‘Ngige, donor agencies and Anambra state’

Professor Stella Chinyere Okunna, Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Anambra State

—Professor Stella Chinyere Okunna, Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Anambra State
By Okechukwu Obenta, Awka
There has been controversy over who attracted what from external donor agencies between your government and that of former Governor Chris Ngige. For instance, Ngige claims that his administration attracted eight billion Euros under EU funding, but your government appears to be claiming that he did not. Now, what is the true position regarding these claims.
Well, one thing about controversy, particularly when there are facts available, is that such controversy becomes clear with those facts. And when people argue about things that you can verify some of the arguments can be stupid. It is just like the argument about the just-concluded governorship election in the state, talking about the election result when the figures are there, anybody can compute them and arrive at a verifiable result, yet people are still arguing whether Obi won in 14 local governments or not when the figures are there. Everybody, even primary school children, can compute them.
In the same way, when development partners working in your state are there and can talk about what they are doing; whether it is World Bank projects or European Union projects, or UNICEF projects or UNDP projects, anybody can walk up to them, and find out the facts. So, I really don’t think I should be talking about this matter. If you take a group like UNDP, because they were here years ago, precisely under (Dr. Chinwoke) Mbadinuju’s administration, because of the rascality then, because they (the administration then) did not keep faith, they pulled away. That was the fifth country programme. Throughout Ngige’s regime, they did not come back, that was the sixth country programme. And they were not prepared to come back because they had blacklisted Anambra State , because of the things that happened here. One, we didn’t pay our counter-part contribution. Two, the ones they paid wasn’t properly used, so they left. And they had no plans of coming back. It was this government that went to them in Abuja . And as I said at the time, I had the privilege of accompanying the Governor to that meeting. When we got there, they almost didn’t want to see us because they were so disillusioned with what happened here with the government. But somehow the governor was able to persuade them. And eloquent in presenting our case, he told them that there was a new government now, that the new government was responsive, it was accountable, it was honest, so they should give us another chance and they came back for the seventh country programme that is running now. Anybody who claims to have done anything to attract the UNDP for this country Programme, apart from what Governor Peter Obi did is a liar. UNDP is in Abuja to confirm this.
How much is involved under the current seventh country programme?
We are still working on it. It’s a new programme. There is a work plan. And for each pillar they are going to support us with an amount of money we put in for the UNDP, but you know for every partner support, you have counterpart- funding. We have to arrive at that. Some of the projects are just taking off now because it is a new programme. We have just finished what we are doing in workshop and consultancy. It is a different project, the work-plan is being implemented gradually. So that is as clear as daylight. You go on to the World Bank programme. The World Bank programme is now taking off. We call it the State Government and Capacity Building Project. There are only six states in Nigeria involved, and Anambra is one of them. For the project one, there were three states, Anambra wasn’t among them. For the project II, there are three states now selected, Anambra is one of them and it is just coming up, so it couldn’t have been attracted by the administration headed by Ngige, or anybody before us. It is just taking off, the full take-off will be from this March. But for last year, we have just put in a little money, N20milion for the preliminary take- off. We are just to appoint a project co-ordinator and the World Bank has given us No-objection. We are drafting the contract now with the project co-ordinator. Anybody claiming to have initiated that project is again, a liar. The facts are there, the World Bank is there.
You go to the EU (European Union, Professor Bello is on ground here. The EU has two arms. One for WSSSRP (that is water and sanitation sector). The other one, the STRIP (Support Reform Institution Programme). Even if anybody did anything as preliminary, nobody has taken off that programme until we arrived here–it began at the end of 2006. The governor came into office on March 17, 2006. So calculate from March to the end of the year, about December, and you will begin to know who brought that programme here. I don’t know what these people are talking about, I don’t know what they think they did. The money they attracted, where is it? The UNICEF, like I said worked on virtually every state and the UNICEF 2009 programme we signed it, fully implemented by this Government. May be they will give you more facts and figures about what they attracted and where the money is.
Are you saying that there was nothing like eight billion Euros grant from the EU attracted to Anambra state by former Governor Ngige’s administration.
I’m not aware of that, was it given to them in cash? On programme? On what? I didn’t know.
Let us know the projects concerned.
Which one? Let us begin with EU?
Yes.
Like I said before, EU has two arms. One is support to reforming institutions programme (that is STRIP) headed by Professor Bello. That one is mainly capacity- uilding, supporting reformation of the civil service, of the Government itself. And like I said before, they are doing many capacity- building and supporting reforms, donating equipment. And if you recall, only this January, the EU donated equipment worth hundreds of millions of Naira, comprising more than a hundred computers, generating sets, air-conditioner, printers, name it, were donated to Anambra state and they were received by the governor in January and these were free, and they have done so many workshops. And they have also empowered civil society groups, attracted grants to civil society. And they are also supporting our budget process in terms of making budgets, a participatory affair. And I tell you, Anambra is already pioneering the initiative in participatory budgeting, supported technically by STRIP and before you go, I will give you the last budget, we are publishing it now. And STRIP is supporting us because we have a good governance committee which their co-oordinator is a member of. He is encouraging us to organise town-hall meetings to make sure that government is participatory, that people are having a say in governance, that’s what STRIP does, to make sure that government is reforming, is being accountable, that good governance is being enthroned and that there are certain elements of good governance. And STRIP is encouraging us to make sure that those elements are being implemented in Anambra State, apart from donating equipment.
If you go to the other arm of the EU, that us the WSSSRP (water supply and sanitation, sector reform programme), that is where the hardware is. They are also doing capacity-building for water corporation staff or RUWASA staff (Rural water supply) and the rest of them. And they are also putting a lot of money into water projects.
If you watched, also in January (this year) I had gone round to inspect most of these water schemes. The rural component is done by RUWASA (Rural Water Supply), which is an Anambra State Government parastatal. They are also doing what you call small-touch water scheme in a number of local governments. Now, the EU has what you call five local governments areas, and they must work in those five. And these five are in Aguata, Anambra-East, Ogbaru, Nnewi North and Idemili-South. And if you go there, there are a lot of sanitation programmes like toilet, built by EU and water schemes built by EU. Some of them have been completed and some are still on-going and are there for people to see and there are being implemented now. A lot of money is being spent in the water sector by the European Union. If you go to UNICEF, UNICEF is also in Anambra State and they are supporting us in many areas. There are a number of implementing ministry of Health, Education, women Affairs, Information and my ministry (Budget and Economic Planning) and so many projects are being implemented. If you take this ministry (Budget and economic Planning) for instance, we have done empowerment for Women, particularly rural women. We’ve trained them in skill acquisition: hair-dressing, beads making, how to bake and then after training we give them equipment, even sewing machines, weaving machines, vulcanising machines, and the rest of them. We have done that through Ministry of Education and Women Affairs and a lot of money has been spent. For last year, Anambra State Government put in N59million. And this is government counterpart cash contribution. UNICEF put in a lot more than that; they are supporting us in immunisation, giving us drugs, giving us their training for health workers. They also supported us in equipment for these health facilities. All together, a lot of money was put in, either directly through UNICEF or in my ministry. Through information, we did viewing centres in every local government area, then three additional ones and some of them were commissioned, like the one in Anichi. So every local government had one.
Maybe, I think what Ngige has been claiming might be a programme that began here in 2002– and I am not even sure Ngige was here then–2002-2003, a World Bank project. That is health system development project, and I think it is in every state. It is no achievement, when a programme is in every state, it is no achievement as far as I’m concerned,
What are those strict criteria which qualify states to benefit from funding by donor agencies like World Bank and European Union?
One, you must pay your counter-part contribution because it is a partnership, it is not like they just give you money. If they give you money, it is a loan, no longer partnership. The ones l’ve been mentioning now are completely free. The ones Ngige and co took part in were loans and funds the state is going to repay eventually.
There has been an existing World Bank-sponsored rural project in the state. The project is believed to have been awarded to a prominent indigene of this state but there is a claim that there is no presence of any such water project in any community in the state. So what is the position of the governor about the project?
I think it is something that came up since the 60’s. It has just been brought to our notice. And I think, there was a time when the Federal Government raised alarm that some state governments were borrowing money internationally and they were warning against such things. It is now that they are beginning to look up data about such borrowing, and may be inviting governments that are indebted to come and explain what is going on. It is a new development and I cannot really hazard any guess on this until more information emerges. I wouldn’t know what it is and how much, whether Anambra is one of them and what happened.
Lack of potable water is one of the major problems in most communities in the state, especially in the major cities such as Awka, the state capital, Onitsha and Nnewi. What are the plans of the Government to address the issue.
In about a week’s time, you will see our adverts for the MDGS.
And again, MDGS-Millennium Development Goals- is also conditional grant, not repayable, it is a grant. We hope that before Governor Peter Obi finishes his second tenure you will see water in Anambra State like never before. I am confident about that.