‘Uzodinma too busy to witch-hunt anybody’

As the administration of Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State clocked hundred days in office at the weekend, Simon Ebegbulem, the Commissioner for Special Projects, in this interview with ‘Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, reviewed the administration of his boss, and declared that Uzodinma’s government is in a hurry to change the fortunes of the state positively. Ebegbulem also spoke on the several allegations and counter allegations trailing the recent decision of the State Government to probe some transactions done by the previous administration saying “the fraudulent actions perpetrated by the Ihedioha-led administration in the misappropriation of N19.63 billion Local Government Funds and the fraud discovered in the payment of salaries of local and state government workers in the state, will shock any honest person.” Excerpts

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State is saying this APC administration has nothing to show in hundred days, what is your take on that?

For the 100 days, we are presenting a lot for the people of Imo State, some of them you may not see just yet but in the next couple of months, Imo people will appreciate what we have been able to do. The truth is that this administration does not believe in making so much noise even though the PDP has chosen to malign and blackmail this administration after the failed, sacked and fraudulent leadership of Emeka Ihedioha.

From what Imo people have seen recently, he is not who they claimed he is. It is obvious that that administration was a fraud and that is what Uzodinma is correcting. Talking about hundred days in office, Senator Hope Uzodinma is a man coming with a lot of knowledge to better the lives of Imo people. He prepared for this job. He is not a greedy man and he is not a man that engages in primitive acquisition of wealth.

When he took over the mantle of leadership of Imo State as governor, being an astute lawmaker, he believes that a suitable society is governed by law, and by making good laws you can economically revive the state and guarantee the security of lives and properties. Especially as he met an empty purse coupled with high level of indiscipline and lawlessness in the state. So, he signed into law the Criminal Justice Administration Bill. This, among other things, will aid justice for Imo people as well as guarantee the security of the citizens.

He also signed into law the amendment of the Imo State Revenue Administration law 2020. This law is geared towards generating revenue and boosting the internally generated revenue of the state as this will help to revamp the economy of the state. This is just to mention but a few of the laws the governor has assented to that will form the success story of his administration.

A lot of concerns have been expressed over the state of the civil service in Imo State. What is the governor doing about this?

He is equally strengthening the civil service towards making them more proficient. In doing so the Permanent Secretaries of the various ministries that have been abandoned recently got vehicles he bought for them for their official duties. The governor did this because he wants them to be more productive and proficient in their duties. Sadly, these people have no official vehicles when he came in and the governor was not happy about that. Consequently, he decided to change the narratives.

Salaries and pensions are being paid and our Imo workers are happy for it. And our fathers and mothers have been jubilating because the governor has shown commitment to meeting their needs and he has vowed not to neglect the senior citizens. You remember the pensioners had a meeting with the governor, and they expressed their gratitude to him for paying attention to their needs. You find a situation whereby these people were abandoned for long. The previous administrations never cared about them and their welfare.

Ihedioha’s administration was more interested in thinking about themselves and purchasing expensive cars and forgetting the civil servants. It affected our state negatively but is being corrected today. Again what the government is doing now that is very important is the cleaning of the rot we discovered both in the state and local governments where they padded names of workers. This has been happening over the years. We believed politicians connived with some bad eggs in the civil service to perpetrate this evil.  You see a situation where billions of naira criminally goes into the pocket of individuals.

Kindly shed more light on this your allegation of padded names of workers.

Because the governor wants to pay salaries as at when due and equally provide the dividends of democracy that he promised Imo people, the governor decided to look into the books, and now found out several shady deals in the payment of workers in the state. You have a situation whereby one person was earning salaries in different banks with one name. The same thing applies at the local government areas where one person will be receiving salaries from two or three local government areas.

We found out that the wage bill of local government areas have increased astronomically when there was ban on employment by the previous administrations and people are retiring, still the wage bill is going up. This is because people are padding names and the previous administrations were paying lip service to them. Of course, these criminalities would not have succeeded without the connivance of some top government officials. Obviously, they were part of the deal.

For instance, in Ihitte/Uboma, a rural local government, you see a situation where the salary wage bill of Ihitte/Uboma is N58 million while that of Owerri Municipal in the state capital is less than N25 million monthly. They ran a cartel. They succeeded in perpetrating these padding by going to rural local government areas so they know they will not be detected. They believe that they may not be caught. Now, they have been finding it very difficult because we have a governor, who has zero tolerance for corruption.

Are you sure of your claims that the leadership of the last administration was quite aware of these shady deals?

We heard that the previous administration was aware but lack the political will to clean up this fraud from the system.  This kind of fraud cannot continue and you say you want to develop the state. It is difficult for the state to achieve the desired development with this monumental fraud in the civil service and in the management of the local governments. And I can tell you that Governor Uzodinma is equal to the task because he is in a hurry to work for Ndi Imo.

What exactly did Governor Hope Uzodinma do when he discovered these anomalies?

Of course he was shocked that these things were happening under any Chief Executive without check. However, the governor set up a committee and they are now going round to ascertain the authentic list of the number of workers at the state and local government areas. But as you know, the PDP is always blackmailing and telling lies against this administration. They will not fail to fight back with their corrupt allies in the civil service. But this administration is determined to do the right thing for the people of the state

So far with the ongoing clean up in the civil service system, how much has the government saved?

With what has been discovered so far, at the state level, the state government will be saving about N750 million monthly. By the time it is concluded, you can imagine what will be saved. These monies will be channeled towards the development of the state, pensions will be paid and workers receive their salaries and also this will improve the welfare of Imo State workers and make them number one in Nigeria. Our governor believes that it will be difficult to get the best out of the civil service unless the workers are happy. The governor intends to come up with other civil service reforms whereby the workers will be proud for the job they are doing.

The governor wants the permanent secretaries to be more productive and focused so as to assist genuinely in moving the state forward. The workers have complained bitterly that they have been working under a very bad atmosphere. The buildings are dilapidated and there is even no furniture.  The roofs have been licking and rain has damaged some of their documents. Now this government has started a complete renovation of the building. The bottom line is to make sure that they are very comfortable. The governor wants to do these at all levels.

What do you make of the reviving of Imo Ada Palm by this government?

You know that Ada Palm is one of the biggest assets of Imo State that has been there and abandoned. It is unfortunate that previous administrations have failed to exploit the potentials of Ada Palm. I want you to know that Governor Hope Uzodinma has come with a different style in governance. We are looking at reviving the moribund industries, one of which is the Ada Palm which you can see work is going on there daily. We want these industries when resuscitated, can help to create employment for the youths of Imo State. Governor Uzodinma will surpass the records of late Sam Mbakwe and he started very well just in hundred days.

Investors are also coming. It is just this covid-19 that is actually slowing down a lot of things. A lot of investors are scrambling and willing to come and invest in Imo State since the emergence of Senator Uzodinma as governor of Imo State. They are coming to invest in agriculture, electricity, ceramics, even in the area of shoe making. The whole idea is to make Owerri an economic hub of the Southeast region. We want to change this old narrative that Owerri is a civil service state. Governor Uzodinma intends to tap all the potentials in the state and turn them into wealth.

The continuity in governance policy of Uzodinma has also been attacked by some critics. Does it mean he does not have any project to introduce as the opposition party, PDP, alleged?

This government has said that it does not want to play with the lives of Imo people. We are focused on what we want to achieve and will not succumb to the blackmail and lies. When this government came in, our governor did say that any good initiative of the Ihedioha administration, he will continue. The road projects he started, Uzodinma urged the contractors to continue the job but we found that most of them bolted away with tax payers’ money on the advice of the former administration and abandoned the projects. But we will get them to account for the tax players’ money

To those speaking ill of this administration, they should learn to be sincere to themselves and think of Imo people and not their selfish interest. Uzodinma is a sincere and godly governor. When the people are smiling, he smiles; when they are lamenting, he laments. He wants to do everything to better the lives of the people of Imo state and the PDP and their cohorts cannot stop him with their persistent blackmail. And I can tell you that in one hundred days, Uzodinma has achieved what Ihedioha failed to achieve in seven months.