Emmanuel Nzomiwu
Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors Company, was an American business industry and tycoon who lived between July 30, 1863 and April 7, 1947. One of his most inspiring quotes reads: “All the secret to a successful life is figuring out what your destiny will have to do and then doing it.
Although he is a trained and qualified physician, with extensive experience and practice, spanning the public and personal sectors, Senator (Dr.) Chris Nwabueze Ngige OON, Minister of Labor and Employment, has certainly found himself in the policy and public service picture where he has become a “brilliant” star in Nigeria and beyond. Prior to entering politics, he had a successful career at the Federal Department of Health, where he became executive director. His legacy prior to his retirement from the ministry includes the relocation of the University of Nigeria University Hospital (UNTH) from its transitional site in Enugu to the permanent site of Ituku-Ozalla and the conversion of Kano Specialized Hospital to a University Hospital.
In Nigerian politics, Ngige stands out among his contemporaries. While Nigerian political maxims play ‘the bread and the greatest politics’, Ngige’s political career has been guided through a strong progressive ideological foundation and principles aimed at bringing “the smartest to as many other people as you can imagine in society,” as advocated through the utilitarian school in political science.
On August 8, Senator Ngige will serve 68 years on earth. With two years to pass until it reached 3 and ten scores, Ngige continued to shine to the rhythm of his classic igbo title, “Onwa N’etiliora”, which translates to English and means “The Moon Shining for All”. While his generation in Nigerian politics with the aim of ripping out his own nest, sees nothing wrong with moving from one political party to another, Ngige has remained constant in terms of political affiliation.
At the beginning of this democratic dispensation in 1999, Ngige with others such as Professor ABC Nwosu, Senator Onyeabor Obi, Audu Ogbe, Okwesilieze Nwodo and the late Senator Echeruo, former vice president of the National Peoples Forum of Alex Ekwueme (PNF) and a faction of the new era in the merger of the G34, shaped the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The PDP eventually became the first party in force and Ngige became the first national undersecretary.
However, his election as governor of the state of Anambra in 2003 brought him to the spotlight. Before Ngige came to power, anambra’s state under its predecessor, Chinwoke Mbadinuju, was held captive through the sponsors, who not only shared the state’s monthly federal allowance in Abuja, but also carried the source of internally generated income (IGR).
The siege of the rapacious godparents left the state heavily indebted and insolvent, with several months of arrears owed to public officials, adding teachers. Pensioners also had arrears in perks and pensions. An igbo that says that “mbelede ka eji loves dike” which, translated into English, means “that a hero is known in case of emergency”. A brave Ngige confronted the ruthless godparents with full federal force. Like the wonderful Nelson Mandela of South Africa, he fought to liberate Anambra’s state from the godparents who shaped the wheel of state progress.
The war opposed to the godparents reached its climax when more than two hundred Nigerian policemen and men led by a general sub-inspector (AIG) of the police, Raphael Ige, marched as infants of the former Roman Empire in the state of Anambra, took over the seat of the government. and the House of Assembly, and kidnapped Dr. Ngige from a hotel where they tried to extort him with a resignation letter. The coup failed when Ngige escaped from his captors. Angry, sponsors set fire to the State Government House of Anambra, the state-owned state broadcast service, and the state-owned Ikenga Hotel.
The other brave people in the state of Anambra, both at home and abroad, covered up Ngige in his war to evict the godparents. In solidarity with Ngige, Nigeria’s greatest literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe (now deceased), from his base in the United States of America, rejected the national honor bestowed upon him through President Olusegun Obasanjo. In rejecting the honor of the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR), Achebe wrote: “I have specifically observed the chaos of my own state, Anambra, where a small clique of renegades, braiding their relationships in the first places, is made in our minds to turn my land into a bankruptcy and lawless fiefdom. I am dismayed by the courage of this clique and the silence and even the collusion of the presidency.
What Abuja’s sponsors and supporters simply cannot do with force, despite all that has been achieved through the Awka Bias Electoral Court presided over through Judge Garba Nabaruma (now deceased), who annulled Ngige’s election in favor of Peter Obi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). 2006. The rest is history, some of the sponsors are still on the lookout for national politics.
However, the turbulent Ngige era as governor remained a parameter for judging successive efforts in the state of Anambra, on the number of projects carried out through its management in just 3 years. Among the 105 road projects carried out through the management of Ngige that cross the 3 spaces of the Senate of the state of Anambra, cross six areas of local government and link the neighboring states of Abia, Imo, Enugu, Delta and Rivers come with Atani-Ossomala-Ogwuikpelle-Ndoni , Isuochi – Route Owerri Ezukala-Ogbunka-Umunze-Umuchu, Amesi-Uga, Ezinihite-Igboukwu, Otuocha-Agule Nteje-Awkuzu, Ifite-Dunu-Abagana, Nnobi-Nnewi-Ozubulu-Ihembporse-Osuhunswhipads , Nkpor-Umuoji-Uke-Nnobi and Nnewi-Bank Road, Ezemewi, 100 Roadft , Ibeto Road and Nnewi High School Road.
Others are the roads of the municipality of Awka – Public Service Commission Road, Nya Lane and Dualisation of Nnamdi Azikiwe Avenue, Otuocha-Aguleri-Umuleri, Nteje-Awkuzu-Ifitedunu-Abagana-Eziowelle-Abatete-Ukeni Idea Federal Road, Abba Junction, Ukpo- Abagana Route, Tarzan-Onitsha-Iyienu-Afor Crossing Nkpor, Umuoji-Eyelet One-Ichi Enugu / Onitsha, Abagana-Enugu-Ukwu Crossing (Ezi Nobert) and Nitel-Nnewi-Awka Etiti-Adazi Enugu-Ichida-Neni.
Ngige’s management not only eliminated the arrears of wages and pensions inherited from past management, but also institutionalized the immediate payment of wages and pensions, which remained the popular minimum for successive management of the state of Anambra. Ngige repaid his pension, so the state of Anambra has become the state at the time in Nigeria to pay a 143% accumulated after Rivers state under Governor Peter Odili, which at the time was the largest source of income of the Federation Accounts Committee, FAAC and 13% of the derivation paid for oil production. States. Therefore, retirees who have so far earned N8000 depending on the month, begin to receive N22000 as they progress, while the settlement of some arrears begins. You don’t have to go through first to get tips and pensions. Under Ngige, old retirees start building houses and starting businesses. In fact, Anambra moved and the state’s retirees were envied through their opposing numbers in the sister states of the Southeast and beyond.
Dr. Ngige has also had a significant effect on safety, education, health, water resources for agriculture and, indeed, in all other sectors of Anambra state. In national politics, while other governors of the southeastern geopolitical zone at the time supported the failed schedule of Obasanjo’s third term, Ngige was the only one who said “no. His remarkable role as governor of the state of Anambra earned him the Kwame Nkrumah Leadership Award.” excellence in the provision of public services in 2004.
Following the derailment of the PDP through Obasanjo and his garrison commanders, Ngige, Audu Ogbe, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and similar minds joined forces with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and other progressives to shape Congress Action (AC), which was later transformed into Action. Congress. Nigeria (ACN). In 2011, Ngige elected senator representing the Anambra Central Senate district under ACN, widely regarded as a Western party. He is the only user who won the Southeast Senate election with ACN. In February 2013, ACN merged with two other parties, the Nigerian All Peoples’ Party (ANPP) and the Progressive Congress (CPC) to shape the All Progressives Congress (APC).
As an opposition senator, Ngige simply cannot hold a position of committee chairman in the Senate. He was appointed Vice-President of the Power Committee and a member of six other status committees. His presence as vice-president of the Energy Committee was reflected in the numerous energy projects that were brought in the southeast. His expenses and movements in the Senate come with the National Health Bill, the National Health Insurance Bill, the Farmers Registration Council Bill, the Federal Housing Office Act, and the Special Provisions for Hand-To-Hand Robbery and Firearms Act, which, among other provisions , were intended to explain that hospitals will first have to administer a remedy to the sick by firing before reporting the matter to the police within a moderate time. He also proposed a movement for the immortalization of Chinua Achebe and as a result, Achebe won a plenary session, an honor reserved only for members of the National Assembly.
Through its base, the Senator Chris Ngige Foundation established university donations and awarded scholarships to 3000 other destitute people in the Central Senate District of Anambra in secondary and tertiary institutions. Up to 60 other people participating in the Senate district won the scholarship. The scholarship program, which runs to date, also has beneficiaries of Imo, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi and young people from non-Anambra natives living in the state. The foundation has also sponsored many others in skills progression systems as a component of its empowerment program. In addition, the base has paid for the hospitalization of many other less privileged people in Anambra state and in the central Senate district on componenticular.
Following the victory of APC President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 general election, Ngige was appointed Minister of Labor and Employment. During Ngige’s first term as Minister of Labour, the minimum wage rose from N18,000 to N30,000. The minimum wage is the lowest wage paid to a Nigerian worker. He also took relations between the government and work to the next point by encouraging and selling a harmonious relationship between the federal government and unions. He has also been proactive in resolving labour disputes. For example, in the minimum wage saga, Ngige asked the Federal Finance and Budget Department to provide investment for consecutive adjustments, so the federal government was not trapped.
In the table of foreign painting and diplomacy, he brought Nigeria back to the board of directors of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2018 and ten years of absence and has become the head of African and Asian labour ministers. In August 2019, he became Chairman of the Government Group for All ILO Countries and propelled and elected Nigeria for a one-time term on the Executive Council as full-fledged holder, starting in June 2020. All this was made imaginable thanks to Ngige’s invaluable contributions and the skillful control of his workplace for the global body.
Ngige has effectively mediated many labor disputes in the public and personal sectors. Just mention some here. In April 2016, his intervention led to the suspension of unemployment through the National Electricity Employees Union (NUEE), in relation to unresolved issues in the 2012 agreement between the union and the federal government. In 2018, it effectively intervened in a commercial dispute between Exxon Mobil and some of its staff. In all of those cases, he turned out to be an independent referee. In the management of these labor disputes, Ngige has demonstrated delicacy and dexterity, as well as intrinsic wisdom in conflict management.
Visibly inspired by Ngige’s performance, President Buhari reapped him Minister of Labour in 2019. THE Director-General of the ILO, Guys Rider, described his re-election as one of the most productive appointments made through President Muhammadu Buhari at his time of office. The occasions of the afterlife have underlined the relevance of the election of the president. For example, in June this year, Ngige’s intervention halted the indefinite strike of resident physicians under the auspices of the National Association of Resident Physicians (NARD) who demanded special subsidies and non-public protective devices for their frontline members. COVID-19.
He also constantly dissipated fears of loss of tasks imaginable as a result of COVID-19, saying that the government and the social partners would read about the four-pillar policy responses established through the International Labour Organization (ILO) “which are man-made and Global Solidarity Ngige was a member of the Economic Sustainability Committee headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo , who drew up a plan for Nigeria to recover from the pandemic.
In Igbo politics, Ngige remained a prominent actor, leading Aka Ikenga as president from 1991 to 1997 and as a member of Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s Ime Obi (internal committee) from 1992 as president of AkaIkenga to date, having been a former governor of the state of Anambra. . He led other prominent members and disagreed with Ohaneze’s leadership when they moved away from the statute of the framework that prescribes neutrality to open and indiscriminate PDP presidential hopefuls in the 2015 and 2019 elections, creating a primary rift that the organization is still fighting against. day to cement.
Regardless of critical national assignments, Ngige has not forgotten the front of the house. In May, he distributed palliatives to 1,000 families in his Alor, Idemili Sur LGA Anambra, to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on them. The beneficiaries arrived from all the villages of Alor, namely Okebunoye, Umuoshi, Agbor, Umunambo, Urueze, Isieke, Umuokwu, Uruezeana, among others. The city’s unity government, the Alor People’s Assembly (APA) and the village chiefs (Isi Ogbe) witnessed the minister’s gesture.
The minister rained cash, noodles, bags of rice and other items about his village. Each of the 1,000 families won five thousand naira, with a total of five million naira. Food products have been estimated at five million naira. A total of 1000 boxes of noodles, 1000 boxes of bottled water and 2 five hundred sacks of rice were shared with the 1000 families. In addition, five million naira were distributed to the church, raising the total price of palliatives to 15 million naira. The minister said the measure is his own way of helping the population as the country continues to fight the pandemic. He added that members of all political parties could simply benefit.
“What is Ngige’s next political initiative?” The hounds sought to settle in their hometown of Alor. He said: “The elections will take place in 2023. I have the right to apply for any office. I can fight for the Senate. I can run for president if I wish. Elections will be held by November 2021 to elect a successor to Obiano. I’m disqualified. I have a right to say I can apply. I’m interested in Anambra governorate now because I’m on a national mission,” he said.
No doubt, at 68, Ngige has left indelible traces in the sand of time! Onwa, NdiAnambra, South-East, all Ndigbo and Nigerians are proud of you. We wish you a happy birthday and many years to come.
Nzomiwu wrote from Awka, Anambra state.
Emmanuel Nzomiwu Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motors Company, an American industrial and business tycoon Array..
The Nigerian Diary
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