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My Candid Assessment Of Abia State - Adeeko Ademola by Tsolz: 12:11pm On Nov 23, 2014 |
First and foremost, I must commend the Abia state government for deeming it fit to invite bloggers on an assessment tour of the state. My commendation comes as a result of the willingness of the state government to open its doors to external criticism from non-Abia indigenes. And the fact that the governor himself gathered enough guts to invite bloggers of all groups, is worthy of commendation. In what seemed to me like a calculated yet desperate attempt to counter attack ‘destructive criticism’ from all over the country especially through the social media, I must say, a governor that could muster enough courage to organize this tour definitely had something to prove. Apart from the fact that the whole state capital is littered with billboards and posters for political campaigns which may be as a result of the impending general elections, but then, that gave me an insight into how much of a propagand a governor that TA Orji is. Abia state (Umuahia) is basically an average rural-urban geographical area in Nigeria just like so many others where governors are self-glorifying and lazy in building human capacity but agile in erecting monumental, bogus projects all in the name of leaving behind a legacy after their time in office. Well, Abia state for me wasn’t a surprise package at all. Even though the pre-meditated picture that was painted in my mind of how dirty and undeveloped Abia state was didn’t turn out to be true after all. Even at that, a whole lot of work needs to be done. Assessment Tour In what started on an impressive note after visiting the Abia state specialist and diagnostic centre, nothing else impressed me personally. We visited the health care centre which houses an eye test centre and also a renal failure diagnostic centre that owns 6 dialysis machines. 1 for HIV patients, 1 for hepatitis patients and remaining 4 for conventional patients. Good news is, it actually is a PPP effort in which government subsidizes the costs of treatment on each patient considering the medical fees compared to private diagnostic centres across the country. Particularly, a patient is required to pay a sum of 21, 000 naira per session in which some cases a patient may need up to 3 sessions in a week and that gives you a total of 63, 000 naira. Laudable effort on the part of the state government but compared to the minimum wage obtainable, it still results in a disaster of some sort if you ask me. The facility seemed well-equipped but my grouse is, it’s just the only one of its kind in the entirety of the state. Although, they have made available an outreach platform which allows rural dwellers have access to the facility via regular visitations and propagation of information but to what capacity is what cannot be ascertained here. Other projects visited and inspected were: The state’s Digital library New governors’ office Low, middle and high income estate layout, Ohobo The new timber market Joint account allocation commission building Skill acquisition and women development centre Amachara specialist hospital annex,Amachara The international conference centre The new Umuahia main market The new bus terminal, Umuahia The new mechanic village, Umuahia Several primary and secondary school building projects, Ubakala and environs, Umuahia The new Umuahia shopping mall & spa The newly constructed Helipad, Umuahia The renovated and new Abia state government secretariat, Umuahia The new Umuahia event centre The proposed site for the new bus terminal, Aba Technical School Project, Umuahia Abia state specialist and diagnostic centre Matters Arising One thing that is worthy of note in all of the above mentioned projects is the fact that most of these projects are either in their inception stage or near- completion stage. Considering how much longer the present governor has to stay in power, one can’t help but wonder what the governor had been doing in the past 7 years of his administration. The time frame for most of these projects are actually my main grouse as most of them didn’t commence until 2012/2013. For example, we visited the low, middle and high income estate layout in Ohobo, I learnt the project kicked off in January 2014. Having spent 11 months on the said project, I could barely see anything on the big expanse of land except for a few foundational structures in sight and some uncompleted buildings. Now, that brings me to the question; how does the governor intend to wrap up this project considering the fact that he has less than 6 months to leave his office? Well I guess you can answer that question putting into cognizance that in Nigeria, our government lacks continuity. One can only hope that those projects do not become neglected by successive administrations. If a governor spent as much time as he did between 2007-2015 and had nothing to show as his legacy since inception and then begins to kick off legacy projects in 2013, it shows clearly what type of man he is. Hiding under the excuse of the failure of his predecessors is no reason to pend important developmental projects till the very end of his administration as he’s doing now. How do you kick off multiple mega projects in the last year of the 8 years you were given to administer and you can confidently say you’re working? I can authoritatively establish it that; majority of the projects Ochendo has initiated (completed or not), started not more than 2 years ago which also establishes the fact that his first tenure in office was used for absolutely nothing. Transparency and accountability All through the tour, questions bordering on finances and sponsorship of projects were tactically avoided by government officials. To think that 90 percent of the projects are private-public partnership ventures would leave you wondering; where exactly does the state government expend it’s monthly federal allocation, internally generated revenue and SURE-P funds? At a point, it became irritating that government officials on ground during the tour especially the present commissioner for information could not provide even estimated figures of any of the projects. Projects executed through the PPP joint venture should also be made available for public consumption but the reverse was the case in Abia state because I couldn’t get information on which private individuals/companies are involved in the execution of all the PPP projects. If PPP project information is not made available for public knowledge then I can as well say that the state government is definitely hiding a lot. It also does amaze me that the Abia state government does not have available-on-demand breakdown of its budget anywhere not even on its official government website. In terms of transparency and accountability, I sincerely think Ochendo hasn’t impressed me a bit. Running a government that hides details of its finances from public view sure gives room for skepticism on its transparency and accountability. Governance Judging by the amount of projects I have seen so far, yes, Ochendo is working but ONLY in Umuahia. The state governor’s limitation of development to the state capital begs the question; is TA Orji the governor of Umuahia local government or the whole state of Abia? The notion that each governor has to direct development to his local government area of birth/origin leaving out other parts of the state is one that is very backward when it comes to governance. I personally think that the present Abia state governor is not running an inclusive government in which all 17 local government areas should benefit from. From my point of view, 95% of the work done so far is strictly centred around Umuahia, the state’s capital which happens to be the usual case in majority of the states in Nigeria. Directing development to just one part of a given geographical area usually makes rural urban migration inevitable which in turn gives way to over-population and also environmental pollution. I think Ochendo so far has been able to prove his ‘Facebook critics’ wrong to some extent because among some of his legacy projects, I found some laudable ones while some could be classified as misplaced priority. By misplaced priority here, I’m referring to the ongoing construction of the new government house which happens to be a massive construction project. Now, for me, I do think that if governor TA Orji had actually spent his first term achieving nothing, he should have at least, directed his second term into erecting projects that will benefit the people of Abia state instead of a self- glorifying piece of edifice. Another relevant but indeed unreasonable project is another massive construction project named the International Conference Centre. I do not understand why in God’s name Abia state would be needing an International Conference Centre at this particular time? Do we prioritise our problem solving in this country? For a state that earns less than 5 billion Naira as federal allocation and around 500 million Naira as IGR, what is the social and economic benefit of erecting a multi-billion Naira project as such? For me, the ongoing construction of the government house and international conference centre are cases of very wrong timing. The desperation on the part of the governor to erect edifices which will serve as a legacy beclouded his sense of prioritising the state’s needs. A state that cannot provide clean water for its people but can embark on multiple billion Naira projects such as the new government house and the international conference centre is a very unserious one and knows nothing about governance. As usual when the question about financial analysis of these projects came up, government officials present on site couldn’t make available a hint of how much the projects cost in estimation. The Umuahia shopping mall and spa (whatever the spa stands for) is quite a laudable effort by the state government even though it’s also a PPP funded project. I can gladly say its a fund-well-utilised project. The Technical School Project in Umuahia was completed but was not in use because it had not been commissioned. The reason for that, we were never told. Meanwhile the Amachara specialist hospital annex, Amachara was a beauty to behold from afar but a closer look shows the shoddy construction job, even though it was everything like a modern well-equipped hospital. After what seemed like a calculated effort to evade the notorious Aba, the bloggers insisted on visiting that dreaded part of Abia state. When we got to Aba, I wasn’t impressed at all basically because TA Orji has close to nothing to claim there as part of his works as majority of the projects there are works of previous administrations. The part of Aba that I saw wasn’t really looking bad as much as people had painted it to me before I embarked on the tour which simply implies; we were not taken to the real Aba. The fact that the government officials on the tour hesitated to take us to Aba initially, especially the Ariaria market showed that there was a lot to hide. But one thing is certain; propaganda may work but not forever. You cannot hide the truth because it’s just like the sun which will always have its way to show up in public. Finally, on the day we met the governor himself, it definitely was a heart-warming event until the governor declared he had totally forgotten that bloggers were invited on a governance assessment tour of his State. Is that an insensitive remark or a suggestion that the governor is truly a busy man? I’ll leave you to make that judgement. In my final analysis, I do not want to think that TA Orji invited bloggers to launder his image because if that was the plan, he has failed terribly. He should have just stuck to dealing with traditional journalists because most of the participants of the tour were people whose integrity can stand the test of time and our rocky political terrain in this country. I just think TA Orji needs to learn a few things about governance. He hasn’t done badly given the fact that his state happens to be one of the lowest paid in terms of federal allocation. But talking about wealth creation, the governor has done zilch. I will personally score TA Orji 10% based on what I’ve seen so far. If out of 17 local government areas, TA Orji could proudly show us his legacy projects only in 1 local government, then something is absolutely wrong. One thing that’s also worthy of note is that the tour was properly arranged in a fashion that bloggers couldn’t assess projects properly and also couldn’t cover much more than 1 local government. Now, that was an intentional arrangement by the organisers of the tour and it’s understandable. Who wants to show people his bad sides? The tour should have just been called Umuahia Local Government Tour as that was what it seemed like to me. I cannot but say that it is a laudable effort for the government to invite ordinary citizens on an inspection of its works. It simply implies that feedback is fast becoming a part of our governance which is a healthy supplement for our budding democracy. If anyone out there has got a grouse against the tour or such tours, they really should just lay bare their points of criticism and stop being cry babies. If you challenge the governor’s decision to invite non-Abians on a tour of the state basically because you believe he wants to brainwash them, then I’m obliged to call you naive because even the governor has failed to properly execute his alleged media propaganda by inviting bloggers (especially those from Lagos). And I’m happy to announce to you that this tour was in no way a jamboree due to the nature of transparent and accountable structure put in place by my brother and friend, Chinedu Ekeke who made sure all participants were paid exactly what was spent to and from the tour. So, if you want to know how much was paid to participants, you may need to make a list of everyone on the tour, visit them one after the other and then interrogate them accordingly. I’m sure you’ll be shocked with what you’ll find out. Selah! www.opinions.ng/my-candid-assessment-of-abia-state/ |
Re: My Candid Assessment Of Abia State - Adeeko Ademola by youngds: 12:32pm On Nov 23, 2014 |
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