Alex Odeh
The Executive Secretary, Ebonyi State Pension Board, Emeka Nwonu, has stated that there was no law enshrined anywhere that Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru must commission project after his two years in office.
Nwonu, who disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Abakaliki, said that the governor had made tremendous impact in the areas of agriculture, education, empowerment and above all, the enthronement of peace in crisis areas of the State.
The Executive Secretary further pointed out that there was no law anywhere that said that the governor must commission projects after two years in office or thereabout, adding that people should desist from making unnecessary comparison.
“There is no law that says that the governor must commission a project before the end of each year in his tenure. No law says that. They should wait and judge the governor maybe after two years, after three years or after four years, after his first term. No law says at the end of each year, within your tenure, you must commission a project. The second year, you must commission a project. You don’t judge by that way.
”You understand? So, sometimes they bring unnecessary comparison, comparing us with people .You don’t expect the governor to come and construct roads when there is already roads. We have a very good government house. You don’t expect the governor to go again and build another new government house.
“The governor has scaled our needs, what the people need. And basically, it is human empowerment. And of course, you know the governor has done well in human empowerment. Yes, so he knows that for you to enjoy social amenities, you must be alive. And he is building in us. He is investing the money in human needs. 2 million, 1 million, 180,000, 50,000, as the case may be. For them to start something. So, for us here, the government has actually done extremely great.
“The governor has actually achieved a lot. And the most interesting aspect of his government is that the governor runs this government without borrowing from anywhere. He runs the government without getting money from any place. Rather, he is paying debt to the one he met on ground. And one would think of the magic he does.
“Looking at the allocation we received from the federal government and the low internal revenue, of course, you don’t need that money. People are not being all that excruciatingly taxed. They are being taxed based on the quality of what they have.
“He has actually delivered beyond his campaign promises. The evidence about it is everywhere, even the blind can perceive it.
“Yes. If you come to, for instance, when you come to the health sector, let me just begin from them, from what I’ve heard recently, where they flouted the distribution of health materials to our general hospitals, and the unexpected increment in the salaries of the medical doctors that work in the general hospitals, from 150,000 to 500,000.
“The essence of that is to give the doctors a good working environment that will guarantee optimal salary delivery. And it’s not only that.
“At the state level, the government has also done well in the health sector. Yes. Then when you come to education, of course all of you are aware of what the government has done in the education sector.
” The results, of course, I was seeing the recent publication by National Bureau of Statistics, where Ebonyi was rated 3rd in the overall best performance among the states whose students participated in the exam.
“Yes, that became possible because a very conducive learning environment has been created for the children. They study well, they are being taught well, of course the teachers are being paid very promptly and all that”, he stated.
