Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi: The Worst Governor Enugu Has Ever Produced
Iyierioba.com’s CEO writes
The enthronement of the immediate past governor of Enugu State, Hon. Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi in 2015 seems validating the school of thought held by some people that God doesn’t make a leader. That the God factor doesn’t truly come to bear in the politics of Africa and Nigeria in particular.
I’m subscribing to this school of thought because, if God were to crown leaders as held by many, he wouldn’t have given Enugu state a man as placid and selfish as the immediate past governor of the state for a whooping eight year reign as the emperor general commanding the coal city state like a personal estate.
Narrating the seemingly innumerable pitfalls of former Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi will take a whole day and tantamount to dissipation of scribal gravitas. It’s in the light of this that I’ll resort to selecting a few points and highlight. It’s noteworthy that for the eight year period he governed the coal city state, he never appeared on any national television station for any reason. He nailed his ass tight to the treasure seat of the civil service state, Enugu, amassing wealth mindlessly and snatching people’s lands everywhere in the state using the paraphernalia of his office as the number one citizen of the state then.
It’s on record that Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi didn’t achieve half the legacies of his two predecessors: Sen. Dr Chimaroke Nnamani and Barr Sullivan Chime even as there was more money during his reign than what was the fiscal reality during the reigns of his predecessors. The only legacy project Ugwuanyi achieved was a lopsided circulation of minute dividends of democracy. His governance was more like a regional administration whereby lucrative public offices were allocated to his Nsukka people. The little record of the infrastructural legacy he has to his name is heaped on Nsukka, though the people of the zone continue berating him for poor performance as governor of Enugu state from Nsukka. If his people presumed benefitting humongously from his epileptic administration could chide him that much for poor performance, then it’s instructive to pass a vote of no confidence in him and pray that a governor of his kind doesn’t happen to the peace-loving people of Enugu state anytime soon.
For the eight years he held sway, the Enugu metropolis didn’t breathe in the oxygen of infrastructural reform. Most roads in the heart of the capital city are in a very despicable situation. One wonders if he was driving in the air as to not see the conditions of the inland roads. What about water? Throughout his idle tenures, Enugu residents suffered thirst and drank water meant for only domestic animals. He wasn’t bothered. It was to him an ordinary challenge government should not dissipate fiscal energy proffering solution to. Rural electrification never saw its way into his infrastructure framework. Local governments that should cater for that were in the mercy of his pockets stashed with the revenues that should accrue to them monthly. Chairmen under his inglorious tenures were all residents in Enugu the capital city as there was no money to tackle the infrastructure deficit back at home. They couldn’t have stayed within the thresholds of their respective LGAs in that condition as number one citizens at that tier of government.
Ugwuanyi didn’t care about the vanishing living standard of the ordinary citizens of Enugu. He only cared about buying up the voices of the political opposition figures and others alike within PDP who were always cap in hand to shower him with ostentatious praises. At a point, Enugu State Government became a cash cow for sycophants and external political merchants whose merchandise was to find a way to extend the praise singing policy of the administration beyond the threshold of Enugu. Enugu during his time was only on the news for the wrong reasons. Insecurity became rife in the state. At some points, he declared prayer sessions over hostilities that required kinetic approach and willpower to be brought to a permanent halt. No axis of the state including his own community was not a terror end. His administration never arrested any of the known terrorists for prosecution nor fashioned actions that could lead to nipping crime in the bud in the state. Accusations were that some of the daredevil arsonists and kidnappers were instruments used for prosecution of elections. So, fighting them could have been a kingdom against a kingdom. Kidnapping became a recurring decimal in Nsukka where he comes from. Each time the criminals struck, he would instead of taking proactive steps towards fighting them declare prayers. One wonders the place of prayers in situations that required kinetic actions to fight.
Ugwuanyi is said to have acquired over two thousand plots of land at different parts of the state. They’re different from the ones he acquired in Abakaliki at the Centenary City where he has at least ten plots of land with buildings springing as of the past two years. Does one even need to talk about the ones he acquired in Portharcourt, Abuja, Lagos and other parts of Nigeria and abroad? One is left wondering where he would be taking the properties to when the chips are down.
I’m not talking about his investments in the maritime sector clearly funded with the Enugu people’s treasury. To say the least, he silently combed and decapitated the body of Enugu’s treasury. His staying away from media and publicity aided the spree of wealth amassing as it was difficult to critique his nocturnal policies and programmes. He pocketed the conventional media in the state. He was always ready to buy the voice of anyone who dared to criticize his administration and its many shenanigans. Having bought the opposition voices, the atmosphere became clement for him to continue amassing public wealth.
Ugwuanyi preyed on the finances of the local government badly. The local government areas were directly annexed to the Government House. Having carefully selected his minions as council chairmen, there was no avenue to checkmate his fiscal mendacity in the management of local government funds.
Enugu people continue to blame former governor Sullivan Chime who anointed the calamity that befell the state in improportionate quantum. Students union leaders weren’t left out of the money sharing spree as they were also an integral part of his sycophantic bunch. Traditional rulers and security operatives got their own fair shares of the loot. The church wasn’t excluded from the scheme. A few persons in the church fed fat from the loot. All hail the Father Christmas of Enugu state as he was.Ā
While other governors and political office seekers ahead of the 2023 polls were meeting their people in the rural areas, the scarecrow was inviting his own people over to the Government House where he felt was safest to host political meetings and awareness campaigns towards realising his now botched senatorial aspiration. Government House became a Mecca of sorts where all legs trod in and out for financial benefits. This article became germane for publication as he is seen carrying himself as the most performing former governor the state has ever had. Should he forget how penurious his administration was to Enugu people and residents, this article serves as a perfect flashback to how badly he ran the coal city state! Unfortunately, as he was leaving office as governor, over N4 billion of local government money was packaged for him as exit benefit. What could be more a disaster than this? The next publication will throw more light on the Ugwuanyi’s economic and financial malfeasance which made the coal city one of the less governed states in Nigeria after Abia.