There are about 27 other photos, the system would not allow me post the others or what? Tried but can't.

If having communities in a state connected with roads is a symptom of development, Imo state under Gov. Rochas Okorocha is hitting a very high score. It is hard to get any autonomous community in Imo state today without one or two asphalted roads connecting it to the rest of the state and Nigeria. The quality of the roads is another discourse.

A striking phenomenon was observed during the numerous May 2013 trips across the three senatorial zones of the state: people in the rural areas hardly demonstrated any sense of disconnect from the urban centres, thanks to the connecting roads and telecommunication networks. Also, larger than usual concentrations of people in the rural areas could be noticed, and they seemed to love living where they were found; they hardly took any second glance of suspicion or envy on any posh vehicle or gorgeous stranger passing through their domain. It was hard to distinguish them from the urban folks. In fact, in some of the rural areas, one could notice some bars as trendy as the ones found in the cities; as well as plush cars passing by or parked in elegant rural homes. The state’s Community Policing network (State Police?) was striving hard to keep crime at the barest minimum. Members of the security network did not extort money from the people.

If it is right that availability of access roads to any area increases the value of immovable properties in the area, the people of Imo state and their government are on the right move.
But there is a snag: pipe-borne water supply, the hallmark of any city is hard to come by in any of the so-called cities in Imo state. For domestic water supply, people depended mostly on buying water from private water boreholes and from truck-loaded water-selling tankers. Gov. Okorocha-led government said it had privatized water supply in the state. Whatever government intended by that, fact is that in many areas of the state (save for the now dysfunctional multibillion Naira regional water supply structures left behind in Okigwe and Owerri by Sam Mbakwe-led administration), there are no infrastructures laid down by successive governments of the state upon which private water supply companies can lay hands if and when they come up.

Yes, water is supplied mostly by private companies in the developed world, but governments in those countries did put some functional water supply infrastructures on ground before selling them off to private water supply companies. Aside the known risk factors in consumption of untreated water from private boreholes, all shall not be well with Imo state’s underneath and her aquifer if more and more of the families in the state continue to sink boreholes for water.

At this level of development of Imo state, the state government is beseeched to retake its responsibility of providing citizens with sustainable running water supply schemes at the end of its road construction programme.

Owerri, Okigwe and Orlu - the three major urban centres in the state - are also witnessing an unprecedented show of urban drainage and road construction, with street light and greenery in tow.
And the three towns seem to have their different characteristics and development speeds under the present state administration.

Owerri the capital city of Imo state has expanded in leaps and bounds over the years. Study, trade and civil service boom here. The New Owerri side of the city is beautiful to behold, with its numerous wide, greenly and sufficiently illuminated streets.

But the main roads that enter Owerri are often a motorist’s nightmare owing to the city’s population burst and consequent traffic-jams. You dare not fix a time for any appointment here, as you may at anytime find yourself stuck for long periods in the city’s traffic.

However, Owerri’s population is bound to grow further as the city is blessed with two rivers that criss-cross it; the rivers guarantee that whenever the city’s water works dry up, and owners of private boreholes lock their huge gates, inhabitants can resort to the two rivers of Otamiri and Nworie for succour.

Orlu is an expansive living centre with different communities so mixed up by rapid urbanisation that a stranger can hardly realize when he/she crosses the boundaries between the communities. And with too many urban roads in tow - some drained and asphalted, many still as virgin as when they were first opened - Orlu is also benefitting from the present administration’s urban roads and drainage largesse. Prominent among the largesse is the recommencement of construction works on the city’s drainage system and roads which were started by the administration of late Amadi Ikwechegh, but were ignored by successive administrations in the state. The present administration also embarked on dualization of the city’s principal roads as well as on drainage and asphalting of others. Orlu has no river that crosses it. Its inhabitants depend solely on water tankers and private water boreholes for water supply.

Okigwe is another fast developing urban centre in the state. Located on a hill with a beautiful scenery along the PH-Enugu expressway, the town is fast wearing a new look with urban drainage and roads network. Private water boreholes and water-selling tankers sustain the city. The legendary Imo River sourced from this area, as well as water that flows from the numerous rocks in the hilly city also serve the inhabitants as a last resort for domestic water supply.




Photos:


(1) A prototype of the inter-and intra-community roads now under construction all over Imo state.

(2)Hundreds of roads like these are now joining most of the autonomous communities in Imo state to the rest of the state and Nigeria.

(3)Drainage is usually put in place before asphalt is applied on most of the roads. In many places, natives dig it out with bad construction firms who would want to asphalt without first building drainage. At the end, the natives usually have their ways.

(4)Hundreds of heavy equipments like these dot the nooks and crannies of Imo state doing road construction jobs.

(5 Owerri: Entrance to newly-built Freedom Square under construction

(6)One of the many manicured roundabouts in New Owerri. This is on Musa Yar’Adua Avenue

(7) One of the many beautiful broadways in New Owerri; many of them are still under construction.

(Owerri. Green but with traffic gridlock

(9) Owerri: Making a U-turn owing to traffic-jams along Assumpta Avenue. To avert these traffic jams, a new dual carriage way has since been completed to join Wetherel Rd to Aba Rd at Naze; while a new one is going on to join Onitsha Rd to Orlu Rd. Work on the flyover at Egbeada junction, is progressing.

(10) Owerri: At traffic control points, Owerri traffic chaos can easily induce tiredness on motorists, as well as on traffic control officers as suggests above: broad way romance between traffic control officers and motorists accused of traffic offences?

(11) Owerri: suffering and smiling as she meanders through traffic-jams.

(12) Owerri: Uniformed men of Imo Traffic Control Agency. For even a minor traffic offence, your vehicle is taken into their premises where you may be handed a fine as high as Twenty-Five Thousand Naira, (N25000) to pay before you have your vehicle back.

(13) Okigwe: A road in Okigwe city undergoing dualization.


(14) Okigwe: A dual carriageway (Owerri Road) undergoing construction with horizontal marks already in place.

(15) Okigwe city centre roundabout with central dual carriageways approaching it nearing completion.

(16) Okigwe: A lengthy urban road in Okigwe undergoing construction.

(17) Isiala Mbano near Okigwe: The dual carriageway built here by former governor of Imo state, Ikedi Ohakim. The road passes through his domain.

(18) Okigwe: A dam on the Imo River at the outskirts of Okigwe. It was built by a foreign firm during the state administration led by late Sam Mbakwe. It was meant to supply running water to Okigwe. But Okigwe has no running water yet - nonetheless, from the dam.

(19) Okigwe and its Regional Water supply scheme: Dashed hopes for treated running water? This dammed portion of Imo River meant to supply Okigwe city and environs with pipe-borne water is now used by youths for a swimming pool. Multi-billion Naira Surface Regional Water Supply schemes like this were also built by Sam Mbakwe-led administration in Umuahia, Owerri and Aba. These cities fruitfully utilized or still utilize the schemes. Similar scheme then proposed for Orlu has yet to be built. Okigwe water supply scheme could not be completed before the military struck in 1983.

(20) Still on Okigwe and its regional water supply scheme: Huge water supply pipes like the ones above are lying underneath all over Okigwe and its environs waiting for water to be pumped into them. Since the exit of the Sam Mbakwe-led administration, no other administration has been able to articulate a method to treat and reticulate water from this dam to supply running water to people living in Okigwe city and its environs.

(21) Okigwe: Okigwe-Akokwa-Nnewi-Oba federal road. The portion above near Okigwe is about the best segment of the road navigated from Okigwe to Akokwa.

(22) Ideator North: a segment of the nearly completed but abandoned Awka-Orlu-Owerri federal road.



(23) Ideator North: another segment of the nearly completed but abandoned Awka-Orlu-Owerri federal road. The road contractor failed to build a tunnel for a bridge over the small Orashi River; road certified completed many years ago but never through or accessed - billions of Naira washed down the drains.

(24) Ideator South, near Orlu: A roundabout undergoing construction along Orlu-Akokwa road (near the site once proposed by this administration for location of IMSU).

(25) A small portion of the building infrastructure at the once-proposed site for IMSU in Ogboko, Ideator South LGA.


(26) Orlu: A dual carriage way under construction behind Sam Okwaraji stadium.

(27) Orlu: Ihioma Road undergoing dualization.

(28) Orlu: Central roundabout under construction.


(29) Orlu: The main road to the state university teaching hospital. It has remained that way for months. Ironically, the hospital remained a beehive of activity.

(30) Orlu - school hours: A young lad on water runs from the nearest water borehole site. All of Orlu area is characterized by scenes like this.

(31) Orlu: Banana roundabout under construction.

(32) Orlu: City Gate under construction on Old and New Owerri roads.

Benedict Okereke
obenok@hotmail.com


Photos below:
1) A prototype of the intra- and inter-community roads now under construction all over Imo state.

(2) Hundreds of roads like these are now joining most of the autonomous communities in Imo state to the rest of the state and Nigeria.

(3) Drainage is usually put in place before asphalt is applied on most of the roads. In many places, natives dig it out with bad construction firms who would want to asphalt without first building drainage. At the end, the natives usually have their ways.

(4) Hundreds of heavy equipments like these dot the nooks and crannies of Imo state doing road construction jobs.

Let's face what is more important to our people.
Below is Imo River dammed by Mbakwe-led admin. to supply water to Okigwe. No pipe-borne water yet from the dam.

Desola: Lets me frank. APC's chances of securing the presidency through okorocha is slim and virtually impossible. It is a known fact that ibos would not vote their own no matter how competent he or she is so long as he fraternises with a party they deem to be have been founded by a Yoruba as a result if the hate indoctrinated in them against the Yorubas pertaining to the civil war. Why then, knowing this, is Rochas disregarding that hatred and going against his people's principles? What is in it for Rochas? Why seek to be ostracised by your own people?

Opposite: APC's chance of securing Aso Rock in 2015 greatly lies in the merger having Gov. Rochas Okorocha as its presidential flag bearer.

DerideGull:

I live in Owerre and sure the development you referred in your post is pure illusion. Please let us see such developments through the camera lens.

Is it possible you live in Owerri or anywhere in or near Imo state?
The roads Gov. Okorocha-led govt started in Orlu are no where near completion. The sum total of the distance of the roads in Orlu is about one-twentieth of the kilometer distance of roads being built in Owerri.

A project most dear to discerning people in Orlu - the Orlu urban drainage project - started by late Gov. Ikwechegh has hardly gone beyond where it was started.

Portable water is a mirage in Orlu. It costs 250K to dig and get water in Owerri, but in Orlu, it is about 1.5million Naira.

The two groups of Pictures below: Group 1 is Owerri, group 2 is Orlu - uncompleted roads.
In owerri, Okorocha's projects ranging from Heroes square to Freedom square to the beautiful dual carriage way that surges from Wetherel Rd and joins Aba Rd in Owerri, to the Ahiajoku hall, to the nearing completion dual carriage way linking Onitsha Rd to Orlu Rd in Owerri .... name them ... Gov. Okorocha concentrates about 90% of his development efforts in Owerri.

DerideGull: As far as Rochas Okorocha is concerned, he can not win election in Imo State as a dog catcher. It is plain idiocy to insinuate voting for Okorocha for Igbo sake in presidential election. Since Okorocha became governor, it has been Imo State for Orlu.

My humble take on Rochas Okorocha’s political shenanigans in Imo State remains that it will be extremely hard in future for a candidate from Orlu zone to win a statewide election in Imo state.

But Okorocha has done more development projects in Owerri than any other governor in the history of Imo state within a space of two years. Why do you speak ill of him still?

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Abagworo: For those who may not know, people have always been arrested and questioned for failing to prove that they do something to earn a living. It is very normal here in Port Harcourt and it is a way of fighting crime as so many criminals have been apprehended via that. Our criticism of a Governor's ingenuity should not blind some of us from reality. The data collection will aid in fighting crime as the thumb prints and passports will be at Governments reach while those who opt out of work will be closely monitored.

Infact I suggest all Southern States emulate this man. Whoever brought about that idea lives in my world of reasoning.

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Like this man on the foot of a stadium light pole in Orlu, get him arrested?

@PROUD-IGBO, IGBO-SON and ; That's beautiful of Owerri out there. Great. Please can u show the latest in Orlu and Okigwe?

Whether they fight or not, at the end, their common interests shall unite them. One thing: APC can not dislodge PDP from Aso Rock 2015, because PDP and APC, they seem to be two sides of the same coin.

A country whose ex military leaders politically destroyed through lopsided state creation exercises.

Abagworo and others wonder why the population of Owerri has doubled in the last two years. Why? Public running water is the first of amenities that sustain any city. Owerri may have little running water but it has two big streams, such that when public water taps dry up, and the big men that have private water boreholes shut their gates, people can go to any of the streams to get water. Okigwe, and especially, Orlu, have no public water supply system and have no big streams. So Imo people must continue to migrate to live in Owerri despite the boulevards/street lights being built now in Okigwe and Orlu. Cities are NEVER sustained with private water boreholes. Imo state is not yet ripe for privatization of water supply; it is the state government's business at this stage to provide running water to citizens.

These so called leaders from SE travel to Cross River and Akwa Ibom states, not just only to abroad. But they come home in Igboland to do open gutters and no side walks roads; open gutters that breed malaria they know is number one killer disease in their states. They embark on building fancy projects when their citizens die from waterborne disease due to lack of running water. How many areas in Imo state can boast of pipe borne water today? In their days, even the colonial masters were able to provide running water for nearly every urban and sub-urban area in what is now known as Imo state. Today, ask any Imo state citizen about running water, he would reply you that they are now used to private bore hole water. No body asks questions about running water again. But Borehole water in most cases is unwholesome, even if given standard home purification. Imo state government said it has privatized supply of water. Whatever that means!

Imo state, Dec. 25, 2012.
Folks, Rochas Okorocha led government focuses only on speedy completion of development projects in Owerri alone; other areas in Imo state - Okigwe, Orlu - are heavily suffering dust, ugly sites of partially knocked down houses, blocked roads/drains, cut electricity supplies, further under development, go-slow/endless construction works. Economic activities in the once booming cities of Okigwe and Orlu have been paralyzed for more than a year now. Mass emigration from Okigwe and Orlu to the state capital and other cities is ongoing. There is more than the ordinary eye can see.

Can Governor Okorocha Endorse Limitation of a Group’s Access to Education Facilities?

The need for all in a state to have equal access to education facilities cannot be halted because of the mostly exaggerated claims of a vociferous few.

Imo state’s apex political leadership cannot afford to renege on its earlier decision to permanently locate Imo State University outside the zone of the state capital, Owerri; if it does, it risks eating up most of its political capital given it by majority of the electorate on the ballot.

Injustice is hardly tolerated by any body, not even by the unjust, himself.

The senatorial zone of the state capital (Owerri) is already saturated with all tertiary academic institutions in the sate located in and around it. Regarding government’s decision to be fair to all through having Imo State University permanently located in Ogboko, outside Owerri zone, the concordant majority may be silent - but welcomed it. There should not have been much to haggle over a government’s decision to be fair to all sections of its territory. After all, who does not know that had Nigeria’s government decided to locate all tertiary institutions in the country in Lagos alone, in about two decades, the southwest area must have become educationally advantaged over the rest?


The tertiary education institutions in Imo state are: Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri; Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education (a degree awarding institution) Owerri; Imo State University (IMSU) Owerri; Federal Polytechnic, Owerri; Imo State Polytechnic - outside the state capital zone but a short distance from, and closest to Owerri than to any other large population centre in the state.

The presence of all these institutions in the state capital (Owerri) senatorial zone of 9 LGAS; and the absence of any university in the 12 LGAs of Imo West (Orlu) senatorial zone with a resident population of about 2.5 million people is scandalous. It has since breached international standards for location of tertiary education institutions in any area so populated aimed at educating its people as well as propagate the area’s culture and traditions among them. Okigwe zone of 6 LGAs, to some degree, benefits from Abia state University, Uturu, which is located very close to it.

As costs of food, transport and, above all, rent, are comparatively high in the zone of the state capital; and as larger numbers of people from the area can afford to attend tertiary institutions from their homes; in the last three and a half decades, Imo state has enacted the phenomenons of educationally advantaged area in Owerri zone, and a disadvantaged area in Orlu zone.

As they had petitioned his predecessors in office, hardly had Rochas Okorocha got sworn into office as Imo state governor when Orlu people marched straight to Government House, Owerri, demanding that a tertiary institution be sited in Orlu area. For an immediate take-off of such an institution, they pointed to a multi-facility, but now underutilised Skills Acquisition Centre, (once a campus of Alvan Ikoku College of Education) Orlu, whose facilities are enough to house many faculties and departments of a tertiary institution.

When buildings started going up in the proposed permanent site chosen by the present state government for Imo state University in Ogboko, Ideato south LGA - a short distance to the Orlu Skills Acquisition Centre - arguments from the vocal few against the location easily petered out. The arguments had to peter out because steps taken to remedy a glaring injustice against a group are usually not opposed by the majority in any good society.


Questions:
(1) Did Owerri-born former governor of Imo state, late Evan Enwerem, act in good faith when the government he led temporarily located Imo state University in Owerri, in the presence then, of FUTO and other three tertiary institutions in and around the town - with the absence of any tertiary institution in Okigwe and Orlu zones of the state? Note: then, there were other facilities in Orlu which could have accommodated IMSU.

(2) Now that Owerri zone is saturated with lots of tertiary institutions; and IMSU since housed in make-shift accommodation in Owerri is due for permanent location, what is wrong about having IMSU permanently located in Orlu zone with no university?

(3) On setting up the university’s teaching hospital at Orlu, Imo state government also set up an equally large and parallel Specialist Hospital in Owerri, a city which already has a multi-faceted Federal Medical Centre. How can any rationale fellow equate a teaching hospital that yearly takes in about 100 health sciences students to a multi-faculty university that admits thousands of students annually?

(4) If indeed the Imo state government led by former governor, late Sam Mbakwe, did pronounce that IMSU be sited in Aboh Mbaise/Ngor-Okpalla area, was there any law backing that? If not, must succeeding governments of Imo state be bound by a mere pronouncement of their predecessor? Lest we forget: In Orlu zone, the same Sam Mbakwe-led government mapped out a much more costly surface water supply scheme meant to supply most of the 12 LGAs in the now Imo West senatorial zone with running water, but that scheme was never built. It built similar running water schemes for Okigwe and Owerri. The same government sited a campus of Alvan Ikoku College of Education in Orlu, but despite the huge sum of money spent by it and the World Bank to renovate and expand the campus, it was closed down immediately after the administration; staff, students and property were moved to the main campus congested to the brim in the state capital.

MESSAGE TO IMO STATE GOVERNMENT.
(1)The Ogboko site chosen by Imo state Government for the permanent location of Imo State University is by no means less qualified than any other in the state. In that decision to locate IMSU in Ogboko, the state government took a just and irreproachable step to establish some degree of fairness toward all in Imo state.

(2) Imo state government cannot further impose on the already educationally disadvantaged people in Orlu zone another burdensome choice which a private university portends for them. Above all, more than a private university in Nigeria’s setting, a government-sponsored university, with its usual multi-faculty facilities provides larger population of people with wider variety of educational opportunities. A private university ceases operation whenever its proprietor is no longer able to carry it along.

(3) We are in a democracy; if for any reasons, government’s decision to permanently locate Imo state University in Ogboko can be subjected to a popularity test, let it be.

Benedict Okereke
obenok@hotmail.com

People thank Governor Okorocha-led government for its desire to give face lift to other parts of the state outside the state capital. Orlu urban LGA must be approaching or above 400,000 human population now. Therefore conventionally, Orlu needs to have a state-sponsored (not private)higher institution of learning. I hope Owelle gets to agree to that, else, we are breeding a less educated population in Orlu and its environs; while people in other parts of the state (Okigwe and Owerri) pay very much less to have their wards educated in the numerous higher institutions located nearer their homes. Now that there are many other universities and polytechnics in Owerri and ABSU nearer to Okigwe, having Imo state University permanently located in Orlu is not a privilege, it is a right. The need to have justice and equity in Imo state calls for that.

The Oguta Lake Hotel project by Owelle Rochas-led government is great. Ikedi Ohakim played games on Chief Arthur Nzeribe - his right hand man - for four years on Oguta Wonder Lake project, but little or nothing on ground after the Ohakim four years.

One would wish Owelle's government provides sustainable surface running water supply scheme for Orlu zone, as has long been tried, and can easily be realized soon by any willing IMSG top leader
in the two other senatorial zones in Imo state. Private water boreholes can never make a town. Owelle-led government needs to provide a dependable surface water supply scheme for Orlu and its suburbs as proposed by Mbakwe, first and foremost.

Old East Central state that gave rise to present Southeast zone was first divided into Imo and Anambra states in 1976. The two states got further divided: Imo state became Abia and present Imo states. Anambra state became Enugu and present Anambra states. The last and fifth state in the southeast, Ebonyi, was carved from Abia and Enugu states. So the next and sixth state must be carved from Imo and Anambra states. Njaba/Orlu state, whichever name it is called, needs to be the next and sixth state in the southeast area. The southeast is asking for sixth state for the sake of equity and justice. No other delineation pattern must be devised when carving a sixth state for the southeast except the usuall pattern, else, inequity and injustice lingers after the new state is created.

Sanusi is only bent on having his name and signature appear on the Naira. By including Margaret Ekpo and excluding an Igbo face in his new Naira, Sanusi also hoped to accentuate the old divide and rule tactic his kinsmen used to brainwash people on the Nigerdelta that the Igbo maltreated them.

[quote author=ABAKA72] "so who exactly will fight them to keep Nigeria one"?
In deed, no body may be willing to fight them. Not even Arewa may be interested.

I laughed tire. But what is important is getting his message: some people are sitting down on the good idea of a Sovereign National Conference.

This may be the opening of Pandora's box. This may be Ogoni nation's first step to group actualisation, and possible independent from Nigeria. If some people refuse to have Nigeria belong to all, use all deceptive tactic to frustrate others' aspirations, why must the cheated nationalities like the Ogonis, the Igbos, the Ijaws and others continue to suffer in One Nigeria?

Tell your selves the truth: the southeast merits a new state. Do not place a blanket ban on state creation, but if you think your state is not viable, pray that it be merged to other more viable states nearby. A new state in the southeast may bring some element of equilibrium to Nigeria's political structure, and enhances political stability needed for development. Imagine a situation where the figure of school enrolment by people of Imo state origin alone surpasses the total figure from 6 northwest states. School enrolment is a pointer to population concentration.

@torkaka, States were not created according to regions. If it were, old Midwest region, for example, should have been having equal number of states as old Northern, Western or Eastern region. States are meant to create some semblance of equity in the distribution of resources among the peoples in the various areas of Nigeria, as well as a semblance of equity in political representation for Nigerian peoples. In Nigeria of today, the large number of people of southeast origin meant to share in the five state structure are politically under-represented and short-changed in the arena of federal allocation. By the time you cast away your prejudice and do your Maths well , you must get to understand the above. Justice and equality for all are essential for Nigeria's survival and development. If viability has become an issue now, a new state created now from Imo state (and Anambra south senatorial zone if necessary) must be as viable as the most viable states already in existence.

@torkaka, states were not created with tribes in consideration. Not even zones, not even based on viability. States must have been created by soldiers bearing in mind the need to ensure a semblance of even distribution of Nigeria's resources to all areas of Nigeria. That must explain why once one Northern region got 19 states while once three southern regions got only 17 states. School enrolment is a pointer to population concentration: today, students population in one southeast state alone outstrips the total figure from six states elsewhere in Nigeria. More people from the southeast had since abandoned troubled areas in the north for mostly the southeast. All people of southeast in any part of Nigeria and abroad must resort to the only five Southeast states for political representation in Nigeria. What is the justice in having just five states in the southeast? In short, if truly we are to go for equitable sharing of federal revenues to all in Nigeria, southeast needed to have three more states without any new states created elsewhere. Remember much of the southeast contributes oil and gas revenues to federal coffers. During OBJ's tenure, enlightened Nigerians led by Senator Ibrahim Mantu-led constitution amendment committee justified the need for a new state in the southeast. In the last Senate, Senator Smart Adeyemi, Chair of senate Committee on Federal character argued for a new state in the southeast. It's only ethnic bigots whose acts and thought processes drag Nigeria to crisis that reason your way. Again, states were not created for tribes.

Not only providing side walks, a lot of money is to be saved in future if spaces for utility pipes like - water, telephone, electricity, cooking gas - are created at the same time these roads are being constructed. It shall be expensive breaking the roads to lay those pipes in future.

Hmm. Those cattle on the prowl. Something needs to be done before things start getting out of hand there also.

Abagworo,
Stumbled upon your beautiful posting a while ago. I must commend your skills in photography. I saw more of those great jobs of Owelle Rochas in Imo state a short while ago.
Wish he can make Orlu set the pace for underground drainage instead of open drainages that breed mosquitoes and dirt. Someone here talked about the roads in Orlu joining many LGAs, and thus making the town very large. Fact is that during the early 1970s, Orlu local authorities opened up so many roads in Orlu. Some of the roads extend to other LGAs. Amadi Ikwechegh-led government in Imo state awarded contract to an Israeli company to drain and asphalt those roads. As soon as Ikwechegh was recalled, construction mysteriously stopped. If half of those Orlu urban roads are asphalted today, more so, now that the population of Orlu has increased many fold, Orlu must be larger than Owerri. Thanks for your posting. More of that.

@Dede1,
Yea, Fashola's bombshell is part of the tribal politics of deception that has made Nigeria a non viable country, despite its enormous oil wealth. When you consider that Nigeria was once on the old tripod of north, southeast and southwest regions, but was latter re-engineered to the now 6 geopolitical zones, you realise that however you balance the number of states in the six zones, the corenorth must continue to excel above all others in Nigeria politically. So we merely ask for two or one more states in the southeast in other to have a semblance of equity and tranquillity in Nigeria's political process. But some Nigerians who believe they are foxier than others continue to pollute the atmosphere.

Fashola, it is not a perception that the southeast area is marginalised through state creation, it is true. State creation was meant to redistribute development funds to all over Nigeria. To that regard, education of future generations should be Nigeria's priority number one. Today, the number of students in one state in the southeast by far outnumbers the total number from six northwest states. Put the other way, the southeast is under funded and its area getting underdeveloped due to its five-states only structure. But the southeast gives its oil and gas revenues to Nigeria. People in the area are under represented in Nigeria's polity. Those southeast people who live in Lagos must resort to the 5 states in the southeast for anything in Nigeria. So is Fashola not selfish by suggesting creating of LGAs instead of new states? A sixth state in the southeast must be created now. As for immunity, whoever his hands are clear must not be afraid of the law.

Nigeria operates a unitary system of government where the states are sustained mainly by doles from the federal govt. Enrollment figures in the most recent UMT examinations show that the figure from Imo state alone is several times higher than the figures from six states added together in some other part of Nigeria. A near similar story is applicable in some other 3 states in the southeast. School enrollment is an acceptable parameter for population estimation anywhere. A father can't starve some of his children because he wants some of his other children to grow fatter. People of the southeast are under represented in any political gathering of Nigerians, because at any turn, they must depend on the S/E's five states only for representation and revenue sharing mechanisms. Even if we are going to 6 zones structure, we need to move into it with a balance in the number of states in each zone. Issue is that having 5 states only in the southeast is not sustainable as far Nigeria's unity and development are concerned. The S/E has lost a lot of development due to denied state in the last two decades.
So one believes the essence of new states by the NASS is to have a semblance of justice and egalitarianism in the distribution of states in the various areas of Nigeria. It gives Nigeria a much needed tranquil political climate for development. It is easy to parrot about that some of the existing states are not viable, and that there are already too many states, therefore no new states, but what matters more to knowledgeable Nigerians is the integrity of the country, not just cost of having new states. The likes of obiagu1, afam4eva, onlytruth, Eziachi, all ostensibly from Alaigbo need to get some Politics 101 lectures from an Almajiri boy in Kano. Dede1 really got it!