The Association of Ebonyi Indigenes Socio-Cultural in the Diaspora (AEISCID) has declared that Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State did not deserve a second term in office, insisting that his administration lacked the performance record required to justify re-election in the 2027 governorship election.
The group was reacting to a recent media statement credited to the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Oguzor Nwali, who reportedly described AEISCID as “another mischievous youth gang of Anyi Chuks Campaign Council” and “an amateur gang-up” that lacked a clear understanding of what it represents.
In a statement released on Thursday and signed by its Worldwide President, Ambassador Paschal Oluchukwu, AEISCID challenged the commissioner to present Governor Nwifuru’s achievements sector by sector, or at least provide a performance assessment of his ministry and a few others under the current administration.
According to the group, it has become “audible to even the deaf and visible to the blind” that the governor had no completed projects to showcase to the Presidential Media Team that recently visited Ebonyi State on an assessment tour.
The statement said, “From the Vanco flyover and tunnel that has since turned into a large swimming pool in this rainy season to the ICT University in Oferekpe Agbaja that has only partially completed staff quarters and then to the litany of uncompleted modern civil servants staff quarters and schools littered across the State, the story is the same that Nwifuru who now receives more allocations have done absolutely nothing to justify the huge billions of money he gets from the centre.”
The group further alleged that despite receiving increased federal allocations, the administration had allegedly failed to deliver meaningful development projects across the state.
“Worse still, he and his large coterie of looting appointees feel greatly entitled to a second term in office without any record of achievements in the first. As a matter of fact and concern, APC’s 4+4=8 signposts projects have become the only visible sign that there’s a government in Ebonyi State,” the statement added.
“It suffices, therefore, that like Tinubu’s Emi Lokan, Nwifuru feels his Izzi clan is so entitled to another term in office that he boldly threatened the opposition in a recent endorsement rally for Tinubu that he has all it takes to consume them,” the group stated.
Drawing comparisons with neighbouring states, the diaspora body said it was concerned that while governors in Enugu and Abia states were pursuing aviation and economic development initiatives, Ebonyi was lagging.
“This is coming at a time when his counterparts in Enugu and Abia States are both planning for commercial and cargo aeroplanes to begin landings in Aba and Enugu from December this year, as disclosed recently by the Minister for Aviation, Festus Keyamo,” it said.
“It is a huge slap on the face of reasonable Ebonyians that sycophantic sycophants like Oguzor could dismiss the verifiable position of many Ebonyians as ‘misplaced’, ‘unfounded’, and ‘preposterous’ and even ascribed the adjectives; ‘visionary’, ‘coordinated’, and ‘pro-development’ leader to Nwifuru who has been at best utterly clueless in the rating of many within and beyond the State.”
The statement further alleged that the government had focused more on social events than on development projects.
“Oguzor Nwali should note that there’s no performance to be measured, let alone hyper-performance, under the current administration that has taken pride in sponsoring more weddings, burials and child dedication ceremonies for Nwifuru’s very extended family than focusing on rural or even urban development projects.
“Ebonyi airport, on the other hand, is only useful for renting and landing of chartered private jets by the State government and at taxpayers’ expense. The government has been lavish in wasting taxpayers’ funds in the last three years largely because there has been no strong opposition to checkmate its excesses,” the statement said.
Reiterating its opposition to Nwifuru’s re-election bid, AEISCID urged residents of the state to reject any second-term campaign by the governor.
“We rightly reiterate our earlier position that the masses should outrightly reject Nwifuru’s second term bid because he doesn’t deserve it. They should rather support a credible alternative like Anyichuks as already canvassed by the Umuekumenyi Leaders Council in its recent World Press Conference in Abakaliki.
“We would therefore counsel that since he has taken up the unofficial role of speaking for the government, he should do well to hire the services of professional writers and editors so he does not continue to embarrass Ebonyians and his office,” the statement concluded.
