From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
Ebonyi State Commissioner for Market Development and Parks, Professor Nwogo Obasi in this interview, speaks on his ministry’s programmes, efforts at boosting the state’s internally generated revenue and ridding Margaret Umahi International Market of criminality and all forms of illegalities.
How are you coping in your new office?
I am coping very well because my employer and boss, the Executive Governor of Ebonyi State, Rt. Hon Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru has given us all it takes to work without influence; he allows everyone to do his work as expected of him, he will critically examine every situation and tell what should be done to touch the lives of his people.
For the fact that he has given us free hand to operate and run the ministries without undue interference, actually, I am doing well to complement his efforts through my office.
What was the ministry like before your assumption of office and what’s the situation now?
Government work is continuity, it is like a relay race where one starts somewhere and ends somewhere; the office is relatively a new ministry and based on that, most of the government businesses were done through the committees headed by the Office of the Secretary to the State Government.
They tried their bit in ensuring that the ministry moves forward and upon my emergence, I collected the baton and I will do my best to ensure that the desires of Ebonyi people which the governor has summarized in his Charter of Needs is met, this is why I have made up my mind to run an open-door policy.
So, on assumption of office, I was met with the different stakeholders and the market associations. I gave out my phone numbers directly to them so that they can contact me easily in any situation that is not going well. When they get to a point that they do not understand, they should place a call directly to me and make their complaints because I have come to serve them not the structure called the office.
And the strategy has made the work easy because all those deceits that some people are using to brainwash the public have been curtailed. I also assured them that I will be responding to their WhatsApp messages within 24 hours and I have been keeping to the promises.
It has solved many issues relating to multiple revenues, encumbered shops where one shop was sold to two or three persons and with the Committee on Market Operations that I set up, we have been able to resolve many issues.
Having spent over 100 days in office, may we know your achievements so far?
Administratively, we have done a lot of things through the effort of the governor because he has already positioned a lot of things; in the market, we have been able to reorganize structurally by allocating shops to those that had encumbered shops where two or three persons are struggling for one shop, we have resolved them.
Those having court cases, we have been able to resolve a good number of them, we have reduced a lot of criminalities, multiple collection of revenues and a lot of them even though they spring regularly because of the economic situations in the country.
Did you permit transport company owners operating outside the Central Park?
Concerning the parks, some of those things that the past government tried to enforce have started resurging where some vehicle owners began to form illicit parks, we have set up a committee going round to ensure that Abakaliki Town is tidy and smart as the state capital ought to be.
Pertaining to petty trading both in the International Market and other parts of the town, I have personally visited some places as Gunning Road, Nkaliki and other places so that they would free walk-ways.
I have personally led a team to all the points where there are illegal sales as Gunning Road, Akanu Ibiam Flyover down to Vanco Junction, Nkaliki Road Junction, Kpirikpiri Market to Ebebe Junction and Hill Top Road and informed the people on how to reorganize those places.
We believe in democracy, we have been making radio announcements via the EBBC telling the people to go to the places allocated to them by the government; it should not be until we come with police or other law enforcement agencies before they will comply with directives.
We are re-strategizing, informing them on the need and the people at Eke-Aba have relocated and entered inside the market because our last option will be the use of force and establishment of mobile courts for us to achieve what we want.
We are giving them time to adjust so that we can get it right instead of threatening the people; the governor has instructed us to work and demonstrate that we have the capacity to deliver on our mandate.
There was this idea of relocating furniture makers in Abakaliki; what’s the position now?
They are not the only people though we have been meeting with them but the furniture makers are currently trying to re-organize themselves to conduct their election and have leadership; the government has given instructions and its officials are enforcing it though Rome was not built in a day.
As I earlier said that we are working together and the people are telling us the areas that they need help, our approach is not a cat and dog issue; we do not want to militarize the system but I believe that with time, they will definitely move.
Lot 3 gate by phone village of the market has become a haven for some miscreants who indulge in all forms of thievery, gambling and broad day robbery and the government is not doing anything, are you not bothered about the situation?
Some of those things do not happen inside the market, rather they take place within the surroundings just as it was speculated sometime ago that someone was shot dead at Lot 3 of the market; it was not true because it was later discovered that the man was shot by his gang members who trailed him to the place.
I am not saying that the market is crime-free but we are making effort to reduce them or remove them completely from the market, we have introduced the security operatives as police, NSCDC and Neighbourhood Watch.
Special Assistant to the Governor on Internal Security in Abakaliki LGA is doing his best because I know the number of times that he had made arrest in the area, the criminals can monitor and perpetrate their evil act but the government is doing something about it.
The Commissioner of Police, Ebonyi State Police Command is also doing wonderfully well in terms of security in the state, her responses are always very prompt.
What about the drainage system that cut across the market, are rails not necessary for the structures?
The market is being developed and the governor is working assiduously to ensure that the remaining things are put in place; currently we are doing verification and validation of shops and once we are okay with that and provide him with a comprehensive report, he will do the remaining things. He has inspected the chicken section of the market and discovered how the place is usually flooded; there is a serious arrangement for government to come and give the place a facelift.
What do you say about the alleged multiple revenues that petty traders mostly the hawkers complain about?
There are eight revenue points in the market and not all the petty traders are involved; of course you know that our ministry does not collect revenue rather we are the people monitoring the implementations of the policies concerning the revenues.
The revenue points are given by Ebonyi State Internal Revenue Services, thus what we do is to monitor only and whenever we get any complaint, we usually deploy a committee known as Operation Show Your Authority to find out what is happening; we have found some illegalities and made some arrests, our effort is to streamline all the revenue points.
With the measure, those who are enforcing revenues without authority can easily be captured and I am sure that such menace will stop very soon. I am appealing to the business men and women to always comply with the payment of valid revenues because they are government sources of income generation and invariably the money is usually used for their benefits.
One can see the bold step taken by the governor by removing almost N4b for the payment of arrears of gratuities from 1996 to 2021, increment of the workers’ salaries which has not been done for sometimes and the number of roads which he has done within the first 100 days.
This is just to give an insight of what is happening in the market, all these are done with the revenues and on that reason, the people need to support the government by paying their revenues promptly, thus we do not want someone to deceive the public with illegal fees and we are doing everything necessary within our reach to stop criminalities in the market.