Recently, Ebonyi State has been a subject of virtual pedestrian criticisms and effusive propaganda which often misrepresent things in order to whet the whims of unpatriotic opposition kingpins. The problem of the highly fragmented opposition in Ebonyi State is understandable.

The first civilian administration in Ebonyi State led by Dr Sam Egwu from 1999 to 2007 made human capital development or education its focal point. Schools were established in the hinterlands, the Ebonyi State University was established and education was basically free and compulsory at the formative levels. Overseas postgraduate scholarships were granted many Ebonyi youths.

Between 2007 and 2015, Chief Martin Elechi served as the governor of the young state. Elechi linked different parts of Ebonyi State, which were separated by Ebonyi river, together through the unity bridges. This made the state capital, Abakaliki, easily accessible from all parts of the state. Elechi built the Abakaliki International Market, the Ochudo Centenary Secretariat and so on. The administration’s attempts to make further impacts in road infrastructure were frustrated through peer envy of members of his kitchen cabinet. Chief Elechi equally ran a radical re-orientation policy christened, “Attitudinal Change” programme. The Elechi era is criticized for having many abandoned projects, increasing tuition fees of the state university and for the proliferation of wars in spite of the taunted mantra of “The Platform of Peace”!

Engr David Umahi took over the leadership of Ebonyi State in 2015. His administration was accused of defining democracy in terms of concrete slabs because he built concrete roads, numerous overhead bridges, the new Ebonyi Government House, the Ecumenical Centre, the Ebonyi Shopping Mall and Ebonyi Airport which has apparently witnessed more controversies than flights.

Umahi eqully built a glass house which name and purpose has yet to be determined before EBSU permanent site gate. Till date, Umahi is criticized for stopping the Ebonyi State scholarship programme, failing to employ workers, and failing to implement financially-beneficial workers’ promotion during his time. In summary, Umahi who, for good reasons, was named “the construction god”, was said to have built massive infrastructure at the expense of human capital development and welfare otherwise known as “manfrastructure”!

The foregoing refreshing presentation shows that every civilian administration in Ebonyi State prioritized selected challenges of the state. The present administration of Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru has obviously departed from that tradition of selective prioritization of the challenges of the state. In the new order which the Nwifuru administration represents, every sector of Ebonyi State, be it the intangible human capital development, welfare peace building and conflict resolution; or concrete infrastructure and industrialization, is a priority! This is the eleventh commandment or ‘sin’ which Builder Nwifuru has committed; and opposition wants Nwifuru’s pound of flesh. That Nwifuru’s administration is succeeding in this pathfinding comprehensive approach to the development of Ebonyi State is yet another mortal ‘sin’ in the eyes of the sadistic opposition.

To score political points, the opposition weaved malicious narratives to snub Ebonyi progress under Nwifuru. To them, the fact that Nwifuru’s welfare programmes saved Ebonyi people from the shocks of the nationwide hardship and hunger arising from fuel subsidy removal, such that Ebonyi State did not participate in the strikes does not matter. That Nwifuru’s administration granted local and international scholarships to about 1000 Ebonyians and established two functional universities (Ebonyi State ICT University, Agbaja and Ebonyi State University of Aeronautics and Aerospace Engineering, Onueke) mean nothing. The massive transformation of the health sector with well-paid staff and equipment which make complicated procedures possible in Ebonyi General Hospitals must be seen as evidences of bad governance.

Even the employment of over 2000 Ebonyians after over eight years of zero employment and the payment of 30-year arrears of gratuities to Ebonyi retirees is taunted by the opposition as indicators of bad governance. The unpatriotic opposition elements want Ebonyians to see Nwifuru’s community peace programme which has peacefully filled 80 vacant traditional stools, ended all wars and reconciled all warring communities including Ezza and Uffiom; Ezillo and Ezza-Ezillo, Echialike and Amana, as well as the century old Abaomege and Ishinkwo war as proofs of poor performance.

The blackmail industry of the opposition in Ebonyi State wants Ebonyians to ignore the 23 KM Ezillo-Ezzaegu road; the 23.5 KM Stadium – Nwofe road; the numerous Abakaliki internal urban roads; the 2 KM road project in 67 rural communities in Ebonyi State; the significant road projects across Ebonyi State; the 143 units of houses for civil servants in Abakaliki; and the 67 royal duplexes for traditional rulers across Ebonyi State. To them, Ebonyians should focus on the ongoing modern multi-storey Vanco overhead bridge as the only infrastructural project that Nwifuru has been “battling” with for three years.

The truth is that through the comprehensive approach to the development of Ebonyi State, Nwifuru is giving the desperate members of Ebonyi opposition heart attacks. Like Nicollo Machiavelli said: There is nothing more difficult to conduct than the introduction of a new order of things. The innovator has for enemies all the beneficiaries of the old order.

Those who wonder about the current online hysteria over Nwifuru’s administration should bother no more: Nwifuru’s unprecedented approach to the development of Ebonyi State is at the centre of the panic of Ebonyi opposition.