Ex- speaker, Nwankwoegu endorses Nwifuru, backs consensus candidacy in Ebonyi 

By, Uchenna Okeh Abakaliki 

The former speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly and chairman, Revenue and Appeal Commission, Augustine Nwankwoegu has endorsed governor Francis Nwifuru for second term in office, rates his performance high.

Nwankwoegu, however backed governor Francis Nwifuru’s adoption of consensus candidacy in the state, which according to him, will reduce crisis, killings and destruction of valuable properties by those, he described as the enemies of the state.

The former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Nwankwoegu made this known while speaking with newsmen in Abakaliki ahead of the forthcoming 3rd anniversary of the governor Francis Nwifuru in the state.

“The Governor, on assumption of office, and by virtue of the fact that he had been a Speaker of the House of Assembly, had acquired wide experience and knowledge about governance. 

“The structure of Nigeria is that every state has autonomy in some respects, within certain subjects within the country. And so every state decides and designs her programs according to the needs of the people at the main time.

“And that is why government is said to be a continuous program or continuous progress. Every government that comes focuses and determines her programs and focuses on it. That is by way of direction.

“And in the Nigeria Constitution, the objective principles and the directive principles of government, which is given to every state, is to ensure welfare and security of the people of that state. The Governor, has done profoundly well in maintaining peace and order in Ebonyi State. This is a program which many people do not understand very well, what it means.

“Without peace, there cannot be development. There were a lot of crises in Eboin State, on assumption of office. The Governor decided on his own to ensure that all these crisis areas were settled and peace maintained and retained in those areas.

This is a very big plus for him. The Governor on his own determined and saw that this state needed a kind of directive principle. And that is why he designed what he called the Charter of Needs.

Under the education program of that Charter of Needs, the Governor saw the need to not only maintain the existing university, but establish a university that is going to be entirely practical university, ICT university, where the majority of the students and the teachers are going to demysticate and impart on students what is practicable, not theory. 

And that ICT university had been established, it had been accredited by the National University Commission and it has taken off. University is not like ordinary structure.

There are more than 30 ongoing buildings to take care of the students, to take care of classroom, to take care of lecturers, to take care of the vice-chancellor and the administration. These are no mean feat and nobody will expect him to have completed it within three years. There is also another university which we call the Aeronautic University.

This was made possible by the fact that Ebonyi State in the Southeast had an airport of its own and it was the first that had that airport. And that airport is servicing at Oneke. The federal government in her magnanimity decided to establish an aeronautic university in the Southeast and Ebonyi happened to benefit from it.

And the Governor of Ebonyi State is coordinating the growth and establishment of that university. This is also not a mean feat. Aside from this, the Governor apart from his charter of needs discovered that our workers who are labelled for this country who are labelled for this state and by extension Nigeria were not paid their gratuities and pensions as they were due.

After setting up a committee that determined the actual beneficiaries and the amount involved, decided to pay these moneys, runs into billions of Naira both for public servants in the state civil service and local government administration. These people have been paid adequately well and nobody is being owed. This is no mean achievement.

It is only those who were the victims who were not paid their gratuities and who were not paid their pensions know the achievement of the Governor in this area. But I want to ask us a question. There is a saying that a labourer deserves his wages.

It is not only the wage at the time you are doing the work but the wage entitled to you after the work. And so these labourers who laboured for the state were not paid their adequate wages. 

The Governor morally decided to settle those bills by way of arrears and he has completed all of them. It’s no mean achievement. Can you commission this project? 

On education for that, he decided to award scholarship to deserving students to go and study master’s programme and PhD programme outside Nigeria and within Nigerian universities.

It’s over a thousand plus and we all know about them. Will you commission these projects? Why would you commission a student whom you sent to school? Is it not a project? When are you going to commission it? Is it on entry or when he graduates? And so, I ask Ebonyi people. The Governor has done so many projects that people cannot understand and appreciate.

And these are human capital development which is going to sustain Ebonyi state for future generations. The civil service was broken. The Governor ordered and recruited people into the civil service.

Today, we have a buoyant and very effective civil service that is functional. Any ministry has staff that is working and coordinating government programmes and policies. Without them, there will be no future for ebony state.

It is only those who know what civil service is, know that it is different from hiring people on contract to do a work for you. So, and even that contract, when you hire, there are people who are going to prepare the papers for that project, for that contract. It is a civil service.

Who are going to keep it for records purposes? It is a civil service. Who are going to oversee the development of the state on a basis, on a fact-finding basis? It is a civil service.

On the endorsement of the governor Francis Nwifuru, he said “the governor has done more than required, and has even surpassed other governments, and he’s adopted to run for second term to enable him complete these projects.

He noted further, “the governor is building the longest flyover that is ongoing at Vanco Junction. That project has attained more than 60% completion. It is only him who will finish it.

There is a tunnel inbuilt in it. As we were touring local government areas of the state, we also saw so many other projects that are going on. So many road construction that have been completed.

So many buildings that have also been completed. But the commissioning has not taken place. I ask everybody, you say that the governor has not commissioned any project.

Is the commissioning the yardstick for measuring success? When you look at all these, I have enumerated, and others that I didn’t mention here. Is that the measure of saying, he has not commissioned this, he has not commissioned that? Let us open a debate between today and yesterday. We shall see that we have gotten today and even tomorrow from what I have analysed here.

Because, this is the thing that will make the state a stable state, a state for the future, a state where our sons and daughters that are born and yet unborn will rely on and progress and carry on life. Let us also appreciate that every environment is not the same with another environment. Ebonyi State, as we know it from creation, was a backward state, lacking manpower and other things.

But today, because of Ebonyi State University and other universities that are in place, we are already harvesting a very strong manpower that we are competing and contributing to the progress of Nigeria. Remember that this Ebonyi State; an indigene of Ebonyi State, was the president of the Senate of Nigeria. An Indigene of Ebonyi State was secretary to the government of Nigeria.

An indigene of Ebonyi State had been ministers and chairmen of boards and parastatals and they were not found wanting. The governor, given the track record, I would say, is a blessing to the people of Ebonyi State, because he is caught between the young and the old. And today, he has an idea of what the future requires.

And so, let us give him a chance to complete his two tenure, not only that he merits it, but that it is normal. It is normal that a performing person should be allowed to continue to perform. And that is why we say four plus four is equal to eight.

Four-year tenure plus another four-year tenure. When he gets that limit, then you can now come down and say, within this period, this man has done this or has not done this. But let us remember that as we want to judge, don’t be quick at judging because the parameter you are using is not his own parameter.

What he has as a focal point with which he is driving Ebonyi State is not what you have. It may be coming from a different angle. So, two heads cannot be the same.

But what we should do is to cooperate with him and give him that support. And that is why we are always saying, support and pray for your leaders because they know more than you do. He receives intelligent reports.

He receives all other details from different people, from different sections, both security and non-security. And so, these things put together are the task which he is encountering and which he has to contend with on daily basis, which places him on the focal point to say, this is going to be like this. And that is why he is called His Excellency. The governor, is doing very, very well. 

Reacting on the recent controversy surrounding the adoption of consensus candidacy by the governor Francis Nwifuru and the stakeholders of the state, Nwankwoegu said: “I am a stakeholder and my focal point is for peace and progress in the Ebonyi State.

“All the people who are going to contest and who are contesting are all Ebonyi people. And they have performed in their various ways and in their various places to the best of their ability.

And the electorates, particularly all of us who are stakeholders, have assessed them based on issues of peace, achievement, cooperation, and experience. When you train people, you don’t throw them away and begin to retrain. Utilize the experience which have been acquired and then use it for the future and for the development of the state and the country.

These are legislatures who have had experience in training as lawmakers and other areas of life. If you go to bring a new person who is a neophyte, who had no knowledge of lawmaking and all the processes that it takes, many of them had the idea that lawmaking is the place where you go to make money. It is not true.

I was a Speaker of the House and I wasn’t the richest person. All I did was to cooperate with the state government in implementing the programs and objectives of that government. Through legislation, we passed the laws that we felt would promote peace, would promote development in Ebonyi state at the time.

And they did. So these people have passed those markings. And for us, they qualify to continue.

But those who want to come in will always protest. And how will you satisfy everybody? What you do as a leader is to look at what you have as objective principle.

What you have as a focus, what you have as a direction to bring peace and progress in the state and have money too. If the person does not go this year and at another tenure, he will come and go.

Legislatures don’t have tenure. They can go there as many times as the people wish them to stay. It is only the executive that has a tenure of four plus four and no more.

The president cannot go more than eight years. The governor cannot go more than eight years. But these other people can go as many times as the people desire them to.

And so, as a stakeholder who participated in that consensus, it has not offended the principles of democracy. It has also not offended the democratic principles enshrined in APC. We are talking of our party, not the entire country.

I am a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC. And that is our principle, that is our direction, and that is the way we are going. I cannot be going to implement a program of NDC or ADC or PDP or any of these.

No. People are free to go there and buy form and go. If you go to the people and you win, good and fine, then we shall see that we have made mistakes.

But otherwise, we have not made any mistake. And so the governor is encouraged to keep to the tools of the principles of the party and ensure that this state does not go outside the principles of APC. 

Consensus is one of our principles, and it is accepted as a policy, as a program, to help entrench peace and harmony within the party.

He further tasked aggrieved members of APC, who was allegedly edged out from contesting election, as a result of the consensus, said: “what I will advise those members who are aggrieved, is to be patient. It is not your turn today, it may be your turn tomorrow. All you should look at is God.

Power comes from God, it’s not from human beings. You use only human beings to realize it. If God says you are going to be this, you are going to be that.

But otherwise, you can’t go against God. And that is why you see those who emerge at the end of the day are those who do not even know how they emerge.

But God has his way of enthroning people into offices, has his ways, and we cannot question God. So let us support peace, let us support patience, let us support progress” he stressed.