A Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Comrade Edwin Uhara has congratulated the Nigerian Ambassador-Designate to Greece and immediate past Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency, Rt. Hon. (Dr) Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi (CON) on the occasion of his 62nd birthday anniversary.
In a statement released to newsmen in Enugu on Friday, the party stalwart said, Ambassador Ugwuanyi widely known as Gburugburu is a charismatic politician by disposition and a diplomat by calling.
Noting that, as Governor in Enugu, he promoted integrated developments across the state with special focus on opening up rural communities with construction of virgin roads in areas once forgotten by previous administrations.
Citing the Amuri/Agbani road project abandoned by successive administrations for more than 16 years, Uhara stressed that Ugwuanyi not only completed the project but ensured that all the 260 electoral wards in the state got facelifts both in the area of youth empowerment, rural electrification, healthcare–infrastructure, education, access to the information superhighway – ICT among others.
Uhara added that even with the double assaults of the economic meltdown and COVID-19 pandemic on the state, Ugwuanyi with his grace of ‘Midas Touch’ and economic ingenuity was able to turn the economic fortunes of the state around without borrowing a dime from anywhere or mortgaging the future of the state.
He further added that one remarkable fact that Ndi-Enugu will continue to appreciate Ugwuanyi in years to come was his extraordinary ability to ensure that Enugu State was added on the list of oil producing states in December, 2022 by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) as a result of crude oil discovery in the Anambra River Basin 1, 2 and 3 field.
Based on that singular feat, arrangements are now in top gear for the state to start receiving it’s share of the 13 percent derivation formula.
This is what visionary leadership could bring to a state rich in history but whose citizenry were conditioned to live in the memory of the past.
Even as governor on the PDP platform then, Ugwuanyi ran his government on progressive ideologies, leaving no one behind irrespective of party affiliations.
I remember during his re-election bid in 2019, the then governorship candidate of APC in the state, Senator Ayogu Eze was making strong case in Abuja that the then Commissioner of Police and Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state be transferred to other states some days to the election but as a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in the Directorate of Security and Intelligence, I was part of the crack team sent to the state for a covert operation.
On getting to the state, I noticed that Ugwuanyi was extremely popular that even the state chapter of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) and the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) had already endorsed him.
So, I filed a report back to Abuja telling them the truth. I told them that even if the Resident Electoral Commissioner and the Commissioner of Police were transfered, Ugwuanyi will still win his re-election because all the civil society organizations, market women and even religious bodies were fully supporting his re-election bid.
In the end, a status quo was maintained and election was conducted which the ex-governor won convincingly.
Ugwuanyi scored 449,935 votes representing 95.54 percent of the valid votes cast while Ayogu Eze scored 10,423 votes representing 2.21 percent of the valid votes.
This is a political success which no first term governor going for a second term ever achieved in the history of Enugu State politics.
Accordingly, before he left office, Enugu State was rated as one of the most peaceful states in the country because of his level-headed approach to security matters.
Undoubtedly, these are the intangible assets and qualities Ambassador Ugwuanyi would be exporting on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the Hellenic Republic of Greece, where democracy originated from.
Therefore, on behalf of the political family of Ambassador Ugwuanyi, I am saying happy birthday to our own Socrates– the Philosopher King.
Signed:
Comrade Edwin Uhara,
Former Member, APC Presidential Campaign Council and former National President of Young Nigerians for Change.
𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗔𝘀 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽!
