[b]Governor Theodore Orji speaks like an aggrieved
man. He insists that he is being treated unfairly –
by the media (traditional and social), by people who
have not visited Abia and especially by his
predecessor and former boss, Orji Uzor Kalu, who
– he says – has been leading a propaganda war
against him.
Reacting to the general negative perception of his
administration when he recently hosted a group of
journalists, social media influencers and bloggers,
Gov. Orji said, “it is about the propaganda of
damaging the image of a performing governor.” On
the 13th of November, a day before the interaction
with the governor, his ex-commissioner of
information, Eze Chikamnayo, who resigned a few
days before our arrival to compete for a house of
assembly seat, told us while on a tour of some
projects that, “if you are a man or woman of
conscience, when you leave here and you are
approached by Facebook and Twitter politicians
who do not know their villages but come with their
verbal gymnastics to deceive you, tell them the
great things you have seen with your own eyes in
Abia.”
Clearly there’s a disconnect between how well the
government says it has performed in the past
seven and half years and what people say.
I arrived Abia two days before the start of the tour
because I needed to see things for myself and
speak to a few people before the guided tour. The
first thing I noticed during my interaction with
Abians was that the governor was not very popular
especially in the commercial city of Aba. I spoke
with almost two dozen people randomly in my two
days in Aba, and guess how many told me they
were impressed with Gov. Orji’s stewardship?
None.
The reason for this might lie in something which
every Abia government official we met mentioned. If
the Orji administration had an anthem, it would
sound like this:


Theodore Orji became governor in 2007… eya
eya ooo
But he only started governing in 2012… eya
eya ooo
He spent all that time first in service to, and
later in battle with his predecessor… eya eya
ooo


But Theodore Orji became governor in 2007…
eya eya ooo
More than 7 years into his administration, Gov. Orji
still puts the blame for Abia’s slow development on
his predecessor. For the record, ex-governor Orji
Uzor Kalu performed below par during his own eight
years, but if I were an Abian, I would tell Gov. Orji
that he has had enough time in power to be judged
on his own record against his promises and the
people’s expectations, and not in comparison with
the performance of ex-governor Kalu. If I were an
Abian, I would say to the governor, “Excuse me!
You campaigned for reelection in 2011, if you now
want to convince us that your first four years were
not impactful due to the overbearing influence of the
ex-governor, on what basis were you reelected?”
I heard some colleagues of mine say they never
expected to see any development or project in Abia
because before coming, they had heard all sorts of
terrible reports about the administration. For me, I
expected to see some projects of course and I did.


1. The Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic
Center in Umuahia – A PPP project with six
dialysers catering to a range of illnesses including
HIV and hepatitis, an eye clinic and a general
diagnostic centre. Not a bad project especially as
the service is subsidised.


2. The uncompleted Ohobo housing project in
Umuahia which is expected to consist of 1200
housing units


3. The uncompleted Abia State Environmental
Protection Agency (ASEPA) House in Umuahia

4. The uncompleted new Government House in
Umuahia. One of the most solid structures we saw
on the tour. However, because no one was willing to
speak about how much anything costs in the state,
I don’t know how much the Government House will
cost in proportion to what the state earns. But when
I saw the state of the current Government House, I
agree that a new Government House is in order if
the state can afford it.


5. The uncompleted International Conference Centre
in Umuahia

6. The new state secretariat in Umuahia which now
houses all ministries in the state. I liked this building
the moment Gov. Orji told us that it is the first
building with a lift in Abia state. Wow.


7. Skills Acquisition Centre, Umuahia. Very good
project, where awardees are paid N10,000 monthly
while they learn skills. They are also given some
money and equipment to start up something at the
end of their training. Who owns it though? Officials
didn’t seem too sure. Was it a project of the wife of
the governor? Abia government? SURE-P?


8. The uncompleted Abia mall in Umuahia and the
Aba mall which is still at early stages of
construction


9. The uncompleted Abia events centre in Umuahia

10. The almost completed digital library in Umuahia


11. The Isuikwato model secondary school which
was just a strange place. Completed – i think –
months ago, nothing is happening there till now.
Weeds and cobwebs are taking over. The governor
says he has built 70 such schools. I didn’t see that
many and it was ironic that with such a high number
they chose to take us to one which is not occupied,
was under lock and key and being overrun by
weeds. The classrooms we saw were also not
impressive. A school surely is more than its
external structure.


12. The Abia Specialist Diagnostic Centre at
Umachara. No patients in sight. Building and
adjoining residential quarters for doctors look
completed but it was clear that the new buildings
were not yet open for business. No patients, smell
of fresh wood, and the keys on the doors were still
in the bunch.


13. The uncompleted Ubani Housing Estate


14. Abia Broadcasting Service building in Umuahia

15. The Umuahia market and Timber market. Two
very good projects that have helped reduce traffic in
the capital as the two markets were relocated from
their previous spots to the new locations by the
governor.


16. Uncompleted Umuahia High Court building
Unfortunately, almost all of those projects above
were initiated two years ago. That’s why most are
still uncompleted. It is a problem for me if a second
term governor invites me to his state and 70 per
cent of the projects he shows are uncompleted.
Abians did not elect the governor to hear excuses
about why he was immobile for several years or
why up till now most of his projects are
concentrated in Umuahia – the capital – and its
environs. Of the 16 projects listed above, only 5 are
fully functional and fewer than 5 are outside
Umuahia. I am willing to bet with my six-months
miserable editor’s wages that Gov. Orji won’t be
able to complete them all before May 2015. If he
insists that he can, maybe he will be kind enough to
bet with his one month wage as senator, the office
he is likely to occupy post-2015 as Abia effectively
has no serious opposition. I did not see a single
APC poster in my one week there.

Aba, which is Abia’s most important city, has been
unlucky. At least in Umuahia, there were several
projects – uncompleted or not – to justify the
hundreds of billboards with the governor’s face that
make the capital look like an Orji estate. The story
was different in Aba, where someone described the
neglect as “criminal”. One Aba resident told me,
“What are we even asking the governor to do? Is it
to marry wives for us? Is it not just to build roads so
that we can do our business? Yet that is too much
for them.”
The governor said that the number of roads he has
built in Aba is “unprecedented.” No single person I
spoke to in Aba agrees with that. Even my eyes did
not agree when they saw the condition of Aba
roads. Sure we saw some good, motorable roads
but the majority were in terrible shape. While on the
guided tour of Aba, we hardly left the main federal
road when we got into the city centre, however we
could still see to the left and right of the federal
road, how bad the state-government owned roads
were. (For the record, the FG road was also a
mess.)
An awkward incident happened in Aba. The special
adviser on media to the governor, who rode on the
same bus as I did was involved in a shouting match
with the driver of a tricycle at a very bad spot on
the road. The tricycle driver, seeing that ours was a
government bus, screamed at the SA, “God punish
you! No be your useless governor wey no gree do
road?” There were lots of uncomfortable faces in
the bus when he said that.
Gov. Orji told us that former governor Sam Mbakwe
was called “the weeping governor” on account of
how he wept over the state of Aba when he was
governor. If Mbakwe was the weeping governor,
Theodore Orji is “the sleeping governor” over Aba.
Gov. Orji analysed the problem of flooding in Aba to
us, and then he said, “Unfortunately most of them
build on the drainages. I wonder the governor who
will come with a lion heart to demolish buildings
belonging to your father and my father. That is a
tough decision.” Case closed – the governor will
not weep over it or sweep away the mess… it’s a
tough decision so he’ll just sleep.
If truth be told however, one can see that in the last
year or so, the governor seems to have realised
that he has a short time left. A sense of foreboding
over his legacy seems to be forcing his hand to
ensure that some impact is made. And because the
development does not have a serious visionary
underpinning, it is being done in a pell-mell manner
with some projects fitting the definition of white
elephant.


Like I said earlier, Gov. Orji will likely end up in the
senate. Someone asked him – during the
interactive session – why he doesn’t just want to
retire and rest after 25 years in the civil service
where he ended as a permanent secretary, eight
years as chief of staff to ex-gov Kalu (now his arch-
rival) and eight years as governor. His response
made me laugh for the first time that evening. “The
senate project is the project of the people,” he said.
“The form I bought was not with my money. You
just don’t disobey the people. Besides, my
experience in the civil service, as chief of staff and
as governor are all different experiences. I have
never experienced lawmaking before so let me
experience it too in other to become an all-rounder.”
Hahahahaha.

Abia is a lesson on how Nigerians have made gods
of men through their words and actions. The thing
Gov. Orji needs more than any other in his life right
now are “truth tellers” in his inner circle. Looking at
him during the interaction, it was clear that here
was a man who loves to be praised. “If you had
come to Abia by 2007 and 2008 and you are here
now, you will be hailing me as soon as I entered
here,” he told us as shouts of “Ochendo Global” –
his moniker – rent the air. As his aides took turns
adulating him, you could see the smile on his face,
his hands clasped in front and even nods every now
and then. “Our god-sent governor, our father, the
saviour of Abia and the founder of modern day Abia.
The only governor who has received over 50
awards,” one aide said before speaking. The
sycophancy was painful to watch. With such a
rigged feedback mechanism, it will be tough for
leaders to know where they truly stand with the
people; they will remain in their bubble of praise
songs until it bursts on May 29th and they realise
that they had been naked all along[/b]

http://www.thescoopng.com/stanley-azuakola-lets-really-objective-gov-theodore-orji/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=stanley-azuakola-lets-really-objective-gov-theodore-orji&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

This is the most objective assessment of TA Orji's government. God bless this writer. He clearly got it spot-on.
The sad thing about TA Orji is that while other clueless state governors keep quiet on their cluelessness,Orji on the contrary goes to insult the intelligence of his people by wasting millions of naira on propagandas aimed at deceiving his people into believing that he is working.
Because he is a man who loves to be exalted above every other living thing,he surrounds himself with people whose tongues have been programmed to sing 'Ochendo global' at every turning.
Once you step into Abia state,you can close your eyes and draw a perfect picture of TA Orji because his photos,posters and pictures adorn every nook cranny of the state.
Even if you had no intentions of evaluating this man's performance,the level of praise singing going on in the state will force any educated and discerning mind to even slow down and assess this man's work and more often than not,it fells far below expectation.
If this is governance,then the people of Abia should rise up and reject this government and its representations.

this old man is not ashamed of him self
after almost 8years this all u can say

eyeview:
This is the most objective assessment of TA Orji's government. God bless this writer. He clearly got it spot-on.
The sad thing about TA Orji is that while other clueless state governors keep quiet on their cluelessness,Orji on the contrary goes to insult the intelligence of his people by wasting millions of naira on propagandas aimed at deceiving his people into believing that he is working.
Because he is a man who loves to be exalted above every other living thing,he surrounds himself with people whose tongues have been programmed to sing 'Ochendo global' at every turning.
Once you step into Abia state,you can close your eyes and draw a perfect picture of TA Orji because his photos,posters and pictures adorn every nook cranny of the state.
Even if you had no intentions of evaluating this man's performance,the level of praise singing going on in the state will force any educated and discerning mind to even slow down and assess this man's work and more often than not,it fells far below expectation.
If this is governance,then the people of Abia should rise up and reject this government and its representations.

my guy you go live long...... we for aba dey suffer am big time... when I was coming back from abuja the thing that woke me up in the bus was the vibration of the bus due to the pot-holes highway called a main road.... the worst part of it is the praises radio stations give him... its so annoying. another one is, you will see all these stupid old women that will wear their nonsense party dress posing around and gallivanting with them on their rallies.

Abia, one of the PDP states suffering misrule. Shame. This should be on front page

Op thank you very much.
All of this is because of the Nigerian system of things, lack of true federalism in thiscountry is our main problem and it gives rise to other problems like corruption. If Mr.Orji were compeled by the system to pay a certain tax to the federal government every month and pay salaries of workers in the state using money generated from his state he would not be spending money on frivolous things. The false federalism we practice in this country is our main problem, period. Personaly I want a united one Nigeria but not the type of one Nigeria we practice today. If today's youths were serious they would be championing the call for true federalism, but they prefer to lambast the president as if true federalism is achieved by executive orders. It is a collective exercise and we should unite our voices in calling for it, not wasting our time calling for old bags that put us in this problem. If not the let Nigeria break so that people like Mr Orji would be eaten alive since at that time he would not have the protection of this lopsided state.

Abia, one of the PDP states suffering misrule. Shame. This should be on front page

front page please

Its all our fault in Abia,every1 has a hand in wat we are goin tru today dier,if Orji Uzor Kalu cud rule for 8yrs n steal all d money he stole den turn around to put his stool n force him on us,and we as Abians voted for the batch B criminal again.

Its just like dis wen d root of a tree is bad it takes only d grace of God for d seed to be gOod,Orji Kalu achieve noting as a father what do u expect his son Orji teo to do.

We were blinded by dis fact and it wil keep us hurting us,now dis same loser Orji.T wants to impose anoda criminal gang of his again,and don't b suprise he wil get away with it,infact when u start discusing d rot in my state u won't ve d strength to eat for a year ,may God see us tru

ICHINONYE:
Its all our fault in Abia,every1 has a hand in wat we are goin tru today dier,if Orji Uzor Kalu cud rule for 8yrs n steal all d money he stole den turn around to put his stool n force him on us,and we as Abians voted for the batch B criminal again.

Its just like dis wen d root of a tree is bad it takes only d grace of God for d seed to be gOod,Orji Kalu achieve noting as a father what do u expect his son Orji teo to do.

We were blinded by dis fact and it wil keep us hurting us,now dis same loser Orji.T wants to impose anoda criminal gang of his again,and don't b suprise he wil get away with it,infact when u start discusing d rot in my state u won't ve d strength to eat for a year ,may God see us tru

the worst part of it is that his biological son is also dancing to the beat of the music the father is playing... so arrogant and pompous .

Chidosqi:
Abia, one of the PDP states suffering misrule. Shame. This should be on front page

the primaries was yesterday..... and guess won, T A ORJI's nominee. terrible!!!!