Rt. Hon. Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu State Governor |
People have
often said that this is not the best time to be governor in Nigeria especially
in the Eastern part states that are mainly civil servants states. The present
government in Enugu State was not oblivious of these stark realities. It was
for this reason that the Enugu State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, on assumption office showed that
he wore his thinking cap by setting out a clear-cut agenda and vision on how to
govern the state with its little resources for the benefits of the people.
Knowing that his government cannot do it alone, Chief Ugwuanyi and his team in
a bid to attract foreign investors to the state recently honoured an investment
summit invitation in Dublin, Ireland.
The summit
was organised by Metro Eireann which
is run by Metro Publishing Consultancy
Limited, the primary source of news and information on Ireland’s growing
immigrant and ethnic communities. The governor’s first port of call was a visit
to the Dublin Bus, Ireland’s gigantic and very successful transport company
with a view to learning first hand, how the company is run so that Enugu
government could tinker with domesticating snippets of its success story into
the Enugu State Transport Company.
The visit also offered the governor and his team the opportunity of touring the
headquarters of Guinness in Dublin, especially in view of the fact that whereas
Heineken has about the largest of its plants in Enugu, Guinness which acquired
a large expanse of land in the state has left it unutilised in the past years.
For two days,
investors gathered at Dublin City’s Westin Hotels venue of the event to
brainstorm on investment opportunities which offered the Enugu State delegation
to Ireland the opportunity to lay bare the vast investment opportunities that
abound in the state. It also opened up a lot of vistas for Enugu government to
enter into concrete and temporary agreements on mutual cooperation in the areas
of agriculture, education, commerce and industry.
Part of such
agreements was the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Enugu State
government and the authorities of the Dublin City University Ireland to work
together to promote mutual relations between the two parties for purposes of
developing education in the state in a manner that would also offer value to
the university.
According to
the document signed at the university in the presence of Chief Ifeanyi
Ugwuanyi, ‘the Dublin City University (DCU) and the
Enugu agencies will enter into reciprocal visits relationship where the
university would have to examine opportunities to broker relationships with
funding agencies and other higher education institutes in conjunction with the
Enugu government and other parties both nationally and internationally.’
In the same
vein, the former president of Ireland, Berie
Ahern, is making moves to assist the Enugu State government in its current
drive to shore up its economy through the expansion of its revenue base by
shopping for investors and donor agencies just as scores of prospective
investors have held talks with the state governor and state government
officials who were in the European country in the past days in search of
investors.
Also in line
with the successes recorded in the series of negotiations during which Governor
Ugwuanyi led the Enugu delegation made up of top government functionaries and
leaders of the state Economic Advisory Committee, the President of the Dublin
City University, Brian MacCraith,
and other officials of the university are already billed to attend the Enugu
State Economic Summit scheduled to take place in March this year in Enugu, the
state capital.
Speaking at
the award night, Chief Ugwuanyi who featured in the internal category told the
gathering of diplomats, serving and former Irish government officials as well
as members of the Nigerian community that his 11-man delegation was in that
foreign country specifically on investment drive in view of the scary situation
in the global oil market which is currently making Nigeria’s economy become on
edge.
He also told
the gathering which was also addressed by a former Irish minister of Trade and
Development, Mr. Joe Castelo, that
he is dedicating the award to the good people of Enugu State back home whom he
described as true heroes of democracy in view of their support to his
administration in a current stoic philosophy of belt-tightening to shore up the
economy of the state.
Nigerian
Embassy’s Charge d’Affaires in Ireland, Mr.
Olusola Iginla, who witnessed the investment summit and the award night,
commended the exemplary drive of the governor and other government officials
during the three-day working visit, saying it is the needed disposition for all
political office holders in Nigeria in view of the current economic gridlock
staring the nation in the face.
In his
speech, Chairman Enugu State Economic Advisory Committee, Prof. Obiora Ike, who was also on the delegation told the gathering
that Enugu State was lucky to have Chief Ugwuanyi at the helm of affairs at
this critical period. Apart from Mr.
Terence Modebe, a Nigerian-Irish who is already working on a range of
investments on agriculture in Adani, Enugu State as well as on other economic
ventures, in the state, the Enugu delegation held very crucial talks with other
prospective investors who look good to storm Enugu shortly.
On the
delegation of the Enugu government to Ireland are three commissioners, namely
Commissioner for Education, Prof. Uche
Eze, his Commerce and Industry counterpart, Mr. Sam Ogbu Nwobodo and that of Agriculture, Mike Ene, who took samples of pineapples from Enugu’s Sna carlos
farms to Dublin for the summit as well as the governor’s Special Adviser on
Diaspora Matters, Mrs. Olangwa Ezekwu,
and Deputy Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Donatus Uzogbado, Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, Chairman of the
Economic Advisory Committee, Prof. Obiora
Ike, Chief Mrs. Lauretta Aniagolu
who is a member of the committee, Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Uwakwe Abugu, SSA to the governor
on investments, Nnamdi Chime and the
SSA for the Governor’s Office, Dubem
Onyia (Jnr)
While in
Dublin, the governor and his team were not only prudent and exemplary in words
and actions, they were focused and determined to get result. It is obvious that
it will not take long the result of the visit will start manifesting in various
sectors of the state’s economy. Surprisingly, some online bloggers have already
gone hay-wire with manipulated photographs, alleging that Governor Ugwuanyi and
his team visited Dublin for jamboree. Considering the nature of Nigerian
politics, such mudslinging and armchair criticism is expected. Chief Ugwuanyi
and his team should not be deterred or disturbed by it, likewise the foreign
investors that were billed to attend Enugu Economic Summit in March. (Source: Guardian)
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