Impunity and sleaze in Abia’s government business will persist until Abians decide they have had enough. Lets perish the thought that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu would make any difference. There are one dozen reasons why he would not and cannot.
First, we only need to trace the intrigues and manipulations that catapulted him to an office he never dreamt of, nor prepared for.
Second, ours remain a community where corrupt and greedy politicians are celebrated instead of stoned. Such encourages the political class of 1999/2003, 2003/2007 led by the smooth talking and irrepressible Orji Uzor Kalu to believe they only need to switch parties to return to Abia Government House via the back door.
Third, the stealing and looting is turn by turn. ‘Onye ube ruru, oracha’, that is the slogan allegedly coined by late Ukpabi Asika, Political Scientist and former Administrator of old East Central State. Thus today, it is Ikpeazu’s turn to ‘chop’, and we must be careful not to begrudge him. Still, we must remind him that his time is ticking, that his place in the black book of infamy and the mediocre is assured.
Fourth, spittle-licking and toadying aides abound in very large numbers, cheering and urging him on. Celebrating and infact worshipping him as the best thing to have happened to Abia. One of such aides would even go so far to announce to the World that Abia, beset by collapse of socio-economic infrastructure, and security challenges is now prime location for investors in the South-East geo-political zone.
Such toadying aides are the ones goading him to a premature celebration of an uncompleted flyover. Indeed, mediocrity and ineptitude has taken centre stage in Ikpeazu’s administration. Yes, after 30 months in office and expenditure of over N177.77 billion, Abians are now serenaded with songs in praise of an uncompleted flyover in Aba. That is how far down the hill we have gone – celebration of indolence in public office. To be fair, Ikpeazu is only joining the ranks of past Abia governors since 1999 in reckless looting of the public till, exhibition of spinelessness, lack of vision and feeble political will.
As you read this, and they continue celebrating the uncompleted Ossisioma flyover, Port Harcourt Road, Urratta Road and most of the connecting roads in this same Aba are completely impassable, compelling traders and commuters to spend as much as N1000 instead of N100 to reach the Spare Parts market at Ala-oji from the city centre. The rehabilitation of these roads were flagged off 24 months ago.
As you read this, and they celebrate an uncompleted flyover, Faulks Road, merely 4.7 kilometres, but a major highway to Ariaria International Market, with arteries connecting other major highways like the Aba-Owerri Road through Ukwu Mango to Aba Port Harcourt Expressway is in complete mess. The contract was awarded since June 2016 at the sum of N6.8 billion.
Two years plus, stories are still being bandied about the 5 kilometres tunnel under construction that would permanently check flooding in Ariaria International Market. The tunnel measures 4m (width) x 5m (depth).
Sadly Abians expect so little from their government. Only the basics: security, opportunities and possibilities.
Now imagine what opportunity or possibility can exist in a State where Gov Ikpeazu cannot maintain security or build basic thoroughfares to connect farms to markets, markets to consumers or communities to communities.
We need no diviner to predict how worse off Abia would be after Ikpeazu’s four years in office. Sadly, his apparent ineptitude, lack of leadership skills is actually a slap on the face of Abians. With its highly sophisticated and enlightened human resources, Abians definitely deserved better.
To make up for the huge funds that have accrued to the State so far, Gov Ikpeaz and his aides have resorted to boastful, wild claims. They deceive the unwary with fictitious claims of projects completed with scarce resources. Like George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, even while they reel out figures and data, the living standards of Abians actually nose dives progressively. Who is fooling who?
Besides the uncompleted flyover whose date of completion is not known yet, Abians had recently been further inundated with claims of phantom projects executed by Gov Ikpeazu. Projects worth billions of Naira, but very, very invisible, and seen only by the hangers-on and sycophants in the corridors of powers.
One of such publicised phantom projects of Gov. Ikpeazu is the ‘Promotion of Made In Aba’ project. The most brazen fraud presently. Abians need ask the governor: “To what extent have you contributed in making the Aba entrepreneur dream more, do more and become more?”
Before Ikpeazu, Aba’s place as Nigeria’s capital of Micro, Small Medium Scale, MSME was already an established fact. But since the return of democracy in 1999, one bad administration succeeding another has succeeded in worsening the socio-economic life of Aba residents and entrepreneurs. The infrastructure in terms of roads and power collapsed completely. Environmental sanitation was a forgotten issue. Aba residents share their living space with mountains of foul smelling rubbish dumps, while during the rains they swim through flooded streets to their destinations
We are talking of Aba of which Gov Ikpeazu promised: “I will tackle the monumental collapse of infrastructure in Aba metropolis, I will renew Aba”. That was his promise while campaigning for the office. Today, nothing has changed between then and now. Nothing has been fixed in Aba, not roads, not its perennial flooding, not the mountains of garbage dumps, nothing absolutely nothing, except for the uncompleted flyover at Ossisoma.
After they are done with their celebrations, they will once again remind Abians that Gov Ikpeazu is prudently squeezing money out of the stone to execute these projects. Abia State is one of the few States where there are no records for internally generated revenue, IGR. And on daily basis, about seven gangs of heavily armed terror groups march through the streets of Umuahia, Aba and other towns demanding for the following levies:
- Infrastructure levy
- Economic levy
iii. Sanitation/ASEPA levy
- Fire Extinguisher levy
- Operational permit
- Business premises levy.
Woe betide the resident who fails to pay. A news report narrated the fate of defaulters thus: “Police Area Commander in Aba, Abia State, ACP Peter Opara, has ordered the release of over 100 residents arrested by a revenue agent and detained at the premises of the Command, in the city.
“The revenue agent, one Prince Emeka, who claimed to be an ad-hoc staff of the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency, ASEPA, Aba office, was alleged to have engaged some Policemen and thugs to arrest residents of Ngwa and Obohia roads over alleged non-payment of revenue and brought them to the Area Command”.
It is in this same state where political thugs and corrupt policemen rule the streets, where infrastructural decay and sanitation challenges strangulate the otherwise enterprising Abians that the Commissioner for Information, Mr. J O Kalu announced is now the preferred investment destination in the South-East
Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, Ph.D may not be the cause of the monumental challenges Abians face today, but he promised to fix Abia. He promised to serve Abians. Abians are still looking up to him. Robert Townsend proffers that “True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not for the enrichment of the leaders”. Indeed, the legitimacy of government rests on the people. Government exists to serve the people, to defend them against those seeking to injure them. Abians expect no less from Gov. Ikpeazu.
Eastwind Newsonline 
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