The Governor of Abia state Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu PhD, has spent a little above two years in office as the executive governor of Abia state, but out of the 30 months spent in office he has travelled to 6 continents out of the seven continents on planet earth and has visited over 62 cities and 24 countries in just 30 months plus that he has spent as governor.

Dr. Ikpeazu can conveniently pass for the most travelled governor in modern day Nigeria and one wont be fouled for calling him the globe-trotting chief security officer in the country.

Out of the 30 months in office as the governor of Abia state Dr. Ikpeazu had spent more time on air outside of the state than he had spent in the state, according to Government house sources, the governor they know and see and who carries out the duties of the governor is the deputy Governor
Most of the official functions that requires governors mandatory presence had seen the governor rushing in from abroad to attend to such duties, a few instances abound when Governor Ikpeazu had to join Abia delegates at the PDP non elective convention held on the 12th of august 2017 from Brazil and it remains doubtful if he ever visited the state before jetting out of the United States after the Abuja convention.

The most recent was the fracas that erupted in the state between the IPOB and the military in Umuahia that led to the death of many and the governor was as usual away from his duty post when all that was happening, he had to cut short his trip to fly down to Abia to meet with the stake holders in security to be briefed of the situation in a state where he is supposed to hold sway as the chief security officer.

Most often Governor Ikpeazu’s popular excuse for running an abroad based government is the hunt for foreign investors, but despite the millions of dollars spent on such trips, Abia has not recorded even a local investor coming to invest in the state, giving room for the tagging of his so called investment hunt abroad a jamboree of sorts and a scam by investment experts, they have also advised Dr. Ikpeazu to concentrate and build an enabling environment that will attract investors into Abia state rather than spend the states resources chasing shadows and engaging in frivolities in the name of investment hunt.

Abians has been deceived for too long and we cannot continue to face deception at the expense of real time development as seen in neighbouring states of Ebonyi, Anambra, Akwaibom, Rivers etc.

The continuous absence of governor Ikpeazu has had a negative effect on the overall wellbeing of the state as many have argued that the monies spent on such frivolities could have been put to better use if the governor had been economically creative, the millions of dollars expended on those jamboree abroad would have been more than enough to do two or more cottage industries that would have generated employment for the teeming unemployed youths in Abia.

I am also of the opinion that those monies spent on such trips that are frequently undertaken with friends and relatives would have been enough to offset the salaries of secondary school teachers who are being owed five months salary or that of secondary education management board (SEMB) whose workers have not received salaries for 7 months and counting.

We have had occasions where we saw some Chinese that came to Abia state had a fresh corn eating competition and a muscle flexing show with Dr. Ikpeazu and left with the promises of coming back to invest 600 billion naira into the shoe making industry, what about the turkey garment manufacturing firm that we were told is coming with multi-million dollar machinery to establish in Abia, but till date all those deals has been silenced while our travel loving governor has been on the move travelling round the world taking selfies in factories, trains, restaurants and pubs and sending them back to us here in Abia.

One gets more confused daily seeing our governor Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu undertake such expensive and fruitless trips abroad at the expense of the states lean purse, knowing fully that no investor can invest in an unstable economy like we have it in Abia with the state of collapsed infrastructure and insecurity at its height.
Is it not high time our governor had compassion on the pitiableness of the Abia economy and sit down here with us, take a closer look at his style of governance which has ruined Abia in all geometrical forms and think of how to improve on his person and government and stop the global junketing that has crippled Abia economy, rendered the investments economically immobile and residents hungry and begging to feed?

Aguoru
Writes from Umuahia