Abia State under the stewardship of Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji is not
developing. This is elementary to say, because of the pummeled social and
economic life in the state, orchestrated by touts, charlatans in government
and street urchins.
No human society moves on, when there abound dynamic of shenanigans that
cause discomfiture for today and future generation. These are causing Abia
State to be sluggish in truly harnessing the social and economic life of
the state for development.
In a matter like this, what we have been often told is that no government
develops a given state over night. Agreed. But we must also know that if
Abia State government had been frontal with construction and reconstruction
of the state the same way it trumpets of its mirage achievements in the
media, there would have been corresponding development we can see.
In its dim-witted understanding of development, what the government claps
its hand always for as development, are the relocations of Umuahia Main
Market, Timber Market and the Allied and Motor Spare Parts Market alias
(Mgbuka). But come to think of this, our people cannot forget in a hurry
how traders in the former markets were displaced and many rendered useless,
because of the exorbitant prizes and levies they cannot afford that are the
case of renting stalls in the much hyped markets.
Gov. T.A Orji’s Abia State is not a safer and improved place to be, as
hardship has become the preoccupation of residents, who did not bargain for
the experiences they are passing through. The government tells the world
that one of its developments or Legacy Projects, (as persons like the
disgraced and fired Ugochukwu Emezue, former Chief Press Secretary to the
Governor) would coin the words and boast, is that it has been able to mange
traffic gridlock in the state. Can we imagine this!
Though, there are significant traffic-jams all over Abia State. But what
actually happened why the government thinks that it has managed the
situation is that many of our people have relocated to nearby states like
Akwa Ibom and Rivers State, where they feel government works. Many are also
relocating for greener pastures elsewhere. So, when Gov. T.A Orji looks
around on the roads and in the streets and does not see floods of vehicular
movements, he beats his heart and boasts of controlling traffic-jam in Abia
State.
The news of building “21st century markets” is all over the world: The
handiwork of his hatchet media goons. But markets like Ariaria and
Ahia-Ohuru are left for the 12th Century traders? Abia is in its entirety
doomed under Gov. T.A Orji! Historically, Abia people have not experienced
this type of robbers of good governance ongoing in the state today, without
any day passing and news of Billions of Naira that have been stolen from
this or that agency in the state not making one to be ashamed.
Majority of our people have been shut-up with millions of Naira the select
of individuals allegedly receive every months, making Abia State to look
like a state without elders that can speak-up or down against the anomalies
of Gov. T.A Orji mistakenly or knowingly called governance by those who
survive under money-point, (just as we have those who also surrender at a
gun-point) in this government.
There is no need for a microscope to know that definitely, so many things
are wrong with Gov. Orji and his government. And unless these perceived
wrongs are corrected, Abia State would continue to exist at the
non-performing level. The state government should stop providing
conduit-pipes for waste of the resources of Abia State, with the
constitution of panel upon panels that it assigns the job of investigating
this or that Ministry in the state.
It is time Ndigbo in different states talked to Gov. T.A Orji to address
the dilapidated renowned old city of Aba in the state – once regarded all
over the world as a commercial hub of Nigeria – before boasting of
arresting and bettering the social and economic life of Abia State. We must
remind Gov. T.A Orji that in all his swaggers, he cannot build a city like
Aba anywhere in the state, with all the planned building and road networks,
which has been unfortunately a gory tale under his administration. Truth be
told, Gov. T.A Orji has shown that he is not fit to be a village leader,
let alone, a governor of a state like Abia with intellectuals, movers and
checkers around the world.
