By Charles Ajunwa
A man who calls himself Uche Igwe had set out on a “regrettably long”
journey from Port Harcourt to Aba and found himself trapped in traffic
jam. According to him, the journey which would have lasted for less than
an hour took him three hours! That doubtful personal experience was
considered enough reason by the frustrated traveler to pour invectives
on the hard working governor of Abia State, Chief T.A. Orji.
In an
opinion
article contemptuously entitled “The struggle to succeed failure in Abia
State” published in two parts in The Punch editions of May 21 and 28,
2014, Igwe struggled very hard to denigrate the administration that has
totally transformed Abia State in every sector.
Unfortunately for Igwe, he has ended up portraying himself as somebody
who is not conscious of his environment. It was evident that he was on a
journey to rubbish Abia by all means. Obviously he found himself in a
difficult position executing the hatchet job he set out to do. Igwe cut a
pitiful sight as he frantically searched for a foothold to launch his
unwarranted attacks on the Abia Governor. Reading through the
article
one could see a confused mind rambling from the condition of Port
Harcourt- Enugu federal highway and few roads in Aba to the succession
race in Abia. In his own marking scheme for good governance, Igwe scored
Abia Governor zero because half of Aba was in darkness when he
allegedly entered the commercial city in the night of his journey. Is
that enough reason to launch a ferocious diatribe on a governor whose
performance is unprecedented in the history of Abia State? Igwe should
have let the readers know where he is presently residing in
Nigeria and whether 24-hour uninterrupted power supply has been achieved in that area.
If he is from Abia or has a modicum of common sense, Igwe should know
that Aba is only a component part of Abia State. The commercial city
fondly called Enyimba by its residents has been receiving adequate
attention from the administration of Chief T.A. Orji. In the last one
year, no fewer than 18 roads have been constructed or rehabilitated in
Aba alone in line with the ongoing urban renewal project of the present
administration. Igwe was blinded by his mercenary pecuniary interest to
observe that Aba residents cry of flood during the rains. It was a
perennial occurrence before the coming of Ochendo but with the opening
of the drainages and removal of illegal structures blocking the
waterways, Enyimba residents have been spared the seasonal agony they
used to experience during the rainy season.
In order to embellish his mindset Igwe stated that “a sudden heavy odour
invaded our nostrils” on entering into Aba and that visitors to the
commercial nerve centre were usually treated to such offensive odours as
a sign of welcome. One wonders if Igwe was actually in Aba of the
present time or he was talking of Aba under the past administration. If
he actually meant the present day Aba then something must be wrong with
his nostrils and I invite him to visit the ultra modern Abia Specialist
Hospital and Diagnostic Centre at Umuahia or Aba. I assure Igwe that
medical experts would examine him to find out what is wrong with his
nasal cavity and sense of smell for him to perceive past odours as if in
the present. Perhaps Igwe’s condition could provide an interesting
subject for medical research.
It is rather a big insult for residents of Aba to remind them of the
environmental condition of their city before Ochendo came to their
rescue by giving them a cleaner city to behold. Governor Orji made good
environmental cleanliness an integral part of his urban renewal
programme for Aba. It was for this reason that the Abia State
Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) was decentralized and a deputy
general manager was appointed and put in charge of Aba. Since his
appointment as DGM, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and his team at Aba have been
working round the clock to keep Enyimba City clean and residents are
highly appreciative of Ochendo for their new healthy environment. No
matter how wide the imagination of people like Igwe may run the refuse
heaps of the past would not return to Aba. The garbage dump on the
centre of the road would forever be confined to the satanic imagination
of Uche Igwe. Aba has since moved on from its ugly past.
The transformation of Aba is an ongoing project.
There is no way the present administration can do it overnight given
the competing demands and the limited resources available to government.
There are other cities, urban and semi-urban areas in Aba yearning for
attention as Ochendo moves to strike a balance on even development of
the state. But even at that Aba has been accorded top priority because
of its status as the industrial and commercial hub of Abia. Aba by every
yardstick has evolved into a mega city over the years. And mega cities
come with mega problems. The chief executive of Abia State is mindful of
this and has been systematically tackling the mega problems of Aba. So
contrary to Igwe’s warped opinion Aba has not been abandoned and will
never be abandoned under the Ochendo administration.
If Aba is as bad as Igwe had strived to paint invariably he would have
encountered one security issue or the other since according he entered
the city at night under the cover of darkness. Yet he could not
appreciate the fact that somebody made Aba very safe for him to engage
in nocturnal rendezvous. He easily forgot or pretended not to know that
the same Aba was blighted by a huge security challenge some few years
back and it took the political will and sense of mission of His
Excellency to extricate Enyimba city from the grip of kidnappers and
other criminal elements. To Igwe that is failure. If Aba has decayed
beyond redemption as he suggested how come that big firms are putting
their money in Aba. Do investors go to places where there is no sanity?
The administration of Ochendo has made Aba very conducive to attract
investors. For instance, the Nigerian Breweries Plc has invested N15
billion to expand its Aba plant. Another brewery giant, Guinness Nigeria
Plc has bought over Dubic Breweries in Aba. Certainly if Aba is a
failed city a multi-national like Guinness would not have increased its
investment in Enyimba to take over the production of Dubic beer. Today,
the Osisioms depot that was moribund for many years is functional
because of the hard work of Ochendo. Many youths who would have taken to
vices are gainfully employed in the depot where they earn a living and
contributing meaningfully to the society.
From the second part of his mischievous article, it was so easy to
locate the myopic view of Uche on issues bordering on governance and the
delivery of quality services to the people. In his display of crass
ignorance he claimed that the success of any administration is measured
by the provision of independent power plant. What a shame! Does it make
economic and political sense for Abia State government to dabble into
building of independent power plant when there are two of such projects
in Aba alone? The Ala Oji Independent Power Plant (IPP) is ready and
waiting to roll out.
The private driven Geometric power plant at Osisioma in Aba is also
waiting for inauguration. In all these, the Administration of Governor
T.A. Orji has not only provided conducive environment for the take-off
of these projects but also provided land and other incentives. Governor
Orji constructed a virgin road leading to Geometric power plant as a
mark of encouragement to the investors. This is because Ochendo loves
Enyimba City and is desirous of making Aba an international industrial
city. The Geometric power plant is a huge investment which has gulped
over $460 million and has capacity to generate 141 megawatts of
electricity.
The chairman of Geometric and former Minister of Power, Prof. Barth
Nnaji, is upbeat about the positive impact the power plant would have on
Aba and its residents.
He has already predicted that “the economy of Aba metropolis, which is
the boundary of Umuahia and Aba to Imo River, will see a complete
blossoming of industries – small, medium and large scale industries.”
People like Uche Igwe are doing a lot of harm to democratic governance by dishing out
lies
and blackmail to the unsuspecting public. What purpose does it serve
him and his pay masters to insist that snow is black? Igwe would have
done himself a lot of good if he has a sense of history. He would have
known that Governor Orji did not inherit any infrastructure when he took
over the governance of Abia in May 2007. But that did not deter him as
he embarked on total transformation of the state.
Abia was like building without any foundation. Governors had come and
gone both military and democratically elected ones like the one
dictating Igwe’s tune. But none of them had to wisdom to lay a solid
foundation for the future growth of the state. Abia State Government
House is a rented property while the state has no befitting secretariat
to accommodate the ministries. The state capital, Umuahia was
strangulated.
Uche Igwe did not write like somebody with sound knowledge of his
subject matter: Abia. He has no idea what the recent history of Abia
looked like. May be Igwe was in one of those tribal homelands in
Afghanistan or was confined to the Soviet era labour camp in Siberia and
lost touch with the outside
world.
If Igwe is sincere enough he should have known that Abia lacked the
building blocks of development all these past years. But Governor Orji
did not indulge in self pity. He did not engage in blame game. In fact,
he does not even know how to play that self-defeatist game. Ochendo
knows how to work. And he is working very hard to build a new Abia on a
solid foundation for sustainable growth. He knows how to solve problems
and how to overcome daunting challenge. That is why the deficits in
infrastructure is receding at a fast pace. Today, the legacy projects of
Governor T.A. Orji eloquently speak for his vision for his beloved
state.
The people of Abia are happy because their governor has given them 710
health
centres, two specialist hospitals with state of the art diagnostic
centres, five completed and equipped 100-bed general hospitals at
Ohafia, Arochukwu, Umuahia South, Osisioma and Ukwa West while eight
others are under construction across the state. Governor Orji has built
over 7, 000 stores in Umuahia modern Market at Ubani Ibeku and
Industrial market at Ahiaeke Ndume are ultra modern markets to boost
commerce. The newly built artisan market at Ohiya is booming. He is
transforming the old primary and secondary schools to model schools,
building roads across the state and set up an agency, the Abia State
Road Maintenance Agency (ABROMA) to keep the existing road network in
good shape all year round. Does a state like Abia not deserve a
befitting government house and an international conference centre?
Ochendo rightly thinks so and building them for God’s own state. Two
blocks of four storey magnificent secretariats have been completed and
many of the ministries have already moved into the beautiful edifices.
Both the legislature and the judiciary have witnessed tremendous
infrastructural transformation. Several housing estates have sprung up
under the Ochendo administration. Sadly, Uche Igwe’s antiquated mind has
prevented him from appreciating the correlation between good working
environment and high productivity. If he is moving with the time he
won’t be castigating Governor Orji for building a new government house
and a new secretariat.
Contrary to Uche Igwe’s diatribe Abia is a huge success in democratic
governance. Ochendo has done so much that whoever would succeed him
would definitely inherit a solid infrastructural base. The governor that
would take over from Ochendo would have fewer burdens because the
foundation has been laid for the person to build on. Governor Orji did
not enjoy such luxury because his predecessor left nothing for him to
build on. He started from the scratch and vowed he would not want his
successor to encounter the same problem hence his tireless efforts to
transform every facet of Abia economy.
Governor Orji would bequeath a peaceful state to his successor even
though he inherited a state in rancor due to the divisive and nepotistic
policy of the past administration.
Whoever would succeed Governor Orji on May 29, 2015 would inherit a well
organized economy with enhanced internally generated revenue (IGR)
profile and a workforce that is happy and highly motivated for optimum
productivity. Ochendo has taken governance to a standard that is
unprecedented in the history of Abia.
His score card is so impressive and intimidating that Abians are now
fretting over the kind of person that would preside over their affairs
after T.A. Orji. They don’t want their beloved God’s Own State to enter
into reverse gear after the Ochendo acceleration. Good enough all the
gubernatorial aspirants are conscious of this collective expectation and
have been promising to sustain the good legacy of Ochendo.
Ajunwa is Chief Press Secretary to Abia State Governor
