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From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
Ebonyi State Commissioner for Capital City Development, Sunday Inyima has seen it all in terms of interpreting government’s ideas into concrete reality, having headed three different ministries in the immediate past administration. He was Commissioner for Border Peace and Conflict Resolution, Commissioner for Housing, Lands and Survey and later Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development.
In this interview, he unveiled how to build a modern city in Abakaliki metropolis, saying that the efforts will be in tandem with the city’s master plan.
Barely three months into the life of the present administration, how do you assess the challenges of developing the capital city in tune with the vision of the new government?
The capital city as the name implies is the seat of government and the capital of Ebonyi State since its creation in 1996. Before then, it had been Abakaliki, the headquarters of old Ogoja province, our development has actually been gradual from that level of province to a state capital.
You will agree with me that years back, Abakaliki used to be called “The dust of the nation,” but today, at least with the road network of concrete and asphalt by the past administration across the nooks and crannies of the state, I do not think that any sane person will call Ebonyi State – most particularly Abakaliki, the “Dust of the nation” again, rather, we will allow only the salt that we adopted as slogan to reign.
And so, that is to say that transformation has taken place and it is a continuous process from one level to another, now that the past administration particularly the administration of David Umahi had taken up the issue of roads within the urban and streetlights within the urban core; the new government will intend to virtually leverage on this benefit and upgrade the urban city in terms of beautification.
In terms of traffic control, provision of bus stops, monitoring and regulating building control within the urban city because these are the things that deface the urban city, especially now that the capital city has been extended from the usual Old Abakaliki Urban to what is now regarded as the Ring Road enclosed as conceived by Governor Jim Nwobodo.
The capital city has increased both in length and breadth and so, there is much work to be done but I give it to our governor, Rt. Hon. Francis Nwifuru, that is already doing very well in these few months of his administration; we are equal to the task and we are surely going to deliver on our mandate. Though there are challenges but we are still putting things together within these months and we are sure we are going to surmount whatever challenges before us.
We have seen a lot of damage on the existing infrastructure and facilities by the citizens themselves like the decorative streetlights at road median and sideways which are mostly lying prostrate on the ground all over, even some public structures are being vandalized on daily basis. How are you tackling this?
Well, it is just to ensure that there is a monitoring team. Of course, I was part of the last administration these past eight years, what we did then was that everybody, including Governor Umahi was part of the monitoring team and as you know, this government is an off-shoot of the past administration, that is why we still bear Divine Mandate.
What we will do is just to activate those monitoring teams and then ensure that the streetlights and other government facilities are not tampered with, regrettably, our people are such that always want to damage government facilities but I believe that when the government takes off with the monitoring teams – as it is, we have a ministry that is in charge of project monitoring and evaluation.
We also have other ministries that are in charge of these infrastructure, like the Ministry of Power, which has a monitoring team, the Ministry of Environment also has a monitoring team, another ministry that takes care of these utilities has a monitoring team that work round the clock; 2-4-7, to ensure that these facilities are not damaged by the citizens.
Specifically, how do you synergize with these allied ministries – say environment for instance to ensure that wastes are evacuated in accordance with environmental laws?
Thank you for coming up with the question and especially the phrase, “allied ministries.” We are already into the 21st century programme and when you talk about major cardinal area of 21st century programme, we are talking about programmes like “The Smart City.”
Smart City is a programme designed to bring together or galvanize every other ministry that has something to do with the capital city to ensure that everything is functioning effectively in terms of security, environment, light, works, beautification and in making sure that, even pot holes within the capital are taken care of.
So, we have actually articulated a memo which is before the governor now and we have a strategic team that is coming up with a blueprint of what we want to do in conjunction with capital city development master plan to ensure that the city of Abakaliki truly meets up with what global smart city ought to be.
The original master plan crafted by late Dr. Alex Ekwueme is still lying in the cooler till today, even the (Ochudo) Centenary City has not actually captured the true essence of that master plan to the latter in tune with that concept.
Whatever is responsible for the deviation? Is there any arrangement to revisit that masterplan?
Yes, just as I told you, we have submitted the memo to the governor, in short, we just had our inaugural Exco, subsequently, every ministry is expected to present its memo individually and in fact, this masterplan that you talked about is with me. I have studied it and I will make presentation based on it so that every development plan of this administration will be in keeping with the laid down principles, rules and programme of that masterplan.
I want to say that the past administration did not totally deviate from it, the only thing you may say is that some of the concepts were not actually translated but moving the seat of government to the centenary city is still part of what you have in that masterplan and so many other things.
In fact, the past administration complied with it up to 80 percent; moving all motor parks to a central park now is part of the programme of the masterplan even artisans. I was in the past administration, so, the artisans like the welders and the carpenters, they now have a place around Ishieke where they are supposed to have moved to, we will now look into it and know why they have not moved
Is there any structure for the people before their relocation?
I am not sure that there is but I remember that when I was in the ministry of lands, as a commissioner, we had a programme with them that they even said they wanted to start building and owning the place on builder-occupier basis, those are the things we shall look into.
