Ngbo- Nigercem/Nkalagu Road, Says Inyima

In this interview with the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Capital City and Urban Development, Hon. Sunday Elechi Inyima, spoke with Odeh Alex of PanAfricreport on the two years achievements of Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, Inyima said that the Okwo/Ngbo- Nigercem/Nkalagu road which previous administrations were unable to construct remains one of the wonderful achievements of the Nwifuru’s administration which the Ohaukwu people will continue to celebrate. Hon. Sunday Elechi Inyima further thanked His Excellency for his modest achievements and for supporting his ministry which has made Ebonyi people to be happ with him.

Excerpts:

Sir, can we meet you?
My name, the Honorable Commissioner for Capital City and Urban Planning, Ebonyi State.

Come May 29th, the administration of Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru will be marking two years in office. What is your rating of his administration?

There is an adage in our place that the bangle you’re wearing on your hand, you need not to have mirror to look at it. The achievements of His Excellency, Right Honorable Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, are things that dots the nooks and crannies of Ebonyi State. That is to say, they speak for themselves. Talking about it generally, I will rate His Excellency that he has performed far above average, beyond expectation.

A lot has been said about the governor’s infrstructural strides. Can you inform us about them?

Starting with the roads that are simultaneously going on in so many communities. That is the road that is building for the traditional rulers. Talking about the well-designed duplexes that is also building for our traditional rulers to upgrade their status. These roads will not be serving only the traditional rulers, it will also serve the communities that those traditional rulers are in charge of. And I know that aside from these rural roads, the Ministry of Works, headed by my brother, Honorable Lebechi Mbam, has also done very, very well to do so many roads that have connected the urban cities to so many hinterlands, especially concrete roads. I may not mention them because I don’t have them off-hand, but if you go to the Ministry or you walk across the length and breadth of this state, you will find out that so many concrete roads are ongoing, seriously.

Aside the roads ongoing in the urban areas, can you point out other roads in the hinterlands?

And I will not here fail to mention about the one that is ongoing in my own local government, Ohaukwu local government. The road leading from Okwo Ngbo to Nigercem, Nkalagu is a very, very special road. Special in the sense that sometime during the administration of His Excellency, Chief Martin Elechi, when unfortunately we had a little crisis within our brothers here in the local government, that road served as the only alternative for those of us here living in Ebonyi, especially within Abakaliki axis to Enugu. And that road is also very special in the sense that Nigercem Nkalagu, is one of the topmost industries. Even though it is not functioning now, but all the villages and all the communities that are situated behind the company, they don’t have access to any other road until now that this Umugudosha-Nigercem road has commenced. And the road is on pavement, concrete pavement. By the time it is finished, I know that Ohaukwu people will celebrate His Excellency very, very well for this wonderful work. Because even from the time of our own brother, His Excellency Dr. Sam Ominyi, our distinguished Senator Sam Ominyi. he tried to award that road, but it was not completed. Subsequent governors came and also ventured into it. It was not done. Now, His Excellency Rt. Hon.Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru has taken the bull by the horn. If you go there, brand new machines are working on that road 24 hours a day. Even now that the rainy season has started, they are still working there.

Can you also attempt an achievements of Governor Nwifuru on the area of education?

Then, going beyond that, in the area of education, you think about the number of people that were sent abroad for scholarship. All of us were at our airport here when when we sent them off to UK and various countries of Europe. By the time these children of Ebonyi State return back to this state with the wealth of knowledge they are going to acquire, I am telling you that Ebonyi will not only meet up with all the educationally advanced states in Nigeria like some Yoruba states, but we have a chance of topping them in terms of ranking in education. Already we are topping because I heard the other day on the radio where it was announced during the news that Ebonyi came either second or thereabout in the NECO examination. That has never happened. It is a thing of joy. We are coming up. And so, His Excellency has also done very, very well in the area of education. I may not mention all because I am not there. We have a commissioner who is there. Any day you meet him, he will tell you all that he has done. But these ones are special ones.

You are are a keen follower of the incumbent administration. What has so far been achieved in the health sector?

Just yesterday at the Akanu Ibiam International Conference Centre, a lot was made, about so many health equipments, drugs that were brought from the health ministry to equip and take to various general hospitals that we have within the 13 local governments. And it is a collaboration of the state government with the United Nations. And we are happy that such thing is happening. Think about the time immediately he came on board. He empowered the general hospitals. Most of our general hospitals have stopped functioning before the administration of His Excellency, Right Honourable Builder Francis Obgbonna Nwifuru. But immediately we came on board, He bought brand new vehicles, SUVs for all of them, all the doctors of the 13 general hospitals. You can see them if you are passing along the streets. Then he bought those vehicles and then also empowered them. That was the first area where His Excellency employed workers, the 13 general hospitals. The first employment that was done in this administration was within the health sector, talking about the 13 general hospitals.

What about the areas of human capital development?
In terms of human capital development, all of you are there. His Excellency has almost gained a name among the youth as the governor of Alerts. Because everybody is feeling his presence. It is no longer the time of only project, project, project. Sometimes the people need to feel the effect of government and governance. That they have a governor who cares. And that is why he said that he came with the People’s Charter of Need. It is what the people desire most that he wants to do for them. So it is a relationship governance and an open governance. So beyond that, in the area of agriculture, I know that Nkaliki Hatchery has been resuscitated after so many years of being moribund. The place is now working.

When will Ebonyi be considered an industrial state?

Just the other week, about two weeks ago, at Ebonyi Industrial Cluster, His Excellency launched a mega project that will bring in so many industries. Recall that in Ebonyi State, the only thing you will find here are maybe hotels and maybe quarry. That is the class of industry that we have now. But we want to see a situation where global companies can venture into the state. And then power generation has already started doing something with regards to energy and power. At Ebonyi Industrial Center, he also promised that he is going to bring and provide the required energy to be able to power so many companies that he has intended of bringing into the state. I want to say that, His Excellency, if we begin to recount or see things that he has done, they are very, very enormous and much.

Let us digress to your ministry. What is your achievements so far?

Talking about my own ministry, we have been able to keep time with the desire of the people. Recall that our core mandate here is to ensure that we have regulations and people obey the regulations . That is why we have our task-forces, we have the town planners, and we have professionals that ensure that these things are properly done. The main job we do here is for people to come any time you want to do your housing project. You bring your building plan here after having been drawn by a qualified and certified architect. You bring it here, we assess it, we have builders here, we have town planners here, we have other engineering professionals here, like civil engineers here. Even when we don’t have, we have a way of incorporating those professionals so that every approval that we give must have taken care of all these prerequisites.

What can you say is your ministry’s impact on Ebonyi people?

People are responsible for every drawing that comes out of this office. That is our core mandate. Beyond this, as I speak now, we have, within these two years in review of this administration, signed and approved over 1,508 building plan approvals. We have also signed some fencing permits because fencing permits and building plan approvals are two different things. You have to get permits for all these things. So we have signed over 600 fencing permits within the period in review. And we keep monitoring as part of the core mandate of this ministry. Sometimes we do it in conjunction with other professionals in the built industry, like the Coren, the Institute of Architects, and then the Institute of Town Planners, Association of Town Planners. We go together and then we ensure that people keep to the rules guiding building development. Beyond this, our core mandate, we have also ventured into looking at the traffic situation within the town. Because over the years, we find out that as the city grows in length and breadth, population also grows with it. People coming from the hinterland, they want to come and maybe relocate to the town, the urban city, in search of greener pasture or maybe education. As they come like that, then population growth, then it becomes difficult for people to be moving, especially in the morning hours and in the evening hours when workers have closed from the office. And so we approached His Excellency and he gave approval for us to install solar traffic light in so many of the junctions that we have within the capital city. And to tell you the truth, this has actually eased movement for both vehicular movement and then pedestrian. So we are happy about that because if we had left this job to only the traffic warden of the Nigerian police force here in Ebonyi, it would have overwhelmed them. So we thank His Excellency for assisting us to provide this amenity of solar traffic light so that people are now happy. And we have handed it over anyway to the Ministry of Transport under the SSA on transport.