Gov Umahi poised to raise enough human capital to drive infrastructural devt in Ebonyi –.- Commissioner

Governor of Ebonyi State David Nweze Umahi  is one of the few leaders that has continued to live true to what a servant leader signifies. He wears the tag of grand commander of transformation in some quarters while others refer to him as Mr. project in reference to the long list of projects which he have executed. In this interview with Champion Newspapers, Managing Editor ,Kelvin Egerue, Ebonyi State Commissioner for Information and State Orientation Hon (Barr) Orji Uchenna Orji assures that the governor will still do more in completing all his projects.  He also said that Umahi’s administration will be fruitful in fulfilling the vision of transforming Ebonyi to a global state. Excepts

What is this big talk of Governor Umahi planning to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). This talk has refused to be wished away. What is actually going on?

Honestly, it is not everything we need to respond to. Our enemies don’t know what to say against our dear governor. They are so disturbed about his rising profile. That is why they feel like spreading all forms of fake news to get at the governor.  They are more like visionless opposition forces who have got no direction .The governor is more focused. Their actions are very irresponsible and we assure them that the law against fake news is no respecter of any person and the law is made for people like them.  So our governor is a proud APC member who have decided to get South East into the mainstream of the national politics because that is the political culture of the South East. We are thinking of getting more people into the South East APC. The people in PDP are not doing good enough for the region; hey don’t share the same vision and mandate of south east leaders like Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. Sincerely speaking, we don’t have any need to respond to their fallacious accusations.

We want to know if the people that are usually referred to in Ebonyi State as Abuja politicians have started  coming home to join forces with Governor  Umahi for the development of the state?.

In Ebonyi political landscape, the so called Abuja politicians are like darkness in the state. Many of them are working against the progress of the state. For now our people had made up their minds not to return to darkness or go back to ‘Egypt’ .  Ebonyi State is fully APC and those people who are in Abuja seem to be more like expired politicians whose record of governance is shrouded in questionable character. Many of them have issues of corruption and misgovernance. They are the people that kept the south east in the state that it is today. They did not bring employment and development and the little contract they had; they pocketed it  instead of doing something for their people.  They need to know that the south east people are wiser now.  They can never vote for any person that did not perform very well in the past or involve in corruption.

However, we are excited talking about the Governor Umahi’s administration that has done the people proud.  Some people call him the Grand Commander of Transformation and that is what he is. We are talking about people who have track record of performance coming into the corridors of power.  Not people who has wasted all the opportunities given to them.

Recently, some group Christian Governor Umahi the ‘real Mr. Project’ in reference to the high number of infrastructural project5s which the governor have undertaken. Now that his tenure remains some months to the end, are we expecting new more projects? The governor is said to have started strong, is he going to finish strong?

As we speak, our 2022 budget captured this idea that the governor started strong and he will finish very strong. What he captured in the budget is the issue of completion of projects which he started. I tell you that whatever project the governor mentioned he will do, he will certainly complete it. And so part of the main agenda of 2022 budget is to complete all the projects he started and ensure they are deployed in a way that it will be profitable for the state and the people. Again, by 2022, the governor is thinking of increasing the human capital initiatives; that is the empowerment of our people; raising the human capital that will drive the entire system and environment that he has created. Most of the economic initiatives and environment that he established will need the human person to drive them and that is why he is looking at getting private partners to drive some of the economic facilities. That way we can be sure of economic sustainability, revenue generation, wealth creation from the economic facilities the governor built.

What are those factors  or attributes that are making the governor have such good followership among the masses in Ebonyi State.

Honestly speaking, one of the major thrusts of our dear governor is his inclusive politics. To him after election comes governance that is without political or partisan barriers. That has made him to be really the father of all. He does not discriminate against anybody despite the political party you belong. Again he is a man that knows where it pinches the people having been a Deputy Governor, a party Chairman; he has got a lot of experience and so he makes sure  he does those things that will really impact the living standard of the people. I call him a man of three  E’s of leadership. He has Exposure.  When he goes outside the state whatever he sees that is good, he comes home to replicate it in the state. He is a man of Education in the sense that you need to prepare yourself to match his good level of education. He also got Experience. These are the things that are really helping him. Sincerely, he is making a huge difference in his administration. Above all, he has a great fear for God. He is one of the governors in Nigeria that makes time to worship God. He is a man that stoops too low to conquer; a very humble man. When he was the Deputy Governor, he was the most humble deputy governors in the country. As the party Chairman, he was the most organized party chairman in Nigeria. Now that he is Governor , you can see the difference. So, stooping low to conquer that has been his principle for life.  Above all, he is passionate to give his people the best.  One governor recently said that one thing you cannot take away from Gov. Umahi is his passion to give his people the best. He has really demonstrated this passion by the type of leadership he brought to Ebonyi State. Ebonyi State today is like centre of excellence. Anything good is in Ebonyi State today.

Now there is a strong voice for the south east to produce the next president; is there any effort by the south east region to get a consensus presidential candidate for the purpose of ensuring that the zone produced the next president?

There cannot be a consensus candidate when we have a multi-party system. All we are praying is for all the political parties to look into the yearnings of the common man in the country to say let there be justice, fairness and equity. Even in the occupation of Aso Rock, let there be equity. And so it would be a consensus that the south east has not really had a fair stake in producing the president of the country. If there is a consensus, we are urging the political parties to ensure that they pick their presidential candidates from the south east bloc. When that is done, the people of Nigeria will now vote for the best among them. One thing we should be supporting is candidates from the south east that have great goodwill, credibility and integrity. The experience we have in Ebonyi State indicates that if you are coming from the minority, you must give the best. It is only such candidate that will make the people to ask for more of the person with credibility. But if we continue to patronize people that misappropriated our funds, that means we are not ready to change things in the country. So we should be looking at track records. If we have somebody like Governor Umahi as president of Nigeria, even world leaders will be excited

What can government do to ensure ease of doing business? Our current ranking is not too good

In terms of legislative framework, we are doing a lot to improve on ease of doing business. In taxation we need to do a lot of automation of the tax system to ensure we disable multiple tax system and leakages. We also need to build various infrastructures, have wonderful and conducive environment, we need to encourage investors through our legislations, programmes and policies. These are the things that will encourage ease of doing business. Also we need to introduce e-governance system in the body polity. This will help the civil servant to reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks in the system. There is also need to re-orientate and train the civil servants on the job.