It is no longer news in the cyber blog-space that a group of Nigerian Bloggers and social media influencers had travelled to the much vilified Abia state to see things first-hand for themselves of how Abia state has not been working but what may be the true news is the ‘disappointing’ reports that would be emanating from these group of Bloggers from across interest divides.
So many things has been said about Abia state, so many stories has been told and so many lies has been said that several a time that most genuine readers have developed biased into believing these half-truths, vindicating the long held belief of the Igbos of ‘Ihe Ojoo gbaa afor, oburu omenala’ meaning that when a lie is told for some time unchallenged, it will be mistaken as truths and even be seen as the real truths.
Since I was born into this planet earth, I have never seen a governor most abused as the present governor of Abia state, I have never seen a sitting governor most lied about as governor T. A. Orji, to my ulter pain, I have never seen a man so vilified even while on the seat of power, but as I learnt, these things were happening not just because he is a weak man but simply because he is a man of the old generation with integrity and honesty who would always look up to time and posterity for judgements and vindication. Honestly, I feels terrible for this man.
As Ambrose Nwaogwugwu, I felt terribly bad by the fact of how these people tend to blindly brandishing Abia state they knew nothing about. It is now a known fact that everyone in Nigeria knows Abia state even more than the people on ground; when you come across them, they would either lie to you that they just touched down Abia state or they are having their relatives there; now, Abia state has become a franchise of sort that even the ignorant of the most ignominious in the far away North of the country, Lagos-based or Abuja facebook politicians paints the picture of Abia state nay Aba from the cosy comforts of their homes. It was even more laughable when we touched down Aba, one of the facebook omnipresent argued that we were not in Aba simply because the Aba in his mental psych and as always been talked about was not what he was seeing on ground- that’s how naive these guys can get; I will revisit my Aba experience much later, though.
I am simply amazed by the way and manner in which those who knew nothing about Aba could be challenging those who are even on ground of the true state of the area- that was the ridiculous echelon it got to.
Worried by the unrelenting attacks and brandishing of falsehoods against the government of Abia state and the person of the governor, I seized the opportunity when called upon to be one of the Nigerian Bloggers to tour Abia on a fact finding mission. Though I have always known that the ‘mob lynchers’ has always been mischievous with their mischief.
And I obliged the Abia state government, I went to Abia state, I saw things and came back with my findings but things were not the same again; the ‘mob lynchers ‘ redoubled their momentum and went on the prowl- this time on a different mission; to stop who ever that went to Abia state from saying what they saw, to perpetually shut them down and deliberately cow them to mute. Ever since my return from Abia state on this fact-finding mission; it has always been one form of threats to the other coming from those who are unhappy that the festivals of progressiveness in error and half-truths will ultimately be put to a stop by our different reports. Others were not left out- they have tried so strenuously but in vain to blackmail us to silence.
Some of the lily-livered among us has been cowed by this rampaging lynching mob to self pity- they have been rudely blackmailed to keep quiet in order not to be thoroughly ‘lyched’. But Ambrose, the descendant of the Great Ogwugwu can NEVER be intimidated into silence, I can not be blackmailed to keep mute from saying what I saw in Abia state, no matter the threats from speaking out; I must state the true states of Abia state and Aba, the commercial city.
My Journey To Abia:
My journey to Abia state saw me to Umuahia, the capital city of Abia state, my first point of call, the very first day. Upon my arrival, I checked into my hotel and got up the next day to start the main business of my visit: that very morning after our breakfast, we were driven to Emeka Omeruo government guest house where we picked some of our colleagues and the business of the day started properly.
First Day:
No one informed us of where we were going to as we were driven to our first point of call which was later learnt to be known as the Abia Dialysis Centre at the Umuahia Specialist hospital. As I discovered, there was an existing specialist hospital there before; Ochendo only renovated and equipped it with state of the arts hospital equipments and built a brand new ultra-modern Dialysis centre. I saw a power house with a 500 Kva generating set for alternative power supply and two functional ambulances. We went into the hospital and saw patients receiving treatments with these modern equipments.
We left the Dialysis centre and proceeded to our buses and was driven to a site- housing several one-storey buildings. Some completed, some still at the deck level and some were at roofing levels. Our tour guard said it was Ohurube Housing estate undertaken by the Governor Theodore Orji government as part of his administration housing schemes.
We also left the housing estate site and proceeded to the Timber Industrial market also known as Azukeke Ibeku Industrial market built, completed and commissioned by Governor Theodore Ahamefula Orji. Meanwhile as we were told, the Ohurube Housing estate site was hitherto a place where all manner of people used to trade, most especially, the Timber traders and as the government’s plans of urban decongestion and renewal initiative, the government relocated them to this Timber Industrial market at Azukeke Ibeku. The industrial market is exactly like the Naze Industrial market, Owerri built by former Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo state (for those of you who know Owerri) the same thing took place- they were sent out from the city and was successfully relocated to an outskirts of the city for conducive conduction of businesses. All the necessary amenities were seen like access roads, water, electricity, bank, fire service etc. I interviewed some of the marketers; they were happy about their plights on the new industrial market but complained bitterly about irregular power (electricity) supply.
Still on this first day of our project tour, we were also taken to another site after we left the Industrial market. This time around, we were taken to a very large one storey building; known as the permanent head office of Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) built, completed and commissioned by Governor Theodore Ahamefula Orji. Which is located at the Ogurube layout: the New city that is going to house the New Abia state.
As we left from ASEPA house, we were taken to a new architectural masterpiece, a gigantic new government house that is akin to any world renowned five star hotel; in my layman’s rating, the project which is still seriously ongoing is about 65% completed.
As we got out from the new government house, we drove to a new mighty and world class international conference centre. This particular project is almost completed and I can rate it as 88% completed.
Still on this very first day of our project touring, we were taken to twin larger buildings- Two separate state secretariat. One was done by the federal government during the military regime and was given to the state government. Ochendo only renovated it to ultra-modern status and built a brand new four storey state secretariat with lifting machines. They are completed and commissioned and already in use.
From the state’s new secretariat, we moved to JAAC house, Joint Account Allocation committee complex office that is like the state new secretariat. The JAAC house is also a four storey building and more than 75% completed.
At about this time on that very first day, we were almost exhausted and were pleading to go back to our hotel rooms and continue the next day but the government functionaries that were leading us rebuffed our pleas and boasted that we “ain’t seen nothing yet”, that we have not even started with the projects of Ochendo.
The former commissioner for information and strategy, Mr. Eze Chikananyo, a very smart man also boasted it will take us more than a whole week to exhaust all the projects of Ochendo Global as some of those who came with the mindset that Abia state was in state of comatose and administrative coma were utterly disappointed by this time.
As our entreaties failed; we drove down to an outskirt of where we have been and was taken to Abia state Ultra modern skill acquisition centre built by her excellency to support her husband’s youths empowerment drive. This is a centre where Abia youths are trained for different skills for free, during their training, each of them are paid a monthly stipend of N10,000 and after graduation, they are given the equipment and machines to start what they learned and also given an interest free grant worth up to N30,000. These skill acquisition centres are replicated like this in Aba and Ohafia. Making it three in total in Abia state.
From there, we were driven to another ultra-modern edifice. The new Abia E-librarry. A one-storey building; It was stocked with state of the art equipments for digital library.
Like as if they were punishing us, they dragged us to the New BCA office complex which was built, completed and commissioned by Governor Theodore Ahamefula Orji. It’s already in use.
From there, we proceeded to Umuahia High court complex. It is three in the state viz: one at Aba, Ohafia and Umuahia. The one at Umuahia is about 98% completed so is the other ones.
And from the high court premises, we drove straight to a primary school block which is a prototype of the Ochendo modern school blocks. (Sorry I couldn’t take note of the name of the place because at this time, almost every one was murmuring to go back to the hotel. Lol.) they are 70 of them in number as scattered across the 17 local government areas of the state, we were told, fully completed and already in use.
And from there, we called it a day for that very day.
Second day:
On this second day, the project tour continues: we went to Umuahia event centre which was very much ongoing. It is situated at the heart of Umuahia city. Roundly fenced with the capacity to contain more than 8000 vehicles and at a layman’s estimate; it was roughly 55% completed.
From there we moved to Abia shopping mall which some people do call ‘shoprite’. It was about 70% completed.
On this second day, we couldn’t do much project tour as we moved outskirt of Umuahia as we transversed through Ikwuano, Isukwuato and all the rest.
From the shopping mall, we travelled to Ubani ultra-modern market that has about 10,000 stalls, some warehouses and all the amenities like fire service, good access roads, banks, motor parks, water etc.
As we moved from there, we were driven to Ubani market estate that was specifically built for the marketers/traders. It is almost the same amount of the stalls and nearing completion. Some completed and some still ongoing; It’s roughly 75% completed.
From the Ubani market and estate, we travelled to Isukwuato, we saw many primary schools, those hospitals and all that and with a specific mention to Ovim Technical school that was built, completed and commissioned by the governor.
We moved further from there to the helipad built by Ochendo on the mountain where helicopters that was used to flush out criminals were leading. It was one of the schemes that attributed the success stories of the restoration of security to Abia state. They are actually two of them, one there and another at Aba.
NB: as we travelled round the state; we were seeing these modern school blocks and the 100 bed specialist hospitals.
As we were coming back, we took a selfie at the National war mesuem where we ‘lazied’ about and retired for that day.
At the National War Mesuem, disturbing war memories were rekindled as we saw all the warfare used in prosecuting the Nigeria/Biafra war.
For most of us that were born by then, it brought back painful memories of that genocide and for most of us that weren’t born by then like me in particular, it brought out all I have read and told about the ethnic cleansing and it felt like my mentor, Prof. Chinua Achebe, was narrating it to me in real life again as he did in “There was a country”. That day was truly something I can’t just explain now. We took photographs and that was the day we took our first group photograph.
I went into the famous Ojukwu Bunker, passed through the underground hideouts, saw the Biafran transmitter for radio Biafra and took memorable shots with different warfare.
From the National war mesuem, we went back to our hotel rooms.
As we were coming back, something dramatic was happening as some people were already alleging that we were taken to the National war mesuem to escape going to this ‘troublesome’ Aba ‘state’ because our project tour was officially supposed to finish on this second day; but I argued not ; why would they?
Third Day:
This third day was supposed to be a no-hold barred interactive session with the Governor but because we couldn’t finish the projects, some part of the third day was used for project tour and on this day again, we continued touring projects.
As we continued the tour in ernest ; our first point of call for the day was Amachara. Here, we saw Amachara specialist hospital as reconstructed by the state government. We also saw a brand new 100 bed capacity specialist hospital, a chest clinic with state of the art equipments (where TB patients are treated for free) the chest clinic as I learnt was attracted by the government and built by a petroleum company.
We moved down to the other side and we saw two one storey buildings which we learnt was doctor’s residence for those doing their residency.(abeg,forgive my ‘naiveness’) they are two; one for male doctors and the other for female doctors.
We moved from there and went to Abia bus terminal newly built by the state government along Umuahia/Enugu express road.
We went to the new mechanic village where all the mechanics in Umuahia were successful relocated to; every other amenities were in place courtesy of Ochendo global.
And then, we made our triumphant entry into this ‘troublesome’ Aba:
Welcome to Aba ‘state’?
Is Aba really a state? Definitely no but the rate at which the traducers and opponents of Ochendo has painted it to be, onlookers may be of the view that Aba is the capital of Umuahia.
Like I have always argued, Aba is just another segment of a state like every other segments of any state, being a commercial city though is not withstanding of the attention it should be getting though but I can swear with the Gods of my forefathers that Aba is not as bad as been painted by ignorants.
I call them ignorants because their claims are all borne of out of pure mischief.
As we entered Aba, we followed through the Oruruka road which we plied for more than 30mins with not hold-up and some amounts of speeding, the road was in good standard conditions but guess what? It was constructed by Ochendo! The road was too lengthy that we rode on it for more than 30mins. The road is with underground drainage, no single pothole on it and it is in Aba ‘state’.
From there we passed through New Umuahia road still in Aba ‘state’ to St. Michaels road, from St. Michaels road, we transversed through Azikiwe road to Ogbor-hill road, from Ogbor-hill, we passed through Asa road to Obikabia road to Abayi road to Aba-Owerri road to Osisioma road.
All these roads were seen in Aba ‘state’ and were all in good conditions, except the ending of Osisioma road joining the Enugu-Port-harcourt express way that was in bad condition. All other roads I and other bloggers saw were all in good conditions.
Another melodrama happened at Aba while we stopped at a point, doubters and those who came with the programmed hearts that Aba ‘state’ was in shambles began to question if we were truly in Aba ‘state’? We have to jump out from our vehicles to look out for signposts and truly, we saw a signpost where Azikiwe road was written, to further confirm, we checked other ones and indeed, we were at Aba ‘state’. As we were running our checks, most of us were waiting for the mobs at Aba ‘state’ to come and set us ablaze, that in fact, we would have been lynched at Aba ‘state’ by angry mobs who are not happy with the government of Ochendo because of ‘perpetually’ and ‘deliberately’ neglecting the ‘state’ At a point, Mr. Eze Chikananyo was telling us about those many lies about Aba, how they were untrue and truthfully, we confirmed it and he asked us if any one had harassed or questioned us knowing fully well that we came from the state government with government vehicles?; not even a single person raised an eyebrow from the resident talkless of ‘lynching’ us. There and then, those lies about Aba ‘state’ was put to a stop.
On a hilarious note, one of us came with the suggestion that this Aba we visited must have been photo-shoped and another quipped in that plausbly, there has been a magic of sort and after we must have left, the Aba we used to read on the social media will surface again. We made several jokes of it and and laughed like crazy. But you wouldn’t blame the scepticism of these poor bloggers for a people that have been constantly fed with lies. Their scepticism about where we were was understandable.
Then we continued our tour:
As we were passing through, we were also seeing the modern school blocks, the ultra-modern motor park at Osisioma. 100 bed capacity specialist hospitals, Aba mall, high court complex, the skill acquisition centre etc were all in the much maligned Aba ‘state’
As we finished with Aba ‘state’ as it was already late, we retired at Abia state government house where the governor received and interacted with us.
During the interactive session something remarkable happened; one of us who obviously came with the preoccupied mind of the state of Aba ‘state’ literally wept before the governor and asked for forgiveness from him for been among those who has been led astray about Abia state and understandably too, he spoke the minds of several innocent Nigerians. Then the atmosphere filled with emotions as murmuring took over the air with people disbanding their old beliefs of Aba ‘state’.
Fourth Day:
Departure; we departed from Abia state and that was all with our project tour and assessment journey in Abia state.
This is my honest and sincere assessment of Abia state which I witnessed with my eyes. This is a first-hand experience and an eye witness account. Given that there might be some account which may differ from this one; it is expected as some preoccupied minds of hate and prejudice can’t have the courage to own up to their mischief. Any account contrary to this would simply be because of ego and the shame to face the world.
Despite the lengthy nature of this report, it is not enough to relate my Abia state experience but as a matter of fact, I shall come with more accounts in my subsequent articles. This is just to intimate you with how our journey to Abia and our touring activities was all about.
This Truths must be told!
–
+234 (0)8151917762
