In spite of the opinions of some analysts, who view the Abia political scenario from a blinkered perception, pundits are unanimous in their view that Okezie Ikpeazu, gubernatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State, is the candidate to beat because the well rounded intellectual and gentle- man is an epitome of the classical Athenian democracy. Long before the PDP party primaries, was mooted, Ikpeazu had embarked on all-inclusive consultation with stakeholders, movers and shakers, technocrats, youths, market and trade groups whom he engaged on democratic strategies that will help build the environment for government which delivers services to its citizens effectively.
He also rubbed minds with them on how to kick start a reform agenda, based on citizens’ own assessment of democracy. Unlike some aspirants and Abuja political big wigs who threw their hats into the ring with the misconception that money and influence peddling would purchase them the ticket, Okezie took his time marketing his agenda until he won the hearts and minds of Ndi Abia. No wonder that his victory at the PDP primary was a fait accompli. He trounced all the contestants with a wide margin that left many people tongue-tied.
Ever since he emerged, as the PDP gubernatorial candidate, there has been this idle talk that Ikpeazu is a rookie and anointed“boy”of the incumbent Governor Theodore Orji.Unfortunately, some sections of the traditional and social media have also trumpeted this outright lie. No matter what divide of the political spectrum, it is viewed from, the mantle of leadership has fallen on an urbane biochemist, toxicologist and pharmacologist, who bagged a doctorate degree before his 30th birthday, and in spite of these no-mean achievements, he has remained a man of humble disposition.
It behooves on all Abians to give him all support because for a lecturer who has done four duty tours in Nigerian Ivy League Universities, it is not in his character, to horse around a godfather, real or imagined. Reacting to such idle insinuation, Ikpeazu had at different occasions explained that there is no governor in Nigeria that is anybody’s stooge. He even explained that if you played a role in canvassing for votes or helped an aspirant to mount the saddle, you do not expect him to be your puppet. The people of Abia have accepted Ikpeazu as the most suitable from the array of contestants for the gubernatorial race this time around.
Okezie admits, without any fear of contradiction, that Governor Orji has earned enormous goodwill he will leverage on if voted into power. Ikpeazu’s development template will emerge with a meticulousness akin to that of Orji, but will be powered with a faster tempo, on account of his younger age. He will hit the ground running with a people-centred plan. Abia in the main is concentrated by nationals with capacity in various areas whose dexterity is second to none in commerce, engineering, intermediate technology. So, in the years ahead, an Ikpeazu’s administration will leverage on these comparative advantages that God endowed the state with, to make sure that the economy of Abia rests on strong pillars of trade and commerce, small and medium scale enterprises
. As a minor oil and gas producing state, Ikpeazu would not rely on handouts from Abuja to run the state effectively. The geographical coordinates of Aba also constitutes the fulcrum of IKPEAZUNOMICS – a paradigm that derives its essence from the centrality of ENYIMBA City. If you look at Aba for example, it is at the confluence of about seven other cities in the South-East and South-South. The city is about 30 minutes drive to Ikot Ekpene, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Umuahia, among others. The strategic location of this city makes it what honey is to ants in terms of attraction. So he would leverage this strategic geographical location of Aba to place the city in a better stead to reinvigorate trade and commerce and build industrial clusters using the German model that revolves on the apprenticeship system where we have family line businesses.
But government must intervene in terms of giving access to world class finishing and equipment so that there can be mass production, finished products that can compete for space in shops in top shops in the European markets. Okezie’s passion for Aba is palpable and contagious. He has repeatedly said his roots are domiciled in the Enyimba city. “I don’t have a house in any other part of the world than in Aba. Nobody is more interested in the Aba problem as myself, because you can’t be more Catholic than the Pope. And nobody has a better plan for Aba. First, I have a proper diagnostics of the Aba problem. Aba’s problem is rooted in the fact that infrastructural stock, in terms of drainage, houses, roads, have been static for awhile and the population has grown geometrically.
And when that happens, it means that there will be more pressure on the roads and the drainages and they will start collapsing,” he said. Ikpeazu’s diagnosis of the state of infrastructure is delivered with a clinical precision. He talks about a comatose drainage system that has remained unmanned and not serviced because it is located sub-soil. “Once you have a subterranean under ground drainage system, it must be maintained. You must go through it every year. And it has been left for almost 50 years and some people have also constructed buildings across the drainage system. We have three storey buildings and churches across the drainage systems,” he lamented.
Ikpeazu’s recipe is to first do a ring road around Aba and put in place industrial clusters that are going to take off from Aba. What you can get in Aba in terms of internally generated revenue can help you develop other parts of Abia. Ikpeazu’s two-pronged op- tions are predicated on draining and de-flooding. One, there is an underground drainage system, which has been silted to the brim and that is why each time it rains there will flooding. The strategy is to use open drainage channels. Should we continue with the underground system then, we have to get experts to open the underground drainage for it to enter into the Aba River. It may not be environmentally sustainable.
So we are thinking about a secondary water plant around Aba River that would capture the storm water, treat it up to secondary level and then return it to the river so that aquatic life can thrive. The dynamics of OKEZUO ABIA 2015 is not an appendage to any godfather/godson syndrome. Rather it is borne out of independ- ent strategic imperatives of a top – of-the- range cerebral supermarket in the person of Okezie Ikpeazu, whose 20 years experiential in- terventions in all the facets of Abia administrations, under various jurisdictions stands him out as a gold fish.
