By Brown Justice
There are two types of critics; those who criticise because there is need for constructive criticism and those who criticise out of envy, low self-esteem, hatred, animosity and proven inability to attain certain status which their contemporaries occupy in the society.
The second type of critics are people who never see anything good in others. They embark on fault-finding missions just to speak evil of people forgetting that when we speak evil of others, we condemn ourselves.
No doubt, an example of the second type of critics is the Chairman of the Enugu State Chapter of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Mr. Adonis Igwe.
Mr. Igwe is a dysfunctional personality who thinks by making irrational, insensitive and balonious claims against the state government, he can gain relevance in the politics of the coal city.
This is a man who has no touch with reality, yet he constantly makes myopic and jaundiced criticism against a state that is working and where people are happy with their governor because of the visible, verifiable and unprecedented level of good governance in the state.
Each time I read about Mr. Igwe’s empty claim or criticism against the state, I usually laugh in Swahili because I see a man who is so bereft of ideas that he does not know the difference between micro-economics and macro-economics.
Let me just educate the ‘certificated illiterate’ a bit on where the state was, and where it was coming from.
It is a known fact that Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi assumed office at a time the price of oil at the international market was low, a time of economic recession with backlog of unemployments, youth restiveness, unpaid workers salary and pension as well as decreased federal allocation with high debt profile and decrepit infrastructure among others.
With all the above challenges, the governor never complained, but deployed his intellectual acumen as financial guru to manage the state with great ingenuity, dexterity and sagacity.
Honestly, it’s only a genius with uncommon leadership quality that can surmount the challenges at that material time.
Within six months, the state not only cleared all the backlog of salaries and pensions, but civil servants started receiving their salaries on the 23rd of every month.
While over 27 states at the time where finding it difficult to pay workers salaries, Enugu State started paying workers for 13 months for working for 12 months.
The governor added human face to his government by tackling unemployment from both the micro-economic and Macro-economic levels.
At the micro-economic level, the state started empowering small scale enterprises like traders, artisans, technicians and operators of the informal sector of the economy by making revolving loans available to them.
At the macro-economic level, the state embarked on massive infrastructural developmental projects using local contents in labour, services and technical know-how. The state also lifted embargo on employment by recruiting young men and women of the state as teachers, administrators, security personnel, regulators, forest guards etc.
The government fought crimes and restiveness in the state with jobs because when people are gainfully busy, they don’t think evil let alone becoming the devil’s workshop.
Bureaucratic reform on ease of doing business was also introduced while favorable business climate was created.
The few incidents of criminal activities in the state are as a result of criminals without border as many arrest made by the security agencies have shown.
Mr. Igwe was so economical with the truth that he refused to acknowledge the unprecedented achievements of the government in education, health, human capacity development, rural development and urban beautification and renewal, sports, water resources as seen in the Oji-River and Ajali Water Plants among others.
Mr. Igwe also refused to acknowledge the policy of continuity in the state as seen in the ongoing work at the Enugu State International Conference Centre, the renovation of the state’s judicial complex, the completion of medical diagnostic centre and the upgradement of cottage and primary health care centers to secondary and tertiary health care centres.
Mr. Igwe should be told that, it is only an ungrateful element like him that will not see the giant strides of the Ugwuanyi administration in the state which all other persons have acknowledged.
While I don’t want to engage in the hypothetical assertions made against the state by Mr. Igwe, I want to advise him by quoting Robert Silverstein who said ”If we are bold to point out problems, we must be brave enough to try to solve them.”
Therefore, participatory democracy is not only when it comes to sharing the dividends of democracy but also in the provision service to the people in our various capacities.
What has Mr. Igwe done in his private capacity to complement the giant strides of the state government in his own level?
This is a topic for discussion another day.
Enugu State is in the Hands of God!
Mr. Brown Justice writes from Inyi Community in Oji-River Local Government Area of Enugu State.
