For a country with a life expectancy of 52, to be 60, healthy and strong is a remarkable thing, if not miraculous.
Especially when one had gone through the onerous task of leading a State of diverse people through one of the worst times in the Nation's history.
But more remarkable is the fact that in such daunting circumstances, the man of the moment, Rt. Hon. Dr. Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi was able to lead the people of Enugu State calmly, while maintaining peace and harmony and still managed to achieve many remarkable things during that period.
As he clocks 60, we decided to look back at the 60 remarkable accomplishments he had in vario
us sectors while he steered the wheels of Governance of the Coal City State ;
EDUCATION:
1. Founded and built the State University of Medicine and Applied Sciences, SUMAS
2. Brought and built the Kick off structures for Federal Polytechnic, Ohodo.
3. Built the college of Medicine Igbo-Ano
4. Built the Administrative building of the Federal Road safety Commission Academy, Udi.
5. Ensured the kick off of Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo and Enugu Campuses.
6. Established the Enugu State University of Education, Awgu. Though not completed yet.
7. Constructed over 7 new Classroom buildings and tarred the roads in Institute of Management and Technology, IMT Enugu.
8. Upgraded IMT to a degree Awarding Institution.
9. Upgraded ESCET to a standard College of Education with new departmental and Administrative buildings.
10. Built and rebuilt over 1,700 Classroom blocks for Primary and Secondary Schools across 260 Wards, through ENSUBEB.
11. Sponsored over 1000 Enugu State Indigenes to study at Foreign and local tertiary institutions through the Enugu State Scholarship Board.
12. Ensured that the tuition fees of State owned institutions remained the same throughout his tenure, despite the heavy economic downturn in the Country which saw all government and private Institutions increase their fees by almost 100%, including the Federal Government owned University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
13. Helped prevent Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT from ever being affected by ASUU Strikes.
14. Recruited over 10,000 new Primary School teachers to strengthen Primary Education in the State.
HEALTH:
15. Built the Enugu State Infectious Diseases Hospital, Colliery Avenue.
16. Built Type C Hospitals Across 9 LGAs
17. Built the Nsukka General Hospital.
18. Built the Udi General Hospital
19. Built the Agbani General Hospital.
20. Rebuilt the Poly Clinic Onuasata.
21. Rebuilt the Enugu Ezike General Hospital
22. Combated Squarely, the COVID-19 Pandemic
23. Treated thousands of citizens across 17 LGAs through the Gburus Care Initiative.
24. Still affecting hundreds of lives through the Gburugburu free Medical Surgery, headed by Dr. George Ajogwu.
25. Established Various Infectious Diseases Centres across all boarder LGAs during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE:
25. Dualized the Enugu Road-Opi-Nsukka road with World class drainage system that solved the perennial erosion and gully along the road.
26. Built the very first State-Government built flyover on state roads at Abakpa.
27. Built the Amurri Road.
28. Built the Nike road, connecting Emene to Amorji Nike to Ugwogo.
29. Built the Ndiagu Amechi road and bridge.
30. Constructed the Eha-Amufu- Neke Mbu Road and bridges.
31. Constructed the Udenu Ring road.
32. Modernized Nsukka by constructing over 10 new roads and reconstructing over 20 others with streetlights and traffic lights. Constructed the Ngwo-9th miles corner road.
33. Constructed the Nimbo Road in Uzo-Uwani to ward off Fulani Herdsmen.
34. Constructed the Uzo-Uwani bypass roads connecting all communities to the local government headquarters.
35. Constructed the Ugwuaji road in Enugu South LGA
ECONOMY:
36. The Lions business park was founded following the Oganiru Enugu Summit.
37. Tax waivers for all businesses to cushion the effects of the recession and COVID-19 Pandemic which enabled small and medium scale businesses to thrive.
38. Made Enugu to be recognized as an Oil Producing State.
39. Supported over 650 young farmers across 260 Wards with 3.5 million Naira each to go into Agriculture.
40. 50,000 grants for thousands of peasant traders in local markets to help them keep their businesses alive amidst the nationwide successive recessions.
41. Created businesses enabling and business friendly environment by cutting down on taxes, enabling peace and stability in the polity and supporting startups.
SERVICE DELIVERY:
42. Built new fire service stations across all 17 LGAs to mitigate against fire disasters.
43. Donated new State of the art fire service trucks to all fire service stations across all LGAs and to all major markets.
44. Rebuilt and remodelled the old Government Lodge and built new conference halls, tennis courts, etc
45. Donated thousands of computers to government secondary schools across all 17 LGAs.
46. Built the Unity Park, Okpara Square.
47. Built new law court houses in all the 17 LGAs
48. Built the Enugu State Customary Court of Appeal.
49. Remodelled the Enugu State House of Assembly Complex, Government House and Governors Lodge, Deputy Governor's Office, etc
SECURITY:
50. Ensured that the polity was never heated throughout his 8 year tenure, thereby maintaining peace and stability, thus making Enugu State to rank amongst top 3 most peaceful states in Nigeria.
51. Donated over 700 vehicles to the military, police and all paramilitary Agencies.
52. Created the Enugu State Forest Guards and Neighborhood Watch and equipped them with Sienna Cars, motorcycles and pump action rifles, and placed them on monthly salary.
53. Brought and built the 76 Mobile Police Squadron at Ekwegbe, Igbo-Etiti LGA.
54. Brought the Command Day Secondary School to Orba, Udenu LGA that was accompanied by heavy Military Presence.
55. Restored peace and helped rebuild Nimbo Community after the 2016 Disaster caused by Fulani Herdsmen.
OTHERS:
56. Established the Enugu Clean Team Projected to keep Enugu Clean, thereby employing over 3,000 people.
57. Brought Sanity to Enugu roads through the enactment of MOT laws and employed over 1000 MOT officials in the process.
58. Built 1,500 Housing Units for civil servants in Enugu State
59. Rejuvenated Enugu Rangers International and helped them win the NPFL title and the National League title.
60. Paid workers salaries, minimum wages, contracts etc as and when due and even paid 13th Month Salaries for some years.
Of course there are many more remarkable achievements of his, just as there are many more years of peaceful, joyful and prosperous years left for the newest sexagenarian to live.
We cannot but wish him many more awesome and prosperous years as we thank him for his selfless service to our dear State, Enugu State.
Happy Birthday Your Excellency!
