A critical look at Abia State will leave one to conclude that the state had no initial development blue point from the past administrations. Let’s use Imo State as a test case. The Imo State Capital Owerri was designed by the then administration of Rtd Real admiral Godwin Ndubuisi Kalu. This, he pursued with vigor in spite of all the names it was called by the owners of Owerri, the state capital until he was posted out from Imo State.
Late Chief Sam Mbakwe came on board as the first Civilian Governor of Imo State and he never deviated from what he met on ground. Dee Sam, as he was popularly called, used the blue print he met on ground and gave Imo State a first class in the provisions of numerous amenities. Transparently and reliably, he engaged the best hands in offering quality development programmes and other dividends of democracy to then Imolites that included the present Abia State and some parts of Ebonyi with more concentration in Owerri the state capital.
Let me not dwell on what the military did when he left office. But kudos must go to former Governor Achike Udenwa, who came into office in 1999, he moved into action and Concorde Hotel was revamped with the state-of-the-arts facility. Of course, that was what gave rise today to Imo State having more number of hotels among states in the federation. Udenwa also involved a reputable construction firm Monnial MCC and this firm did wonderful jobs in opening up the state.
One could remember the dilapidated and abandoned roads like Amaraku, Mbano road which was divided by gully erosions at various points. But the gully erosion sites were checked and the roads became motorable up till today. This and other road construction works Udenwa did in many communities.
While Chief Udenwa was doing all these laudable projects, one had expected his Abia State counterpart then to borrow a leaf from him and ensure that Abia State got it’s first share from the second republic, by putting Enyimba Hotel in Aba into meaningful use as well as strive to engage renowned construction company in the construction of roads in Abia. Rather, what we saw was a situation where the then Governor Orji Uzoh Kalu, in order to create an impression of a productive regime, gave out five roads in Aba to be constructed. And just under 100 days in office and these roads were hurriedly done even without stone base only to get the title of Action Governor. Unfortunately, these roads did not see the next dry season.
We all know that the incumbent Governor T.A Orji took over from Uzor kalu, but Governor Theodore Orji’s emergence in 2007 was marred with a lot of difficulties tied to it.
When Governor Orji was about recuperating from the difficulties created by his predecessor, the issue of insecurity came up, we are all living witnesses that Abia State was marked red, under this insecurity red alert. Of course, you can believe with me that no meaningful project can thrive under such atmosphere.
So, it is absolutely correct for every right thinking person in Abia State to say that in the last two and half years, Abians can boast of having a blue print. This, the incoming government in 2015 can use to continue to set Abia on the part of prosperity if it will be a sensitive one, otherwise Abia will still be backward.
In the light of the above, I am calling all Abians to join hands with the present administration to ensure that Abia move to its state of glory.
