Daily Independent Online.
*
Wednesday, July 21, 2004.
July 10 and Anambra`s felix culpa
By Ifeanyi Ifebigh
The Catholic Bishop of Nnewi Diocese, Dr. Hilary
Okeke, has just described the one year administration of Anambra State Governor
Chris Ngige as felix culpa, a ‘happy mistake’. By this expression, Okeke,
a former professor and a leading authority on Canon Law who is at home with
Latin, meant that though the Church did not mobilise support early enough for
Dr. Chris Ngige for fear of his government being hijacked by self-appointed
king-makers, the governor has in office worked impressively. Take
infrastructure development in Nnewi Diocese, which comprises four large local
government areas in Anambra State. In the next couple of months, Dr. Okeke
would perhaps become the first bishop in Nigeria to have the beginning of his
diocese tarred to the end with asphalt when the
Nnobi-Nnewi-Ozubulu-Ihembosi-Okija Road is completed, alongside the Orsumenyi-
Azia-Lilu Road. Together with eight other roads now being reconstructed across
the state, these two economically vital roads were probably the worst in the
whole country when Ngige assumed office in May 2003.
There are a few governors in Nigeria who have given
democracy a decent name, and they are Sam Egwu of Ebonyi, Adamu Muazu of
Bauchi, Gbenga Daniel of Ogun and, of course, Ngige who is arguably leading the
pack. During his visit to Anambra State in January, the brilliant, eloquent and
fearless social crusader, Festus Keyamo, called Ngige “the new face and
hero of democracy in the Fourth Republic”. Keyamo was speaking against
the background of the vexatious order by Mr. Justice Stanislus Nnaji of the
Enugu State High Court purportedly removing Ngige from office, an order which
provoked unprecedented outrage from the civil society, from the Nigerian Bar
Association, from such legal luminaries, such as Chief F.R.A Williams, who is
widely respected as the doyen of the legal profession, and Prof. Ben Nwabueze,
the most scintillating scholar of Constitutional Law in Commonwealth Africa.
Justice Nnaji has since been suspended by the National Judicial Council for
giving the obnoxious order, and the whole world is waiting anxiously for Gov.
Chimaraoke Nnamani of Enugu State to formally remove the judge so as to
preserve the integrity of the Nigerian bench.
While in Awka to express support for Dr. Ngige in
January, Nigerian civil society leaders had a first hand experience of how
Anambra people have been in solidarity with their governor. All markets in the
state voluntarily shut down in protest against the bizarre judicial order. The
organised private sector also shut down. The whole of Anambra State stood
still. The African Independent Television (AIT), which was broadcasting events
in the state live, showed hundreds of thousands of people not only daily
marching to the Government House and the Governor’s Lodge in Awka to
protect their governor whose security aides had been withdrawn, but lining the
streets everywhere the governor went and removing their shirts for him to march
on. This was a very unusual development in Igbo society whose people are
fiercely republican.
It is not only in Anambra State that Ngige is fast
assuming the status of a hero. He is probably more popular elsewhere in the
Southeastern geopolitical zone. I was on January 31, this year, at the Ohanaeze
Convention in Umuahia, Abia State, where the Prof. Joe Irukwu-led executive
committee formerly assumed the leadership of the pan-Igbo organisation. Of all
the array of personalities that assembled there, only Ngige was given a 21-gun
salute. And his arrival was greeted with tumultuous joy throughout the stadium.
I was also in Owerri, Imo State, last April when Mr. Eddie Iroh,
director-general of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria; Chief Leo Stan
Ekeh, chairman of the Task System Computer Group; and Chief Achike Udenwa,
governor of Imo State, were awarded honorary doctoral degrees by the Imo State
University. Ngige’s arrival caused tremendous excitement, and when he
left, it appeared as if the ceremonies had abruptly ended. Even at meetings of
the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the Council of State, he has become the
centre of attraction to not only journalists but also his colleagues.
Various reasons have been given for Ngige’s
record in office, which has bonded him with the people of Anambra State and, by
extension, the rest of Nigerians. One of the two most frequently cited reasons
is the uncompromising determination of his opponents to remove him by all means
possible, fair or foul, a resolve which forced him to work extra-hard. The
second reason is that, far from a wimp, he is strong-willed. I consider the
latter explanation more persuasive.
If Ngige had been a weakling, he certainly would have
long capitulated to the ceaseless threats, blackmail and strong-arm tactics of
a cabal, which has for several years held Anambra State hostage. The cabal had
hitherto been using all sorts of influence to hoodwink Ngige’s
predecessors, making them hold the cow of the state for the cabal to milk dry.
One of the ways of milking the state dry was the use of Irrevocable Standing
Payment Orders (ISPOs) to deduct at source over N100 million every month from
the state’s monthly share of national revenue. By stopping since last
July such immoral payments, Ngige has now saved for Anambra people over N1 billion
. The money is in an escrow account, and will be paid into the state’s
coffers once the courts decide the suit, which he brought against the economic
vampires. Most politicians in Ngige’s position would have ab initio
struck a deal with the self-appointed godfathers so as to continue fleecing the
state, from which they themselves would be benefiting immensely to the
detriment of all others.
Only a governor who is not capricious, or bends at
will could afford to have a very small number of political appointees. Ngige,
in fact, has far the lowest number of political appointees of all governors in
the country. Despite enormous pressure from professional politicians, he has
only four special assistants and 12 commissioners. Yet, this is an era when
some governors in the name of party patronage or “job for the boys”
have as many as 42 special assistants and 22 commissioners. Ngige’s very
small retinue of aides is informed by the imperative of proper economic
husbandry.
No less interesting is the calibre of the administration’s
officials. Take Chief Ugochukwu S. Nwankwo, the commissioner for finance, who
is also the new deputy governor. Hardly had he finished his tenure as the
president of the prestigious Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria
(ICAN) when he was nominated to be the finance commissioner. The Commissioner
for Health, Dr. Joe Brian Adinma, is a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
who has been a provost of a University College of Medical Sciences. The
Education Commissioner, Dr. Leo Muoghalu, is a serving university professor of
education. The Attorney General, Chief Nnoruka Udechukwu, is the first Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) to work as the commissioner for justice in the state.
The reason for the appointment of such eminent professionals, who ordinarily do
not serve at the state level, is to get people who would add tremendous value
to the growth and development of the state. No wonder, commissioners who served
in previous administrations are now too happy to be made mere special assistants.
One other area where Ngige’s character has come
to the fore is in the management of the state’s financial resources. Many
people are in Nigerian politics to be “settled” by governors,
ministers or the president through the award of huge contracts, which they do
not wish to execute satisfactorily after collecting the contract sum or through
raw sharing of public money. Ngige has been under pressure from all manner of
people to start “settling” politicians in the Nigerian way. Yet, he
has stoutly refused to yield ground. He insists he would rather use state funds
to build roads; provide water; pay pensions, gratuities, salaries and
allowances; develop healthcare and agriculture; and finance education, etc.
Because the state finances are now in a good shape, all categories of workers
are being recruited into the public service, for the first time in four years.
Things are really shaping up in Anambra State, thanks
to principally Ngige’s strength of character, which has enabled him to
withstand enormous pressure to share the state resources amongst a coterie of
economic leeches. It was the fear that these leeches might gain access to the
state treasury under Ngige that made the church unable to openly endorse at the
initial stage, even though everyone knew he was much better than other
candidates during the 2003 general elections. Today, everyone is happy, hence
Bishop Okeke’s description of him as felix culpa. Maybe, a more
appropriate description of Dr. Ngige is that he is a mascot, a Greek term for a
harbinger of good times.
• Chief Ifebigh, education commissioner in old
East Central State, is a senior member of the Bar.
