For some days now, High Chief Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii also known as Anyichuks, astute businessman and the PDP governorship candidate in the 2023 governorship poll in Ebonyi state has been a tale on the lips of the media minions speaking for the Government of Francis Nwifuru in Ebonyi State. Frankly speaking, records have not shown that Chief Odii has ever made a critical comment with regard to the governance of Ebonyi State since after the 2023 polls, directly or indirectly. So, why the unprovoked diatribe against his person? Abashedly calling him out in response to the write-ups published by individuals who criticize the policies and programmes of the government is to me a misguided and miscalculated action, a direct way of calling him in for trading of words which is not in his attitude to do. He’s a gentleman to the core who talks only when it’s necessary to speak. And when he decides to do so, he does it in a civil manner, not resorting to fighting like the agents of the Ebonyi State Government whose stock-in-trade is lying and seeking shoulders to lean on as why the government hasn’t performed creditably since inception.
It’s at this point imperative to ask what the fear of Chief Odii is all about when he has not made any comment on the politics of Ebonyi, nor has sent anyone to do so on his behalf? Must he be aware of the actions of his supporters who have it as right and by reason of patriotism to criticize the policies and programmes of the Government of Ebonyi State? I have read such pieces directly impugning the character of Chief Odii. The most recent was the one personally scripted by the Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Ebonyi State chapter, Mr Nwafor who reports for the Independent Newspaper. He titled it, “who’s afraid of Nwifuru?” Reading through the incoherent lengthy write-up one had no option but to wonder what kind of a character the NUJ chairman in Ebonyi is, unashamed of taking up the job of the government’s media jobbers. No wonder his colleagues opposed his nomination by the outgone chairman of the NUJ in the state who’s now the general manager of the state – owned radio station, EBBC, Tony Nwizi. As colleagues in the pen industry, they know him more than we do, and in a very short period of time now, he has started manifesting the character of a political jobber, showcasing political nuisance value. This outing of his is not healthy for the respected profession of journalism, moreover as the chairman of the group in Ebonyi State. Let’s take it that there’s serious hunger in Ebonyi State occasioned by the APC Government in Nigeria, and in order to put food on his table, he had to cast professionalism to the dustbin by acting out a job that only political jobbers undertake. But regardless of this probability, Mr Nwafor should have instead used that opportunity as a journalist and convey the message of the difficulty that the ordinary Nigerians in general and Ebonyi people in particular pass through to be able to feed. In a sane society, the responsibility of putting government on its toes rests on the shoulders of the opposition political parties and members of the fourth estate of the realm. What do I mean? I mean that it’s the responsibility of the media practitioners to criticize the policies and activities of government and not to avail themselves as willing tools for the job of diverting attention as has been clearly shown by the chairman of the NUJ in Ebonyi State, doing that more than how the political jobbers could have done it. It’s a pity! This underscores the functionality or otherwise of the pen pushing industry in Ebonyi State in particular, and Nigeria in general.
One of such publications made in criticism of the Ebonyi State Government in recent times was that written by a blogger and journalist from the state, Moses Idika. The publication which never sounded vulgar nor unfairly antagonistic caused revulsion to the faltering health of the government, thereby causing the government to roll out different versions of rebuttal by its different media jobbers within and outside the state. In that well-thought-out- and written article by Moses Idika, many pertinent questions were raised which have remained unanswered by the Government. Rather than doing justice to the questions bothering on policy and performance, the government chose to be casting tantrums, sounding like broken gongs. It’s common knowledge that Gov. Nwifuru spent over N2.1 billion on foreign trips alone just in one year period. He was said to be topping the chart of the governors in the southeast who have spent unnecessarily on immaterial abroad trips from the public coffers. A reputable statistical group published this and not the PDP members in Ebonyi State nor Chief Ifeanyi Odii. The Government has not been able to counter the report till today, making it a very obscene reality so to speak. N2.1 billion on foreign trips that haven’t reflected on anything in the state since May, 2023 that the government was established as the fourth democratically elected government in Ebonyi State. It’s also common knowledge that the governor has not achieved anything worthwhile in accountance of the billions of naira the Government has generated from the Federal Government, local government funds, internally – generated revenues and intervention funds from different quarters. It’s known to everyone that the government hasn’t embarked on any capital project neither has it commissioned up to five kilometres of roads since it came on board. To God be the glory that the governor himself sometime in September, 2024 berated the contractors handling projects in the state for abandoning such projects after collecting huge mobilization funds, making it impossible for the government to commission any project ever since it came to fore. This is making it one year and six months and no project has been delivered by the government apart from personal projects of the governor in Ebonyi, Abuja and elsewhere including a 7-star hotel project at the Katampe area of the federal capital territory, Abuja, tissue paper & serviette papers manufacturing company at Oferekpe, Izzi LGA of Ebonyi State which happens to be where the governor hails from, multimillion naira filling station and supermarket project sited opposite the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital (two) along the Abakaliki – Enugu expressway, among other personal projects at different locations in Nigeria and beyond simultaneously ongoing. What the government announced concerning minimum wage for civil servants isn’t what it’s doing in reality. In reality, there’s nothing like salary increment rather unnecessary delay in paying the paltry sums the workers receive monthly in the state. On November 22nd, workers are yet to receive their salaries for the month of October in the face of biting economic reality fashioned by the APC- led federal government. Rather than tackling the elementary issues militating against governance, Ebonyi Government has resorted to dishing out baseless rebuttals on social media and blogs, making Ebonyi State a laughingstock.
Going by the way and manner the government is going about governance in Ebonyi, one is pushed into asking if Gov. Nwifuru is actually concerned about governance, taking the state a notch higher from the stage he met it. Promises all over the place but none implemented so far. Could it be that the governor is servicing unseen political figures in and outside Ebonyi that he cannot achieve anything worthwhile ever since assuming office? Or could it be that the governor is reticent, confused about the direction to follow? At the moment, there’s no feeling of governance in Ebonyi State in any form. The infrastructure the government met on ground in Abakaliki has been neglected and now wearing away by the day. The reticulation of drinkable water that the government sang like a love song that it was on the verge of achieving first within the state capital is yet to see the light of day after a year and a half. Who bewitched this government? On a more serious note, the government needs prayers to cast out of its body the demons that are making it reticent, not knowing where to start and the direction to take. Many have suggested that the governor didn’t know how deep the water of governing a state was until he found his way into the Government House. The human capital development the government made a singsong of has not been experienced in any form, or could it be that it’s not yet the time to start doing something in that regard? But the administration is fast getting to the toughest time, time the game of 2027 is on focus. And at this time, governance suffers stillbirth. The APC shall be carrying out its congresses in Nigeria, and political minds know what such an outing comes with. In Ebonyi that politics is the only industry existing, the government will be distracted by politicians in the APC over control of the structure of the party in the state. When this inevitable political event happens, governance is played paused. What it’ll mean is that the government has failed in toto, and should not be allowed to come back. This is a very bad one for a youth whom God showed mercy to become governor to right the wrongs of the past and give the state a new look. This poor performance further casts a doubt at the veracity of the maxim that youths should be allowed to lead in Nigeria. It’s very bad that the past governments could outperform this one superintended by a younger person. That notwithstanding, Ebonyi people have to take solace in the fact that 2027 is around the corner to avail them yet again the opportunity to right the wrong that is the Nwifuru Government.
But while that happens, I’m making it as a passionate appeal that the Government of Ebonyi State should focus on what is the problem, and not paying jobbers to cast aspersions at Chief Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii who has not done nor said anything to deserve this constant name – calling. He’s busy expanding the frontiers of his businesses within and outside of Nigeria, and helping Ebonyians, a social responsibility that he has been carrying out for more than fifteen years now. If I’m not mistaking, no private individual has assisted Ebonyians and communities in the state more than Chief Ifeanyi Odii so far. He’s not inclined to camera when doing the works of charity, community development, creating labour means, and philanthropy. He doesn’t live in the media, trying to curry spotlight like some others in the state. This is the man that the minions speaking for the reticent Government of Ebonyi State are throwing tantrums at, making it look as if he’s the one encouraging critics of the government to be churning out critical and issue-based articles regarding how the state is governed by Mr Francis Nwifuru. Chief Odii is not after the Government of Ebonyi, not even his loyalists. What’s after the government is with the government and I guess the government is aware of it, but has rather chosen to beat about the bush, working so hard in futility to divert attention from the many faux pas characterizing its policies and programmes. Rather than wasting public resources on fighting a man who’s not ready to join issues with anyone let alone the Government of Ebonyi State, the Government of Nwifuru should re-engineer and reenact bases upon which it should be governing the people of Ebonyi State. It’s appalling that the state is on the verge of economic and infrastructural collapse in the very eyes of a builder who promised a London for the state during the campaign times. Hunger has taken a gory toll on the lives of the people of the state living in the state with Mr Governor. Honestly, this is not the best of times to be chasing rats in a house that is up in flames. Ebonyi State under Nwifuru is experiencing the worst form of governance – the government wasting money in billions on vainglorious things. Indubitably, this is the time to backtrack from wasteful spending. It’s the time to look Ebonyi people in the face and apologize to them for subjecting them to the worst form of governance that is the Government of Francis Nwifuru, not working so hard to bring down an Ifeanyi Odii who’s busy thinking about what to further contribute to ensure that Ebonyi and her people are drawn out of the cesspool of abject poverty!
•Nwoba Chika Nwoba is a public affairs analyst from Ikwo, Ebonyi state.