The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, has said that high taxation has worsened the economic hardship of residents of Enugu State under Governor Peter Mbah’s watch.
According to him, the state government needed to review its taxes in the interest of the people.
Nnaji said this when he led other leaders to receive at least 5,000 defectors into the Enugu State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said, “Today in Enugu, we are facing a major economic quagmire. Today in Enugu, we are at the bottom as the most expensive city in Nigeria. Enugu is a civil service town, yet it remains the second most expensive city in Nigeria.
“What is the problem? It’s because of the type of tax the government has imposed on our people. A hawker selling ordinary sachet water pays between N300 and N500 every day. If you calculate it, he or she is paying over N100,000 a year.
“If that money is being properly utilised, our teeming young men, the youths and women will have free education, they will have good health facilities for our children, and they will have good infrastructure for the state. Today we don’t have all these because our taxes are not being applied where they should be applied.”
The minister stated that the massive defection into the APC across the state showed that the people are beginning to acknowledge the projects being executed by the President Bola Tinubu administration in the state.
The defection took place during a rally at Aku town in Igbo-Etiti local government area of the state.
Nnaji was accompanied by the state Chairman of the APC, Chief Ugochukwu Agballah; the member representing Udi-Ezeagu federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Sunday Umeha; the Director General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Prof Nnanyelugo Ike Muonso; and other party stalwarts.
While commending Engr Celestine Attah, a former House of Assembly candidate under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), for leading members of the APGA, Labour Party (LP), and the Peoples Democratic (PDP) in the local government into the APC, the minister promised more employment for young people from the area and more federal infrastructure in the state.
Nnaji stated that the APC in the state had been repositioned to take over the government of Enugu State in 2027 and appealed to the people of the state to support the party and President Bola Tinubu’s re-election to attract more federal appointments and infrastructure to the state.
He said, “The coming election will not be like the previous one because right now we have a party. Before, we didn’t have a party. APC was a mercantile party, a party they use for trading in Enugu State; they use it to trade with the PDP. But now all the moles who were trading with the party have been shown the way out.”
Also speaking, Chief Agballah, the state chairman of APC, expressed gratitude to President Tinubu for the ongoing reconstruction of the Ninth Mile—Opi—Makurdi road and other federal projects in the state.
He said that for many years, under the governance of a party, the Igbo-Etiti people supported for 26 years, the entire local government was completely inaccessible due to the complete collapse of road infrastructure in the LGA, until the coming of the government of President Tinubu’s APC.
Agballah added that the president had given the people of the area two brand new international-standard dual-carriage express roads: one from Ninth Mile to Opi Nsukka and another federal road from the same Ninth Mile to Makurdi.
He said, “Our plan in Enugu is very intentional in our politics. APC is a party for serious-minded, ideologically change-oriented progressives who want to change the status quo in Enugu because, for 26 years, the PDP leadership has held our people hostage. Enugu, which used to be the number one state in South Eastern Nigeria, is now coming last.
“It’s because of the one-party system that the PDP has been giving us poor governance. We are committed to giving Enugu the best, bringing about a creative and high-performing governance, and that’s why we advocate for competitive democracy in Enugu.
“We would want those in government to promote their party while those in opposition to bring out credible candidates that will vigorously challenge them so that anyone who finds himself in power after 2027 will no longer take the people of Enugu State for granted. We want to restore the dreams of the founding fathers of Wawa Land.
“When they created Enugu, it was first among equals. Enugu was more developed than all states in the entire South East and also the South South states of Rivers, Cross River and Akwa Ibom. Enugu was also more developed than Delta State. Enugu was competing with Ibadan, Kaduna and Lagos states, which were regional capitals.”
Umeha, speaking on behalf of the APC House of Representatives caucus members from Enugu State, predicted that the APC would take over the Lion Building, Enugu State Government House, in 2027.
