OPEN LETTER TO CHIEF ORJI UZOR KALU (2)

RE: What happened to the ₦1 trillion Abia earned during your tenure (1999-2007)? My second advise or infact warning, is that you should henceforth desist from harassing Gov T.A Orji. Just think about it, are you the only Governor who disagreed with his successor in office? Why all the fuzz? Have you ever heard Dr Peter Odili, Chief Attah, Mr Donald Duke, Alhaji Bafawara, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, Alhaji Adamu Muazu etc, say anything against their successors? There is something fundamentally childish and unbecoming about this whole episode. Can't you simply get on with your life, really? But if you choose to persist on this course, and keep abusing Governor T.A Orji, we are firmly resolved to answer you in kind. Our people have decided that this nonsense has gone on for too long. It has to come to an end now!

Let me say upfront that I had intended to make these exchanges with you, civil and educated. Apparently, you are not so minded. Your diatribe against me last Wednesday, in your Sex, Crime and Gossip tabloid, was a sickening reflection of the perverse quality of your mind and its chronic inability to rise to the rigorous demands of cerebral discourse.

I was not disappointed, knowing you, artful dodger! Your intention was to distract me from the core issue of your dismal performance as governor of our dear state and even more importantly, your prodigious squandering of the over N1 trillion Abia state earned in that period. Sorry sir, i will not fall for that cheap trick! It is the oldest trick in the business, hurling abuses in order to divert attention. Let us face the issues which i believe Abians and millions of other Nigerians are really interested in. What did you achieve as Governor in 8 years and what did you do with the N1 trillion Abia earned, internally (1GR), and externally, from the federation account? This is the question history will forever pose to you.
You were elected Governor in 1999 and entrusted with the responsibility of leading Abia State and adding value to her. It was an esteemed mandate. Abia had suffered immensely in the hands of various soldiers of fortune who governed her under the military. Umuahia, the state capital, was the epic centre of the Nigerian civil war, having served as the capital of the defunct Biafra. As a young man, many had expected you to see your election as a historic opportunity for a new generation of leaders to seize the moment and put Abia on the path of sustained socio-economic development. But eight years after the fact, what was your record? You claimed in your initial onslaught against Governor T.A Orji, that he is now converting the projects you established as his own. What projects? You assumed office in 1999 and inherited a dilapidated and ramshackle Governors lodge and residence. These facilities had been requisitioned by the first military Administration when the state was created in 1999. You spent eight years living and working in the same make shift buildings. You didn’t build a governor’s lodge.

You didn’t build a governor’s office. You didn’t build a state secretariat, (even Governor Achike Udenwa of Imo State whom you often made fun of at your dinner table built a state secretariat.) You didn’t build an office for the judiciary. The house of assembly is still occupying a temporary office. The commissioners quarters your predecessor started was not completed. Unknown to millions of Nigerians, Abia state is therefore the only state of its age where the seat of Government is still located in temporary buildings, 23 years after. For eight years, the broadcasting corporation of Abia state functioned in temporary apartments. Indeed, everything under you was temporary. You didn’t build even a single dualized road in 8 years. You didn’t build one hospital or even a maternity, or a market, except the Igbere evening market. You ignored Aba, Abia’s commercial nerve centre and allowed that great town to lose traction and become wasted. You left Umuahia worse than you met it, allowing the golden Guinnea Brewery to collapse. Sir, what did you really achieve in Abia State? What did you give to Abiriba, your next door neighbour and Arochukwu, the community you claimed to have adopted? I once asked Chief Emma Nwokoro why you treated Arochukwu so cruelly.

You ignored the collpased intra city roads and didn’t pay attention to the perennial water shortage. Yet, at every opportunity, you would go to Arochukwu visiting with many of their illustrious sons. What of Ukwa-Ngwa, what is your record there? The strategic road which passes from Umuahia through the heart of Ngwa land, Ururuka road, and which you announced on television that you would reconstruct, was abandoned. You didn’t build a stadium. You didn’t build even one secondary school. You didn’t set up a University. It was Gen Ike Nwachukwu who set up the Abia State University. Governor Evan Enwerem set up the Imo State University. Governor Sam Egwu set up Ebonyi state University.
So your Excellency, what did you achieve in Abia that T.A Orji is now claiming? Please tell me? Practically, anything of note in Abia State today which Okpara and Mbakwe did not build, was built by Gov. T.A. Orji… New governor’s lodge, new secretariat, new governor’s office, new conference centre, new judiciary complex, new general market and new office complex, etc.
THE TRIAL OF ORJI UZOR KALU.
You were elected Governor and subsequently re-elected. The governorship is a full time job. But that was not the way you saw it. For you, it was a part time job, a platform to expand your fledging business empire, SLOK, using the time and resources of Abia State. So while the fortunes of Abia state were dwindling under you, the fortunes of your SLOK business empire was expanding exponentially. While in office, you set up an airline, SLOK AIRLINE. You set up a bank, First International Bank, Gambia. When you attended board meetings of the bank in the Gambia, Abia state government usually paid your bills and the ecstacode of the officials in your entourage.
You set up a shipping line. You set up an insurance company, while a plethora of companies fronted for you in the construction business. You increased your equity in the defunct Hallmark Bank Plc. You set up a newspaper, The Sun and also applied for a license to set up a bank in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the State owned Newspaper, the Ambassador, was deliberately allowed to vegetate. You didn’t build any housing estate. Meanwhile the only one which the military government had established, the Ehimiri Housing Estate, you acquired over 24 units for your personal use.
ICING ON THE CAKE: In 2007, you took us on a tour of your palatial castle in Igbere. You were in an expansive mood that day and so failed to note that the look on my face was actually a grimace.
I was put off by the grotesque display of opulence and was greatly troubled by the sublime irony of it all. For 8 years, you built virtually nothing in Abia state, not even an office to work from or a residence to live in: And yet you built a palatial mansion, fit for a Saudi King, in your village, just 20 kilometres from Government House! You showed us the guest chalet, 72 rooms, the large lecture hall, larger in your own words than the main hall of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), the tennis courts, the various swimming pools, the 22-hole golf course, the land you mapped out for the proposed aerodrome (to land small gulf stream jets) the orchard, e.t.c, One question that kept ringing in my mind that day was not where you got the money from (the answer was quiet obvious) rather it was, “so you know how to build befitting structures and you didn’t build even a lodge for the governor of Abia State?” Your Excellency, I am still curious: why? Was it an act of wickedness or plain selfishness? Did you nurse a psychological hatred for Abia and her people? What did our people do wrong by you? How could you, a young man – given such a wonderful opportunity – so crassly abuse it? How could you have treated Abia as war booty? All the contracts in the Ministry of Information, at least during my tenure, were executed by the company belonging to your brother, Prince Nnanna Kalu. For 8 years, the Ministry of Environment was absolutely under your mother. She nominated all the commissioners and managed all the contracts. Choice real estate in Umuahia and Aba, were allocated to your family or interests representing them. And yet, when Governor T.A took over, you wanted that regime to continue. You asked him to cede the Abia State Government-owned General Hospital in Umunanto, the only one in the zone, to you to serve as the teaching hospital of your proposed SLOK University of Technology. Haba Oga, can it ever be enough? T.A’s refusal, (documented) is part of your bitterness towards him. What you may not know is that it was Abia Elders who advised him not to cede that hospital to you. They argued that you made enough money to build a hospital if you needed one.

That is also my considered view. No government in Abia State, now or in the future, should so indulge you again. You have made enough from the system. Something should be left for the people of Abia State. Abia is not a vassal of the Kalu family!
MATTERS ARISING FROM YOUR RESPONSE IN SUN NEWSPAPER
Oga, i sincerely do not relish the prospects of rummaging in the sewer with you. I believe that adults can, and in fact should conduct debates, no matter how contentious the topic, with civility. Nevertheless, I am constrained to respond in kind to you not really because I wish to descend to your gutter, but mainly to make a crucial point to you. Your Excellency, you do not possess a monopoly of rascality, loud mouth or foul language. Well, don’t blame me, you asked for this, now here goes, sir.
You accused me of disagreeing with my father, and yet buried him in style. Well, I did o! So what’s the big deal with a son disagreeing with his father on occasion? Which young man does not? But what of you; did you have a father? When did he die, and how was he buried? I am referring to the father of a governor, the self-acclaimed richest man in Abia State? You once said that your father never visited you at the Government House throughout your 8 years as governor. Please why was that so, if i may ask? Could it be because he was bitter with you? And why? Does it have anything to do with the occultic and incestuous desecration of sacred maternal values in his family? Which father would be happy to so share his wife? Indeed, your Excellency, you should be the last person to talk about morality and family values. The truth is that you have none. You are morally bankrupt, through and through. The funny thing is that it is common knowledge. You made your choice a long time ago to pursue the god of money. And I must say, you have succeeded. But the price is that you are bereft of honour and integrity. You should not complain, after all, you got what you always wanted – wealth. You believe that with money you can purchase anything. Your latest project is to become a Papal knight. Well, you are allegedly a Catholic and know the rules. So which wife will you present? Ifeoma, Ifeyinwa, Gladys or Waziri?

You accused me of not having a home in Abuja or Lagos and that I beg for adverts for my newspaper. You are correct sir. I am a tenant in Lagos and I don’t live in Abuja so I don’t need a house there. But look at it this way, your Excellency; you have houses in Lagos, Aba, Umuahia, Igbere, Abuja, Dubai, Charlotte (USA), Maryland, (USA) London and South Africa; all of them residential! And yet every night you sleep only in one room and in one house. Don’t you think the joke really is on you? If I may ask, what really are you seeking with this primitive accumulation of wealth? The wise man wrote in the book of Proverbs: “don’t envy the wicked man his riches, in a twinkle of an eye they would develop wings and fly away!” As the Igbo also say, “A beggar is better than a thief” And I would add, he is also better than a serial looter, an abuser of public office and an aggrandiser!
A judicial panel of inquiry recently concluded an inquiry into the disappearance of the Goss Printing Machine purchased by your predecessor, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu for The Ambassador newspaper. It is alleged that a former top Govt. official spirited it out of government warehouse in Ahiake to Lagos, where it is being used to print a certain tabloid.
I remember that the panel summoned you, but you declined to appear. But sir, between you and I, tell me, do you know anything about the missing printing press? I also understand that it is part of the charges the EFCC arraigned you for.
The problem you have is that you don’t make a distinction between the public and private. As governor, you abdicated the duties for which Abia people hired you, and instead leveraged on the position to build your personal financial empire. You forgot I was still commissioner when you set up The Sun Newspaper in 2001 and saw how you shamelessly and recklessly used your office to market the newspaper.

You forced all state Government owned ministries, parasatals, institutions, local governments, e.t.c to place regular advertisements in it. You harassed government agents, contractors, counter parties, banks and other institutions, to patronize it. In 2003 after your re-election, my friend Mr Vin Mgbemena, former MD of Orange Drugs Ltd, placed congratulatory adverts in This Day and Champion newspapers, for you. You were angry and queried him why he didn’t place the adverts in The Sun. After his meeting with you, he told me that you are an amazing character. “He didn’t even thank me for the adverts, he was peeved that it was not in The Sun”. To imagine that you once aspired to contest for the Presidency. Just imagine you as President of Nigeria! Hmm, you would convert NNPC into a subsidiary of SLOK Group! And they say you want to be senator! Ha, ha, ha!!! Please, on what record of achievement, if I may ask? The amazing thing is that despite your fabulous wealth, you are so pathetically cheap and beggarly. Do you know the common joke about you among the Lagos in-crowd? That you are the only governor who rather than add to your friends pockets, would rather take even the last kobo from them. The late Tayo Aderinokun told me that he and the bank used to buy air tickets for some of your foreign junkets.

Your former friend, Prince Sunny Aku is relieved that he no longer has to pick your bills when you are in Lagos and pay for the cost of your private jet rentals. Chief Chikwe Udensi still rues how much he spent on you. Remember in 2001 when we were in London and Governor Ibori gave you eight hundred pounds for Chuka Odom, former Hon. Minister of State, FCT? You took three hundred pounds from the money claiming, “after all, if I didn’t give you the job, James would not have given you the money, Chuka Obu asi? ( Chuka, is it a lie?)” Of course Chuka agreed with you. Please sir, how many governors can descend so low? But of course that’s you. No amount is too small, just as no amount is big enough. Should I talk of your former staffer you had recommended for appointment. When as a mark of respect he brought the C of O of the four plots of land he was allocated in Abuja? Remember what you said to him, “I will take one, give one to Odiuko (your mother) and one to Nnanna (your brother)!” You collected three and left him with only one. That’s how you accumulated your buildings in Abuja and all over the world. However, let me ask you sir; truly how much is enough? Will it ever be enough? What is responsible for this craze for material acquisition, a craze that recognizes no moral inhibitions? I fear o!
There should be a limit to everything. But you recognise no limits. No role is too low or degrading for you. As you told Chijioke Nwakodo and some others long ago in Umuahia, “the difference between you and the typical person is that there is no limit to how far you can go to get whatever you want!” You see sir, it is this amoral disposition that has always worried reasonable people about you. Even in those days when we tried to repackage you, that was the feedback we always got from the public. “He cannot be trusted!” You would agree, they have a point. They recall the early years of the Babangida administration when a certain “upsart” presented a letter allegedly signed by Gen Sani Abacha to Governor Amadi Ikwechegh on the strength of which he was appointed the chairman of the Cooperative and Commerce Bank (CCB). Subsequently, it emerged that the letter was a forgery. DHQ tongue-lashed Ikwechegh who promptly nullified the appointment thereby making you the shortest serving Chairman of a bank in the world. Sir, some people still remember. They also remember a certain youngster who was surreptitiously admitted into Government College Umuahia in the 70′s as the alleged son of the famous Nnanna Kalu. The story of the pugnacious Maiduguri-based businessman who cut pieces of paper and mixed them up with naira notes and announced a huge donation at the Borno State Public Appeal Fund Lunch, has became legendary.

I understand that your Excellency is angry with Abia State University for withdrawing your B.Sc (Hons) Political Science certificate. Pray tell me, what would a reasonable institution do regarding that odious episode? Is it right that a Visitor to a University would enrol in the final year class of the same University, more than a decade after dropping out from another university, write exams and expect to be examined objectively by the same lecturers who depend on him for their salaries and career advancement? Haba, oga, don’t you have ‘stop’ in your dictionary? For your information, there have been intense speculations in Abia over who actually wrote that exam, including the final year project. I have my suspicions. Could it be that same “very close aide?”
If the truth is to be told sir, you live in a glass house, as someone who phoned me last week said. You know it, so why are you embarking on such a risky venture of throwing stones? But I know why.

You are doing what we Lagosians call “ogboju”. You assume that you can shout people down. Or maybe because you have set up a sprawling newspaper empire, no one can dare you. However, you are wrong. If you like, you can set up a dozen more newspapers, and employ a legion of journalists to launder your image. But as William Shakespeare prophesied long ago, “not even all the waters of Arabia can wash away this stain!! Sir, you are besmirched for life.
It is wrong and unconscionable for you to set up newspapers to launder your image, turning a national newspaper into a personal album and turning otherwise respectable professionals into attack dogs. No Publisher has done that in the history of the media in Nigeria. A friend of man keeps count of how many times your picture makes the front cover of THE SUN and the ailing NEW TELEGRAPH. No other publisher so abuses his newspaper. Indeed, you have no sense of propriety. How can you devote two newspapers to attack your successor in office regularly?

In normal circumstances, no editor would accept what you are doing, especially this idea of a column being ghosted in your name weekly. What is that! You have corrupted the profession. Now you want to be President of NPAN? Ha, as what? Anyway, be rest assured that some of us will review our membership as soon as you succeed in buying yourself into that esteemed position. I don’t believe you possess the nobility of character to lead such an August body. Oga, with due respect, allow me to advise you as your former strategist. Calm down a little and be a bit more circumspect. You can’t continue hustling in the same manner you were doing in Maidugiri over twenty five years ago. You are all over the place, running around. Usually, as people age, they tend to slow down and become more measured and even dignified. This business of hawking proposals all over town at your age and level, harassing governors and all, is demeaning. In government house circles in Uyo, you have become the butt of jokes over your repeated attempts to talk Governor Godswill Akpabio into investing in your New Telegraph. He does not want to. Can’t you get the message? He believes that what he has done for your Sun newspaper group so far is more than enough. It is also quite interesting that you are struggling with New Telegraph.

Three Managing Directors in less than six months, and still counting. I heard you also had to slash salaries a few months ago. Now that you are no longer governor to leverage on your office, may be you can appreciate how difficult it is to publish a daily newspaper. And these are early days yet. After squandering the N500m “loan” you obtained from the coffers of SUN NEWSPAPERS account with Fidelity Bank, part of the quarterly N250m Government PR largesse paid from that our brother’s office in Abuja, now you will be forced to bring out your own money. That would be crunch time, since you don’t like spending your own money; indeed, you are an OPM (other peoples money) expert!
My second advice or in fact warning, is that you should henceforth desist from harassing Gov T.A Orji. Just think about it, are you the only Governor who disagreed with his successor in office? Why all the fuzz? Have you ever heard Dr Peter Odili, Chief Attah, Mr Donald Duke, Alhaji Bafawara, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, etc, say anything against their successors? There is something fundamentally childish and unbecoming about this whole episode. Can’t you simply get on with your life, really? But if you choose to persist on this course, and keep abusing Governor T.A Orji, we are firmly resolved to answer you in kind.
Our people have decided that this nonsense has gone on for too long. It has to come to an end now!
Finally, my dearest oga, pay attention to the wisdom of the ancients: No king reigns for ever. You know why? Otherwise he would become God and no man can be God. Nothing lasts for ever. No one holds all the aces. No one knows everything, not even Albert Einstein, voted as the most intelligent man of the millennium. The path of wisdom is to know when to stop.

Ask any law enforcement officer, the reason most criminals are eventually caught is that they don’t know when to stop. You would remember the old saying “every day is for the thief, but one day is for the house owner.” Whereas you can fool some of the people some of the time, you certainly can’t fool all the people all the time. Biko, if you ask me, i will say you have tried. But in all honesty, it is time to stop, even if it is only to review. Your first son (the one outside wedlock) will soon marry and you will become a grand pa. All these gra gra, what is it in aid of?

As the late British writer, Enoch Powel once opined, “every political career eventually ends in failure.” It is especially so for those who don’t know when to stop. Artful dodgers do get caught.
As the Igbo say, it is the small shit that spoils that “place.” It is true that old soldiers never die, but then they also fade away! In the theatre, when an actor overstays on the stage, the audience eventually boos him off.
In the old Oyo empire, when an Alaafin desecrates the land as you have done, the Oyomesi will present him with the calabash of death. His tragedy is his own making. Obviously, times have changed. But when a recalcitrant and cantankerous has-been refuses to heed the sunset, he becomes cannon fodder for children at the moonlight play.
Your Excellency, I regret to say this, you have left us with little choice. It is not only sad, it is really tragic

Still on Orji’s transformation programme in Abia

By Ben Duru
Bureau Chief, Umuahia

According to Mahatman Ghandi, “We cannot be speakers who do not listen. But neither can we be listeners who do not speak.” The above clearly paints the picture of two classes of people whose positions concerning the well-being of Abia State have become suspect. Following the spirited efforts put up by these classes of people, majority of them from neighbouring states, political analysts have insisted that the number seemed to be increasing because the earlier postulations of their predecessors had failed and would continue to fail. The analysts posit that the horde of ‘hired writers’ paid to cleverly and ingloriously cast aspersions on the performances of incumbent Governor Theodore Orji were finding it very difficult to carry out the hatchet jobs without incurring the wrath of the people, who, for the first time in their lives, have seen the real dividends of democracy delivered to them without much hassles.

Dr. Jonas Olemba, a political analyst based in Aba, insisted that majority of those who have either written anything on Abia State and those who would write in the future were terrible speakers that had failed to listen to the words of the real Abians they are pretending to be writing about. According to him, “these are the first class of people identified by the late sage Ghandi. These writers, very good writers, I must confess, only visit the state based on the brief they have received and visit only the places they have been told to visit. They also speak to those they have been asked to talk to and swiftly return to their base, put up their write up and pocket whatever had been provided for the job. These set of writers, if you have followed them, as I have done, are not from Abia State, because there are very few people from the state that would completely disregard the monumental democracy dividends which the present administration have put on ground to write in the contrary.”
Continuing, he said that the reasons for his position were not far-fetched. “You will notice that none of these writers have ever mentioned in their write-ups that there was a time that Abia State, especially Aba, which they seemed to have suddenly developed huge love and affection for, was under the siege of armed robbers, kidnappers and where vices were a daily occurrence. They totally failed to mention in their write-ups that during this period, none of them could venture into the state or to Aba, but remained in the comfort of their homes outside the state, leaving the masses of the city to bear the brunt. They take for granted that during the period of insecurity, most businesses relocated, influential people stayed away from Abia and the area became a pariah of some sort. Today, nobody is talking about that era because one man stood up against these criminal elements and sent them outside the state. He secured the integrity of the ordinary Abian on the streets, who had become the laughing stock of his friends and colleagues either at the Ariaria Market or Government offices in Lagos and Abuja.”

Olemba maintained further that it was easy to forget the times when events were in the contrary, especially when such events had been clinically dealt a mortal blow, adding that what Abians and non-Abians passed through in the hands of the criminals were better imagined than described. Furthermore, he averred that “assuming Governor Orji did not do anything and the insecurity had continued, what would have been the position of those commenting on the events in the state? I think those in the class of speaking without listening to what the people are saying, have only exposed themselves to the fact that they are not writing to effect a change, but simply to satisfy some cravings of those whose major occupation is to ensure the subjugation of Abia State as a third rate state, where the people would never be able to hold their heads high in the comity of states.”
The political analyst also said that those in the class of listeners without speaking are the traders at the various markets scattered across the three senatorial districts, who would not let their voices be heard, but are always the first to attend a government function, eat, drink, listen to all the speeches made at the event, clap more than everyone else, but would never lift their voice in the defence or against what they had heard.

“If you corner this people to ask them why they are keeping quiet, they will readily tell you that people have already said what they had in mind and that there was no other reason for them to speak. These classes of Abians are found in top government offices in Umuahia and elsewhere and what they will do will you shock you, if you have ever sat with them at any function. I can tell you authoritatively that if you go to the Abia State Secretariat, which the governor built recently, and ask the first set of workers that had moved in what their impressions were on the performance of the governor vis-a-vis the state of their affairs before now; they will simply laugh it off. But what the governor has done for them is of monumental importance, taking into cognizance the suffering that the workers have had to put up with since the creation of the state in 1991.”

Speaking in the same vein, Mrs. Nkemjika Okafor, a businesswoman based at Ariaria Aba, wondered why people tend to look the other way when something they cannot imagine happens that has brought smiles on the faces of people. She expressed pain that in the last three years of the present administration, changes have occurred in Aba and its environs more than all the previous administrations put together, yet some handful of people could throw caution to the wind and still speak negatively.

She said: “The South East is peopled by individuals interested in selfish efforts, and once someone comes with the intention of the whole, they quickly move in to either destabilize or rubbish him. This is what I see happening in Abia State. If I were told that a man would be so selfless and courageous to do away with a stamped hegemony and establish a train where every Abian could join at will without let or hindrance, I would say it was not possible, but I have seen it in Governor Theodore Orji. And let me say this, no matter how hard they may try to rubbish him, he still remains the best thing that has happened to the state and would eventually be crowned the greatest, when he vacates office, because he will be dressed in the same garb as the former governor of Old Imo State Dee Sam Onunaka Mbakwe, may God bless his soul.”

Aba, no doubt, is the hotbed of Abia State, taking into cognizance the fact that it is the commercial city, where the good, the bad and the ugly converge. It is another capital in her own right and deserves every attention from governments at all levels. This is what makes Abia State to be different from most of the other states in the South East and South/South. However, the rot in the city preceded the present administration, same as the other parts of the state, including the capital city of Umuahia. Therefore, the task of revolutionary transformation will never be a one-off thing.1 The truth is that the present administration may not been readily seen or appreciated because it is like the foundation-laying of a building, irrespective of its height.

Any foundation, whether done by a white or black man, is always messy and dirty. The amount of funds buried in the sand is not known the outsider, it is only known to the owner of the structure. Once the DPC of a building is done, the messy sight is covered up and what the eye sees is the beauty onwards. This is exactly what is happening in Abia, which is why the governor has always called for the understanding of the people. Consistently, the governor had said he cannot finish the work in eight years, but the foundation has been laid for a stronger, better, growing and economic viable Abia. She needs the support of all and sundry and such support will be done through the government that has shown goodwill and capacity to provide a level playing field for all and sundry to play their own part.

DAILY INDEPENDENT

Reagan Ufomba’s Gubernatorial Daydream

Dreams of greatness are usually inviting but getting there is not a picnic. So, most desperadoes embark on all forms of shenanigans including dancing naked in the marketplace, just to illusively satisfy the daydreaming. Reagan Ufomba is of that stock. His obsession to be at the helm of affairs in Abia is gradually turning his seemingly gentle mien to that of a hunger-stricken carnivorous being, ready to engage its owner. In fairness, there is nothing wrong with having an ambition or aspiring to a high office, but there is everything wrong in running down the entire system, may be to play to the gallery. For anybody to struggle to make a political capital out of the vexed issue of disengagement of non-indigenes from the State civil service on account of mounting recurrent bills, necessitated by the new minimum wage, which has long been rested, as Governor Orji had approved the re-engagement of the affected persons, is a mischief of monumental proportions.

Is it not contradictory for someone who claimed to have rebelled against societal ills in the seminary school, PDP and APGA, to have, without a hoot, quietly resigned his position in the obvious maladministration in place in Abia State in 2003? Ufomba’s claim of rejecting to negotiate with TA Orji in 2011, when he couldn’t have bargained from a position of strength, by virtue of his woeful performance in the governorship election, is laughable. His character and careless utterances betray him as someone beyond his political turf. A thinker from Cameroun once admonished that when you give man money and power, you will see the beast in him. And for a man like Reagan who will remain far from the corridors of power to be behaving like a carpetbagger in his perpetual sojourn as a governorship aspirant, pollutes our political space and portends grave implications for the State, if such characters, by hook or crook, assume the reins of power. A hood does not make a monk! Even his borrowed robe of Ochiagha title is a mark of hollowness and superiority complex. Does he understand the meaning of Ochiagha (commander of troops)? In fact he is behaving like a former governor of the State who hoodwinked the people of the State with titles of DR and a national honour of MON when they were not earned in actual sense.

Come to think of it, may I ask, which troops have Reagan commanded. Is it in the military or where else? Or troops of brainwashed never-do-wells that hang-on around him with a false sense of hope, typical of the inordinately ambitious Sorcerer’s Apprentice? He should update us on how he attained the title Ochiagha before insulting the people’s psyche with a charade of falsehood and toxic megalomaniac grandstanding. His unrepentantly cocky assertion of being the next governor of Abia is as amusing as it is provoking. Abians are yet to forgive him for daring to insinuate a popularity work at Aba with Governor TA Orji in April 2012, just because he claims to pay the school fees of his relations and those of his concubine’s children, while those who run robust scholarship schemes and Foundations to uplift the poor are shunning publicity. Where was this uncrowned Ochiagha when kidnappers almost overran Aba? Why did he desert the area until Governor Orji restored normalcy to the troubled spot? Who does not know that the feat of stemming the scourge of insecurity turned-in harvests of laurels to Governor Orji? Perhaps Ufomba should be reminded that Abians are not suffering from amnesia and that his antecedents cannot be burnished by orchestrated media campaigns.

It is only a myopic person like Reagan who fails to realise the gains of relocating the markets from the heart of Umuahia, the State capital to more spacious sites. Instead of taking the present administration to the cleaners for summoning the political will to do what has been the wish of successive administrations from the East-Central State days, the likes of Reagan should have kept quiet so that people will take his silence for maturity. Now he has inadvertently revealed his lack of clear-cut vision that qualifies him to aspire to govern the people of God’s own State. Abians should therefore be weary of people like Reagan as he will be more dangerous as the 2015 elections gather momentum.
. Nwankwo contributed this piece from Isiala-Ngwa North LGA, Abia State

John Ndubuka’s Death: Igbere TV Apologizes To Gov. Orji’s Son, Calls for Arrest of Orji Uzor Kalu’s Aide

Information reaching 247ureports.com from Umuahia reveals that the noise generated over the accidental death of the cousin to Engineer Chinedu Orji [Governor Orji’s son] recently may have been result of blackmail ‘reports’ authored by some of Orji Uzor Kalu’s aides and published on Igbere TV – an outfit financed by Orji Uzor Kalu – the former governor of Abia State. The ‘reports’ had attributed the cause of John Ndukuba’s death to Engineer Chinedu Orji. The ‘report’ went on to tag the Governor’s son as a terrorist.

But the outfit ‘Igbere TV’ was quick to apologize for the publication’. It came through written message from Igbere TV following the arrest of one of the send authors of the publication.

The apology reads –

“Once again we at Igbere TV are dissociating ourselves from our former colleague who have aligned with one odimegwu onwumere to link the arrest of one Ebere Wabara to Abia gov.

Our investigations revealed that Ebere Wabara who is Orji Uzor Kalus P A.  was arrested by the police on an article he wrote in SUN claiming that Engr. Chinedum Orji killed his late cousin, John Ndubuka. Recall that this falsehood was published on Igbere TV and we did apologize to Engr. Orji when we found out the truth.

The police authorities have been investigating this incident and since Ebere Wabara claims knowledge of who killed John, police want him to come and give more clue in the court. As for the wife of Wabara who was lamenting the husband’s arrest, she should have warned him against defaming people’s character. Let Ebere go to court and provide evidence over his claims. We at igbere TV want Ebere prosecuted in the law court”.

Ebere Wabara was picked up following a court issued warrant to appear in Court. He was picked up in Lagos. He is due to appear in Court in Umuahia, Abia State.

Conflict and underdevelopment by Simon Kolawole

Simon Kolawole Live!: By Simon Kolawole, Email: simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com

I had not been to Abia State in ages. My visit to Umuahia sometime last year set me thinking yet again about the Nigerian condition. That was when today's topic nestled in my mind: the role of conflict in development. It is not just leadership and corruption that impede development: conflict is a strong repellent. Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, as the governor of the state from 1999 to 2007, was most of the time at loggerheads with President Olusegun Obasanjo. The battleground was the media. Orji Kalu's airline, Slok, was eventually grounded. Abia suffered as the state was denied plenty federal juice as a result of the conflict.

Kalu eventually defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to form a new party, Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), as Obasanjo squeezed him out. Then in 2007, Kalu anointed his Chief of Staff, Chief Theodore Orji,  as his successor. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), clearly playing Obasanjo's script, arrested and detained Orji before the election just to get back at Kalu. Some of us in the media were hearing the voice of Jacob and feeling the hand of Esau. We criticised EFCC. Nevertheless, Orji remained in detention. But he still won. EFCC had to release him to be sworn in. We were ushered into President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's era of "rule of law".

Sooner than later, Orji and his "godfather", Kalu, were at daggers drawn. A state in desperate need of peace and development went into a standstill. In 2010, this cold war became an open conflict and hot words were exchanged in the newspapers. It appeared Abia was programmed for conflict. That had been its lot since 1999. But while Orji and Kalu fell out, the relationship between Orji and the elders of the state (who were also not on good terms with Kalu) improved tremendously. Orji's performance in the last four years, in my opinion, is certainly way beyond what he recorded between 2007 and 2010. Significantly, unlike Kalu, Orji is in the good books of Abuja. This means a lot in the Nigerian equation.

Last year, on a visit to Dr. Eze Chikamnayo, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy (who jocularly calls me "my leader"), my first shock on entering Umuahia was that the market was gone. It had been a nuisance in the centre of town. The traders now have something like a whole city to themselves, with heavily subsidised buses taking shoppers back and forth. For the first time, I saw dualised roads in Umuahia. I saw new government structures under construction ─ a multi-storey secretariat, a judiciary complex and a conference centre. I visited the Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Centre. I visited remodelled and rehabilitated schools. I saw new housing estates. Umuahia is beginning to look like a capital city. These projects, Chikamnayo said, are replicated all over the state. Obviously, when conflict is minimised, there is a good chance for development.

Thus, in the hierarchy of development repellents, conflict has to take its pride of place. But we often understate it. Conflict comes in two species: violent and non-violent. The Boko Haram violent conflict has dragged Nigeria, particularly the North, backward but we do not seem to understand this simple fact. Apart from the death and destruction, the climate of fear has scared away investors from several parts of the North. Infrastructural development has been hampered by insecurity, which has also gulped resources. What we spend on security and compensation for victims could have been spent productively. And this is to say nothing about the grand paralysis of economic activities and the ruin of poor people's livelihoods.

While our politicians are still busy playing 2015 politics with Boko Haram, the conflict is killing us softly. We do not seem to worry with our enormous security spending in the last five years. Do the math. It could have done the whole country some good if spent elsewhere. A threat to any part of Nigeria is a threat to all, but narrow-mindedness means most of us cannot see beyond our nose. Some Northerners were busy saying President Goodluck Jonathan was behind the bombings, while their friends from the South said it was those who lost the 2011 elections. While we were busy whipping up sentiments, the militants were getting stronger and meaner. If we were wise enough, our energy would have been spent on how to quench the fire, no matter who started it.

Away from violent conflict, we have two forms of non-violent conflict, and both are repellents of development. One is legal and the other political. Because of the way and manner we conduct elections in Nigeria, there is every tendency for legal conflict. The declared loser will go to court to seek justice. You cannot beat a child and order the child not to cry. But, then, this has a cost to development. The declared winner not only faces enormous distraction with the uncertainty beclouding his legitimacy, he is also going to take liberty with state resources to defend himself in court. Fictitious contracts are often awarded to create slush funds to pay lawyers and bribe judges. Many times, these cases go all the way to the Supreme Court. What a cost to economic resources, including precious time. Only a few governors get things done while their election is a subject of litigation.

The second manifestation of non-violent conflict is political. One example is the infighting in Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), which has cost Nigeria billions of naira. I hesitate to say billions of dollars. Many projects have been stalled as a result of this as the gladiators flex muscles. I wish I could compute the amount of money that has gone into chartered flights as the governors fly around the country day and night to plot strategies. The kind of money that has gone into bankrolling media wars could have been spent sinking boreholes and filling potholes. The failure of the 36 governors to sit under one roof to continue with their peer review-driven development initiatives on polio, agriculture, education and water has injured the progress of Nigeria in many aspects.

Another manifestation of non-violent political conflict, which we discussed today using the Abia example, is the one between godfathers and their godsons. It is very commonplace in Nigeria. When someone helps you to gain political power, there are implications that, if not well managed, could be dire. To avoid running into conflict with your godfather, you have to kowtow to him. And if you do, you could be in trouble. You run the risk of being in government without being in power. And if you don't kowtow, you could also be in trouble. You risk instability in your government. This is a major development repellent in Nigeria. Conflict, either violent or non-violent, is not in the interest of our progress. When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.

As we continue these regular conversations on the stumbling blocks to our development, we need to promote conflict into the discourse. Poor leadership is no doubt the major hindrance, and corruption is inevitably an icon of poor leadership. And conflict? Don't underrate that repellent. It can kill. The political actors must learn to manage conflict in a way that it will not hurt development. They can pick their battles.

Chief T. A. Orji, Best Governor Abia Has Ever Had says Ohaneze Chieftain In Spain

The Secretary General of Ohaneze Ndigbo Spain, Hon. Uchendu Precious Onuoha has commended the good works Governor T.A. Orji has done in Abia state. Hon. Onuoha who spoke with Nigeria Masterweb publisher, Chief Charles Okereke after their fact finding mission to Abia where they toured and verified the various projects the state governor has executed and the ones proposed to carry out in his legacy projects, highly commended the Governor for his visionary and result oriented leadership.

According to the Ohaneze chieftain, “Ola agba naka ejighi enyo ele ya” meaning, a ring in the hand does not require a mirror to see it. He said that since 1991 when the state was created, from the era of the military governors to the civilian, none has done for the state what T.A. Orji has accomplished notwithstanding the state of rot he met Abia during inception.

Hon. Onuoha lamented on security in Abia State before Orji. In his words: “Before T.A. Orji came in, the information and report daily received about Abia state here in Europe and America was lamentable. Security of lives and properties, which are among the fundamental things any purposeful leader should pursue, was zero in Abia state.

“Anarchy, hailstorm and disaster were let loose on Abia people. Murder, assassination, robbery and their big brother kidnapping like a hurricane swept across Abia state. Things really fall apart in a state that hosts the great Achebe’s alma-mater and the center could no longer hold. It was a daily experience coming across Abia citizens, aged parents, traditional rulers enroute Madrid airport to America on involuntary and forced exile to stay with their siblings abroad. Others relocated to other cities in Nigeria. And many of them could not survive the sudden change of environment at old age and died. Kidnapping was like an institutionalized arm of the Government and the likes of the dare devil kidnap kingpin Osisikankwu held sway.”

The Ohaneze chieftain stressed that Abia was held ransom by mother and son and was run as a kitchen cabinet. Above all, a state that is depicted to be God’s own state became devils own state under an evil dynasty. And eventually Abians, God’s own state and people were subjected to the worship of the “ Baal” of Okija. That would give a picture of the state of things before the arrival of T.A. Orji. That is the state of Abia the Governor inherited on inception. It was like a life snake been handed over to somebody. And it takes a wise, courageous and determined man to handle such a scenario.

According to the Ohaneze chieftain, surmounting these state of chaos wouldn’t have been easy. The chieftain said the first four years of T.A. Orji’s government was spent to disentangle himself and the people of Abia from the grip and bondage of the evil dynasty of his predecessor. Hon. Onuoha continued: “The governor within that period, embarked on a rescue, deliverance and salvation mission to dismantle the high places of Baal in Abia state and set the people free. It is said in Igbo “Ndu bu isi”, meaning life is the head. Governor T.A. Orji has fought a good fight and has restored the security of lives and properties and the people of Abia are no longer embarking on forced exile, but have returned to dwell in their own domain. Abians abroad can come home and stay with their people without fear.

“The dialysis hospital he built is a new innovation in the history of health projects in the country. Even the Federal Government has not done that. Knowing that our people thrive on trading, he relocated the old markets in Umuahia and put up modern structures. New estates have been built, Government secretariat has been built, Government college Umuahia has a new edifice added, not minding he was not an old boy of this highly respectable college. He has not left Aba in the scheme of things; among his legacy projects include rebuilding Ariaria and Ahia ohu markets. Also the Abia airport and sea ports are laudable plans and projects that he has lined up to pursue. Though because of time he may not be able to accomplish all, but he has laid the structure for whoever that may come behind him if a good leader like him should pursue.”

“Though he may not have been perfect in all, but he has done very well and need to be commended.”, the Ohaneze chieftain enthused.

 

Proposed Obuaku Seaport in Abia Will Open Up Igboland To International Trade Billions

Igboland is not landlocked at all. By God’s special grace, we have an defunct ancient port in Abia State that if rebuilt can open up Igboland to international trade and the accompanying billions of dollars.

It is in the Obuaku, Ukwa West LGA, and the site lies by the Azumini River that flows into the Atlantic Ocean. And what is more, since it is just five nautical miles from the Ocean it qualifies technically as a seaport, not a river port, going by the UN’s laws.

Stalled Efforts To Dredge
Many administrations in the old Imo State and current Abia State stated their intentions to dredge that river to allow for ships to berth, but strangely something always seemed to stop them from completing it.
The truth is that dredging Azumini will cost a whole lot of money, but I would say I have not seen a serious effort to garner the money needed to dredge it.

Commercial Viability
There is no doubt about the commercial viability of the proposed Obuaku port, as the Igbos are a trading people.
If reestablished, it will not take much effort for the port to become a thriving commercial centre. Already, plans have been made for a planned city in Obuaku to be built to service the port, but it is still not yet operational.

Proximity To Other Ports
A lot of noise is also made by naysayers who don’t have Igbo interest at heart about the fact that the port is ’30′ minutes drive from the proposed Ibaka Seaport in Akwa Ibom State. These deceivers say it will be an erroneous duplication to build another port 30 minutes from the proposed Ibaka Seaport. But apart from the fact that there are many rich countries that have ports close to each other, the naysayers, whom I would prefer to call enemies of the Igbos do not know or are not willing to acknowledge the great commercial prowess of the Igbo.
If a port is built today at Obuaku, it will become an international hub, receiving goods directly from Japan, Germany, US, China and other industrialized nations. It will also promote trade withing the Gulf of Guinea with countries like Gabon, Sao Tome, and Equatorial Guinea.
And at the same time, neighboring ports like Ibaka, Calabar, PortHarcourt(Igwe Ocha), Bonny and Onne would not suffer but instead the resulting competition would create innovation and therefore increase in quality in these ports.

Whats Happening Now
The current Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji, has stated his commitment to build the Obuaku Port as a legacy of his administration, but one thing I regret is that this new initiative is coming about one year to the end of his administration, so I doubt if he will have the time to do much. I would have preferred a situation where he started this project long before now, considering the financial and other complexities of such a project.
So, what Ndigbo want from him as compensation is that he starts something significant quickly. Something that his successor will have no option but to complete.
The truth is that if we can build ports in Igboland and other parts of the Lower Niger like Ibaka, it will go a long way to turning the zonal economy and even Nigeria’s economy itself around. It will provide jobs, businesses, and boost international trade.

Another day, I’ll talk about another Igbo port; I mean Igwe Ocha also known as Port Harcourt. But for now, send me your thoughts and comments about how this port (Obuaku) can become a reality.
What do you think this port will mean to the Igbo economy? What do you think various Igbo stakeholders; the politicians, philanthropists, investors and you can do to make it come alive? Please drop your comment.

Abia: The Wolves in Sheep’s Skin

By Hilda Ifeoma Ifegwu

The classical case of betrayal chronicled in the bible in the case of Jesus Christ and Judas litter the synoptic gospels of Luke, Mark and Matthew. It equally did not escape the profuse writings of king David, the psalmist in Psalm Chapter 41, verse 9, where he said: ‘even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.’ William Shakespeare upped the tempo when he wrote Julius Caesar and portrayed Marcus Brutus as worst of all traitors and the expression, Et Tu Brute, [even you Brutus], is still in use till today and still playing out in many places on daily basis and at all levels of government, more critical in politics and business.

Such would not have been expected since Abia State has come out of the political woods, surviving political calumny, liberating the state from a stranglehold of a family oligarchy, overwhelming one of the most harrowing cases of kidnapping and armed robbery in the history of Nigeria.

Surprisingly and probably because of the insatiability of man, people keep working at counter points instead of supporting the government to improve their lots.

Well, the consolation is that in most cases of betrayal and sabotage, it has not been easy for the perpetrators of such magnitude of sabotage. Judas is still suffering till today as he is always in use as a very good example of betrayers. For instance, the names of the apostles are everyday in use with millions of namesakes, but I am yet to meet someone who answers Judas boldly. Even among our 36 governors, there are potent namesakes associated with early apostolic work- Emmanuel and Peter,for Delta and Anambra States respectively.

Chief T. A. Orji, Ochendo, in verifiable terms has turned Abia around with policy and tangible projects. More so on security and unity. It is no more news that Abia was fractious between 2007and 2009 but the governor began a re-engineering that brought Abia to a rock stabled place that has become an exemplar in case studies and reference point at home and abroad. If you can’t believe me at least you can take the words of Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, former and pioneer chairman of NDDC, PDP flag-bearer in 2007, who said in a newspaper interview that: ’Abia State PDP has never been more united than it is now. It has also never been more peaceful than it is now. And a lot of that credit goes to the governor, Chief T A Orji, who has done so well in bringing Abians together.’
Added to this testimony are the trend of firsts like the International Conference Centre, the new workers secretariat, new markets, advanced health delivery, the complexes in the courts, ASEPA, ASUBEB, JAAC houses and the new Government House. Exciting as they are to all lovers of development, not ignoring all these milestones of peace, security and policy initiatives, the monkey wrench is being so recklessly cast at work with high intent to sabotage the monumental ambience of harmony and stability in Abia.

These unyielding efforts are known, the sources of such distasteful services have been identified, especially those who lost position and have refused to be comforted but the funny and worrisome issues are those of insiders presently pretending to be with the present administration. They fund pseudo writers in the print world, energize hackers and blackmailers in the social media. Simply put, they hunt with the hounds and run with the hares. They are now warned as their nefarious activities are no more secret. It may be more honourable to quit rather than remain pretending. On a graver note, let them study the cases of Judas, Brutus in Julius Caesar and Dona Marina, a woman who betrayed her people to foreigners. In the wise words of Shakespeare: ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.

Abia State monthly IGR shores up to N500m

The Abia Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Chief Eze Chikamnayo, has said the state’s monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) had increased to N500 million.
Chikamnayo said this while briefing newsmen in Umuahia on the outcome of the state Executive Council (EXCO) meeting on Wednesday.

He said that before now, the state’s IGR was between N150 million and N200 million monthly.
The commissioner attributed the increase to efforts of the government to ‘’plug all the loopholes in the revenue collection process.

He said that on account of the improved finances of the state, the government decided to recall the non indigenes who were sacked from the state civil service in 2011.
Chikamnayo said that at least 2,500 disengaged workers had so far been recalled.
He attributed the sack of the non-Abia workers to the dwindling revenue of the state government occasioned by the minimum wage policy.

The commissioner also said that plans were underway to establish pilot grazing fields in the three senatorial districts of the state.

He said that the measure was designed to check alleged menace of herdsmen and incessant crisis between some Abia communities and the herdsmen.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some communities in the state, had at different times in the past, accused the herdsmen of destroying their farmlands while grazing.
Chikamnayo also said that EXCO resolved to establish more Liberation Farms in the agrarian communities in the state as part of the initiatives to boost food production in the area.
He said that the state government’s youth empowerment programme would also be rotated among the 17 local government areas in the state.

The commissioner said that the EXCO commended the complementary role of law makers at the state and National Assembly for the introduction of empowerment programmes in their constituents.
He said that the programme had not only created employment for the teeming unemployed youths, but also created employers of labour in the state.
Chikamnayo expressed delight that the proposed seaport in the state had received the approval of the appropriate government agencies.

He said that most of the projects, initiated by the current, administration would be completed and inaugurated this year. (NAN)

Orji, Father Of Empowerment; Says Iheasinmuo

Member representing Aba South State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, Chief Nwogu Iheasinmuo has described Gov. Theodore Orji as the father of empowerment whose legacies will continue to endure in the state.

Iheasinmuo who stated this while handing over 7 Passat cars, 2 18-seater buses, 70 refrigerators, 5 air-conditioners, 2,000 pieces of clothes, 100 units of sewing machines, 70 giant deep freezers, amongst other items worth over N30 million to his constituents, said he was motivated by Gov. Orji’s benevolence in giving out free cars, buses and skill acquisition programmes to the people of the state.

“What we are doing today is in keeping faith with our campaign promises of empowering our people from time to time. The empowerment programme is geared making self dependent. We will continue to do it as the Lord strengthens us. My representation of Aba South will continue to attract people-oriented projects and empowerment of the people of my constituency. There is a need for every political office holder to put in place an enduring empowerment programme to reduce the poverty level among our people I’m following the examples set by Gov. Theodore Orji, Ochendo, who I call the ‘Father of Empowerment’ who has been giving free cars, buses and skill acquisition to empower the people of the state,” Iheasinmuo said.

While presenting cars to the ward chairmen, Chairman of the occasion and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Deputy Governor, Charles Ogbonna described the empowerment programme as first of its kind stressing that the type of items procured by the lawmaker has set him apart as a people friendly legislator.

He called on the recipients to make good use of the items to better their lives of their families and continue to support the Iheasinmuo and the state government.

Speaking at the occasion, Speaker, Abia state House of Assembly, Chief Ude Oko Chukwu who also commended Iheasinmuo for the programme urged the people of Aba South constituency to return the lawmaker for a second term considering his great contributions in empowering the people.
One of the ward chairmen who received cars simply identified as Emmanuel thanked the lawmaker for empowering them, adding that he has been a blessing to the people of Aba South constituency since he assumed office.

Igbo Is The Strongest Pillar Of My Administration - Jonathan

Seven states; Rivers, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu and Delta converged yesterday in Enugu under the auspices of the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohaneze Ndigbo to mark this year’s Igbo day at the Micheal Okpara square.

The annual event which is stipulated to commemorate the efforts of Igbo heroes who contributed steeply in championing the cause of Igbo had as its theme, “uplift the homeland” with an inter-denomitional service.

While presenting President Goodluck Jonathans’ address, his representative, Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo expressed profound gratitude to Igbo for,”being the greatest pillar of support to my person and administration. My administration have taken cognizance of the unalloyed support of the Igbo. Igbo is the ethnic group that has supported my administration greatly and I promise that it will not be taken for granted”.

“This is evident in the level of Federal attention the infrastructure in the south-east is receiving as examplified and in the roads, commencement of international operations at the Akanu-Ibiam airport, Enugu, the dredging of the river Niger to boost inland water ways transport. The Akanu-Ibiam airport will have all the trappings of an international airport. Federal Government is working assiduously to build Aerotropolis and inject vibrancy at the cargo terminals, befitting of international standards” said the President.

President Jonathan disclosed that Igbo has been frontal in the believe of the co-operate existence of Nigeria adding that the Igbo is the highest investor in Nigeria’s economy even as he explained that,’Igbo carry the banner of Christianity and culture as they traverse the country in search of greener pastures typical of a republican’.

He further urged Igbo youths to eschew the vices of kidnapping, armed robbery and assassination while appealing to them to imbibe the virtues of their forebearers in their various endeavours.

Contributing, the Governor of Enugu state, Barr. Sullivan Chime represented by the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Chief Joe Mamelu urged,”Igbo to uphold the practice of speaking Igbo language wherever they find themselves to forestall the language from going into extinction”.

In his remark, the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwey poisted that the way forward for Ndigbo is,”to speak with one voice in a clear direction. Emphasis must be in generating and directing these energies towards growth poles. We must unite in pursing commercial and industrial objectives and much more importantly, political challenges”.

“We reiterate for emphasis that Ndigbo must seek the Presidency of this country at the expiration of the tenure of the south-south. This is in keeping with our stand that equity,justice and fair-play demand that we, the only zone remaining to hold the prime office in the country, should be allowed by our fellow Nigerians to so occupy it in unbroken succession after the south-south. This is an appeal to the political class of Ndigbo to put their house in order. We cannot afford to play a second fiddle forever” Igariwey noted.

A Microcosm of Abia's Political and Developmental Macrocosm

By Ekekwe Egu
LET me confess that my choice of title for this piece, which in any case is my first in a long while, sounds weird. Having opted for a political and activity hibernation of sort, in the past few years, not a few would have expected me to debut from my self-imposed holiday, smoking with rage, and breathing furiously, vintage OTJ. But time and tide have changed with so many factors contributing to my simmering rather than combative approach in writing. I shall return to that later.

Secondly as one who even as an under-aged, cut his political teeth during the Second Republic, when such colourful politicians as Dr. K. O. Mbadiwe, Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Dr. M. I. Okpara and Chief Collins Obih (all of blessed memory), held sway in the old Imo and Anambra states, now South East geo-political zone, I underwent tutelage of sort under this great wordsmiths; men who elevated intellectual and factual politicking, laced with flowery clichés and euphemisms, that added so much colour and humor to our socio-political environment and lexicon.

In line with the above, Ochendolopment, my crazy manipulation, was coined to describe my assessment of the infrastructural and developmental progressions, given obvious economic constraints in Abia State. It is a critical evaluation of the application of the available limited funds and rates of success achieved, within a given time frame. In this piece, I will attempt an insight into the actual rate of development in Abia within this second and last segment (2011 to date), of the present Abia Government. I have also elected to ignore the period 2007-2011, variously described and rightly so, as the years of the locust. In so doing, one will draw inferences from and make comparative analysis of the earnings accruing to some of our neighboring states, alongside Abia. I shall also base my assessment on four major sectors viz: General Infrastructural Developments, Power Generation and Security.

One person whose courage I admire a lot, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, cried out recently that only N14billion out of about N21billion accruing to his State, has been released for the month of July. Since that assertion remained un-replied even from the appropriate quarters, it stands therefore to reason that our dear Oluwarotimi was right that his State allocation for July was about N21billion. Within this period, the total that aggregated to Abia was about N4 billion. Succinctly put, the ratio between Abia and Rivers allocation is 1:5.

We have it on good authority that Akwa Ibom State earns much higher than its Rivers counterpart. It therefore stands to reason that the developmental efforts in these two states that share common boundary with Abia, cannot be compared with the latter, given their accrued earnings overtime. Howbeit, like the saying in Igboland goes, Ana eji isii ahu amata uto nshi: (translated: You can deduce the real taste of faeces from the foul smell of a fart).

The Bible equally place faithfulness in little assignment as a sign of what one can do with bigger assignment, if and when such is given. With the much the Governor has achieved with the little resources available to him, it stand to reason that if he receives half of what is accruable to Akwa Ibom, he will perform more. Whilst not stating that Abia is today an Eldorado, as that will be unnecessarily sycophantic, but it smacks of bad faith to ascribe nothing positive to the present government, especially in the area of provision of lasting and durable infrastructures.

Umuahia Capital and the indeed the State have of recent witnessed an upswing in infrastructures, viz: The Construction of a new Government House, a new Deputy Governors Lodge, International Conference Centre , new Secretariat Complex and remodeling of the old ones, several housing estates, the Ubani Umuahia Modern Market which is 95% completed, Judiciary and New High Court Complex at both Umuahia and Aba, ASEPA New Headquarters, the Umuahia Specialist Hospital and Dialysis Centre, the reconstruction of Amachara Specialist Hospital, several urban and rural roads at the three senatorial zones of the state amongst others.

One might argue that these are basic infrastructural edifices needed for the take off of the State, but these had been lacking in the past 22 years. With a few exceptions, all other successive governments, to say the least, have been retarding development of the State.
When early last year, I wrote commending the Orji -led Government for a breakthrough checkmating the perennial power supply in the state, not a few arm-chair critics attacked me, both on phone and on the social media.
Few months after, all these areas, including my Item, Bende Local Government Area homeland were re-connected to the national grid. Abians and Nigerians can indeed attest to the fact of the further success recorded in this sector, and equally on the aptness of my prediction. When truth is self evident and facts are so glaring, one need not adumbrate. It is only a matter of weeks that the Aba project under Geometrix will be commissioned. That way the light condition in Aba, and the entire Abia will be fully restored. Yes, it can only get better and better.

Insecurity has posed the greatest challenge in the country. In recent time, the menaces of kidnappers and Boko Haram have assumed an alarming proportion. Abia was a notorious case in point. Kidnappers under the inglorious leadership of the notorious Osisikankwu, had a field day taking people hostage for ransoms. Sometimes people were killed even after huge ransoms were paid.

It reached a climax with the abduction of the kind-hearted medical and legendary generous doctor of Victory Christian Hospital, Aba, who was kidnapped and brutally murdered somewhere in Isiala Ngwa, even after huge sums of money were reportedly paid as ransom. The outrage that greeted his murder was unprecedented. It was obvious that something needed to happen.

The synergy between the Abia Governmant and the Security High Chiefs, notably the Chief of army Staff, led to the arrest and killing of the murderous OSISIKANKWU gang, and the dispersal of the few remaining ones. Abia State citizens now live in peace amongst themselves. It was in recognition of these and the above, that Governor Theodore Orji, received an International Award in October 2012, for ensuring Adequate Security in Abia.

The most unfortunate aspect of it all was that Abia was a state that produced three high level security personnel, in the Army and the Police Force. Lt General Azubuike Ihejirika, the Chief of Army Staff, Ivy Okoronkwo, the then Deputy Inspector General of Police and politically Second In Command, while Azubuko Joel Udah, the then Deputy Inspector General of Police, in Charge of Administration and Operationally Number Two, were all from Abia State. Was it a failure on their part or was it a lack of idea on how to solve the perennial Abia Security Challenge.

Given that the DIG Udah, (now retired), as the Head of the Police Zones 5 and 6, was widely believed to be behind the blueprint of the Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta region, it was almost impossible to toe that line of thought. It took the political will and sagacity of the Ochendo led Government in Abia, coupled with the tenacity and the determination of the Security High Chiefs of Abia state extraction, to proactively restore sanity and security in Abia State.

The synergy between the Abia Governmant and the Security High Chiefs, notably the Chief of army Staff, led to the arrest and killing of the murderous OSISIKANKWU gang, and the dispersal of the few remaining ones. Abia State citizens now live in peace amongst themselves. It was in recognition of these and the above, that Governor Theodore Orji, received an International Award in October 2012, for ensuring Adequate Security in Abia.

Ekekwe Egu, a public affairs commentator sent in this piece from Abuja.

SOURCE: VANGUARD

ABIA THINK TANK MEET WITH GOV. T.A ORJI

Abia state governor, chief TA Orji says he has provided a conducive environment for investment in the state, hence the need for Abians in Diaspora to come home and partner with the state in area of economic and social development.
The governor made this declaration in Lagos in an interactive session with members of Abia Think Tank.


In a statement by his chief press secretary, Ugochukwu Emezue, Governor Orji hinted that unlike in the past when the atmosphere was characterized by fear, occasioned by the activities of kidnappers, the state is now secured more than ever, as this ugly trend has been consigned to the dust bin of history.
Chief Orji noted that with security in place, investors are now making Abia their destination point.
He specifically revealed that Shoprite; a business conglomerate is now building its outfit in Umuahia the state capital.

Chief Orji maintained that he is not regretting the huge investment he is making in securing the state.
Speaking further, the governor stated that most of the projects he is building in the state will be commissioned next year.

He stated that the equipment for the dialysis center will be installed in January 2013.
Chief Orji assured that he will strive to make Abia the envy of other states.
Earlier in his speech, the chairman of Abia Think Tank, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa commended the governor on the infrastructural development going on in the state.
He made it clear that the leadership style of the governor is highly appreciated.While thanking chief TA Orji for the achievement he had made in terms of security, urged him not to relent in giving Abia a new face.

The Editor-in – chief of BusinessDay delivered the key note address.