January 28, (THEWILL) – Enugu State Commissioner For Lands and Housing Development, Dr Martin Chukwunweike, has said that he was committed to implementing the housing transformation agenda of the present administration under the leadership of Governor Peter Mbah. This, he said, was to restore the city to its past glory.
The project, which will be sitting on more than 300,000 hectares of landscapes, spread across 17-kilometre Roads in progress, along Enugu/Abakaliki road comprises Enugu South, East, North and Nkanu North.
This entails building ultramodern facilities featuring experiences in the United Arab Emirates in terms of tourism and investment, intending to increase revenue for the state.
The Enugu New City, where citizens can live in peace, happiness and security, has been awarded to China Communication Construction Company, development of such will place the state in a global environment.
The commissioner commended Governor Mbah, recognising him as a leader with a deep understanding of continuity culture in the intricacies of governance environment, which must be included in the governor’s four strategic objectives in housing, as this will advance the Enugu City to replicate the nation like the United Arab Emirates “We want to mirror the Dubai Mega housing project here in Enugu State.”
On Governor Mbah’s four strategic projects, he noted that the projects affect not only the new developments but all those started under the previous administrations.
“The government of Peter Mbah has an interest in developing mass housing for civil servants and low-income earners, a situation where people can now be able to live in houses which eventually will be theirs ‘We Call It Home For All’. The government will work out some mortgage facilities so that as one can live there, paying installment on completion of payment it eventually becomes his or her house.
Slumps will be upgraded in the Enugu State metropolis, so people will have to identify such shanties and slumps to make them habitable within the metropolis, and the governor has plans to upgrade such living conditions so Enugu State can be uniformly upgraded to make sure the face of Enugu is not defaced.
The government is working to achieve uniformly upgraded housing projects in the state and making sure that uniform development is achievable.
The government will help to improve the lifestyle and standard of living of the sets of people known as urban poor.
“They live in Enugu metropolis, but their condition of living is abysmally low, and such breeds diseases, criminality, and other vices.”
“The other one is that when we came on board, the present administration didn’t meet anything that could call a housing policy for Enugu State.”
In other words, the government has started to build what is called the Enugu State housing policy, a policy that would guide all the activities as regards housing both public and private, so that everything would be in order and so people will not do things hazardly.”
“When we do that it will affect all facets of life, no cases of building collapse or illegal building, and substandard housing.
And you find out that when we don’t streamline, they tend to behave irrationally, there would be no guiding laws against those who build on waterways and erect illegal structures.”
To achieve the Mega Enugu City he said: “We have to maximise the state internal revenue generation through adopting electronic ticketing and payments to sponsor the state Megaprojects. We have been seeing the effect of e-ticketing within this short period, and it has shown that the newly adopted payment policy is working. For example, this present payment policy enables people to start accessing running water, and the funds were derived or generated from the same e-tickets and payment sources.
The government intends to raise the state gross domestic product from 4.4 billion to 30 billion before he leaves office. However, this can be possible only through production. We are attracting investors and the only way forward to increase the state GDP is to attract investors that would get involved in production and the production would increase the state’s GDP and the revenue will be worth much more than what we have right now.”
It would be recalled that the budget that has been released by Enugu state was 521 billion nairas, nevertheless, it supersedes most states’ budgets and citing the state’s projects on the ground, they will overshoot that budget.
“There is no way the present government of Enugu State, which is investment friendly and people friendly, will go out to demolish people’s houses, and it is entirely out of place.
We want to literally flood Enugu state with houses and so the rent will drop drastically.”
He advised the indigenes of Enugu to have confidence in the present administration, stressing that Governor Peter Mbah means well for them and is concerned about the challenges and welfare, communication gap and staff corporation, ready to work together for the good of the people and they must learn to give their support to grow the state.
Dr Chukwuweike has played a vital role in the previous successive Enugu State government ranging from the time of Governor Chimaroke Nnamani, Governor Sullivan Chime and Peter Mbah’s government to date. He has been a part of politics from the Peoples Democratic Party’s onset until now. Meanwhile, Enugu, the capital city of Enugu state with its location in the eastern part of Nigeria, was renamed Enugu more than nine decades ago.
Caption: The Executive Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency Barr Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, The Enugu State Commissioner For Lands and Housing Development Dr Martin Chukwunweike.
Janefrances Ebere Chibuzor is a Tourism Writer at THEWILL
