₦airaland Forum

http://businessdayonline.com/2014/02/owerri-fast-developing-lucrative-city-east-of-the-niger/

Owerri – The fastest Developing and
Most Lucrative City East of the Niger!
The saying that Owerri indigenes are bundle
of hospitality with the sexiest dialect of
spoken Igbo language is metamorphosing
into mega financial and developmental
gains. Owerri also known as the Eastern
Heartland is a preferred tourist destination
and the fastest growing city east of the
Niger!
The capital city and its suburbs which are
situated on the major route of the eastern
corridor are experiencing a monumental
growth backed with a phenomenal earning
potential to investors. This must sound as a
shocker to many who knew the state capital
as a typical civil servant state. It use to be
so but now, the reverse is the case.
A lot makes Owerri tick. The capital territory
boasts of five major tertiary institutions
supplying it with high volume of human
traffic being situated within the capital
territory. With the city being a major access
route other states in the south south
geopolitical zone of the nation, it is always a
hub of activities. The citizens of the state
may not be calibrated among the rich,
however, they go for high quality standard
of living thus creating series of business
enterprise with a corresponding high price
tag on everything bought and sold. Also
they are very enlightened and informed.
Recently, the state capital started
witnessing influx of people that the demand
for accommodation is soaring daily.
Statistics have it that the prices of rented
flats have doubled in the state in the last
two years

customized13:
you are very stvpid for referring me as "whatever he calls himself". Don't allow me take things personal with you, you are a lady and should act like one.

I have never quoted you on this forum and I don't see anything I have done to warrant such comment, I have always been a custodian of Igbo unity on this forum. Besides, I have decide to start ignoring chino even before this your stvpid comment.

Please stay off my path, you don't have courtesy at all.

i think she meant the other nwabekey1 moniker.

[quote author=Abagworo post=30935365]http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/meggison-capital-flight-in-aviation-is-hurting-nigerian-economy/202214/

Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria and CEO of Jed Air,
Captain Nogie Meggison , in this interview, posits that the
dominance of expatriates in aviation industry and overseas
maintenance of Nigeria's airplanes due to lack of in-country
capacity, have resulted in huge capital flight. Excerpts:

Can Nigeria develop its tourism without a national carrier?
Like I said if the government wants to encourage tourism there
are local Nigerian carriers. We have opened our flanks; it is only
in Nigeria that I know you allow people to do multiple
designations. Airlines are doing multiple designations at the
expense of not even Nigeria, not even the local but at the
expense of our children yet unborn. Unfortunately that is the
truth. So we need to go back into the policies, I agree yes we
have a young Minister that is vibrant but he is only there for
three months, there is not so much he can do within a short
time. They all identified it but you see those treaties have been
signed maybe four, five, 10 years ago, and it takes time to
unbind yourself from a treaty.
That is why I said signing treaties are the issues, so tourism is
not the problem, you can get all the airlines to come into one
point, build up your own, even use the extra monies that the
airlines are getting, because once they have that extra income
and they have more disposable profit margin, they start to try
new routes. But if there is no that much space on top, they will
stay on the safe routes; nobody is going to be trying to build a
new route that is not there.

Only two days ago I was going through statistics and I was
shocked that Owerri is the fourth busiest airport in Nigeria
today. Never would I have thought of Owerri . Owerri is after
Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt, Owerri is the fourth airport not
even Enugu, not even Benin, not Kano, not Uyo. So that must
be where there is commerce and disposable income because
there are a lot of traders coming in and out of that area, that
place has picked up. Don't forget Owerri was a private airfield
that was built by private individuals.

http://thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=3412

While visiting my home town this past
Christmas, I could hardly find my way around town.
So much has changed.
The sleepy, un-assuming town of Owerri, in the South-
Eastern part of Nigeria, where I spent the later part of
my childhood and most of my adolescence, has lost its
innocence. It has been defiled by urbanization.
I like it. But I don’t like it.
This seems like a contradiction, but that is what it is, a
love-hate kind of feeling.
The change didn’t happen overnight. Change seldom
does. In the past decade, or so, every visit home
churned up something new. The roads had more cars.
Streets sported new residential buildings. Commercial
centers sprouted everywhere. Church pews filled to
overflowing on Sundays. Markets became even busier.
There were more people on the streets, speaking
different dialects of Igbo, the language of the South
East; many of them people who had relocated from
other parts of the country.
The re-making of Owerri had started, slowly but
relentlessly.
Now, the road network is greatly improved. The
landscape is more pleasant to behold, especially with
the Christmas Decoration that beautified public
buildings and spaces. Residential estates, hotels and
guest houses, institutions of learning, shops and
supermarkets, eateries, clubs and corporate offices
have taken over the once - quiet neighbourhoods.
Landmarks which held the fondest memories for me
have borne the brunt. One of them is the State
Library, where I sated my childhood hunger for books
such as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, The
Famous Five and The Secret Seven. It has been pulled
down and in its place stands a huge circular building,
imposing in all its blue-glass-and-concrete majesty,
called the Ecumenical Center.
Traffic gridlocks are now a staple. A journey from
town to my village on the outskirts of town, which used
to take forty five minutes at the most, may well take
one and half hours now depending on the time of day
and the route you decide to ply. Exotic cars, and the
not-so-exotic, jostle with yellow coloured tricycles
called Keke Napep - which provide the most common
means of public transportation within town - for the
right of way on roads that were hardly ever busy.

I must accept the change
and all that has come with it.
The change caused by urbanization and migration,
which drive each other. Perhaps urbanization is a
consequence of migration. Or maybe it helps to
encourage migration. Together, they bring about
growth and diversity. They birth new communities,
new languages and new life styles, new ideologies
about politics and new ways of doing business, new
beliefs about God, life and death. Sometimes migration
is borne out of loss and pain, out of the need for
survival, the search for a better quality of life. It is
stories of Christian Missionaries who, having seen
members of their congregations slaughtered in Sunday
morning attacks, have had to make painful choices
between leaving and staying back to continue the work
of the Gospel. It is the story of the teenage cobbler
from Northern Nigeria, whose entire family has been
wiped out by Islamic fundamentalists, and who now
seeks a peaceful place to ply his lowly trade. It is
stories of young women and men who, filled with
apprehension about the future, have to leave their
families for the first time to work in cities far away
from home. It is stories about people from different
stations of life coming together in one big melting pot.
This, I believe, is what happened to Owerri. And,
grudgingly, I concede that the new tapestry of sights,
sounds and people has made the town more vibrant,
more Cosmopolitan.
But this is only half the story.
The stories about migration often tell about people’s
journeys to new places and their struggles to fit into
alien societies. They hardly tell about host communities
whose cultures become diluted and even eroded over
time, and whose lives start to change in ways they can
neither control nor get back. Knowing that people are
usually possessive about the things that are theirs, I
now see how easy it would be for indigenous people to
have their tolerance of change tempered by resentment.
Those would be people like me who are struggling to
come to terms with the new Owerri.
Now I have new-found admiration for Lagos State -
where I have spent most of my adult life - which has
continuously welcomed strangers from different parts
of Nigeria with open, and sometimes not-so-open, arms;
for indigenous South Africans who have had to live
with white settlers, especially during the oppressive
apartheid era; for the United Kingdom with her multi-
ethnic cities and communities; for continents like the
United States of America. They, and others like them,
embody noble stories of migration and change.

oneeast:
It is proven u work in a cafe that aside.
After the creation of the states we have Onitsha which is most planned city in east and Awka planned by UNHABITAT and now the fastest growing city in the east.

chino, the place i used to work in Kaduna, you will need a visitors card to get in.

I don't care where u use to work but I won't stop saying it the way it is.

Malawian:
chino, the place i used to work in Kaduna, you will need a visitors card to get in.

The reality is that Okorocha's approach to governance has skyrocketted Owerri into the tourism capital of Nigeria with even foreigners traveling from other African countries to come spend some time in Owerri. 4 years ago it was Calabar but today it is Owerri. At the pace things are moving, in another 4 years Owerri might be on the world map as a major global tourist centre.

Got this Abagworo piksure of Orlu - Asika Ilobi Avenue - somewhere.

oneeast:
Clown do not mistake the flocking of prostitutes in owerre to tourists. The only reason people (irresponsible people) go to owerre is because of cheap se.x market in the town and not because there is any meaningful thing in the town.

Genuine tourists know where to go and that is Calabar, Akwaibom, Obudu etc

Chino, I hope you know you have been the one courting 4 trouble here, in his post he never said anything wrong or mentioned Anambra state but u keep insulting their State, you are a very paranoid person SMH.

oneeast:
Clown do not mistake the flocking of prostitutes in owerre to tourists. The only reason people (irresponsible people) go to owerre is because of cheap se.x market in the town and not because there is any meaningful thing in the town.

Genuine tourists know where to go and that is Calabar, Akwaibom, Obudu etc

Obviously where there is affluent tourists usually attracts call girls. For example Owerri today is the 4th busiest airport in Nigeria. It is also 4th in the influx of new settlers. Lagos-Abuja-Port Harcourt-Owerri is the order of migrations today.

Owerri has grown to have some peculiar music and lifestyle that is delicious. There is only one Ibari Ogwa in the East.

mandax:
Got this Abagworo piksure of Orlu - Asika Ilobi Avenue - somewhere.

Yet people lie that Orlu has not changed. Though most are short in distance, Orlu seems to have up to 6 dualized major roads with streetlights. That beats some major cities and State capitals

You can digg any assertion you like from your a.ss its none of my businesses, when Rochas was contesting under APGA it was not Anambra party but once he won APGA became a cultural organization despite wandering in political desert for close to two decades. It was the same Obi and Umeh that galvanized the drive that ouster the incumbent Ohakim.

Why didn't Rochas leave APGA and stop insulting 8million Anambra people in the face of the earth,
When he said Anambra are the problems of Ndigbo, Obi and Umeh were not in his pictures because he was specific by mentioning Nwobodo and Ekwueme but all of a sudden your here saying he meant Umeh and Obi.

Obi has left APGA because of the bullish nature of Umeh and did he go about saying Aguluzuigbo people are the problems of Ndi Anambra because of one man Umeh?

Why not say Anambra people are the saviors of Ndigbo since Stella Oduah and Obi pushed for the elevation of AIIA to an international airport and Olisa Agbakoba just rescued us from FG Unity college benchmark.

I know the reason why am still trying to educate you guys so that them f00ls here will learn, its easier to train a child than to change an adult, you guys will ended up planting this seed of hatred and discord in your younger ones and children but ignorance won't let you know

Abagworo:
Abagworo has never started anything please. We should always try and be truthful. The problem I had with Chino and co started because of my frankness in analysis. Okorocha was not the Governor then and Amaechi was still in PDP. The whole issue was about Peter Obi and as at then I was always in Nnewi for a reason I wont disclose here. I believe in saying tge truth and leading by example.

1 Like Rochas I believe some Anambra leaders like Peter Obi and Victor Umeh are deliberately trying to frustrate the emancipation of Igbos in Nigeria. Their attitude in APGA by trying to control Okorocha led to the party's demise in Imo State.

2 The refusal by Mbaise Catholics for Awka Bishop can only be adjudged as wrong if an Mbaise is allowed to be a Bishop in other diocese across Igboland. The Mbaise Catholics are not only against Anambra but also against bringing Bishop from Orlu or even Owerri because they have excess Catholic priests.

3 I love all Igbos and Hausas and every ethnic group in the world but wish Igbos quick recovery from self inflicted political irrelevance.

4 Our closest bait to possibility of an Igbo emerging President is Rochas Okorocha. I am against anybody trying to kill that dream.

BuddahMonk:
You can digg any assertion you like from your a.ss its none of my businesses, when Rochas was contesting under APGA it was not Anambra party but once he won APGA became a cultural organization despite wandering in political desert for close to two decades. It was the same Obi and Umeh that galvanized the drive that ouster the incumbent Ohakim.

Why didn't Rochas leave APGA and stop insulting 8million Anambra people in the face of the earth,
When he said Anambra are the problems of Ndigbo, Obi and Umeh were not in his pictures because he was specific by mentioning Nwobodo and Ekwueme but all of a sudden your here saying he meant Umeh and Obi.

Obi has left APGA because of the bullish nature of Umeh and did he go about saying Aguluzuigbo people are the problems of Ndi Anambra because of one man Umeh?

Why not say Anambra people are the saviors of Ndigbo since Stella Oduah and Obi pushed for the elevation of AIIA to an international airport and Olisa Agbakoba just rescued us from FG Unity college benchmark.

I know the reason why am still trying to educate you guys so that them f00ls here will learn, its easier to train a child than to change an adult, you guys will ended up planting this seed of hatred and discord in your younger ones and children but ignorance won't let you know

There is a difference between "some Anambra leaders" and "Anambra people". Once you acknowledge the difference then you will acknowledge my stance. Have you ever seen me condemn Akunyili, Soludo, Ngige and Ezekwesili?

I also believe some leaders in Imo like my own brother Nzeribe, Iwuanyanwu, Ilomuanya etc. are also part of the Igbo problem. Try to erase biase and face reality.

Oga calm down, two wrong doesn't make any right, take it easy with these name dropping and fights here and there, if you keep throwing stones at any dog that bark at you when are you expecting to get to your destination.

Leave all these things its pure infantile and juvenile, quit it cus its not healthy.

One kobo

oneeast:
You are very correct. I decided to go offence because all the while I was on defensive they kept courting for trouble. I believe offensive will keep the on there toes


thete autwinniz post=30940063]

Chino, I hope you know you have been the one courting 4 trouble here, in his post he never said anything wrong or mentioned Anambra state but u keep insulting their State, you are a very paranoid person SMH.

Abagworo:
Yet people lie that Orlu has not changed. Though most are short in distance, Orlu seems to have up to 6 dualized major roads with streetlights. That beats some major cities and State capitals

Orlu changed with the dualized streets. But once out of the dualized streets and a few others, it is hell. A lot of the inner roads are not motor-able.

I passed that shabbily done road last month. the entire thing is not up to half a kilometer. Even ordinary Ekwulobia beats Orlu of ages hands down in development. U people should start facing reality. There I s no road in imo state the rural areas sre cut off completely.

mandax:
Got this Abagworo piksure of Orlu - Asika Ilobi Avenue - somewhere.

mandax:
Orlu changed with the dualized streets. But once out of the dualized streets and a few others, it is hell. A lot of the inner roads are not motor-able.

Maybe true as I have not gone right round. But where in Nigeria has all good roads? Most places have good and well paved major roads but bad and unpaved inner streets. We start from somewhere and gradually get better with time.

So without attaching Anambra to their name or offices and position your propaganda won't fly, there is no leader in Anambra except the governor of the state who was elected to represent them, saying Anambra leaders like Umeh how would an APC and PDP member view the assertion since the guy only control his party.

Why must you attach Anambra to their names when they are only found wanting but when they triumph in their individual hustles you will forget where they are from.

Am doing all these preaching here to protect my daughter who might be a victim of what she knew nothing about when she unknowingly mingled with kids born of hatefilled parents who planted same in their kids.

Abagworo:
There is a difference between "some Anambra leaders" and "Anambra people". Once you acknowledge the difference then you will acknowledge my stance. Have you ever seen me condemn Akunyili, Soludo, Ngige and Ezekwesili?

I also believe some leaders in Imo like my own brother Nzeribe, Iwuanyanwu, Ilomuanya etc. are also part of the Igbo problem. Try to erase biase and face reality.

mandax:
changed with the dualized streets. But once out of the dualized streets and a few others, it is hell. A lot of the inner roads are not motor-able.

It is like that in every part of imo state. There is no single good stretch of road in imo state. Have u gone to arondizogu? Smh

BuddahMonk:
So without attaching Anambra to their name or offices and position your propaganda won't fly, there is no leader in Anambra except the governor of the state who was elected to represent them, saying Anambra leaders like Umeh how would an APC and PDP member view the assertion since the guy only control his party.

Why must you attach Anambra to their names when they are only found wanting but when they triumph in their individual hustles you will forget where they are from.

Am doing all these preaching here to protect my daughter who might be a victim of what she knew nothing about when she unknowingly mingled with kids born of hatefilled parents who planted same in their kids.

You might be right about sucess having many parents and failure being an orphan point of view. What breeds hatred is taking things too serious and far. You can mock someone who is free minded and you both laugh over it but when you mock someone who is too serious minded, he makes enmity out of it.

oneeast:
It is like that in every part of imo state. [/b]There is no single good stretch of road in imo state.[b] Have u gone to arondizogu? Smh

You are a liar cos I have been seeing pics of good road on this thread. You can take your hate speech somewhere else.

oneeast:
It is like that in every part of imo state. There is no single good stretch of road in imo state. Have u gone to arondizogu? Smh

Who is this?

Ok I am coming with pics to prove my point. I have real pics of owerre and orlu and not the cut and join they post to deceive people.

winniz:
You are a liar cos I have been seeing pics of good road on this thread. You can take your hate speech somewhere else.

oneeast:
It is like that in every part of imo state. There is no single good stretch of road in imo state. Have u gone to arondizogu? Smh

Thats one of the characreristics of enemies within in Igboland. They are everywhere supporting the lacklustre attitude of Jonathans admin towards Igboland.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/community-petitions-jonathan-as-abandoned-road-project-stifles-economic-prospects/162690/

http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/columns/2012-10-29-11-16-41/saturday-with-ayinla-mukaiba/item/17556-fg,-please-fix-oba-arondizuogu-okigwe-road.html

Now this road commenced from Oba in Anambra State and transverses through Okigwe in Imo.

oneeast:
Ok I am coming with pics to prove my point. I have real pics of owerre and orlu and not the cut and join they post to deceive people.

Chino, I don't need your pics, I'm cool with what they post here.

Oba-Nnewi-Arondizuogu-Okigwe road project was awarded
to two firms, Consolidated Construction Company (CCC) and a
Lebanese company, Bulletine Construction Company Limited
and was scheduled to have been completed by last year.
From available records, contract for the rehabilitation of
section I of the project was awarded to Consolidated
Construction Company (CCC) on May 28, 2009 at a cost of
N3,794,656,914.00 with completion date of May 27, 2012. It
had completion period of 24 months. Section II was awarded
same year to Bulletine Construction Company Ltd. in the sum
of N2,572,473,142.28 with completion period of 18 months.
However, the project is still less than 40 percent completed,
leaving the road, especially the Section II, in its horrible state.
With the rain in its peak, the section is currently an example
of what a road should not be, let alone federal road, especially
as residents of the area pass through harrowing experience
daily, moving about and transporting their goods and services.
Yes, the road in question is a Trunk A road that serves as a
link between Anambra, Imo, Abia, Enugu and Rivers states.
Previously, the road used to witness traffic as transporters
plied it as they moved from Onitsha to Imo State, linking
Enugu, Abia and Rivers states but it is now, literary, deserted.
Anyone who knew the road in the 80s and early 90s and
decides to pass through it now cannot believe it is the same
federal road. What remains is for people to start farming on
most portion of the road, especially the Arondizuogu axis.
Only recently, communities where the road passes through
took to protests, asking the government to intervene and
investigate the poor quality of work done by the contractors,
especially the contractor handing section II of the project.
Arondizuogu Unity Association which spoke through its
president, a barrister, Chijioke Kanu, bemoaned the suffering
which the villagers pass through on a daily basis and noted
that the anger in the area was aggravated by the total
breakdown on the road and rendering of the road almost
impassable for years.
The association disclosed that the work done on section II of
the project was unprofessional and that rains have since
washed off surfaces of the road and left frightening gullies and
potholes.
According to the group, gutters were not constructed on the
road while situation on the project was such that there is
nothing to suggest that work was done at all at any time by
the contractors.
The group said, “we want to use this opportunity to inform the
government that the non-completion of that road is causing
untold hardship to the people and that movement of goods
from one point to the other has been hampered, not to talk of
cost of goods and services which has increased in the area. We
will soon write Mr. President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan to
intervene to save the people the agonies they pass through on
daily basis on account of that road,” it said.
To save the people the hardship they currently pass through
passing the road, it is only justifiable for the government to
move in and complete
the project. Many thanks will, definitely, go to the
indefatigable Minister of Works, Architect Mike Onolememen if
it will be recorded that the project is completed during his
result-oriented tenure.

^^^Stop talking nonsense. Ask ur useless governor to fix the state roads in imo state first before blaming FG. Most state roads in imo state are very bad and unpassable.

The road was awarded by Yar'adua in 2009 with CCC getting most of Anambra axis and Bulletin getting the Imo part. This road is one of the roads that transverses through Anambra State that makes Chino claim Anambra has good road network. It is a federal road and runs through many densely populated villages and meets Imo State at Uga. Rather than lend our voice as Igbos against FGs attitude, Chino is making mockery of Arondizuogu and sometimes blames Okorocha.