Ebonyi: Ex-SSG opens lid on why he left Gov Umahi’s Government

By ikenna oluka

The immediate past Secretary to the Ebonyi State Government, Prof. Bernard Odoh, who resigned his appointment in controversial circumstances in April, has said projects being executed by Governor David Umahi are not meant to benefit the suffering masses in the state.

Odoh, in an interview with Punch Newspaper on Friday, said he left the government following the alleged mass outcry against Umahi’s policies and programmes despite the N53bn debt allegedly owed various contractors in the last three years.

He said, “I resigned because our policies and projects are not tailored towards reducing poverty and improving governance in the system. Our projects are not in our first 10 priorities.

“For instance, we have three overhead bridges along a distance of less than 12 kilometres despite the fact that there was no river in those places. We didn’t do traffic volume calculators to validate the need for those bridges.

“I am sure that by the time those bridges are completed, the state government would have spent more than N11bn on them. As far as I am concerned, those are not priority needs of our people.

“If you take N11bn and invest in quality education, we will move Ebonyi from where we are now. Currently, the state sits over a N53bn debt as a result of spending on needless projects.”

Odoh added that the investment in massive concrete structures that were not adding real value to the system would further impoverish the masses.

He said, “The state government will spend about N4bn to complete the Ebonyi City Mall, whereas the construction of a mall should not be a public sector driven initiative; it should be a private sector affair.

“Presently, the state government is building malls in Ebonyi with public funds; that is wrong. The state government is building the ecumenical centre that will cost about N7bn.

“There are lots of projects going on now which I think have no direct impact on the economic well-being of the people.”

The former SSG advised the governor against executing the projects.

“A lot of these issues that border on policy and governance are things that made me very uncomfortable and I felt I can’t be in a system where we are not focusing on the human aspect of our system. That’s why I left,” he added.

Attempts to speak with the Commissioner for Information, Senator Emmanuel Onwe on the issue failed on Saturday as he did not respond to a text message sent to his mobile.

Source: Punch