I watched Channels TV news on the meeting between Bill Gates, VP Kashim Shettima and some state government representatives. I listened to the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State speak and her speech provoked this article. There is no need emphasising on the speech, rather it will be better to address the issues of importance to the State.
Gov. Francis Ogbonnia Nwifuru appears to be moving in the right direction. His appointments appeared inclusive of all the parts of the state. His announcement of recruiting Health professionals is commendable because the campaigner of #Makeourhospitalwork, Dr Laz Ude Eze, has been raising concerns about the poor state of primary healthcare in Ebonyi State throughout Gov Umahi’s regime. The second sector that the Governor needs to address as a matter of urgency is the education sector. The research conducted by Onicha Education Foundation (OEF) titled “Mapping of Educational Resources in Primary and Secondary Schools in Onicha Community” showed that Primary and Secondary education sectors are in a very bad shape and should raise serious concerns to the government.
The findings which ranges from lack of teachers for some critical subjects, to lack of electricity to facilitate STEM education, no toilets in some schools, no teaching resources, etc suggested that the state of the Primary and Secondary Schools in the State needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency in a very structured manner. Full research report which may inferentially reflect the state of the Schools across other communities in Ebonyi State is available to anyone if s(he) requests at chukwumao@oef.org.ng.
Like I stated earlier, Mrs Patricia Obila, the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State tried her best to convey the needs of the state at the meeting; but asking Bill Gates to invest in Ebonyi State will not persuade him to do so. There is a language such people and multilateral institutions speak and the government needs to know. Ebonyi State needs to be more strategic and I will suggest “the how” in a bit. I quite understand that the Government is yet to settle down but there is a need to get it right the first time when governance starts in earnest. There must be a grand design of how the economic development of the state would evolve in the coming years.
Perhaps, it is necessary to preface my suggestion to the state with a highlight of the strategic achievements of past Governors so that my recommendation can be appreciated within a historical context of the State.
Within the return of democracy in Nigeria, Ebonyi State has made significant progress due to the strategic contributions of the previous governments. Governor Sam Omiyi Egwu strategically positioned education in Ebonyi State on a sustainable path. He established Ebonyi State University Abakaliki and invested in free access to Secondary School education, including paying for WAEC and NECO fees. This is still contributing to human capital development of Ebonyians who are making contributions to humanity within and outside Nigeria.
Governor Martin Elechi focused on Sustainable Development planning for the State. He had a big picture of positioning the State to start evolving towards a modern state. He established the Centenary city, interpretational market, connected all parts of the state through unity bridges, awarded overseas scholarship opportunities to build capacity of Ebonyians, repositioned education and employed degree holders to teach at schools to engender quality education and other efforts such as industrialisation and water reticulation project. He also refurbished general hospitals. Governor Elechi strategically advanced the state holistically because he used Millennium Development Goals (MDG) framework. This means that he did not abandon any facet of the state development completely.
Governor David Umahi stragically advanced infrastructural development in the State and he left landmark projects in the state. Of strategic importance are the networked roads and a more cosmopolitan state capital. Although David Umahi University and the International Airport have been handed over to the Federal Government, they remain contributions of former Gov. Umahi as they remain within the catchment area of Ebonyians. The downside of Umahi’s state development strategy was that he did not pay attention to education and healthcare which are very fundamental to sustainable development. Thus, he did well in infrastructure but from systems perspective, there were suboptimal performances in some human capacity development index.
With the contributions of the previous governments at the back of our mind, what strategic contributions should the government of Governor Nwifuru seek to make to Ebonyi State development at the end of his regime? My advice would be to adopt United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework which was the continuation of the MDG implemented by the administration of Chief Elechi. The SDG framework is a comprehensive development framework but it will end in 2030 as it has been running since 2015. There is still 7 years to go! Having a robust development framework such as SDG framework is a sure compass to a holistic development similar to the development philosophy of Chief Elechi. Do not get me wrong, Gov Umahi did his best but his strategy is not reproducible or repeatable which then casts shadow of unsustainability on his approach. What I am discussing here is similar to what President Bola Tinubu did in Lagos or what HE Peter Obi did in Anambra State – having a clear development roadmap for the next 50 years that subsequent governments can build upon towards a sustainable State.
This article was not intended to be critical but the government of Governor Nwifuru should not adopt the development approach of Governor Umahi or it may have nothing to right home about. Governor Umahi leveraged his professional engineering background, his creativity, business orientation and his influence on former President Muhammad Buhari to excel on his isolated development strategy. During the commissioning of the Airport, Governor Nwifuru acknowledged that former Governor Umahi left a big shoe for him to step into. I agree with him if he is going to outperform him on the basis of infrastructural development. By the way, Governor Nwifuru may not have such influence on President Bola Tinubu that his predecessor had on former President Buhari and the better approach is to adopt a self-propelled development and governance model instead of playing a catchup. I understand the temptation of trying to continue in the footsteps of his successor but there is individual differences and uniqueness eras. Gov Nwifuru is not starting from where Dr Sam Egwu started but he is going to build on what the previous administrations have done. Governor Nwifuru will be judged based on his contributions at the end of the day and I wish him the very best.
Therefore, what Governor Nwifuru needs to do with his team is to investigate/interrogate the SDG framework as the source of his development framework/philosophy. Remember that all the achievements of HE Peter Obi in Anambra State was based on his strict implementation of MDG framework about the same time that former Governor Elechi was also implementing the framework in Ebonyi State. Nigeria is a signatory to the current SDGs but former President Buhari ran without a development framework and SDG was not accentuated.
Returning to where I started, the best way to get international funding and make deals is not through begging. It is by deploying instruments such as SDGs to show that you understand how things work at such level. Such instruments create buckets of opportunities for attracting fundings and international collaborations and grants. The SDG is the modern language of development and cooperations. Under the 17 SDGs, several issues such as hunger and poverty, education, gender equality, climate change, collaborations, etc have approaches to address them. The State needs to mainstream the SDG templates into the State development strategy. Interestingly, there are projects and evidence across the globe that have been generated on different goals that can further guide the team to craft an optimised and customised version of SDG framework for the state. Success is deliberate and cannot be achieved by chance. The adoption of such internationally recognised framework such as SDG is the epitome of intentionality in achieving sustainable development.
Ebonyi State must therefore be strategic by leveraging its factor endowments. As a non-oil producing state, the state economy must be build on a solid foundation. Interestingly, the state suddenly has a potential for a knowlege economy, which is good. Apart from Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki and Ebonyi State College of Education, Ikwo there are Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ikwo, David Umahi University Uburu and Federal College of Education (Technical), Isu. The SDG framework could provide how the state could develop a long-term plan that can further build on the contributions of the past ģoverenment to provide good governance to the state, as well as lay a foundation that subsequent governments can build upon.
I wish Governor Nwifuru God speed. I am also recommending this piece of advice to the Federal government and other state governments across Nigeria. The VP Kashim Shettima should approach national development through a comprehensive framework such as SDG. It will be easier to incentivise the states to pursue the SDGs and there will be a scientific way to measure progress.
