From the old villa to Old Umuahia and Ishi court road and a new shopping centre at Old Umuahia

Emindu, please let me finish first

Old stream ( Nwa Nchara) with coal deposits, The steep hill where our fore fathers walked to fetch and wash. Going across rail and to old umuahia

Demolition still on. Brick building to hit the dust later. Forest reserve is a large stretch and passes our old villa spring water stream. Umuahia is generally on a hill and has lots of spring water streams. I decided to go to the old villa and the stream to see how far, now that people are bore hole dependent. Boy, they have built houses to the foot of the steep hill. You have to descend about 100m to the stream.

This is what inner streets look like in umuahia. Okpara square area and forest reserve

Bende road 1 , 2(High Court ?), Secretariat Road, New timber shed (Building materials market) Very large and good vision by governor. He is turning old timber to a housing estate

I saw a building project and I remembered spyder and I wandered into site. The owner said that his mission was to deck the 13 room, 3 reception house in three weeks. I said good luck to him and more grease. I was impressed by the undergrads on site making money while ASUU strike was on. The other guys on site had university ambition; no wonder we have high education rate in Abia.

A glimpse of Golden Guinea brewery, a reminder to TA Orji to do something and get at least 1000 guys employed.

Aba road and bende road

Umuahia main market undergoing demolition, Library avenue, Bank road (Factory Road)

Approaching town towards mission hill.

Just crossed the river and now in Abia, Umuahia suburb. Some housing development same area, approaching the express, express intersection and approaching town

Ahiara Mbaise, 7 & 1/2, 7 & 1/2 and Onu Imo ( Imo state end)

asha 80: yes you are right...sam mbakwe is the second bypass and not the one i earlier felt...which road did you use to burst out of emekuku?

MCC Uratta Road -egbu

This stretch takes you to Mbaise. The hill known as Ugwu nde nso is an accident prone zone. Ahiara Mbaise 2,3,4

asha 80: it must be the new sam mbakwe boulevard or road.

Sam Mbakwe is the 2nd bypass I think and it is yet to be completed.

Nnewi1stSon: pls tell me those pics arent of owerri, the place looks unkept!

OK, I won't tell you. I have some good pictures of Owerri but this is not for Owerri.

A shopping mall and office complex along the bypass. It's a twin structure and was at the ninth floor as at two weeks ago. Another by pass from opposite Alvan traversing behind Emmanuel college. Still got lots of Owerri pictures but lets leave town to Emekuku

Just after assumpta, a new by pass to Concorde and Nekede, after the by pass and remodelling of Imo hotels. we are still on our way to Umuahia.

asha 80: is this approaching owerri?

Yes. still trying to resize pics

So I actually dropped out of the sky and hit PH-Owerri road still under construction.

PhenomenonVFX: @Face maybe u should reduce the resolution of the pictures using a Photo editor like Photoshop, Gimp or Corel Draw or even Windows Picture Manager
I am eager to see what Orji has done to Umuahia. Maybe then I will reduce my compulsion to compare him to a brainless minotaur

Hey, I have reduced the sizes from 1500KB to about 180 Kb still no show.

Ndu_Chucks, n na geshua. Wana brief appearance ne. Ka sani nairaland ne ungwan mahukaci da gidan dan iska yenzu. Ba na so uwan zei zage ni anan. ( It's been long, hope I made sense)

As for those that have lived one hundred years in Umuahia; you don't know Face, I don't engage in useless arguments. If I post any picture that isn't from Umuahia please say so.

I am not attributing anything to Orji, I just took pictures of areas I went to. I wonder why anyone would still need an overhead bridge to cross to a dangerous demolition site.

Pictures not loading. Will be back to figure this out.

Asha, I have been very busy and only remembered nairaland when I was looking through my pictures. I can see the ethnic battle is still on and has entered a nuclear level. I wanted to visit Aba but I was very busy.

Ok, I didn't just drop down from the sky to Umuahia. I passed through some areas from Owerri to Mbaise to Obowo before getting to Umuahia. Owerri has actually burst at the seams and many suburbs are now firmly in Owerri and it is rapidly expanding. Whoever says that Rochas has done nothing in Owerri is full of BS.I can't hold brief for him in other areas but I had a glimpse of Okigwe (Owerri Road) on my way to Enugu from Umuahia. So my Umuahia pictures will start from Imo state.

Ok, so I was in Umuahia for a few days. Usually, my trips to Umuahia would only cover a small area of interest to me, but my visit took me to some other areas that I had not been to in 6 years and I was surprised at the very rapid expansion of the city. People putting down solid money for solid buildings.

Umuahia is generally very clean and the roads are good. Some areas have covered drainage system while the people that stay in areas with open drains somehow refrain from throwing rubbish into the drain.

Some of the roads are narrow, especially in the Low cost and world bank estates which were originally planned as residential areas but have been overtaken by events. The city is now vastly commercial and people build small makeshift projections to expand the shops at ground floor level.

There are some top draw estates and a new area being developed as the New Umuahia where I saw a few cranes in action. Our main market is gone and I hope the area is put to good use. Most of our Amas have now been taken over by 2,3,4 storey buildings; Mbiara abia have now dug in for good and soon some areas will give way to new names and identities.

I also noticed a significant demographic change, with Igbo, Efic, Ibibio, Hausa, Yoruba etc doing their thing in Umuahia.

Abia state does not need to build an airport, at least not now. Imo airport is centrally located to serve Imo and Abia states. It is also nearer to some parts of Abia than some other parts of Imo, so do those parts of Imo need another airport ? It's about 20 KM to Owerri, 40-45 KM to Umuahia and Aba and the roads are quite good and the Owerri -Aba stretch is being expanded to a dual carriage way.

It's laughable to suggest that Abians will start visiting home more often because a new airport is now 10 KM nearer to their final destination; more over, Aba to Bende is slightly further than Aba to Imo airport.

If the governor wants to enhance the business tempo of the state, he should start by repairing all the roads in Aba, the commercial hub of the state. Redefine and re-plan the metropolitan area of Aba as he is doing in Umuahia and restore and expand the water network in all towns in Abia. Restore or shop for investors to take over our failed industries like and Aba metallurgical complex.

Contrary to what people say, I think that T.A Orji actually has some good ideas but poor advisers or maybe he is disorganised and likes acting like a mafia boss. I have many examples to prove my point but I will let it lie for now. He should go back to Aba and let the Elephant walk with pride.

BRAVEFIT: Analysis as given by Falana on Channelstv:

(1) Crude Oil productn/day =2.5M barrels.
(2)Current price = $113/barrel.
(3)Daily Sales =2.5M x 113 = $282.5M
(4)Monthly Sales =$282.5M x 30days = $8.475billion
(5)Yearly Sales= $8.475billion x 12 = $101.7billion
(6)Naira Equivalent = 101.7billion x 160 = 16.272trillion naira per year.
(7)Nigeria's budget for 2012 = 4.5trillion naira.
>>WHAT WILL HAPPEN T0 THIS SURPLUS?

Some people should stick to what they know, although I think that a JS1 one student should be able to have answers to analyses by Falana.

1. Oil does not dig itslef up, load itself into tankers, sell itself and hand over all proceeds to FG

2. Shell and co are not paid with hand shakes or in "thanks" as part of the JV with FG. They have their own cuts like 40% ?.?, which leaves FG with 60% ?.?

3. Oil producing states take 13% of FG's share of JV proceeds.

4. The state governments share the remainder of the money with FG taking the lion share.

5. Surpluses are derived from the difference between the budget benchmark and the selling price. This surpluss was once put in excess crude account, but states have been insisting that the money be shared and FG have been chopping some as well.

I agree that the government is very wasteful and should be accountable, but there is no need to embark on an argument without thinking it through.

While it is disgraceful that a traditional ruler addresses his community in a foreign language, I will defend to death their rights to free speech. The simple reason why I defend fundamental rights is that it may be my turn tomorrow to fight for mine.

Rochas is Imo state governor and he was elected by the public who did not confer on him the powers to dictate as a maximum ruler. Maximum leadership is alien to our culture and we cannot support dictatorship regardless of the good intentions of the governor. He should stick to his constitutional powers.

Directives have to be reasonably practicable and I doubt that it is reasonably practicable for a traditional ruler to speak only Igbo while trying to settle a dispute between his community members and non-Igbo community members.

I have finally discovered the meaning of SMH as commonly used here on Nairaland , so I am also going to SMH on this one. If there is poor flow of traffic in Onitsha and environs, it means that there are poor roads that need improvements and maybe, a need for other access routes.

Anambra state govt should be working on their roads instead of taking away people's freedom of movement and bringing the economy of Osha to a halt just because the president is in town. It may be hard to believe, but there are people who live from day to day from what they earn on the day.

Trucks were already scheduled to enter and leave those markets on that day and the implication is that they can either delay their journeys and incur storage fees at the ports (for Onitsha-bound goods) or leave Onitsha one day earlier than planned (for outbound goods) and possibly incur further charges for keeping the trucks for a day longer at the other end.

Some people clearly wear their brains under their shoes and this directive clearly qualifies for the SMH tag.

[b][/b]

Sagytarius: I attended FGC Okposi because it was(according to my Dad) among the first Unity schools in Nigeria. Believe me, I cried each time I returned to school on resumption dates. Why? The community were still living the'Stone Age!'. I decided to tour A.I (as it is popularly called) for consolatory sight-seeing. Lo and behold, it was no better than what have been uploaded. Abraka looks better than A.I.

In general, Ebonyi as a State is a failure!

Your dad gave you wrong information about when that school was established and you still went through the school without finding out when your school was established. Your school was established by the FG at about the same time that Ebonyi state was created. Govt College Afikpo should be the oldest sec school in Ebonyi.

@post:

Ebonyi state is coming up gradually and I hope that other Eastern states help Ebonyi(Selves) to come up. The roads look good but have the legendary martian dust trademark synonymous with Enugu Axis. Your houses also look good and modern.

It is a shame that past military governors killed off all our state owned industries in the east. Nkalagu cement was the first cement factory in Nigeria and it was established by the great Okpara; that factory was the bed rock of eastern Nigeria development. Your governor should try and bring that factory back to life. You guys probably produce the most food in eastern Nigeria and you produce rice and yams in commercial quantity from Afikpo to Abakiliki to Ezza.

I heard that your state governor is battling with rice producers/millers in A.I at the moment because he wants to force them into a corner without providing adequate facilities for the rice mills. I think he needs to have a rethink and not forcefully relocate the livewire of the state with no intention to strengthen them.

The brutal clashes between communities in your state need to be sorted out or ruthlessly dealth with by your state government as they are counter productive.

Finally, Ebonyi is our treasure in Ala Igbo and we must join hands to empower and bring out the best in Ebonyi. Ndi Igbo Kwenu !

My parents lived in Enugu at the outbreak of the war. The war started a few months after my dad returned from Germany at the end of his studies. He worked for the government throughout the war as their department rendered essential service to the Biafran government, which meant that he was always on the move.

The move from Enugu:

They were at home one day when my Uncle De Smart, who was a major in the Biafran army went to their house and advised them to leave as Enugu was about to fall. He told them that there was fierce fighting at Emene and it might spread to Enugu. Ehamufu, Opi and Nssuka had fallen to Nigeria at the time. De Smart who stood at more than 6ft 6 went back to the battle front after his pass and he fell in battle at Emen; according to relatives who were in the same sector as he was.

Following De Smart’s visit, my mum nagged my dad to take them to Umuahia but he refused to believe that Enugu would fall. Then a few days later, he went to work and that was when the first MIGs first appeared in the Sky and caused endless havoc and destruction of life. My dad then relocated his family to Umuahia and went back to Enugu. He drove a Cortina in those days.

Enugu fell a few days later and my dad was posted to Aba.My father was on admission at the Aba general hospital when it was bombed by Nigeria; Souls perished in that bombardment.Nigeria war strategy was to bombard anywhere that had signs of life and all zinc roofs had to be covered with palm fronds.

Umuahia:

Umuahia was a major trading centre before the war. Umuahia was the oil palm capital of the east and by default the oil palm capitalof the world. Companies UAC, John Holt, PZ were some of the traders in Umuahia-Ibeku.
Umuahia was a major war zone and aerial bombardment was like no mans business .No where was spared including churches, markets, hospitals and villages.

Many people from my kindred went to battle and many did not come back. The national war museum and Ojukwu’s bunker tell some of our stories.

Everybody in Umuahia had learnt how to dodge a MIG on a strafing mission. According to my mom, when the plane tilted to the left, they ran to the right and into the dense forest and they would keep their eyes on the plane in order to select an escape route when it came for another strafing run. This led to a high case of poor vision from looking skywards all the time.

Anyway, she had gone to the market one day when strafing and aerial bombardment started and she escaped the strafing only to be pinned down by artillery bombardment. Artillery shells were exploding all around her and she was flat beside an oji (iroko) tree. The bombardment lasted for a long time and by the time it ended, news had gone back home that she was killed, but God kept her.

Another near death experience was when a bomb was dropped in our compound but it failed to detonate and the Biafran bomb experts were called to remove the bomb.

After a very hard an intense fighting, Umuahia fell and my parents went to Orlu and then to Mbaise as the war was ending and back to Enugu at the end of the war . It did not matter how much you had in the bank before the war, you got no more than £20 after the war.

My Uncle De Martin (Lt). Rest his soul:

He saw war and war saw him. Trying to get him to tell me some war stories was like trying to get blood from stone. He would say to me “hapu ife-o, ife anyi furu na agha”, but each time he opened his mouth to trade war stories, I lived and breathed Biafra; proud of our fallen heros.

Just a snippet here; he was in the force that got to Ore. He said that they got to Ore and were there for two days without advancing or retreating even though there was no resistance. Soldiers were uneasy and did not understand why Banjo halted the advance and he kept saying that he was waiting for orders. When the counter attack started, Biafran troops did not retreat as a unit or a fighting force. It was everyman for himself. He walked back some of the way and was posted to the Calabar sector when he returned to Biafra.

De Martin and his section covered the Biafran retreat from Calabar. He always referred to his gun as his LMG-3. He was holed up in SPC Calabar for three days with his men; returning fire for fire and giving more than they received. He said that it was a miracle that they got out of the encounter alive and finding themselves many miles behind enemy lines,they had to fight their way through. “ife anyi furu na SPC Calabar, anyi mere awusa ife n-di egwu”. De Martin was a proper combat soldier.

spyder880: But, Owerri people, if you think you can bribe me to stay quiet on the state of some roads...... I no gree

This road has so annoyed me that I must talk, I had to spend the better part of two hours waiting on a hold up along Okigwe-Owerri road, Akabo to be precise. The spot is, terrible, and the governor is taking so long to fix this road.

Akabo is not in Owerri capital territory and I am sure that you will notice the sign that says welcome to owerri capital territory just after the bridge at Ugwu Orji,which is about 5Km from Akabo. That part of Imo is densely populated going towards Anara,Okwelle, Uruala,Ideato, Orlu and there is no clear distinction between nearby towns, therefore any visitor can be forgiven for thinking that Akabo,Atta,Ikeduru and other nearby towns are in Owerri. That is also the case going towards Mbaise-Umuahia.

That road is a federal road linking Owerri to Enugu and Okigwe and blaming Rochas will be equivalent to blaming chime for not fixing the express way from Agbani or Awgu to Enugu.

However, the road is a sorry sight, judging from that picture you posted and I agree with you that the governor should do something about it regardless of who owns the road.

I have never known it to be that bad. The last time I used that road was 2.5 years ago when I went to Mbano for a traditional wedding and although there was a heavy wedding-wrecking downpour, there was no flooding as we used that road.

I asked someone about that road today and he told me that Rochas inspected the road himself and has undertaken to fix the road even though it is a federal road, but some houses may have to go to make way for a run off drainage. So let's watch this space.

ogugua88: Everyone disappeared?

The constitution is being finalised as per:

PointB: Ladies and gentlemen.

In the absence of further contributions, I would like to assume that the general feeling is that the council should conclude the remaining articles of the constitution in the council chamber, and subsequently present it for adoption.

On that note I'd like to thank you all for your wonderful contributions to the debates. Your opinions and suggestions helped in shaping the draft as reflected.


Thank you all once again.

This Constitutional Conference is now formally over.

From this point on, we will no longer discuss our affairs in public and our activities here will be limited while disemination of information here will be based on a need to know/tell. Once finalised, members will be notified via the news letter.

Thanks to all our members and well wishers who contributed to the conference.

Umez Eronini Street by Cherubim Junction Ikenegbu Owerri


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUYn0I8xOjw&feature=player_detailpage