‘Orji is Laying Foundation Stones for Abia’


Recently, Abia State marked its 22 years anniversary. In this interview with Anayo Okolie, President-general of the Abia Renaissance Movement (ARM), Hon Godwin Adindu, argues that unlike in other states where the incumbent governors are improving upon what they met on ground, in Abia it is a case of building afresh.

Why did you describe Abia State as an institution that is being built afresh?

It’s unfortunate that in the interviews I previously granted to the press, I described Abia State as an institution that is being built afresh. This is unfortunate because at 22, every institution is expected to have passed through the teething period and should be standing solidly on its feet.
Regrettably, this is not the case with Abia State. Yes, the founding fathers had the vision, but the early administrators did not quite expand or extend the vision. There were so many things left undone and the result is that a lot of burden is today placed on the head of the incumbent governor, Theodore Orji.

In most states today, what the governors are doing is to build upon what is on ground. They are expanding the frontiers of what they inherited as assets. But, here, it is now that Governor Orji is laying the solid foundations for Abia. It is now that nation-building is taking place in Abia. The state is completely being built afresh.

You mean that no former leader ever thought of building monuments?

Yes. Since the creation of the state no single crane has been deployed to work in the entire state. Except for the initial construction works by the federal government, like the old secretariat, no former administrator, both military and civilian, embarked on building monumental projects until Governor Orji came on board.

You cannot see their footprints. It is as if they never were here. Even during the tenure of Governor Orji’s predecessor that ran for eight years, no single crane went to any construction site during that regime. I challenge anybody to point at one outstanding edifice built by these former leaders of Abia.

So in which areas is Abia State being built afresh right now?

In all areas. There was nothing left on ground and nobody thought of setting up permanent structures. Take the case of the Central Market in Umuahia. The location of this market and other markets in the capital city constitute a great environmental problem for the city. The central market is right at the centre of the city.

The timber market is located in an area adjoining the Low Cost Housing Estate and World Bank Housing Estate. These are residential areas.

You could imagine the danger posed by such a market to the residents. All over the years, no leader of Abia State thought it wise to rebuild the Umuahia metropolis by relocating these markets. It has only taken Governor Orji to move the timber market to an area along Ahiaeke, and the Central Market to Ubani Ibeku, along the Umuahia-Uzuakoli Road.
Another example is the Aba flood disaster.

This problem has persisted since the old Imo State when the large Ndiegoro area of Aba was overtaken by water and an entire community with all its life submerged into the flood. You remember that Sam Mbakwe had to go to Lagos, the nation’s capital then, to weep to President Shehu Shagari.

They later christened him, the weeping governor. It was because of Aba flood and other problems that bedeviled the state then. These flood issue had persisted until Governor Orji came to rescue the situation.
You will remember that since two years now, there has not been any flood disaster in Aba.

Even with the heavy rains of last year which caused heavy flood menace all over the country, we didn’t experience much here. And the reason is that Governor Orji tackled the challenge by excavating the mighty School Road gutter that divides the Aba metropolis into two parts.

This gutter is so deep that it can consume a whole duplex. It was built by the colonial administration in the 1920s alongside the birth and planning of the city. The drainage pathway is over 40 feet deep and was constructed in such a way that all other network of gutters in the city empties into the gutter.

But, since 1972 when it was last excavated soon after the war, no administration of the old Eastern Region, Imo State or Abia thought in the direction of excavating the gutter as a measure towards combating the huge flood menace that bedeviled the city for many years.
Over the years, the gutter became a dumping ground for refuse by the residents, to the extent that mighty trees grew on top of the drainage line.

Having filled up the gutter, traders and city dwellers in Aba now built stalls and kiosks right on top of the gutter. This is the untold story of the cause of the regime of flood in Aba. This is how a once beautiful city became a city of flood and filth. But, thank God today that Governor Orji came and confronted the challenge by clearing and excavating the gutter and the other network of gutters. And now, gone are the days of flood in Aba.

What about the area of infrastructure. How is the governor building afresh in this area?

Let us examine them one by one. At 22, Abia State is supposed to have a befitting Government House. Yet, at 22, what serves as a Government House and Governor’s Lodge are clusters of makeshift houses that were once a private guest house of late Commodore Emeka Omerua.

What all the former governors did was to continue to patch the house and add one block in one direction and another block in another direction. At the end, they produced an unplanned and demeaning hybrid that is not worthy to be called a Government House and a Governor’s Lodge.
Today, it has taken Governor Orji to dream of a befitting Government House. The governor is now building a new Government House and has vowed not only to complete it before the expiration of his term but to be the first governor to live in this new edifice. Take another case: the state’s banquet hall.

This is an enlarged classroom that leaves people suffocating during state dinners and banquets. This hall is also unbefitting of the state.

It has also only taken Governor Orji to dream higher and raise the bar for Abians. He is now building a world-class, multi-purpose conference centre in the new area of the state capital and has also promised that next year celebrations will be held in this new edifice.

Is he also building government offices?

Yes. The story is the same with the state secretariat and the civil service offices. In Umuahia, many government offices are scattered all over the city. No former leader had thought of keeping this house in order. Since after the state secretariat, which houses the state ministries, was built by the federal government in 1991, no former leader deemed it fit to renovate and refurbish the big edifice.

There was no maintenance arrangement until Governor Orji put modern Gerard roofing sheets on the edifice and did a total renovation of the place. Not satisfied with that, he embarked on building a twin-four-storey complex which will house all government offices and parastatals such that every government activity will be conducted in one place.

These complexes have been completed. He has also built the Abia Diagnostic Centre in Umahia and Aba and a new set of buildings for the High Court in Umuahia. There are new modern offices for the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia and a functioning skills acquisition centre.

There is a new Abia State Library Headquarters and a new Ministry of Justice building in Umuahia. Inside the House of Assembly complex, he built a new Administrative and Constituency offices. There are so many of them and I can’t go on listing them. But, the emphasis is that these are projects that ought to have been there before now.

People complain so much about the poor state of roads in Abia, what is the governor doing in this area?

Let me answer this with the history of the road leading to my own village of Mgboko, headquarters of Obingwa local council – the Aba /Obikabia Road.

This road was constructed in the 70s, before the creation of Abia State. For over 30 years, no leader of Abia or the old Imo State thought of rehabilitating this badly dilapidated road until Governor Orji came on a rescue mission.

This is just one out of the several rescue missions in the area of road and infrastructure in the two metropolises of Aba and Umuahia and in the rural communities. People were complaining so much about Aba roads.

But, go there now and see the massive work that the governor has done in rebuilding the Aba roads. By May last year, about 16 roads had been commissioned within the metropolis, including the notorious Ukwu Mango Road that leads to the famous Ariaria Market.--This day