UGWUANYI'S AUDACIOUS PROMISE OF 10,000 JOBS IN SIX MONTHS

The Peoples Democratic Party's governorship candidate in Enugu State, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi may not be facing any strong opposition in the April 11 state elections, but he is not relenting in his campaign to reach the people of the state with his programmes. At every stop in the campaign that has so far taken him to all the state's 17 Local Government Areas, he addresses the development challenges facing the area and how they will benefit from the programmes he intends to unfold once he takes over the reins of governance.

He is perhaps the only candidate that boasts a well-articulated programme in virtually all the key development sectors. Though he has adopted the 4-Point Agenda of the outgoing governor Sullivan Chime, there is no doubt that his programme outlines will build on, and eventually surpass, Chime's legacies.

Of all the key programmes, job creation is easily the most ambitious. His belief that no society grows without the citizenry being provided opportunities to harness their economic potentials may have informed his choice of priority because of the sheer number of people not captured in the existing employment statistics. So at the party's campaign rally in Nkwo Nike, Enugu East Local Government Area, Ugwuanyi unveiled various plans to generate employment for the people and then he made the audacious promise to create 10,000 jobs in his first six months in office.

As he unfolded bits and parts of the well-laid out programme, it was obvious it was designed to effectively engage the youths in a creative manner and open up the state's vast economic potentials. The strategy to pursue the goal of employment generation is hinged on a four-pronged approach of investment promotion, revolutionary policies in agriculture, provision of critical public utilities and skills enhancement for the youth. To this end, according to the candidate's policy document, more private investment will be attracted to the state through policies and activities that provide friendlier environment for businesses by responding to the needs and concerns of private capital.

Though the programme envisages the continued privatisation of government-owned companies, especially those that are better operated by the private sector, Ugwuanyi intends to develop at least one serviced industrial estate in each senatorial zone in the state. While manufacturing companies will be encouraged to establish plants in the industrial estates, land title registration and transfer system in the state will be reformed to ease the process of land acquisition for business and encourage the long term credit to new and existing businesses at concessional cost.

While many reason that his vision is indeed audacious and realistic, a second group, chief among which is the state chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC), has been cynical about it all. Though the APC has not unveiled any job-creation programmes for Enugu state beyond declaring that its government would focus mainly in agriculture, the mainstay of the economy of the defunct Eastern Region, it is quick to dismiss the Ugwuanyi promise as “impossible”. Without necessarily picking holes in the PDP strategy or proffering an alternative policy, the party's governorship candidate, Chief Okey Ezea says he is not convinced that Ugwuanyi can deliver 10,000 jobs within six months of his inauguration as governor. The quarrel appears to be the time frame.

As if in response, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, described those who view the programme with cynicism as uninformed. While commissioning various projects he attracted to the Ezeagu Local Council  in continuation of his re-election campaign, Ekweremadu gave assurances that Ugwuanyi would deliver on his promise.

In this ambitious project, Ugwuanyi realizes the potential of agriculture as a mass employment generation venture. To this end, he intends to pursue a revolution in agriculture that will have the two-pronged effect of significantly increasing the area of land under cultivation and yield per hectare, thus creating massive employment and enhancing the income of farmers in the state. But it will not all rest with the state government alone as more joint venture projects with reputable private companies for commercial large scale agriculture and agro-processing businesses will be encouraged, including the revamping of Adarice farm complex for massive rice production and milling. Same for farm extension services of the Enugu Agriculture development programme (ENADEP) which will be revamped to provide extension services to small and medium scale farmers.

He also realises the huge potentials of the gas and coal reserves in Enugu state and speaks passionately about his plans to attract private investment to develop them. The state government under his watch plans to introduce Oil and Gas, and Maritime studies as new courses in the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) to ensure that enough qualified manpower is produced for the long run, to manage the huge potential that the sectors provide. The benefits, of course, are enormous: the huge gas and coal reserves in Enugu state will increase electricity generation with spiral effect on productive capacity of industries as well as gas for domestic use.

For Governor Sullivan Chime, his nearly 8 years of leadership has indeed been an era of exceptional transformation in physical infrastructure in the state. Not only have durable roads displaced dilapidated and impassable urban roads, the state has also witnessed giant strides in rural infrastructural development and provision of power infrastructure. Without such critical public infrastructure, industries will not sustain operations and the tempo of urban renewal and expansion activities in Enugu and Nsukka urban, will be difficult. This is why the intensification of efforts in those areas are critical factors in the drive towards industrialization.

Another major plank in Ugwuanyi's employment generation proposal is the enhancement of the skills of the youth to be able to operate their own businesses or find gainful employment. To do this, a youth apprenticeship scheme that revolves around sending qualifying youth to reputable companies to acquire vocational and technical skills as well as a youth employment volunteer programme that will provide requisite training and employment to young men and women at the state government's expense, will be established. The bedrock of this programme rests in the strategy to revive and re-equip technical colleges in the state to provide regular programmes to full-time students as well as targeted ad-hoc programmes to non-regular trainees.

For a man who seems so truly impressed with the performance of the incumbent, and overwhelmed by the outpouring of solidarity and support for his candidature, Ugwuanyi is mindful of the verdict of history.  He has therefore promised to reciprocate the widespread support with a performance that Enugu people will be proud of, updating and reviewing Chime's programmes where necessary but without necessarily making any radical departure from Chime's development trajectory.

It is the same conviction on which Ekweremadu rendered the testimonial on Ugwuanyi's character and competence that Governor Chime keeps assuring Enugu people that with Gburugburu , as Ugwuanyi is popularly called, Enugu will be in safe hands. As Chime has said on several occasions, he could not have hoped for a better man –cool, calm and a unifying personality, as his successor.

Written by Sheddy Ozoene.