By Gab Ndu Okpalaeze
A time was in Anambra state when Dr Chris Ngige was governor, and many would agree, the man ruled with ‘ all eyes on the ball ‘.
Even though he used to say that God gave him two eyes in the front to be forward- looking, one could almost swear that he also had more than two other eyes at the back with which he detected eye- service job performance, dubious contractors and other such groups that made governance a business as usual.He devised ingenious means of holding everybody accountable for the time and material resources of Anambra.
I do not know how that administration did it, but I can tell of the effect their ‘ policing ‘ role had on the workforce and indeed any other person that had business with the state.
My landlord’s wife was a teacher in one of the secondary schools in Onitsha, then. She used to leave for work around 7am. Any day she happened to still be around by a quarter past seven in the morning, you would witness the effect. From the last floor of their three storey building, you would hear her running down the stairs. She would be shouting the names of tenants whose vehicles were parked behind hers to come remove them. ” Chei !, Oga Gab oo, Oga Ebele, Eddie oo, biko biko, gbaanu oso ooo, Ngige egbukwaanu m tata”.
This fear of being found wanting during regular checks by Ngige and his government officials was general among the people, be they civil servants, teachers or students, and it made things fall in line.
Now, fast forward to Friday, 23rd of February, 2024, when I had a morning hours’ appointment at my village, that made me leave Awka around seven O’clock.
By 7.15am, I had already passed Oyeagu Abagana, veering off into Nnamdi Azikiwe Secondary School, NASA Abagana- Eziowelle route.
I was pleasantly surprised to see students hurrying to get to their schools, even at a time one would ordinarily consider early enough. Obviously believing that the quick steps were not helping them enough you would see them frequently break into a run. This scenario repeated it self along Umunachi, Eziowelle, Abatete route.
By the time I passed Uke, Ideani, Nnobi and to Nnokwa, around half past seven, pupils and students were no longer on the streets, but already seated in their various schools for the day’s academic activities. What a wonder!
My findings later showed that Prof Nkechi Ikediugwu and Dr Vera Nwadinobi, who are managing schools for the Soludo administration are always on unscheduled checks to the schools. The result is the return of discipline, zeal for learning and good academic culture.
The routine checks and other measures put in place, as contained in the blueprint on education under this government strikes a chord with the Ngige era.
Again, Soludo’s unscheduled visit to project sites at Okpoko, where he, there and then, terminated contracts awarded to a firm that has been foot dragging for nearly two years now, is another good reminder of the bumper to bumper marking of contractors that characterized the administration of Ngige. Both administrations typically avoided red carpet receptions during project inspections.
It does not yield good results when government schedules an inspection visit to sites, with elaborate ceremonies. Such gives some phoney and funny contractors room to hire and deploy heavy duty equipment to venue of the charade of an inspection, just to hood wink whoever that is inspecting. They also have chance to articulate enough reasons to present for the obvious delay on job execution. Some even on their own invite stake holders who have the listening ears of the governor or president, in case of extreme provocation that warrants outright termination of contracts. Or do we even talk of dances and fun fares lined up for the inspection visit, which majorly aim at eating up the time and opportunity for real eye marking by the governor?
It is on this basis that the recent unannounced project inspection by Soludo is welcome by Ndi Anambra. The people of the Igbo heartland expect even more of such impromptu visits to other sites, as they are directly related to prompt and quality delivery of jobs.
The state’s helmsman should not tarry once he lifts up the sickle till harvest is done. Nobody or group should be allowed to delay even for a minute what the government has for its people, as they hunger and thirst for development.#