On October 13, 2022, Peter Mbah and Ifeanyi Ossai presented their manifesto to the good people of Enugu State. Some of the Thomases among us declared the manifesto baggy, outlandish and unachievable. Some threw their heads back and laughed and dismissed the manifesto as high-falutin political posturing. Those sniggers were expected though, afterall our sense of expectation has been benumbed by repeated disappointments from politicians, who would inundate us with promises during campaign and swagger away from us once in office.
But since the inception of the present Government of Enugu State on May 29, 2023, Peter Mbah and Ifeanyi Ossai have left no one in doubt that new Sheriffs are in town. The level of hard work the Governor and the Deputy Governor are demonstrating is unprecedented in our political history. The passion for work is extraordinary; there is this frenzy to deliver. Interestingly, and thankfully too, all the flurry of activities of the Administration centre on how to engender a turn-around in the economic conditions of the long-suffering people of our State.
As many of us may well know, Ogurugu River in Uzo-uwani LGA has been on the radar dating back to the colonial days. At one point, the military also added a jetty as a prelude to a naval base, but it all fizzled away because of lack of commitment. With Mbah and Ossai, Ogurugu has gained a new traction in the development trajectory of the state.
On August 28, 2023, Ifeanyi Ossai, the Deputy Governor of Enugu State, led the Nigerian Navy to Ogurugu for a boat tour of the river. With a life jacket strapped on and flanked by high-ranking navy men, Barr. Ossai led the way, gauging the depth and the overall vessel-readiness of the river. The verdict was positive: the river is deep and wide enough to support vessel transport. The excitement in the community was palpable. It was the first time some of us were seeing the undulating beauty of the legendary Ogurugu River. It shimmered in mid-day sun draped in leafy apparel, a kaleidoscope of greenery, resonating history and age.
Make no mistake about it, the gains that will accrue from the project transcends the immediate community of Ogurugu or Uzo-uwani for that matter. It is for Enugu State, indeed for Nigeria. For one, it will mark the first solid presence of the Federal Government of Nigeria in Nsukka senatorial zone. What is more, it is a ‘multi-pronged attack on insecurity, poverty and unemployment’, says a community elder.
With a naval camp at Ogurugu, the era of cross-border raid, kidnapping and wanton killings in Uzo-uwani has ended. Ogurugu River is the gate-way to Anambra in the East and Kogi and Benue in the North, but has been misappropriated by criminals to unleash terror on the LGA. The naval base will zero out criminalities in that axis.
What is more, Uzo-uwani community are like people, who live on the river bank, yet bathe with spittle simply because the agro-allied as well as fossil-fuel potentialities of the LGA are practically un-harnessed. Since Enugu State Government has designated Uzo-uwani an agro-allied processing zone, the waterways will provide cheap transport for agricultural products from the LGA. Gratefully too, barges from Lagos are already berthing in River Niger at Onitsha. The Ogurugu waterways will be a melting-pot through which goods flooding in from Apapa Sea-port will locomote around various states of the South-east as well as provide transit to neighbouring states in the North.
Moreover, oil exploration in Uzo-uwani will not only solidify Enugu as an oil producing State with the attendant 13% derivation, but will also attract infrastructures to the state. At the moment, world-class naval hospitals, schools etc. are in the offing. These are just a tip of the ice-berg, in terms of the infrastructures that are about to be born in the LGA.
We all should be grateful to Enugu State Government for this initiative, and to Ifeanyi Ossai for leading the charge.
#Tomorrowishere.
God bless Enugu State!
Dr Hyginus Eze
