THE RETURN OF NGIGE AND HIS 12-POINT AGENDA By Law Mefor Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige is vigorously campaigning to return as Anambra State Governor. What some ask is: what did Ngige forget in the Awka Government House? Everybody agrees however that Dr. Ngige posted a sterling performance in his coming (2003 -2006) and had much more to do before his tenure abruptly ended. He says completing those great works he started in 2003 are some of the things he forgot at Government House and knows to impress again, he has to do much more. The thrust and depth of his programmes have shown that indeed only the deep can call to the deep: His Agenda shows a firm grasp of the situation confronting Anambra as a State and how to tackle them. He was in the saddle once and knew the problems firsthand and confronted them head-on. He made his short stay in office quite sublime, so upon departing, he was able to leave his footprints on the sands of time, which most people still see as the Golden Era of Anambra state. Senator Ngige started with a massive ROAD and other INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT in the State. Anambra before the coming of Ngige as Governor had no single motorable road. By the time he left office in 2006, he had constructed or constructing up to 72 roads, economically and strategically planned to cut across the entire 21 local governments of Anambra State. Senator Chris Ngige inherited very awful SECURITY situation, which his predecessor Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuji tried to grapple with. Mbadinuju had to employ the Bakassi Boys from Aba in Abia State to deal with crime and criminality, which had taken the State hostage. Bakassi Boys employed methods that were gross violations of human rights and therefore condemned by many for being alien to any civilized clime. They summarily executed criminals who confessed to their crimes by cutting off their heads after chopping their limbs in public sometimes with children watching, without having any recourse to the legal process. It became pure horror but desperate times breed desperate solutions. Though Bakassi Boys did a great deal to cleanse the State and rid it of violent criminals initially, violent crimes soon returned towards the tail end of the Mbadinuju Administration and things became really bad again. The Bakassi Boys’ fame soon came to an abrupt end and the original Bakassi left the State, leaving the criminals to return with a vengeance. It was at that rebound of criminals that Dr. Chris Ngige took over as governor and devised a system that was more clinically efficient and civilized in approach. Within six months he took over office, violent criminals were rid of the State. As at the time Ngige became Governor, the well-to-do of Anambra state had actually relocated from the State and to confirm their frustration and fear, began to hold traditional marriages (Wine Carrying) of their sons and daughters and other traditional functions in the cities outside Anambra State. Many Believed burial of their dead outside the State was soon to follow. Some of them that managed to return home, visited very briefly with truckloads of Mobile Policemen and Soldiers, maintained at such costs that could attend to capital projects. This resulted to capital flight and desolation. Anambra State within the same period and now, are spending Billions developing other States, notably, Asaba, Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt. Ngige reversed the appalling trend and Anambrarians began to think home again. When Peter Obi came, he was initially complacent about security and later when he tried to be on top of the security situation, his policies failed to be creative enough, the result of which was that violent crimes became diversified and Anambra State became the kidnapping capital in Nigeria as Bayelsa and Abia States appear to be giving up the trade. Anambra State is reputed for Commerce, Industry and Technology and Ngige plans to make a square facing to it, to move the State away from the substituent and Palliative Governance, which has not produced a single industry by the Government. Senator Ngige paid a special attention to Onitsha and Nnewi in his first coming. He initiated decentralization and specialization of markets, to give both the Onitsha City and Onitsha Main Market a new lease of life and the Markets a chance to expand. Ngige’s first coming also stimulated industrial development through massive infrastructural development, which also included WATER SUPPLY. Water ran from the taps in Anambra cities such as Onitsha only in colonial times but Ngige made pipe-borne water available at Onitsha and Awka. This ceased soon after he left office. He plans to bring pipe-borne water back. To move Anambra State to an industrialized status and make it the gateway to the South East and flagship state in Nigeria, Ngige believes that a number of requisite factors have to be urgently and coherently addressed. One is the pursuit of INDEPENDENT POWER PROJECT to secure at least 350 Mega Watts of electricity that will ensure 24-hour power supply in the State. He also believes that Onitsha Main Market must be pushed by Government to return to its lost glory by providing an AIRPORT and RIVER PORT to enable importers and exporters in the State to rely less and less on Lagos and Port Harcourt. This way, Anambra State will begin to develop. There is no doubt that with the return of Security, Water Supply, Airport, River Port and modern Housing Estates, among others, Anambra State businessmen and women can come back home and invest. Peter Obi’s Government has been purchasing vehicles from Innoson Motors, but a daring approach would have been establishing an Anambra Motor Company or bringing into Anambra State an Automobile Assembling Plant to kick start a Nigerian Brand. Ngige is thinking along this line, as his manifesto has shown. Dr. Chris Ngige is to score again with AGRICULTURE. In his first coming, he revitalized the agro sector. One of the fine legacies of colonial system was Farm Settlements. Successive Governments after Ukpabi Asika left them to die off. When Ngige came in 2003 he revived them but they died off again soon after he left. Ngige believes that any Government that is not able to put money in the citizens’ pockets and food on their table is not worth the name. In fact, one of the pivotal Bills sponsored by Senator Chris Ngige at the National Assembly is “Framers Registration Council”, which aims to organize the farmers and secure for them recognition and empowerment. Ngige believes that the survival of Any State nay Nigeria also lies in agriculture. And indeed, much of Anambra State potentials in agriculture have been lying fallow. When Ngige was governor years ago, he established the Anambra College of Agriculture apart from reviving the Farm Settlements. Countries` are developed through industrial or agrarian revolution. Ngige doggedly believes that agrarian revolution holds the key to Anambra and Nigeria’s development. He is right because in the interrelationships and inter-linkages between Integration, Backward and Forward Integrations lies the irresistible beckon for creativity and value additions that cannot be done without tools, which was where technological advancements began for most countries. Ngige, once in an interview on this gubernatorial election, said Anambra State would focus on both primary and secondary products. For secondary production he says his government would establish canning and other agro-finishing firms. What this means is that Anambra State will cash in on Fruit Juice import market in Nigeria and try to annex the funds ploughed into it by importers. This will earn Anambra State up to a Billion Dollars a year. What is more, such policy can be accomplished through PPP. What may be seen as an icing on the cake for Senator Ngige’s Programmes are his bright thoughts on HEALTH and EDUCATION. As a Medical Doctor, Ngige has a natural passion for Education and Health. At his first coming health was one area that received tremendous attention. His government met all the conditions for the accreditation of Onitsha General Hospital. He staffed the hospital with some of the best hands in the industry, but today, 8 years after, Onitsha Teaching Hospital is a shadow of itself, with the top doctors gone for good. Ngige then also employed Doctors for all the LGs, enough to go round the 177 towns, Under Ngige; Anambrarians had the chance to see a Doctor at least once a week for those living in the remote areas. That initiative is now history, as there are towns where Doctors have not visited in a year or more. All that will change again, as Ngige plans a more comprehensive revitalization of the health sector. Pregnant women and children shall receive a special attention. Antenatal shall be free while all the children below the age 5 shall receive treatment in the State free, no matter the ailment. Ngige also plans an International Reference Hospital to stop Nigerians from travelling overseas for medical treatment and to bring Anambrarians who are Medical Specialists abroad back home. Free qualitative education is of the highlights of the kind of education that Ngige plans to introduce when he returns as governor. Education will not only be free up Senior Secondary but will also be made compulsory. What this means is that there shall be a Task Force to be put in place to appeal to parents and compel our children to go to school. To address the high incidence of male dropouts in the State, there shall be an Evening College System, to enable those to still go to school. Civil Servants are in for another good time too with New Minimum Wage and Notional Promotion coming and unemployment to be reduced with a lifting of ban on employment. Ngige was the only Governor that paid workers as and when due, organized promotions of Perm Secs on merit and introduced digital Pensions System that enabled pensioners not go come to Awka or bribe anybody to collect their entitlements. Rural development will be boosted again with his planned Local Government Election and deployment of Town Unions to works. Ngige also plans an Olympic Stadium and Sports Revitalization for Anambra State as well as massive Skills Acquisition Centers for youth and women empowerment. The only Glorified Village Capital in NIgeria - Awka - is to be built to be at par with its counterparts. These are really the missing links. Peter Obi has done some work no doubt but unfortunately he focused on servicing the old system that only reinforced the inertia of social forces that will never yield actual development. It is like a barber’s chair – motion without movement. Yet, Anambra State needs to be galvanized to tap into its natural endowments where it has Ricardo’s Comparative Advantage over other States. Only audacious programmes of a courageous, experienced leadership can make it happen. Indeed, change is coming to Anambra State. • Law Mefor is an Anambrarian, Forensic Psychologist and Journalist and wrote in from Abuja. +234-803-787-2893; email: lawmefor@gmail.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 06:09:45 +0000