I feel sad any time I write about Abia State . In fact one lacks words to describe the riot of emotions that course through my mind.



A state that is blessed with natural resources and talents but which has been grounded due to poor leadership



Gov. Theodore Orji Of Abia State


It beats my imagination how each administration since we started this present democratic dispensation in 1999 have turned the state which ironically bears the appellation ‘God’s own state’ (because the name has roots in the Holy Bible) to an object of scorn and ridicule in the comity of states. It is a shame that instead of moving forward, Abia State keeps retrogressing. A lot of writers have commented on the issues I will raise in this piece and on each occasion they have been replied by an ever ready army of minions and sycophants who buy up space in the media to defend the indefensible. (Such people will actually sell their soul to the devil for the right price).One of them told me that I can continue to write but it will not make any meaning. This he attributed to the fact that Abians and Nigerians in general are complacent. Due to the gross poverty and unemployment in the land, people have become helpless and have gradually withdrawn into their shell like snails. This is probably why we have an army of sycophants who can do anything to eat from the crumbs of the feet of the governor. We also erroneously believe that religion will save us from the inept leadership that has been inflicted on us. We expect that by being positive minded and by pretending to see no evil and in return not commenting on the ill doings of our leaders that they will change from their and work for the people. But anybody who still thinks so is surely living in dream land.

The beauty of democracy is that the electorate have the right to keep their elected representatives on their toes at all times in order to enhance better performance .This is how it is done in the western world where there is respect and sanctity for human rights and the electorate at large. This is obviously not so in Nigeria where public officials become inaccessible and become dictators in civilian garb after elections. They become demigods with license to kill, maim, arrest and imprison every dissenting voice. They use every arsenal in their armory to subdue the agitation for the provision of the basic rights for which they were elected to provide. They hate been criticized and will bare their fangs at the unfortunate fellow who does so. Times have changed and political officials are now being held liable for the promises they make on the campaign trail in a desperate bid to win elections at all cost. And with the advent of the internet, citizens now have an opportunity to air their grievances and point out lapses on the part of the political class if there is no access to the traditional media. Besides, in sane societies where there are leaders with the fear of God, citizens could embark on peaceful protest with placards to protest one wrong policy or seek for the provision of an important amenity without harassment from security officials but not in Nigeria.

I have always maintained that a governor who is worth his onions should not be reminded of his duty to the electorate .This is bearing in mind that he, his family, extended family, mistresses, et al, live in opulence at the expense of the tax payers. In any case, the average governor is not better in any way than the ordinary man in the street. It is just that nature and to a large extent luck chose to bestow him the honour of being in that position. It does not in any way make him special. Most of our problems in Nigeria are self inflicted; we give elected officials the impression that they are rare breeds while they in fact ride to power on our crest. We make them seem infallible by praising them to high heavens which is what their bloated egos want. We tell them what they want to hear just to get part of the national cake from them. That is why things will never get better in Nigeria. That is why governance has been reduced to propaganda in Nigeria.

I therefore find it difficult to understand why someone who does not spend a dime of his own money right from the first day in office till the day he vacates office will find it difficult to provide the basic and fundamental infrastructures for the citizens of the state. It is absurd and such a person deserves to be stoned out of power. I also condemn in all totality the culture of praising a governor for any infinitesimal thing he does in a state with our commonwealth, it should be stopped. Why? It makes us look stupid. It is the zenith to which people can degrade themselves. No wonder they see us as tissue that can be used and discarded after elections. Nobody in his right senses should praise someone who is entrusted with public funds to provide basic infrastructure that would make life better for his fellow beings. Besides, that is why the person ran for the office in the first place. In any case such infrastructures are usually provided at inflated, bogus and outrageous prices. At any rate there is no paucity of people who can deliver the so-called dividends of democracy in our society. The recent events all over the Arab world has shown that citizens (no matter how docile) can react and overthrown the dictators in power when they are fed up with them. And with the way things are going on in Abia State a revolution would not be long in coming.

Abians have had it rough in the past twelve years, right from the kleptomaniac Orji Kalu whose ‘itching fingers ’made him turn a whole state into his business conglomerate. A man who is alleged to have acquired about nine hundred shops in one market in Abia State among other malfeasances. At the end of his inglorious reign, he inflicted Governor T.A. Orji who obviously lacked the capacity to govern the state on hapless Abians in order to cover his tracks. It is a known fact that T.A who was his chief of staff was the conduit through which funds were siphoned from the state treasury and this was highlighted when the latter sprang him from EFCC net and swore him into office in his private quarters in 2007.But that is a subject of discussion for another day.

Abia is one of the oil producing states in Nigeria but the two most important towns, Aba and Umuahia are nothing to write home about and the worst hit is Aba , which has a lot of creative people and is supposed to brim with industrial activities but the reverse is the case. The level of poverty is abysmal, public utility services are absent and environment degradation has become prevalent. One sore point is the bad roads in the state. This writer accompanied a journalist who did an analysis on Abia roads about three years ago. We went round Aba and captured all the roads on camera, he did the story and it exposed the governor’s underbelly then. The funny thing is that those roads are now in even worse state of disrepair. The governor keeps giving lame excuses and for the umpteen time, he said that contractors will be mobilized to the bad roads after the rainy season but it turns out to be a serial lie as usual. The people of Aba went through hell during the last rainy period as they have been passing through in the past four years. Aba was so disgusting and people could not move freely after each rain fall. People had to wait for water to recede from the flooded roads riddled with pot holes before going out. There was/and is still no road for car owners to ply on. In the past four years, the governor tried to downplay his inefficiency by giving various excuses why he could not perform. In some instances, he said the security situation in which kidnappers nearly over ran the state prevented him from working. Another excuse was that the deluge of petitions he faced after the 2007 election prevented him from focusing on his cardinal duty to the state. A lot of mundane excuses were bandied about while other focused governors in neighboring states were busy working. The masses bided their time and waited for the 2011 general elections to shove him out. During the buildup to the 2011 general election, it was evident that the governor stood no chance of returning to power but he was helped to the seat by President Jonathan and the PDP who had an unusual interest in Abia State, although it is evident that their interest was rather personal and selfish and not in the interest of the long suffering people who evidently needed a change. This can be deduced from what is happening right now in Bayelsa (the state of the president) where a governor who has been ruling the state under the umbrella of PDP for the past four years was denied a return ticket on the allegation of non performance, and other misdemeanors, but in the case of Abia, the governor was lured from another party into PDP and giving the ticket on a platter of gold. Abians were irked by this development and this manifested when people refused to come out in Aba when the governor came to campaign. In fact they pelted him at the campaign ground with sachets of pure water to show the depth of their grievance with his inept government. But, unfortunately, PDP had their way while the people only had their say. The governor who is very skilled at passing the buck of his failure back to other people during his campaign blamed his predecessor for his inability to perform. He told the public that he was in bondage for four years while the wealth was being shared by the Orji Uzor clan. The level of degradation in Abia State as at that time was painted succinctly by Dimgba Igwe of the Daily Sun newspaper in the February 8th 2011 edition and he said “The governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje, earns about the same revenue with say, Abia State, plus or minus. With that he was able to build a state university from the scratch with 22 courses- as at the time I visited about three years ago- accredited. He built roads, built a multi-billion waterworks that turned a landlocked state into a state with pipe borne water flowing everywhere and he built an airport from the scratch, which is now in use………..” .He went further, if you are from Abia and you had to choose a governor to run Abia State in terms of utility value, would you go for the present incumbent or for a Danjuma Goje if he were to run for governorship in Abia State? From his analysis the difference between the two governors was crystal clear. The elections has come and gone but Abia is still in stagnation despite the fact that we have been liberated from Mamacracy (according to the governor and his cohorts). The question now is what excuse will be given to Abians at the end of this tenure? It is now evident that his predecessor was not really the problem for the glut in transformational plans for the state. Some people in the state are of the opinion that the governor should be tolerated and his obvious shortcomings over looked so that he would end his tenure and fade away peacefully. They argue quite convincing that since the man did not perform in his first term which is the criterion for getting a second term and he still got the second term on a platter of gold, he would not work again. This is in fact true because there is nothing going on in Abia State except media propaganda which is being sponsored by the governor and his cohorts to give an impression that a government is in place. But on the other hand it would be a cowardly option to keep silent because the governor is sustained in power by tax payers’ money and he is duty bound to provide the basic infrastructures and services for the people whether he likes it or not. It is a right and not a privilege.

The most absurd thing however is that while the government has not impacted positively on the lives of the citizen .Abia State is always in the news for very bad reasons. There was the Absu 5 gang rape controversy. There was the case of his son Chinedu (a.k.a Ikuku) who is not a government functionary but who goes around town in convoys with sirens and police escorts for effect. His word is law in the state and political appointee live in fear of him. A man who would not buy something in a shopping mall where people are but chase them away before making his purchase. But he met his waterloo when he stepped on a toe that was obviously bigger that him. Do we mention the infrastructural levy fraud being forced on companies and landlords? Do we mention the various indiscriminate levies, keke, taxi and bus drivers pay daily by force to agents of government .Do we mention the incessant increment of school fees in the state owned tertiary institutions? Do we explain how the students of Absu defeated him when he wanted to plant a surrogate as to do his bidding as the students’ union government president in the state owned university? The government generates lots of revenues from different sources daily but one wonders why there is nothing tangible on ground to show for all the generated revenue. One seriously questions the rational for having a government in place when it abdicates its responsibilities. What is the essence of having a government if we cannot have good roads, adequate security, et al? Is junketing all over the world in search of nonexistent investors the essence of having a government? And any serious person would tell you that in this digital age with the advent of the internet, one can just sit in the comfort of one’s office and make any arrangement with any investor in the world with the click of a computer. The world is now a global village. The problems of the average Abia citizen in this administration are legion and cannot even be exhausted. Do we even talk about the misguided demolishing of shops going on without provision of stalls for the displaced traders to use? What about the retrenchment of workers from other states which might have serious repercussions if other states decide to pay the state back in kind?

The governor also appears to have a field day because he has emasculated the opposition. There is no opposition in Abia State for now. The few people who kept him on his toes in the past are now in the same party with him and for certain political reasons cannot speak out against him .These people in high places were willing to stand up to the governor in the past, they were courageous enough to stand for the truth, but that was then. They now grumble in their closet as to how powerful and monstrous the governor has become but can no longer say so openly. Everybody has suddenly gone into a deep slumber now. They are waiting for 2015 to begin to say the truth about the rot in Abia State. By then it will be politically correct to speak out against the governor but for now they have their political future to protect. It is politically expedient for them to be silent now. The question now is who will speak for hapless Abians? Who will deliver them? We demand a change in Abia State. The governor should either seat up and work for Abians or ship out. Governance is not easy, it is not a tea party, I concur, but on the other hand it is no reason for laxity and maladministration. There is a marked difference between working, trying to work and not working at all. We travel to other states and we see what able governments are doing. The problem with our democracy is that everybody wants to be at the helm of affairs for selfish reasons (usually material wants) and not for the populace. And unfortunately very few politicians with vision and the determination to work for the people have access to power. The rains have gone now, the roads should be rehabilitated. To whom much is given, much is also expected from.



http://nigeriapolitico.com/abiastate.html

MODS SEUN NGWAKWE OBINOSCOPY FRONT PAGE PLEASE

Abia State for 10 years now, is a state ruled by a family of liars, deceivers, scammers and leeches that latched on the "body" of the state while sucking out the whole blood out of it. That the people of the state are able to move about now is because we have dry season; once the rains set in, Abia state will become an eyesore and the people's movement will be impeded while businesses will grind to a halt. When the rainy season sets in, the best means for moving from point A to point B in Aba town will be by boat or canoe; I hope the government of Abia State will provide enough of them since it fails to repair the bad roads or to construct new ones.


Due to failure of leadership and governance in Nigeria, the air in Abia state is filled with putrefying odour oozing out from refuse dumps

Due to failure of leadership and governance in Nigeria, all corners of Abia State have turned into refuse dumps

Due to failure of leadership and governance in Nigeria, human beings and household wastes are now competing for the available limited spaces in Aba Town.
Abia State has been reduced to filth by Orji Uzor Kalu and Theo. A. Orji as the photos below can attest. Everywhere and every corner of Abia State have been turned into a refuse dump.

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Orji Uzor Kalu is not even qualified to be a councillor of a ward. Abia people went into a deep stupor to have allowed that neophyte and misfit to rule them for 8 years and worse still, allowed him to impose his stooge on them at the expiration of his tenure.

For this piece, let's concentrate on Aba Town in the state: Aba's misfortune perhaps began in the 1990s. Located on the Aba River, with over two million population, Enyimba City, as Aba is popularly called, was originally settled in by the Ngwa people who are the owners of the city (The owners of Aba are the people of Eziama, Eziukwu, Osusu, Ndi-Egoro, Umuokpoji, Obuda, Umuagbaghi, Umungasi, Umule, Ariaria, Ogbor, Ohabiam, Uratta etc), but, ceded the land temporarily to the British government through the Eziukwu - Aba community during the colonial era. Aba was an administrative centre of the British government, with a military outpost in 1901 and a railroad constructed in 1915 to link it to Port Harcourt, for the transportation of agricultural goods such as palm oil and kernels. The town in 1929 was where the famous Aba Women Riot, in protest of colonial taxation policy, took place.

This British administrative centre was called the Aba Division and it encompassed areas upto Obigbo (Oyigbo) in Rivers State and beyond, all administered directly from Aba. That's why presently; the agitation for the creation of Aba State is now renewed, because of the city's administrative history. The agitation for Aba State was the first in Nigeria, but, successive federal governments denied the people of that zone that right. The first request for Aba state was made in 1915 to the British Colonial Government.

In 1967, Aba was the capital of the short-lived secessionist state of Biafra whose capital was moved to Aba from Enugu as Nigerian troops advanced into Biafra from the north. Aba is surrounded by oil wells which separate it from the city of Port Harcourt, a distance of about 40 km.

There were days Aba used to beckon to all and sundry. But over time, its beauty has been slain on the altar of bad governance, greed, corruption, lawlessness and planlessness. Indeed, Aba is not only the big slum of the former Eastern Region; it also has the worst roads any eye can see.

Physically, the town is well connected, with roads leading into it from Port Harcourt, Owerri, Umuahia, Ikot Ekpene, and Ikot Abasi. The commercial city features a high concentration of small scale industries - and a number of sizable markets including the famous Ariaria market. It is densely populated and has a high ratio of artisans in its population. As a result of failure of leadership and governance in the state and coupled with an overwhelming influx of people, the town's waste management system has collapsed, turning it into the dirtiest city in Nigeria. Here, people live and work beside heaps of garbage.

This is not what Aba used to be. Fondly referred to as the Taiwan of Africa, the city has about the highest number of small scale industries on the continent. Aba's fame rests on its production of materials such as dresses, nails, metals works, bags, and shoes which are known as "Aba made".

Aba is a market town and that attracts people from far and near; it has a very big and important market in West Africa and traders from other countries do come to Aba to buy their goods.

Aba is the biggest and the most important city in Abia State as well as the state's life line; it generates more revenue and wealth than any other town in Igbo land because of the markets and the oil wells in the zone. But still at that, Orji Uzor Kalu and his mother starved the "milking cow" that made them all they are today. Orji Uzor Kalu and his mother were paupers in the 1980s when they hadn't political power or access to the corridors of power; their house then at Nweke Street Aba will attest to that, but, today, they are living like queen and prince at Margaret Avenue, GRA, Aba.

Aba is home for all. The Ngwa people are friendly and benevolent people that receive strangers with open arms. People came to Aba in penury but are today millionaires and billionaires. Every Igbo person either at home and abroad must have either lived in Aba or has a relation or friend living in Aba. All the communities of all the South-East States have at least a person from there living in Aba. Sadly, many non-Ngwa indigenes in Aba have taken undue advantage of the friendliness and benevolence of the Aba indigenes while others have misconstrued these virtues as signs of weakness on the part of the indigenes.

Let's look at all the four corners of Aba Town and we will notice the lack of government presence. Aba people have been on their own for too long; the only thing the Abia State government does is to impose levies upon levies on the people of the town and using the deadly and dreadful Bakassi Boys in collecting them (the levies), anybody that fails to pay will regret ever coming into this world.

At the center of Aba town; the area between the beginning of Milverton Avenue on one side and Park Road on the other, upto the Aba Town Hall, is no longer passable for motorists other than the buses and cars loading their passengers there. The touts and transporters have blocked that space in such a way that no car coming from either the Asa Road end or Aba-Owerri Road end, can pass through the Aba Park anymore and the Aba South LGA and the state government are doing nothing about it. Infact, nobody in Aba or the whole of the state, feels the impact or presence of any government. People behave the way they want or do anything they like because they are well aware that the governments at all tiers are only interested in maintaining themselves in power and for their selfish gains. That's why touts and their masters will block a major road at the most strategic and important point of it and still get away with it.

To get over the Aba Park area, motorists coming from Aba-Owerri Road and heading to Asa or Obohia or Ngwa or Port Harcourt Road are forced to use Eziukwu/Hospital Roads as a detour. While a motorist coming from Asa or Obohia or Ngwa or Port Harcourt Road and heading to Aba-Owerri Road or GRA or Umungasi or Abayi, will have to take either Hospital/Eziukwu Roads to J. Allen or Okigiwe Road/Brass Street.

A motorist from Asa or Obohia or Ngwa or Port Harcourt Road heading to Ogbor hill or Obingwa/Isiala Ngwa North and South LGAs or Akwa Ibom/Cross River States will have to take Azikiwe or St. Michael's or Park or Pound or Ikot Ekpene Road to the East side of it and from there to the bridge. While motorists from Ogbor Hill/Obingwa/Isi-ala Ngwa North and South LGAs or Akwa Ibom/Cross River States heading to Asa or Obohia or Ngwa or Port Harcourt Road will take the stretch from the East end. That's not how it is supposed to be!

The stretch from Aba -Owerri Road to Umungasi and Abayi upto the Express Road is impassable during the rainy season and the go-slow there can take hours in a stretch of road not upto 10 kilometres in length. From Osisioma till Umuobasi Amavo to Owerrinta area is in such a mess with pot holes everywhere.

The stretch from Ikot Ekpene Road through Ogbor Hill to Ehere to Ukpakiri till Akwa Ibom State is in disrepair with pot holes that motorists have to move in a zigzag form to avoid the thousand and one pot holes and some of them get involved in accidents in that process.

The stretch from Ovom through Ovom Girls´ High School to Azumini/Ohambele axis that was repaired during the time Chief Adolphus Wabara was the senate president (because it leads directly to his compound from Aba), has started developing potholes and nobody cares.

The stretch from Omoba Road to SDA Eastern Nigeria Conference Headquarters passing through the Pepsi bottling Company to the moribund glass industry to Itungwa/Itukpa and all the way to Omoba Town, has only potholes and nobody has cared to do anything on it for more than 20 years. Here, motorists have to be meandering from one side of the road to the other and accidents become a frequent occurrence as result of that.

The stretch from Old Umuahia Road through Mgboko to Mbutu Umunwoko to the Umuikaa Junction along the Enugu- Port Harcourt Road hasn't seen any maintenance since the Express Road was constructed, you can check out how many years ago that must be.

The Enyimba Hotel that has been under construction since ages and that is supposed to be an eyes catching landmark because of the conspicuous position it is occupying at the base of Ogbor Hill and the Aba River, has been turned into a home for the homeless and mad people. Thieves have stripped it of all fittings already installed and there is no hope or plan that the edifice will see the light of the day as a five-star hotel it was conceived as. The millions of Naira, perhaps billions of Naira, sunk into it by previous administrations, have gone down the drain.

The stretch from Ngwa Road through Obohia Road passing through Ohuru and to Obohia and Ndoki Towns in Ukwa West LGA is no more in use, grasses have taken it over, once one gets to Nnentu Village, the journey comes to an end because that stretch that led to Obohia Town has turned into a forest. Obohia Road is dependent on only one road.

It is near impossible to get into Ndi-Egoro (near the flood disaster section) both in raining and dry seasons and still, thousands, including the indigenes, are living in that section of the city. For people that cannot withstand ugly sights, eating after visiting that area might be only by will power. It is an indescribable sight. And yet those people living in that area are paying their tax and rate to a government that cares less about them.

The stretch from Brass through Faulks Road to Ariaria market, Ukwu Mango and Umule are in disrepair. What of Omuma Road from Ama Ogbonna to Achi Aru and Osusu Road? Which road can one name and which can one forget about?

Talking of the sordid condition Aba Town is in, Uduma Kalu while writing for Vanguard Newspapers captured the real pictures when he wrote:

The area like Port Harcourt Road (from No. 1 of it up to national High School and Ohabiam) is better seen than described during the rainy months. Port Harcourt Road, safe for the few dry season months, is a disaster. It is no more motorable. Everywhere is water logged. No drainage. It is totally cut-off. Many cars break down in Aba because the place is very bad. Port Harcourt and Uratta Roads might as well be the worst roads in Aba. Uratta Road is a very important road because it connects Port Harcourt Road to the Express Way and to Ariaria market, but, it is totally bad. The two roads are a disaster.

The look of Port Harcourt Road, Aba before the dry season

Port Harcourt Road connects two big important cities in the East. Not only that, it leads to states such as Delta, Bayelsa and other cities in Rivers State. Aba-Port Harcourt Road during the raining season is a washed away road with gullies filled with water on both sides of the road making journey here a nightmare. And that is what Aba is, a nightmare. Because for the users of this road, both pedestrians and vehicles, it is always a gridlock plying the road during the raining season! Pedestrians have to queue on end because of huge mass of water as they wait for a small space to open up before continuing their long trek. They struggle with bikes, truck pushers and themselves for right of way. Then, a big trailer or lorry will come lumbering about, wobbling and sprawling on the road. A mechanical work can start right on the middle of that ugly and deplorable road, thereby blocking whatever space that may be open for others to use.

Uratta Road is the only major road in that part of the town and as long as it is bad, there will be no road again in that area. People now struggle through their nose to earn their living. Because when you have bad roads, going out will be difficult. A resident of that area had this to say "The number one thing we need here is good roads. It is not a state capital. It is a commercial area. There is no much government investment here. You don't have government workers here".

In Aba, it is water here, water there and water everywhere on the roads during the rainy months. It is water that has also blocked and washed away the Uratta Road. The road is no longer motorable. It is like a big gutter filled with mud and dirt.

The Old Court Road vies off from the popular Ngwa Road. The problem here is that the drainage was blocked by those that heaped mountains of plastic materials such as jerry cans, buckets, gallons and other household wastes and no effort has been made by the state or local government to clear them on regular basis. Two depressions are visible here and water gathers in them, making it impassable for vehicles. Hence, big and small vehicles turned it into a parking lot.

Old Court Road is a very important road that can ease the traffic congestion on Mosque Road. There is a lot of pressure at Mosque Road. But when Old Court Road is repaired, it can now ease the traffic jam there.

According to Uduma Kalu of Vanguard Newspapers, a resident said:

"The government of T.A Orji is just a continuation of the outgone one. They are just the same thing. What they are doing is only patching the roads. They have no new project. There is no new road".

It is unfortunate that the residents of Aba in particular and the state in general have not seen anything good from those "ruling" them despite the fact that Kalu and Orji governments (combined) have ruled the state for almost 10 years. There is nothing to show that they were/are interested in alleviating the sufferings of the people of the state.

If one goes to East Street, the place has been in repairs for quite sometime but nothing has been done. During the rainy months, one finds it hard to go from the Ngwa Road end through the East street, straight to waterside and Ogbor Hill. From Ngwa Road by East to our Lady of Lourdes Church, will not be motorable even for an okada, when the rains return!





Ehi Road that should have eased the traffic from Ngwa and Mosque roads has been turned into dustbin and bush. There is cut off at the middle of it by what looks like a forest. The road, like magic, continues after the forest.

One of the problems with Aba is that a large number of the roads are poorly built. The roads built by the former governor of the old Imo state, the late Chief Sam Mbakwe, from where Abia is excised, are still better than the new ones built or rebuilt recently in Abia State. But even as some of those roads built by Mbakwe are developing potholes, it is only patch works that Kalu administration did on them and the same are being done on them by Theo Orji's administration. But some of the patches are wearing away while the old segments of the Mbakwe built roads remain. The people have been asking the previous and present state government to ensure that the qualities of those Mbakwe built roads are sustained in the city, but to no avail.

The Ohanku area of Aba is like a rejected and forgotten area, this is amply illustrated by the ant like trooping of people into the only access road into the area. This area of Aba, referred to the Ajegunle of Aba, houses the poorest of the community. And as the abode of the poor, the area is almost forgotten. There is about no single tarred road in the area. It is the ubiquitous okada, or the commercial motor cycles that ply into the nooks and crannies of this section. Streets, such as Bende Road have collapsed so much that nobody lives in a section of it. Houses in this street have sunk into the mud. The road is now a dump site and farm. The people have left that section of the street. But then the sight at areas around Ibere Road is most sickening. The motorcycles try to avoid the overcrowded Ohanku Road by using these feeder roads but the roads are all gone so much that only what looks like foot paths are enough for the bikes to pass through.

These Ohanku slums join Azikiwe Road, Uratta Road, Okigwe Road, Obohia Road, Faulks Road, Osusu Road and Aba-Port Harcourt Road to give the city the sobriquet, Slum City of the South East.

Uduma Kalu wrote that a commercial bike rider, Mr. Chris Mmadu, an Executive member of the town's motorcycle riders, said, "We are pleading that government should help us and repair the roads in Aba. We have very bad roads in Aba. You can see the face of our roads in Aba".

Inside the Ohanku slums where there is no government presence, a resident said "if the urban area is neglected, then the reporter could imagine the rot in the inner city. Let me say these places are like rural areas. You can see for yourself, nothing is happening here. They don't repair any road here. Not even a single one. Ohanku area has about one million people, and it is only one single road that leads into it. So, all the time, you see traffic congestion in that area".

The residents blame their problem on poor leadership and bad governance. Uduma kalu further reported some of the views of the residents of Aba. One said: There had been publicity galore that Aba roads were a haven. You have seen it by yourself. Where are the roads? They did few roads but we paid some infrastructure levy. They did not do it all with government money. Some buildings paid N20, 000. Some paid N10, 000. You can make enquiries from others. I am not lying. What I am saying is if you call me tomorrow, I will tell you the same thing".

"During the administration of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, he did some few roads but those roads did not last. If you go to old express along Ariaria area, they repaired that road. It wasn't up to two years and the road went off. Because there was no drainage! The quality of the tar was very low. It was nothing to write home about," another resident responded.

Aba has its drainage problems. Yet, it has a central drainage system built by Mbakwe during the Ndi-Egoro Flood Disaster in the 1980s. But the residents complain of poor sanitation enforcement.

The Vanguard Newspapers wrote that an elder sitting in his shop said:

"If there is any other thing, the way I look at it, to me, it is bad governance. There is no drainage system. The sanitation system is not controlled. People throw in refuge here and there. And all the things will block the drainage. So, there is no way for water to pass. And that is the worst thing in Aba. And you see that the town is very dirty when you look at it. I don't know if there is any city in this Eastern Region that can be compared with Aba in the area of sanitation. Indeed Aba is very dirty. That is what we are witnessing. We are suffering".

The problems affecting Aba are also affecting all parts of Abia State. Theo. Orji is only good in churning out propaganda, claiming his achievements while the facts on the ground suggest otherwise. There is a road which was awarded to Worldwide Construction Company, was later reported as having been constructed and as one of the achievements of the governor while marking his one year in office even when the contractor was yet to mobilise to the site.





Due to failure of leadership and governance in Nigeria, this is how one of the classrooms in Abia state, where some of our greater tomorrows are being tutored, looks like! Wonderful, isn't it?


Click on the link below for more reading and disgusting pictures and lamentations of average Abians

http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/ubochi/021609.html

T.a orji is very wicked man but abians will get it right this time around.I heard he wants to run for the senate and his son is positioning for the state house of assembly.well, abians will get it right-he will be given the “ohakim“ treatment.any cohort of t.a orji will never get any position of political service come 2015.

kurupt1:
T.a orji is very wicked man but abians will get it right this time around.I heard he wants to run for the senate and his son is positioning for the state house of assembly.well, abians will get it right-he will be given the “ohakim“ treatment.any cohort of t.a orji will never get any position of political service come 2015.

My brother this thread is just to test the sincerity and fairness of seun, ngwakwe, obinoscopy, mynd44 and other mods who feel a thread created by one herbalist in the south east should get to the front page since it is an Anti-Fashola thread.

When a Momodu from Edo gives a divergent personal Editorial view of a world acclaimed governor but become our mod on NL feels that it is worth.TP take or judge Fashola with.

Let them put this one too on the FrontPage since Ubani is an Abian it should carry more weight.

Put a Fashola for re-election in lagos anyway and he will win Flawlessly but can the same be said of orji in Abia.

abia people deserve the government they've got....

if abains like collect money and vote again this is a big lesson for u all

tobtap:
abia people deserve the government they've got....

Yep, that's true. How can a "legendary" people for 10 years now, just stay quiet and allow not only a clown to rule them, but also useless legislators and state assembly folks to rig themselves in over and over? Look at Okorocha driving through the very local regions of the town ABA, which by now should have rivaled Marseille

mrvitalis:
if abains like collect money and vote again this is a big lesson for u all

Didn't Arthur Eze called APC awolowo party? are you sure abians wants awolowo party in power?

Indeed Abians deserve laying of legs, i always ask myself are they sleeping when they voted t.a orji, please take a trip to State of Osun & see what Aregbe is doing with his limited resources. T.a orji is a scam.

Indeed Abians deserve laying of legs, i always ask myself are they sleeping when they voted t.a orji the second time, please take a trip to State of Osun & see what Aregbe is doing with his limited resources. T.a orji is a scam.

Anti-PDP thread...I doubt it's hitting Front Page