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THE ENUGU STATE OF MY DREAM
It gives me great pleasure to join you at the Enugu Association, USA Annual National Convention 2015. I convey to you a bagful of greetings from the people of Enugu State. Our people at home appreciate your commitment to giving the people of the State a better life through your many interventions. We appreciate the fact that in a country where everything appears to be working, where you could easily have been carried away, you think home always. You are indeed worthy ambassadors of Waawa Land; and we are very proud of you.
Personally, I am happy for uncountable reasons. First, I am convinced that this Convention holds great promises for the people of Enugu State in particular and the South East and Nigeria in general. I am also impressed by your Convention theme: “Building a closer relationship with Enugu”, which further confirms that you see yourselves as Waawa people in America rather Americans from Enugu State.
Let me further commend you for the repositioning of the Enugu Association, USA and also for giving our women the opportunity to lead the Association. Electing a woman, an accomplished woman for that matter, to lead you is a great leap in the right direction. I am very happy that the President, Dr. Sinachi Ugwuonye, has so far lived up to the expectations of her exalted Office in transparency, integrity, innovativeness, and commitment to the objectives of the Association. She has continued to prove that what a man can do, a woman can equally do, even much better.
I also commend the choice of Las Vegas as the venue for this year’s convention. Someone might initially wonder “Why Las Vegas of all places?” The significance of holding the Convention in this city is not lost on me. It is a city that inspires us and teaches the lessons of the limitlessness and ingenuity of a determined human mind. There is hardly a better place to discuss the transformation of Enugu State in the United States than a city, which has itself transformed from a mere mission and acres of impossibilities to one of the entertainment capitals of the world and a land of possibilities. I believe it is the right place to speak on “The Enugu State of My Dream”, being the title of my keynote address. I believe making Enugu State better is at the heart of your theme- “Building a Closer Relationship with Enugu”.
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s Administration
The administration of The Rt. Honourable Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was inaugurated on May 29, 2015- the same day his predecessor, His Excellency, Barr. Sullivan Chime bowed out of Office. The former Governor no doubt paid his dues in moving Enugu State forward. We must commend him for all that he was able to achieve.
His Excellency, Rt. Honourable Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is a man I have known for several years. I believe he is capable of taking Enugu State to the next level. He cannot, however, do it alone. Modern democracy thrives on participatory governance. The task of building an Enugu State of our dreams is therefore a shared responsibility.
Since this year’s Convention is coming on the heels of the inauguration of the new administration, I thought we should use the opportunity it offers to come up with ideas on how we can support the new administration to succeed. I know the Governor has a lot of respect for our Diaspora community, and he is well disposed to good ideas.
The Challenges
The destruction of fiscal federalism by years of military rule is a major challenge in Nigeria. The 36 States of the federation rely heavily on allocations from the Federation Account for survival. Our State receives one of the lowest allocations from the Federal Government. You can then imagine the situation now with the continued decline in the price of crude oil in the international market. It follows therefore, that Enugu State is in dire financial distress. Our debt and very low Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profiles have further compounded matters. Governor Ugwuanyi admitted the gloomy economic or financial outlook in his inaugural address. The reality is that the resources to tackle the enormous development challenges facing the state are very limited.
Incidentally, our people in the villages do not understand all the “big grammar”. All they want is result- whichever way it comes. After all, Enugu is not alone in the financial stress. All the 36 States, with an exception of a few are in the same “pot of hot soup.”
How then do we ensure that our people get the dividends of democracy irrespective of the current financial situation of the state?
We need greater synergy between the government and people of Enugu State, including those of you in the Diaspora to build a prosperous State of our dreams.
Time to Turn to our Mineral Resources
It is rather ironical that Enugu is in financial distress considering that the State sits on enormous mineral and natural resources. Data from the Raw Materials Research and Development Centre, reveals that Enugu State has lateritic clay, kaolinite clay, ball clay, iron-ore, glass sand, petroleum resources, gypsum, coal, silica sand, ceramic clay in commercial quantities.
Unfortunately, like the rest of the 36 States, the hands of the State Government are tied. Mineral resources are on the Exclusive List in the 1999 Constitution. Therefore, the States have no control over mineral resources within their territories. The Federal Government, which has the power to exploit them, has not also bothered to do so because attention is fixated on free oil money. We only wail and whine each time we find ourselves in a financial fix like we do now.
To break this self-imposed limitation, we need an amendment to the 1999 Constitution to remove Federal Government’s monopoly over mineral resources.
For those of you who have followed my public lectures and comments on this subject, I have always insisted that there is no way Nigeria would make the required progress unless we embrace fiscal federalism. The conventional thing in federations is for each component state to exploit the resources and opportunities available to it and pay loyalty/tax to the central government.
We tried to give the states power to exploit the mineral resources in their territories during the various constitutional amendment exercises by transferring mineral resources from the Exclusive Legislative List to the concurrent List. Sadly, our efforts were not successful.
However, we will not relent because it is the right way to go. In the First Republic, there was fiscal federalism and we can all bear witness to the tremendous progress made by the country at the time. Today, the whole nation is paying for our penchant for free oil money. If we end the “feeding bottle federalism” syndrome we will all be amazed at how ingenious the component parts of Nigeria can be.
On our part as Enugu State Caucus at the National Assembly, we will take it upon ourselves to press for an amendment to the 1999 Constitution so that each state can maximize the resources within its territory.
I also believe that the opponents of fiscal federalism must be having a serious rethink in the face of the current situation in which the states are so cash strapped that some owe salary arrears of up to 9 months.
Agriculture: The people of Enugu are predominantly farmers. We are also blessed with fertile farmlands. In my days as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Governmental Affairs, way back in the 5th Senate, we conducted a study entitled “One Local Government, One Project”, OLOP. The study was carried out by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, SMEDAN, an agency under our oversight, to identify in each local government the farm produce and cash crops in which such a local government has comparative and competitive advantage over others. The idea was that if each of the 774 local governments were supported to produce such farm produce or cash crops in commercial quantity, they would add up to boost the agricultural sector and provides raw materials to service the manufacturing industry.
The table below captures the agro-strength of each of the 17 local government areas of Enugu State
STATE : ENUGU
|
S/NO
|
LGA
|
PRODUCTS
|
|
1
|
Aninri
|
Cassava
|
|
2
|
Awgu
|
Maize
|
|
3
|
Enugu East
|
Fruits
|
|
4
|
Enugu North
|
Fruits
|
|
5
|
Enugu South
|
Fruits
|
|
6
|
Ezeagu
|
Timber
|
|
7
|
Igbo-Etiti
|
Kola Nut
|
|
8
|
Igbo-Eze North
|
Yam
|
|
9
|
Igbo-Eze South
|
Yam
|
|
10
|
Isi-Uzo
|
Oil Palm
|
|
11
|
Nkanu East
|
Rice
|
|
12
|
Nkanu West
|
Rice
|
|
13
|
Nsukka
|
Oil Palm
|
|
14
|
Oji River
|
Oil Palm
|
|
15
|
Udenu
|
Cashew Nut
|
|
16
|
Udi
|
Cashew Nut
|
|
17
|
