Against the forgoing efforts of Gov Ugwuanyi, it was not surprising that Enugu was rated among the 1,000 cities in the world.
On Monday, 29 May, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi #Ugwuanyi constitutionally transferred power to Dr Peter Ndubuisi #Mbah as #Governor of Enugu State, marking the successful end of his eight-year tenure. Ugwuanyi and Mbah are both leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party signifying a seamless transition from one PDP-led administration to another.
Ugwuanyi gave the people’s welfare the utmost priority it deserved to the extent that when some of his peers were busy starving their workers and channeling their states’ lean resources to the execution of projects that had no direct impacts on their people, he chose to first pay the state workforce the N30,000 new minimum wage with its consequential adjustment, which takes the chunk of the Enugu State’s resources, leaving the state with very little to embark on infrastructural development and...
During the Transition Thanksgiving Mass for Ugwuanyi and his deputy, Hon Mrs Cecilia Ezeilo at Holy Ghost Cathedral, Ogui, Enugu, on the eve of the handover, Msgr Professor Obiora Ike spoke glowingly about Ugwuanyi’s commitment to making peace to reign in Enugu and went on to decree that history will be kind to Ugwuanyi for entrenching peace in the state when security challenges were being experienced in other states of the South East geo-political zone.
Besides, another pertinent aspect of Ugwuanyi’s administration that engendered peace and rapid development, which though didn’t go down well with majority of residents of Enugu City was its decision to concentrate massive developments in the rural areas through its peace and grassroots development initiatives.
Nevertheless, posterity will remain kind to Ugwuanyi for grabbing the bull by the horns through his novel rural development programmes that opened up the rural areas and gave hope and instilled in the rural dwellers, the long neglected and deprived in the state a new strong sense of belonging. Governor Mbah has never failed to acknowledge this fact each time he speaks before the former governor.
Notably, he rejected staying tamely at the end of received policy prescriptions but rather coveted knowledge-driven innovations, proactive engagement with stake-holders, policy makers and sure-footed action. He brought these dimensions to bear on his political and developmental leadership of Enugu State.
At the peak of nation’s economic recession between 2015 and 2016, he was able to pay workers’ salaries when 27 states of the federation could not pay, let alone embark on capital projects, as state governors resorted to bailout funds unlike their predecessors who had access to crude oil funds which enabled them to execute capital projects.
Ugwuanyi is regarded by many as the unsung hero of infrastructure, as he continued with his aggressive execution of legacy projects – projects that impact directly on the people till his last week in office. Taking education as another critical development arena, Ugwuanyi is the second person after Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, to bring a university to Nsukka zone, the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences , Igbo-Eno, Enugu State. Ugwuanyi is the founder of SUMAS and it was the venerable Zik who attracted the University of Nigeria Nsukka to Nsukka.
His administration’s massive infrastructural interventions in the State Judiciary were unprecedented. Besides the foregoing, Ugwuanyi’s administration recruited over 7,030 primary and secondary school teachers and executed over 1,355 verifiable projects in various primary and secondary schools across the 17 local government areas of the state under ENSUBEB and PPSMB, in line with the administration’s vision to improve the learning condition of the students.
He ensured the consistent and timely releases of monthly subventions for smooth running of other state-owned tertiary institutions, namely the Enugu State University of Science and Technology ; Institute of Management and Technology ; the Enugu State College of Education Technical ; and the Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo.
Indisputably, the ex-governor’s worthy stewardship and unswerving commitment to the progress of Enugu State in spite of all the related governance challenges places him favorably in the court of posterity. He said that the decision of Ugwuanyi with the members and leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party to support his emergence as the party’s governorship candidate was driven by patriotism.
Prior to the visit, Governor Mbah had at different fora explained that his ambitious economic plans for Enugu State as contained in his manifesto cannot be actualised with the state’s lean resources alone but by doing things differently that would take the state through a consequential journey of growth, development and greatness.
Addressing the people of Enugu State at Michael Okpara Square, Enugu shortly after his inauguration as Governor of the State, Dr Mbah expressed gratitude to them for the opportunity they gave him to serve them as their governor, saying that he will forever be grateful to them for the honour. Harping on doing things differently, Governor Mbah among other promises stated: “Take notice that this administration will be business unusual. Tough decisions will be taken. Those decisions will, however, be taken in the best interest of Ndi Enugu and Enugu State in general. You will constitute the driving force of every action we take as your representatives.
“In the area of Information and Communication Technology, , we will provide a Tier 4 Hyper Scale Data Centre to attract hyper-scale businesses like Amazon, Google, Netflix, Tik Tok and Microsoft.”
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