THE POLITICAL PEACE ECONOMY OF GOVERNOR UGWUANYI IN ENUGU STATE.
Economic Nobelist Jan Tinbergen defines peace economics as:
“Economic science used for the purpose that prohibits (war) as an instrument of settling conflicts between nations and (to organize) the world in a way that warfare is punished”.
“Peace economy is a specialized branch of economics. Peace economics focused on the design of the socio spheres, political, economic, and cultural institutions and their interacting policies and actions with the goal of preventing, mitigating, or resolving violent conflict within and between societies. This violent conflict could be of any type and could involve either latent or actual violence. Presuming knowledge of the cost of violence, it focuses on the benefits of (re) constructing societies with a review toward achieving irreversible, stable peace”
From the above scholarly contributions, peace economics is a process of systematic understanding of conflict and its managerial skills from the economic perspectives by creating an equal economic opportunities and enabling environment for economic activities to take place as inequality could result to conflict.
However, the Economy of peace created by Ugwuanyi administration deals with job creation by providing jobs for the teeming youths through education for self-reliance, employment of people into the State civil service, giving business grants to the youths and women which is part of economic empowerment, assuring security of lives and properties, easy of doing business and improve in road network. This has reduced all forms of criminality in the State because the administration had engaged the age that cause social vices into more prosperous ventures.
The level of peace in the society is an indicators of the economic development of the society because no development could take place in a war-torn society. The positive nature of peace has a systematic process of sustainable peace building in the society which create optimal environment for the realization of human potentials in the society and that is what the current administration in Enugu State made possible.
Similarly, governor Ugwuanyi created economy of peace which focused on his administration gains of delivering dividends of democracy which has its deep principles in the rule of law, good governance, infrastructural development, Rural-Urban Renewal, humanitarian advancement through research development and human right advancement. The economy of peace in Enugu State creates avenue of channeling resources of the State into prosperous ventures that will prosper the State and make it economically viable. What this means is that the State since the inception of the administration has been budgeting high in areas of critical sectors of our economy which has improved the State economy through prudent management of lean resources by blocking leakages and had budgeted adequately on massive infrastructural development which have made ease of doing business possible, massive employment/political appointments, granting business loans and grants to the youths in the state, supporting businesses, re-modeling neighbourhood watch in the state, establishment of Forest Guards, empowering thousands of youths in the state through skills and vocational training which have reduced crime rate in the state.
To achieve economy of peace, the administration made the institutions of the state to be working for the general interest of ndu Enugu State. In his administration determination to advance economy of peace in the State, energy is channeled into research development through humanitarian support and development.
Various conflicts in Africa have made it impossible for the realization of economy of peace. This is because of the numerous challenges African countries are facing resulting from bad governance, unemployment, lack of human capital development and religious extremism thus led to terrorism.
Purposeful leadership will end protracted crisis bedeviling the continent especially in Nigeria. This could be possible through systematic approach of institutional reforms at all levels of government, functional judicial system, enabling laws that will rekindle the spirit of oneness in Africa via Nigeria, education for self-reliance, creating employment opportunities and implementation of the tenets of Religion is Dead Theory of Peacebuilding.
This will give the army of the unemployed youths the veritable ground to thrive in their various fields of human endeavours. Government at all levels should start up a life support programmes for the youth over a certain period of time to produce more entrepreneurs who will help in repositioning the economy of Africa and Nigeria in particular as Ugwuanyi is doing in Enugu State through Enugu State SMEs and State Ministry of Youths and Sports. Thd administration has continued to place more emphasis on human capital development which is the indices that spice development in other critical areas of our economy through the establishment of Technical and Vocational Training Schools across the State. This legacy of the current administration will yield a tremendous results in couple of years.
Governor Ugwuanyi has consolidated on capacity building programmes for the youths in Enugu State through various foral and this has restored the long aged education of the black man which EDUCATION FOR SELF RELIANCE. The current administration has inculcated state consciousness in the lives of the people hence it has eradicated sectional identities and sentiments and all political zones are harmonizing their various interes.
It is my sincere wish that Governor Ugwuanyi is given the opportunity by our great Party to emerged as party flagbearer come 2023 to replicate the political peace economy he enthroned in Enugu State to Nigeria as a well.
BIBIAN ANEKWE NEWS ADDED..“As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.”
Written by
JUDE CHIJIOKE ACHU
MEDIA TEAM MEMBER OF ENUGU DI N’AKACHUKWU MOVEMENT
