Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu State, its workers and Prado Jeeps By Tonie Iredia

Last week, workers in Enugu State, under the aegis of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, formally kicked against the alleged decision of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to procure Toyota Prado Sport Utility Vehicles, worth N11.5m, for each of the commissioners and House of Assembly members in the state.
The workers conveyed their displeasure over the subject in a letter dated October 22, 2015 signed by their union chairman, Mr. Chukwuma Igbokwe, who is equally the leader of the Trade Union Congress in the state, and the Secretary, Mr. Theo Obasiani. If the allegation is rather grave as it suggests that over N500m would be spent on the purchase considering that the cars were supposedly meant for no less than 48 officials.
This appears condemnable by almost every citizen in view of the hard times the country is going through. Luckily, room was not given for such provocative analysis as the government and workers met and reportedly resolved issues thereby preventing the losses which the state would have incurred as a result of workers’ strike.
This column would ordinarily have commended both parties for what looks like positive dialogue prevailing over chaos and violence. We are however hindered from doing so because none of the issues raised in the original protest was in our view fully resolved. The only thing that seems obvious is that there was a meeting called to resolve the issues at which the workers were persuaded to drop their hatchets. Thus what the workers say assuaged their feelings are unknown. To make matters worse, the union leaders claimed that at the meeting, they were properly briefed and thus saw the truth which suggests that their previous position was premised on falsehood or at best rumours. In other words, it would not be uncharitable to say that the workers were initially impatient if not mischievous since they did not seek to be briefed before raising false alarm. If so, the union must desist from such uneducated conduct and toe the line of collaboration with the government for the betterment of society. On the other hand, we are also free to suspect that the union leaders were settled to keep quiet.
First, the meeting did not deny the purchase of the cars. Why then are cars being bought for legislators? Is the expenditure captured in the Assembly’s budget? If so, why was the assignment handled by the governor instead of the Assembly’s administrative framework? Does the policy of monetization not operate in Enugu State?  Put differently, do Enugu legislators not have allowances such as housing and transportation added to their salaries? If they do, then perhaps the Prado Jeeps in question are a few vehicles allocated to the House in a pool as official cars to carry out some committee and incidental functions. If so, it does not seem to make sense to hear that the jeeps are 24 which is the same number of legislators in the State House of Assembly meaning it can easily be shared at one per lawmaker.
Second, the workers had originally reckoned and appropriately too, until they retracted that considering the precarious economic situation across the nation, it is economically unwise to procure expensive Jeeps for officials. What this suggests is that if it was expedient to buy official vehicles, the type to be considered ought to be the one which reflects the state’s dire economic position.  As the workers aptly put it “the harvest of Prado jeeps at this point of economic recession, caused by the crash of oil price, does not speak well of the state in economic management and austerity regime more so as the governor even described the state as a ‘kwashiokor’ state.” Exactly 40 years ago, the progressive Murtala/Obasanjo military government opted for a low profile official vehicle that suites the times. The Enugu State Government ought to have acted with such economic wisdom. More importantly, the workers had earlier alleged that the value of the procured Jeeps surpassed the amount approved for same purpose by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). According to the workers, “the car loan for state legislators as listed by the RMAFC is N5.3m per Assembly member,” If the appropriate authority had fixed cars for state legislators at such a figure, it appears inexplicable for Enugu legislators to be given N11.5m cars.
Interestingly, the workers claim to be satisfied with their governor’s explanation. Could it be that they were also shown an invoice which convinced them that the jeeps were not as costly as they previously alleged?  Again, they were silent on their original claim that “whereas a civil servant that served the state for over 30 years and retired over five years is yet to be paid his/her gratuity, political officeholders, who worked for four years, get jumbo salaries and other allowances, free Prado jeeps (N11.5m) and severance allowance.” So have gratuities of retirees being paid now? If not, what persuaded the union leaders to drop their protest?  No one knows except that some incoherent points were made. One of them being that the jeeps were not given out free; rather they were according to government merely “allocated.” While waiting to appreciate the difference, it is also noted that the government expects the legislators to “return” the vehicles at the end of their tenure.  We dare say that based on precedents, neither the government nor the legislators and the workers have any faith in the claim of retrieval of the vehicles after 4 years.
As expected, the Enugu State Commissioner for information Godwin Udeuhele, like the average government’s spokesman, has swept the entire issue under the carpet by suggesting that the whole problem was caused by the media. Indeed, Udeuhele reportedly admonished the media to “always cross-check facts before going to the press; if you had done that this would not have happened.” Interestingly, the workers merely retraced their plan to protest the jeep issue without denying the plan. On its part the press only reported the uncontroverted workers’ statement. So, who did the press misquote and where is the provision for the workers’ keke-NAPEP?