Hon. Uchenna Igwe's One-year Scorecard As The rural Prefect Of ebonyi People's Charter Of Needs Administration.
According to Socrates, "An unexamined life is not worth living". This evergreen submission underscores the need for periodic assessments of one's private or public life with a view to making improvements in the competition with one's past which positive living ought to be. Recall that the Ebonyi Peoples' Charter of Needs Administration of His Excellency, Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, just clocked one year on 29th May, 2024. The dispassionate assessment of Governor Francis Nwifuru's scorecard sent Ebonyi masses on a hearty spree of new and better songs and dances across the streets and open spaces in celebration of functional democracy, enthralling achievements and therapeutic welfare programmes acknowledged by all. In fact, the umbrella association of Nigerian parents under the aegis of Nigeria Parents Forum had invested Governor Francis Nwifuru with the honour of Welfare Ambassador of Nigeria! Like Napoleon in George Orwell's Animal Farm, Nigerian parents who directly feel the impacts of administrations all over the country cannot be wrong in their assessment of Governor Francis Nwifuru.
The present Ebonyi State Executive Council was inaugurated by Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru on 20th June 2023. Hon. Uchenna Stephen Igwe, a humble young man with adult head who follows all men with peace, was assigned to the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters to drive the policies and programmes of the Nwifuru admiinistration at the grassroots level. When one recalls that Ebonyi State is largely a rural state, one will understand the scope and significant role of Ebonyi State Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters commissioner and why eagle-eyed Governor Francis Nwifuru assigned calm and calculated Igwe to that ministry. The assignment of Hon. Uchenna Stephen Igwe who is the coordinator of one of the foremost independent support groups Rainbow Network Organization and as the chairman of FON Youth Movement in Ebonyi Local Government Area to Ebonyi State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters was received with joy by Ebonyians. Igwe was at the foundation of the FON gubernatorial project and so understood the intentions of Governor Nwifuru for the rural populace. Having served Governor Francis Nwifuru, nay Ebonyi State, in the capacity of the rural prefect of the Ebonyi People's Charter of Needs Administration for one year, the Socratic injunction upon which this essay is premised demands a critical evaluation of Hon. Uchenna Stephen Igwe's performance.
The first programme of Hon. Igwe was the implementation of Governor Nwifuru's policy of democratization and liberalization of Ebonyi Local Government System to give the council chairmen the financial impetus to develop their respective jurisdictions. This enabled the council areas to reticulate the welfare programmes of Governor Nwifuru like wage awards, Christmas bonuses, distribution of hunger palliatives to the rural communities to douse the economic tensions that trailed the fuel subsidy withdrawal. That Ebonyi State succeeded in this regard was evident in the hope that prevailed in Ebonyi State at a time that President Tinubu was called out at hunger and hardship protests staged in every other state of the federation including Abuja. Public utilities like water projects, health centres, rural roads, electricity projects and rural security networks which dot the rural landscape of Ebonyi State are direct offshoots of this sensitive programme.
Under the Chieftaincy department of the ministry, Hon. Igwe whose fair disposition to all has earned the title of "Enyi Oha" (Friend of all) has taken Governor Francis Nwifuru's democratization policy to the rural communities. Here, the rural folks are allowed free hand to elect their village heads, youth leaders, women leaders and traditional rulers unlike before. This has restored peace to many hitherto warring communities while over forty vacant traditional stools have been successfully inaugurated in peace. This transformed Governor Francis Nwifuru's Ebonyi State into an oasis within troubled Nigeria. It is heartwarming that Ebonyi State has unassailably continued to occupy the enviable position of the most peaceful State in Nigeria. Hence, Ebonyi State has continued to ensnare foreign investors.
The governor of Ebonyi State, Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, being a truly indigenous Ebonyi man is not just building infrastructures in Ebonyi State. Given the historical and economic background of Ebonyi people, he is also building the dignity of Ebonyi people in general and that of the traditional institutions in particular. Consequently, he is building modern residential duplexes for each of the 140 Ebonyi traditional rulers in their respective communities. The peculiar relevance and significance of this project which is being meticulously implemented through the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters may not be easily discernible to people who do not understand the socio-economic background of Ebonyi State.
Unlike in many states where developmental efforts are usually focused at the urban centres or at the capital territory, Governor Francis Nwifuru has escalated development to all the nooks and crevices of Ebonyi State. Apart from the continued implementation of the all important 198 kilometer Abakaliki Ring road which he inherited from his predecessor, Governor Francis Nwifuru is building 2-kilometer concrete road in each of the 140 communities in Ebonyi State. These road projects have a cumulative distance of 280 kilometers domiciled in the rural communities of Ebonyi State. The project has opened up the rural areas for evacuation of farm produce, eased interconnectivity among Ebonyi communities and reduced rural-urban migration in Ebonyi State.
The agricultural revolution programme of His Excellency, Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, in Ebonyi State was not just meticulously implemented at the rural level by the ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Hon. Igwe. The ministry supported Ebonyi Agricultural Revolution by distributing13000 bags of fertilizers, 6500 bags of improved rice seedlings and 6500 cartons of Force-Up herbicides to the rural farmers in Ebonyi communities.
Hon. Uchenna Igwe has also coordinated both the council chairmen and Development Centre coordinators of Ebonyi State to partner the wife of the governor of Ebonyi State, Her Excellency, Mrs. Mary-Maudline Uzoamaka Nwifuru, in her motherly efforts to lift Ebonyi women and children from poverty through her pet-project, Better Life for Rural Women, Children and Internally-displaced Persons, BERWO.
In one year, the Honourable Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters in Ebonyi State, Hon. Uchenna Stephen Igwe, has successfully implemented the life-changing policies and programmes of His Excellency, Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru such that the verses of the Psalm of functional democracy which ring in Abakaliki and appurtenant urban areas are promptly chorused in the communities and remote villages of Ebonyi State.