“There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.” -Booker T. Washington
To be outstanding, one must stand out amidst the crowd. The courage to stand out is what distinguishes a leader from the masses. About six years and eight months ago, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi mounted the saddle of leadership in Enugu. He had unleashed innovative wand for every minute he had spent on the seat as governor. As a matter of fact, Gov.Ugwuanyi sacrificed personal comfort that he might up with the challenges of governance and leadership. Gov.Ugwuanyi thus turned out that uncommon leader who never wanted to let those who reposed so much confidence in his leadership capabilities down. His health feeds his youthfulness, and his energetic clouts get renewed morning after morning.
Sometimes, I pity his media aids. It is not easy covering a man with multiple projects to his name. Before you could drop a report about one project, he would have commissioned a thousand other ones while still laying foundation stones for several others. Gov. Ugwuanyi belongs to the tireless generation of Phillips Brooks who established that “great men don’t pray for tasks equal to their powers, rather they pray for powers that are equal to their tasks.”
Most interestingly, if the Governor is not in Enugu East senatorial district supervising, commissioning and laying foundation stones for projects today, tomorrow he is Nsukka zone replicating another remodeled feat. In the morning, he is Enugu West, before noon he has crisscrossed the vast land between Oji River and Udi, Awgu and Aniri. He doesn’t hire television stations, he doesn’t pay flutists. His works speak for him.
As his tenure approaches the twilight of the constitutionally allowed period of office, His Excellency is finding it hard to have time for himself. His schedules are choked with outdoor duties, to attend to the people’s needs and to ensure that he leaves a clean slate.
For example; newsmen who were able to match his speed reported that within one day, last week, Gov. Ugwuanyi inspected multiple ongoing projects in Enugu.
He was at the Old Government Lodge at GRA, Enugu, recently, on inspection tour of the multiple ongoing projects being executed by his administration in keeping with its cost-saving stance in governance, and efforts at reinvigorating the leading status of Enugu as the historic capital of the South East geo-political zone of Nigeria.
The ongoing projects inspected by the governor at the Old Government Lodge include the 600-seater state-of-the-art Banquet Hall with basement offices, meeting rooms and retaining walls, among other facilities; the remodeled Old Government Lodge with a newly constructed Annex (completed); 10 units of Executive Guest Houses and 24 units of Guest Flats with a Dining Hall, for routine guests of the state government; a standard Lawn Tennis Court for physical exercise, fitted with a pavilion for spectators and lighting facilities; and landscaping works at the site, among others.
On Friday, January 21, some organised men of good will from the state went to Igbo-eno in Enugu north zone to see for themselves the much talked-about state-of-the-art teaching hospital his administration is building there. They came back with praises for the governor. The social media spaces were awash with images of the superlative job His Excellency is doing there. This is an intergenerational project.
“Mr. Project” is one title many politicians have arrogated to themselves. But it takes an outstanding governor to have it appropriated on him by the people. Governor Ugwuanyi by the reckoning of Ndi Enugu is an unapologetic Mr. Project by every standard. While other governors list prompt payment of workers’ salaries as part of achievements, Gov. Ugwuanyi had gone beyond that to give Ndi Enugu value for their electoral largesse to him in both tenure.
Like Booker Washington opined in the opening quote above, His Excellency understood that the only two ways of exerting one’s strength: is by pushing down, or pulling up. He choose to pull Enugu up, to a state of highbrow development.
Hon. Mrs Bibian Anekwe
The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on mobilization and Empowerment to Enugu State Governor
