EXCERPT: David Nweze Umahi's 6th Year Anniversary Speech

It is my pleasure to announce that we are six years in Office as the third administration in Ebonyi State and we are deeply very grateful to God almighty for giving us the grace to navigate the affairs of the State. These six years have been quite challenging, I don’t know whether we have had two or three recessions, we have all kinds of disturbances, the devaluation of the naira, turbulent economy but in all these things, God has been very very faithful to us, where people felt we have excelled and each time we met challenges, God has never left us, so we are deeply grateful to God almighty. We thank our founding fathers, those who are alive and those who have departed, without which, we will not be celebrating this sixth anniversary.

I will say that the journey so far is a journey of grace, a journey of mercy, a journey of miracles. I can beat my chest with gratitude to God almighty to say that the dreams of our founding fathers have been substantially realized. We may not give our scorecard, we do that from November when we will roll out drums to celebrate, my preoccupation now is how to secure Ebonyi State and to ensure that Ebonyi State does not go back to slavery, so we are postponing our anniversary celebration to November.

Significant among the things that we have done is the new University of Medical Sciences in Ohaozara which has been signed into law, passed by the House of Assembly, and by this, we are highly grateful to God, this University is not going to be cheap, it is going to be a very high profile University that can compete favorably with any University in the world, and we are projecting that the total income from this University at the end of the first two years will be about the average of 30 billion per annum, and so, this University will be able to sustain itself and sustain other higher Institutions in the State.

Finishing touches are going on now at the University and we are also trudging very highly at the International Airport. Some of our brothers in the South East have argued why Ebonyi State should have an international airport and that is the mind of those who don’t love us, they want us to go into second slavery but this has become the Nazareth not just of the South East but of the entire Country. Who is he that speaketh when God has not spoken and God has spoken that this is the Nazareth of this Nation and no man can stop it, and funny enough we are going to have the longest and widest tarmac in this Country, we are pushing ahead.

The dualization of Abakaliki to Enugu and Abakaliki to Afikpo is also on the advanced stage and these two projects we intend to complete before we bow out of office. The moment you enter Ebonyi State from any part of other States, you have dualized roads and you have light and this is important to us.

We have successfully completed phase one of the processes of the famous Abakaliki Ring road and we must first thank His Excellency, Jim Nwobodo who first articulated this and constructed the road, though on earth because of paucity of fund at that time and of course Chief Martin Elechi who also worked assiduously in the maintenance of the road, today, the entire road is gone but by the grace of God and the assistance of Mr President which has liberated Ebonyi State and put us in an irreversible gear that we will never go back to second slavery, so we are happy for this ring road, it is a total of 199 kilometers, Ebonyi State Government has constructed part of that as 25% required equity and so the phase one has started because we have signed the contract, and we are grateful to God for this project. When we finish it, Abakaliki Zone in particular and Ebonyi State, in general, will never remain the same.

I have flagged off the intervention projects totaling about 10km in Ozzizza and Mater roads, Oriuzo to the Airport road and Mgbo to Okwo market road, these are promises made in the campaign of 2015, it is not an easy thing, it is not convenient for us but through God’s mercies and grace, we must keep our promises, this we must do.

The mall which is the beauty of the State is in its completion in the next two months and it is a beauty to behold and we are proud to have a mall like that, it is a microcosm of the macrocosm of Dubai mall and no one can contest that.

Our flyovers are going on, the average construction period of our flyovers with grade 40 concrete remains 9 to 12 months. The two last flyovers we shall be doing is one in Afikpo and one by Ogbe Hausa junction and all the ongoing projects and the Edda flyover are all on the verge of completion, that Edda flyover that defied the courage of many men is 70% done and we will finish it before the end of this year and we will deploy it.

We have a population of about 4 million and both the elected and appointed is about 4000 which is about 1% of the population, so if anybody believes that I am Governor just to take care of these 4000 people, you are just wasting your time, because if I don’t build hospitals, if I don’t build roads, if I don’t build schools, then we are wasting our time, the education of our people, the welfare of our people is also very important, and remember we have over 30000 Civil Servants, we also have to look after of them, so for those who have the benefit of having brand new vehicles, Jeeps, having lands allocated to them at the Centenary City, having salaries every month, having one form of favor or the other and they are complaining, let those who have sympathy for opposition be able to join opposition but we have 3000 businesses waiting for Ebonyians.

We have approved that we are going to employ 3000 civil servants, 3000 SMEs that is also there and the employment that will happen at the International Airport, we are advertising for it, the College of Medicine, the mall, in the International market and of course in the ring road, so if you are not good in politics you will be good in business, if you are not good in business, you will be good in Civil Service job, the dissolution is a win-win for Ebonyi State so that you don’t do two things at the same time.

And to announce that the supplementary appropriation bill has been passed by the House of Assembly and signed into law, and to announce that Public procurement bill has been signed into law, the amended law of Ebonyi State University. I want to vow that I am going to reposition the University before I bow out, I will put that University in an International standard, I have started with the solar lights and generators and water there, in all the campuses of Ebonyi State University and tertiary institutions in the State, we have light twenty-four hours and water twenty-four hours, we have started internal concrete roads for EBSU and we will not stop until we conclude all the Internal roads, after that, we go into sporting activities and we do visitation panel, we will get the quality of teaching and learning to the highest standard in this country and you know when we say we will do, through God that strengthens us we have always done.

For some of you (Appointees & officials) that are wonderful and committed, I am grateful to all of you for your loyalty, for your support, for your love, for your sacrifices and your determination, Ebonyi State must be great, this is what God told us and we are deeply very grateful to God, so once again thank you very much.