By Joe Ibiam, Abakaliki
The newly appointed Secretary to Ebonyi State Government, Dr. Hygenius Nwokwu, says the state governor, Dave Umahi, has “abnormal capacity” for work.
He explained that those who complain about him and his work ethics do so because they lack the capacity to follow his trend of engagement.
Nwoķwu spoke in Abakaliki during the weekend.
His words: “Our governor is exceptional and when you are exceptional, you are abnormal. So, the problem people working with him can be having is inability to measure up with his mental and intellectual gifts.
“So, those of us who are having problem with him are intellectually dwarfed and unable to follow.”
He disclosed that the number of state government’s appointees that attend executive council meetings has been trimmed down from what it used to be.
Nwokwu noted that only Commissioners, Principal officers of government and three Senior Special Assistant to the governor are presently members of the state executive council unlike the regime of his predecessor, Professor Bernard Odoh, where ‘everybody’ was member of council.
“I am new in this office, I am still studying. Basically, there are certain things that must not be the way they are. When I came in, I looked at Exco, and we said look, we cannot remain like this.
“Now, we have more meaningful deliberations, we now look at ministerial responsibilities. You can see now that the Exco is trimmed. The people that are in exco now are commissioners, principal officers of government, three SSAs. We now look at Ministerial responsibilities; each ministry has constitutional mandate and areas of operations.
“Due process we are, there was paradigm shift!. Everything is now working and I have told members of the state executive council that if the governor of the state who is ever ready to make progress, if you are lackadaisical in your approach to things you should do something to promote your ministry, if assignment is giving to you and you are not doing it and some other person is called up to do what ordinarily you are supposed to do, it is an indictment.”
