Ikpeazu and the challenge of rebuilding Abia

Hundred days after May 29, many Abia indigenes and residents would expect to see changes in the state flowing from the juicy campaign promises of the in-coming administration.

For months, campaign for the governorship seat in Abia State was intense. Aspirants on various party platforms toured the length and breadth of the state canvassing votes and making great promises. Today, the election has been won and lost.

The challenge before Okezie Ikpeazu, winner of the gubernatorial election in Abia, is enormous. There is a consensus opinion that Abia is a wasteland as nothing much, in terms of tangible progress, has been recorded in the state in the 16 years occupation of power stool by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-led administrations.

The people of the state have for many years waited for a Messiah.

Analysts speak in tandem that the robust economic activities in Aba have since gone extinct. Aba, the Enyimba City, has since become a ghost city and neglected by the successive PDP governments.

It was against this backdrop that there was a huge incidence of apathy on the part of voters as a good number of the indigenes simply stayed away from the polling booths. Some of them complained that they had no reason going to vote again as their participation since 1999 has not yielded the desired democracy dividends.  Although the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) shows that about 1,396,162 registered in Abia, actual voters in the gubernatorial election were not up to 500,000.

A few days ago, the outgoing Governor Orji was shocked at the obvious lack of interest exhibited by greater number of voters in the state and inaugurated an 18-member committee to appraise the performance of the PDP in the state in the last general elections.

The committee was told to ascertain the real and perceived problems, and constraints faced by the party at the elections.

While inaugurating the committee, Orji urged the members to review and appraise the performance of the party in the last polls and ascertain the remote and perceived problems faced by the party in that election with a view to proffering solutions capable of leading to improved performance in future polls.

He said that even though the PDP won in many of the contested elections in the last election in the state, that victory did not generate the usual euphoria that characterise the party in the previous elections.

The governor urged the committee to recommend ways of reforming and rebuilding the party to a stronger and more resilient political organisation in the state.

But analysts say that the committee does not need to go far to find the reason, which is purely anchored on Abians’ loss of faith in the PDP-administration in the state.

According to them, the only reason that gave the party victory in the last election was the determination of the Ukwa-Ngwa people to seize the opportunity given to them by virtue of the zoning. It is public knowledge that if the race had been thrown open by the PDP, the party would not have mustered a winning vote.

For many years, Abia sons and daughters at home and in the Diaspora have lamented the rot that the state has become. A lot has also been written, most of which were in the negative, bemoaning the pitiable condition of the ‘God’s Own State’.

Governor Theodore Orji today goes into history as a man who loves equity and cherishes fair play. For many years, since the creation of Abia, the Ukwa-Ngwa people have not exercised power. But this time around, the incumbent governor promised to hand over power to a person from that axis of the state. Orji also got the state chapter of the party to buy into the zoning arrangement. Pundits believe that it would not have cost the governor anything if he had thrown the race open for everybody to contest. But he knew that what is good for the goose is also same for the gander. Even when Abians who are not of the Ukwa-Ngwa rose to contest, the leadership of PDP reminded them that the party was supreme.

One good thing about the new senator-elect is that he never thinks himself a super human. He believes there are areas yet to be covered by his administration, development-wise. In one of the encounters with the governor at the Government House, Umuahia in 2013, he had said that what needed to be done in Aba, would be handled by his successor who he hinted must come from that axis of the state. The question on the lips of many people is, now that Ikpeazu has clinched victory, what is next?

Analysts say that now that politicking is over, Ikpeazu must begin to put together those campaign promises with a view to categorising them for ease of delivery.

“I expect him to look into the manifestos and campaign promises of some of his rivals that contested the poll with him and see what he can gleaned from them with the aim of making the desired impact in the state and in the lives of the people in no time at all,” said Chudi Agada, a Lagos-based commentator.
Agada further said: “I have read a lot of stories about Abia and the enormous work the incoming government is going to be confronted with; my take is that Okezie Ikpeazu must, as early as possible, choose between playing politics and delivering the good governance in the state. I think he has the capacity to deliver. He is not new to challenges of office, at least, from the much I have read about him. He has been many places in his career life and he is cerebrally equipped to handle the challenges of office as governor of a state like Abia. What he needs is the will to initiate that paradigm shift. I must tell you, expectations from him are huge.

“Let me explain. It is like when somebody has been drinking from the pond, and he sees someone holding out a keg of clean water; he rushes that keg for a change. Abia people, I can say are impatient now, urgently needing a new deal. Abia as a state has not been very lucky. This time around, there is that belief that something good is going to happen soon. My advice to Dr. Ikpeazu is that he must hit the ground running with programmes that will lift the state and the people.”

During the campaign, Ikpeazu promised to shore up the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR). It is instructive that Abia has been generating less than N1billion, which observers say is abysmal for a state that has industries and other resources that can be harnessed.

In his maiden interaction with journalists in Lagos during the campaign, Ikpeazu had promised to carry all-round development, not only in Aba. He, however, believed that huge revenues could be generated from the Enyimba City. Having won the election, it is time to see him convert the robust ideas into tangible deliverables.

“I believe that the economy of Abia State today can be improved from Aba. There are five major cities we can get from Abia- Arochukwu, Umuahia, Isiukwuato, Ohafia and Aba. Aba has the potential of generating enough commercial activities and revenues to sustain the other cities or four other centres in Abia State. But it needs a lot of courage to do so. I have developed a plan of how to develop Aba. The most important thing is that you’ll see strong foundation of small and medium enterprises that will employ about fifty thousand (50,000) people in Aba.

“But, for us to do all that, we must give the roads a facelift. We will map out our economic vision first, and then our roads that will drive the economic vision second. The roads need to be fixed, the drainage, and again, there is the need for a ring road around the city. What we need is re-engineering of the city. This is because in the first place the way it is now, no serious investor having about N1billion can think of Aba as a very serious investment destination. The ease of doing business in Aba is not there; we rank very low in that area. There is the issue of multiple taxation; some of them look like the other; it is not streamlined. The current administration has made some improvements in that regard, but it needs to be taken to the next level and implemented to the letter.”