By Reuben Onyishi
(Ugoachataberu)
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State from the outset of his government had entrenched peace and security in Enugu State. Whoever would be his traducer(there need not be any) would agree to the fact that Ugwuanyi is unrivalled in maintenance of peace and security in the state. Right from the day he was sworn in as the governor of the state, it became clear to the people of Enugu State they could go to bed with their two eyes closed and their doors left open or unlocked and come away with it unscathed. This has been sustained for six years now.
Ugwuanyi by nature has about him this aura of peace and geniality. He exudes this ambience of placid calmness and has caused it to rob off on the state in its entirety. Ugwuanyi wears the toga of power with ethical modesty and holds the sceptre with peaceful thrust and good presence of mind. His often smiling countenance beamed via the upper and lower gap teeth accentuates his harmless disposition with every sense of equanimity and this does not detract from the bravura and dexterity with which he excellently handles governance in the state.
Ugwuanyi’s landmark achievements in peace and security are the bedrock on which rests his many achievements in other sectors. This he had right from the inception of his administration realized; that not much could be achieved in an environment ridden with rancour, violence, fear, alterations, bickering, murder, theft, robbery and many other vices that go with an atmosphere devoid of peace. As a matter of fact, all the landmark economic breakthroughs of the Ugwuanyi administration would have been of no value to the people of the state if their lives and property were not secure. Little wonder Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi thirsts for peace as the deer would pant for the water brook.
Enugu had taken a different hue in the dastardly face of the menace of unknown gun men in the South East of Nigeria. It did appear there was a touch-not on Enugu State as its peaceful mien seemed to have etched itself in the minds of the criminals and those behind the destruction of lives and public utilities as it was in the inglorious days of End-SARS protest. He who did not hear the din of Okpoko, did the elephant stamp on his eardrums? No one now exists in Nigeria who does not know that Ugwuanyi has turned Enugu State into a tranquil realm. This perhaps accounts for why security checkpoints are not as taut in Enugu as they are in other parts of the South East. The military and police checkpoints strewn at every other kilometer here and there in the South East, as though Nigeria was at war with the people of South East, handle travellers and commuters with strict security surveillance to the extent that passengers are forced to alight from their vehicles and cross the checkpoints on foot and sometimes with arms raised up in I- surrender manner. At the Enugu end, these strict observations are relaxed.
Ones you enter into Enugu State, there is this sense of a breath of fresh air that pervades the atmosphere. It is like heaving a sigh of relief from some pricking thorns of insecurity and uncertainties. You feel safe and secure. This is not by chance; it is a deliberately conscientious commitment to peace and security by the government of Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. Prior to the advent of the Ugwuanyi administration the people had known many security breaches. For the past six years, the people have luxuriated in this balm of Gilead, the balmy state of peace and security Ugwuanyi has engineered by deliberate commitment of both human and material resources in order to make for adequate peace and security in Enugu State.
The sordid development of security breach in the state few days ago that resulted in two cases of alleged assassination and the copious robbery of food items along Presidential Road, Enugu, are in contradistinction to the peaceful atmosphere that had pervaded the coal city for the past six years. Such things were unheard of in the six years of the Ugwuanyi administration. These are swords of Damocles threatening to upstage the peaceful atmosphere for which the Ugwuanyi administration is highly rated and celebrated. These dastardly security breach seemed planned to rubbish the major legacy of the administration as it is suggestive of the three ugly incidents taking place successively within one week. The manner is gorilla in act and smacks of strange criminals on hit-and-run mission. It may not be far from the fact that these acts were sponsored to give the impression Enugu was not as peaceful as it had been being portrayed and celebrated. It may even have political hue, given that some politicians have begun to heat up the polity untimely in some desperate ways. Howsoever it may be, the security aparachik will likely crack the daredevil perpetrators of these heinous crimes.
His Excellency, Rt Hon. Dr Lawrence Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi, has already demonstrated the capacity to restore the state to its peaceful state by leading the security operatives to the intelligently identified escape routes of the hydra-headed agents of vices. Those behind these acts of blood shedding and robbery by now should be in dire straits as they might have known by now they had touched the tiger by its tail. The manner Ugwuanyi swooped into action is a sure sign they have met their Waterloo. Ugwuanyi is not a man to be trifled with in security matters, for there is his special forte. Those who have touched Enugu with their infernal hands of crime have murdered sleep and shall sleep no more. What happened was a temporary setback. By Ugwuanyi’s proactive stepping into the breach, the end of these temporary crimes is come and Enugu is restored to its peaceful state.
Enugu State is surely in the hands of God.
