UMAHISM: DEVELOPING BOTH THE LANDSCAPE AND THE PEOPLE OF EBONYI

It is commonplace knowledge that the Divine Mandate administration of Governor David Nweze Umahi is developing Ebonyi landscape through comprehensive infrastructural projects which comprise three overhead bridges, a pedestrian crossover bridge, over forty-four roads in Abakaliki urban internal-road network, the Onueke and Afikpo urban road networks, intervention in federal roads with a total distance of 54.5 kilometers, the Hilltop - Nwofe Agbaja virgin road, Nkwegu - FUNAI road et cetera. Umahi's uncommon achievements in other sectors like security, health, Boarder peace and conflict resolution, education, commerce and industry, agriculture, tourism et cetera are equally in the dormain of public awareness. The tendency is for people to think that all that Governor Umahi is doing in Ebonyi state is infrastructure, infrastructure and infrastructure; and nothing else.

For a man who entered into a covenant with God "to passionately help the widows and the oppressed", developing the landscape of Ebonyi state is important but not enough, developing Ebonyi people is more important and equally salubrious. This is true because Umahi's mandate is a product of the democratic process; and the most popular definition of democracy is that it is "the government of the people by the people for the people". The truth is that even though the administration of Engr David Nweze Umahi is famous for the radical infrastructural development of Ebonyi landscape, Ebonyi State Government under the leadership of Governor Umahi is doing more human empowerment than infrastructure. In fact, comparative analyses further reveal that Ebonyi state under Governor Umahi is investing in human empowerment and job creation more than any other state in the Southeast geopolitical zone! The only reason for which little is heard about the humongous human empowerment and job creation going on in Ebonyi state is that when it comes to empowering the poor and the needy, the Deacon - Governor would not want his left hand to know what his other hand is doing" because such projects are not supposed to be run as show businesses.

However, it is on record that shortly after take-off, the Umahi administration through the ministry of Empowerment and job creation launched a youth and women empowerment programme through which youths and women numbering three thousand were empowered with the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira only each to enable them to either trade or farm. On the heels of that programme came the Governor Umahi Mentorship Scheme (GUMES). The scheme which centre is the Rice City Hotel at Mile 50 Abakaliki, according to the Honourable commissioner for Empowerment and Job Creation, Barr Uchenna Orji, "is a future reassurance and guarantee programme in which young graduates of Ebonyi state origin are selected on equality of local government areas and mentored for a period of one year. The participants are placed on allowance throughout the period of the mentorship. They are, at the end of the programme, grouped into companies with needed equipment and deployed to do some of the State and Local Government projects on mouth-watering allowances. The programme will mentor the selected youths on Road construction, Water Projects, Surveying, Building, Electrical, Mechanical, Agricultural Engineering, Technological Development, Administration, Law, Catering, ICT, Business Management and Motivational Speech Making. The first phase of the programme - Civil Engineering - is designed to eliminate the use of expertriates in projects monitoring and execution".

Other empowerment and job creation programmes of the Divine Mandate administration in Ebonyi state include the training of six Ebonyi youths drawn from the three senatorial districts on horticulture. Their 30-day training which took place at SPARE gardens, Abuja was sponsored by the State Government in 2016. On completion of the training, Ebonyi state government allocated sufficient spaces to each of them at hilltop base, along waterworks road, Abakaliki for their respective gardens. Necessary facilities like water boreholes, overhead water tanks, office cabins et cetera were provided for them. Added to these was a financial take-off grant of one million naira (#1,000,000.00) only to each. The Widows Empowerment Programme in which 3710 widows drawn from across the 13 Local Government Areas were empowered with financial grants of one hundred thousand naira (#100,000.00) only to aid either their farming or petty trading followed. As I write this piece, preparations are in top gear to empower another set of widows. Added to these are some widows drawn from the 13 council areas who are placed on a monthly stipend of ten thousand naira only. Through the Ministry of Economic Empowerment and Job Creation, Ebonyi state government has also sponsored 508 Ebonyians to the three-month entrepreneurship training certificate programme of the Southeast Entrepreneurship Centre. At the end of the training, each of the 508 trained Ebonyians upon incorporation of a business outfit and submission of a bankable business plan in any area involving production/processing has access to MSMDF funding from CBN to the tune of three million naira ( #3,000,000.00) only.

Mr. Uchenna Orji
Commissioner for Economic Empowerment and Job Creation

The civil servants in Ebonyi state whose income have been affected by the recession were equally captured in the human-faced programmes of Umahi's administration by being encouraged to embrace farming as a means of alternative income. According to Ebonyi state commissioner for Economic Empowerment and Job Creation, Barr. Orji, "About 12,000 of them [civil servants] are to benefit from the programmes of FADAMA III and IFAD which were made possible through the provision of counterpart funds by the State Government ... Presently, over 5,000 civil and public servants are already captured for 2017 programme. It is pertinent to mention that one billion naira was mapped out by the State Government to empower civil servants in the State." It is on record that Ebonyi workers have been paid annual bonuses known as 13th month salaries since the inception of Governor Umahi's administration.

For the first time in the history of Ebonyi state, Ebonyi people in the Diaspora are being empowered by the State Government. Through the Street to Skill programme, one hundred and thirty million naira (#130,000,000.00) only was approved for the empowerment of Ebonyi women and youths hawking in the streets of Lagos state. Funds have equally been released for the purchase of 130 modern tricycles for Ebonyi youths hawking in Onitsha, Anambra state. Even the physically-challenged in Ebonyi state were captured as 85 of them are on the payroll of Umahi's human-faced administration. One of them was appointed alongside 250 other youths and women as technical assistants to the Governor of Ebonyi state in the first-of-its-kind stomach infrastructure programme in the history of Ebonyi state.

The icing on the cake of Ebonyi state Government's empowerment and job creation thrust is the on-coming Ebonyi State Empowerment Summit 2017 planned by the Ministry of Economic Empowerment and Job Creation. This summit which is the first-of-its-kind in Nigeria will pull captains of industries, successful entrepreneurs and critical stakeholders of commerce and industry to interface with Ebonyi youths and Ebonyi land. The summit is expected to catalyze both the visitors and Ebonyi youths into full exploitation of the many investment opportunities in Ebonyi state. The ultimate aim is to transform Ebonyi youths to wealth and job creators and Ebonyi state into an industrial hub of Southeastern Nigeria!