Each generation builds not only for themselves but for generations that will come after them. The essence of continuity in governance is to make the system continually busy to absorb the burden of the future.
To achieve such progression and maintain momentum, every generation must strive to etch their name on sands of time. This includes building for their own immediate comfort and laying a solid foundation for the generations yet to come.
The immediate action involves building projects that affect them directly and immediately without recourse to the emerging populace. Then in the other hand, a few leaders pay a significant percentage attention to building legacy projects that will outlive their era and solve an unforseen challenges even years or decades after their existence.
In the context of SIGNATURE OR LEGACY PROJECT, a statement credited to Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State which has been trivialized, I chose two angles to anchor my analysis.
a. In the context of development, there is no development that is a waste despite the time, the era or the mood of the people. If leaders who see tomorrow embark on projects that seem not to have a direct bearing on the masses based on spur of the moment, it has not defeated the aim of principle of such development. In an emerging state, where every policies of the governor point at making Ebonyi State a Liveable and propersous State, there is nothing wrong in embarking on gigantic projects that tend to absorb the possibe development explosion.
b. What signature project really means is that it symbolizes and mirrors the mind of the executor in laying blocks or embarktment of development that will surely come.
In one of our visits to China in company of the Governor, then as Speaker, we went to various places and saw rail lines that were constructed and looked abandoned in thick forests. In one of my curious moments, I asked one of the four guides the reason for such massive infrastructure lying waste and abandoned so to say. Shockingly, th Chinese told me that they built those projects for tomorrow.
If China with the level of their technological wizardry could be building for future as far back as 2018, I don't think there is anything wrong with Nwifuru and his signature project constructing Vanco flyover and underground tunnel despite the so called low vehicular movements in Abakaliki.
Many had argued that such projects should not have been embarked upon now especially in the current position of the state in national standing where every sector is crying for attention. Yes, I agree that in the face of the conflicting priorities, there is need to embark on certain projects despite the financial involvement.
Reason I support wholeheartedly the construction of the Vanco flyover and underground tunnel is because, as a developing state, it is therefore very cheaper and less destructive to start the project because with the level of development across the state, it will be difficult to start demolition of structures to give way to such massive projects in near future.
It is therefore safer to do so now that level of development has not reached the crescendo. It has saved both the government the huge and humongous amount as compensation and then save the landlords and property owners the crisis of losing property at the level of its development and appreciation of landed property prices.
In urban renewal and in keeping with the Abakaliki master plan, every given day, new structures germinate in various parts of the state. Any further delay will make people build various structures along the area that it will almost become very impossible and inhuman to allow people build only to be demolished for purpose os such project.
I have listened to people cry out over the demolition of their buildings to give way for the Vanco flyover and I felt bad for them. Of course, such happens when development of such magnitude is about to happen. With the level of outcry and impact already created, one would easily mirror the future when more beautiful and bigger structures are erected on the affected areas.
To achieve such beautiful legacy projects, government needs to act on time, specifications and allow those affected enough time to heal.
I maintain, Governor Nwifuru was right when he said that beyond the aesthetics of the flyover and other qualities thereto, that it's not just a project but a signature project. What he was trying to say was that all his projects are all well thought out and and their bearings on the people of the state make it significantly important to be subsumed into a mere project.
By the time the state begins to maximize the economic policies of the present administration and leveraging on the promises made, anchored on the Peoples Charter of Needs, prosperity will come, the flyover will witness traffic because more people will become richer and more vehicles will adorn the beautiful city of Abakaliki, the Salt of the Nation.
Indeed, Governor Nwifuru has mirrored the future and has brought the future at par with the present. The future is here with us.
Emmanuel Uzor, a Public Affairs Analyst writes from Awka, Anambra State
Post a Comment