Governor of Enugu state Mr. Sullivan Chime, in some quarters is referred to as a “silent achiever.” He is so called because in his habit he does not take seriously advertising whatever modest achievement his administration makes. Investigation has however revealed that Chime could be running away from being noted as governor who only concentrated efforts within two out of the seventeen local government areas in the state.
Even at that, the major achievement of the Chime administration concentrated within Enugu metropolis in his urban renewal agenda are mostly on resurfacing of township roads, streets and traffic lights, road cautions and just aesthetic beautification of few radius of the capital city out of 12,440 square kilometres land mass of Enugu state.
For the sake of revealing the ugly side of the Chime administration, it will be most appropriate to take the 17 local governments areas of the state one after the other and examine the much touted achievements of the seven and a half years administration of Chime and x-ray projects executed in those areas. We shall also look at what were not done and match them up for a critical analysis of the administration.
ENUGU NORTH LGA
Enugu North local government area is hearth of Enugu metropolis, it the hub of the state upon which the state government house, otherwise known as Lion building rests.
In this metropolitan area, there is undoubt-able presence of performance by the administration. When Chime assumed office in 2007, he met bad portions of road all over the metropolis and tackled them with passion. He also dualized roads in the metropolis and extended other major roads like the upper Presidential road, upper Independence avenue, among others. There was water reactivation that increased water supply to areas as the old GRA, New Haven. There was also lightening of the streets and improved security but beneath the facade of the aesthetics are unemployment and deprivation in other social infrastructure.
In the area of health for instance, there was significant development in the sector. The parklane hospital where Chime’s predecessor, Chimaroke Nnamani, built massive infrastructure, there has not been further medical equipment of the specialist hospital, there has not been improvement in hostel facilities for the growing students while there has been mass exodus of doctors migrating to UNTH and other better welfare packaged hospitals. The politics of leadership of the Parklane also contributed in destroying the renowned hospital. Shortly Chime came into government, the former Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Ude retired and by hierarchy, Dr. Ezugwu from Nsukka was supposed to replace Udeh but Chime made sure that his kinsman from Udi took over and since then, everything in the hospital has been “Udinized”.
Significantly, the Chime administration conceived the idea of building a diagnostic centre and commenced the structure at old trade fair ground facing market garden. That project for over five years has not been able to come up to the level of roofing the house, raising concerns that Chime is not interest in developing health sector but would rather travel abroad to receive treatment each time he fall sick. The much touted free maternal care for pregnant women never worked as women are subjected to producing tax clearances before they could benefit and eroded the down trodden opportunity of such policy that would have been laudable. The Asata and New Haven heath centres are shadows of themselves.
In the area of schools management, Chime gave out buses to secondary schools and tried to initiate free bus rides for students but was short leaved. Though secondary students of JSS 1 to 3 don’t pay school fees in the state there class rooms are all in adequate, filled to the brim and over stretched that teachers can’t find where to stand to deliver lectures. Examples of such schools are bound such as the GTC Enugu, it’s nearby comprehensive secondary school at the old trade fair ground, New Haven secondary school, just to name but a few. The primary schools in the metropolis are different either. At St. Peter’s primary school Ogbete in Coal Camp, the pupils study under uncondusive old building erected by the colonial masters, same is the case at St. Bridget’s primary school Asata, Obiagu road Primary school has been taken over by auto mechanics and so on and so forth.
On tertiary institutions, the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), is still shopping N100b to complete infrastructure at the permanent site in Agbani while the ESUT school fees is now beyond the reach of the poor. The management of ESUT complains that the state government is not giving the institution tangible subvention to sustain the university and that was the reason why it resorted to generating money through the students. The Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) is a similar story with ESUT. In IMT most students leave off campus paying outrageous rents and the Chime administration failed to expand hostel facilities to ameliorate the sufferings of students.
The waste disposing system which Chime tried to start well soon than he started it went comatose as even the intolerant personnel of Enugu State Waste Management Authority (ENSWMA) resorted to killing innocent children for no justifiable cause. The substandard Chinese disposing truck acquired at the early stage of the Chime administration soon packed up and today heaps of refuse have returned to conspicuous places like Holy Ghost, coal camp, Obiagu, just to mention but a few in Enugu north local government area.
On water provision, it is only some locations within Enugu north LGA that experience running taps once but not more than twice in a week. Such places are New haven, GRA, Ogui New layout and that’s it. Taps don’t run in the High brow Independence layout where the government house is located and where most government institution and senior citizens reside.
Even in the much talked about roads infrastructure that the administration is assumed to have done well, portholes have returned to majority of the streets among which the most noticeable include market road (Holy Ghost area). Other roads with serious and large potholes are Abakalili road by Ogui junction, Upper Ogui road, Okpara square area, Achi Street by ESBS junction. Just to mention few prominent ones. What is quite discernable from the road failures is that the roads where never done to high standards contrary to the jubilations that greeted the resurfacing of the metropolitan areas, otherwise quality roads are supposed to last a life span of not less than 20 years as is evident in road constructed by Dr. Chris Ngige in Anambra state.
Even at that many roads suffer neglect in Enugu north local government. Several roads Udi siding, Independence layout, Ogui-Nike, Enugu-Ngwo, GRA are yet to receive the attention of the state government. It is however remarkable to note that the state government does roads in partnership with local governments and so the state cannot receive all the glory for ones that were done at their usual low standard.
On electricity, it is not on record that the state government in the past seven and a half years procured transformers to help energize any part of the metropolis that some areas experience low shading electricity just like no know industry has sprang up in the area. Whereas the capital territory authority knocks down the property of innocent residents, the Chime family has been expanding their territory by erecting multi-billion naira estates in a parcel of land reserved by the state for future public use. The estate is a common site behind Enugu press centre and close to the Conference centre which has abandoned to rot away.
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Still on Enugu metropolis, a review of Chime’s administration and how it affected Enugu South local government will shock you. Watch out for next edition.
