Something seem to bind a man with the town of his birth. This is even more so if the person also grew up there. Developments in such towns tend to pull his attention. So, we hear people call themselves Lagos boys, 042(Enugu) boys and so on. I am not from Abia State but I was born and bred there , in Aba. I have left the town decades ago but I still have family there. Until five years ago when by mother transited, I still visited the town to see her and my siblings. There is yet a family house in the town although every one has gone their separate ways, more so when all parents have gone to the great beyond.
I know the town fairly well although I left it years ago in response to career push and daily bread. Abia State has had its fair share of the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of governance. For sometime the current Governor, Alex Otti has, remained dogged in his bid to be at the helm of affairs in the state. He always met brick walls in the process until the opportunity of a mass movement opened in the 2023 elections. His years of experience and the alignment with the Labour Party, which was like a movement at the time, paved the way for an election that saw him emerge winner in spite all under hand tactics and inducements to deny him a clear victory.
Alex Otti came to the saddle and began from day one to hit the ground running. Reports began to emerge that the man had turned the state, especially Aba, into a construction site. Virtually all roads were touched in the process. Roads seem to be the visible sign of democracy dividends. Orji Uzo Kalu, the pioneer helmsman in this democratic dispensation did the same thing with roads when he mounted the saddle in 1999 but several years after, the roads have responded to lack of maintenance.
But one road that had been abandoned for decades in Aba is Port Harcout Road. It was like one bedeviled by a jinx that cannot be broken. It was the shortest route from Aba to Port Harcout but it went into disuse decades ago and virtually all governments abandoned it. It became an unbroken jinx until Alex Otti came to the picture. Indeed, he is a small man with big dreams. When you hear him talk about his dreams for that state, you see a man prepared for governance. The story of how he revived Port Harcout Road, for me is that miracle of his government. He dared were mortals dreaded. Two governors before him did not dare that road for inexplicable reasons. That road was the only one we knew as the only one to that town. But when the road went into abandonment, as it were, the journey became longer and more tortuous. After many years the longer and more tortuous route became the norm. People became used to the linking the express road from Enugu, which was also dilapidated at some time, to get to Port Harcourt. The process was like leaving the town in order to connect a route to Port Harcourt.
Oti came to the picture and took the bull by the horns. I have not seen the road but I have seen the pictures and I have sent an emissary to go and confirm that miracle for me. A class mate of mine whose late father willed a property in that area was so elated when he discussed the matter recently, stating that the value of the property had become better. He does not live in the town, but like me, he grew up there and has family in the town. We were school mates in secondary school. Several other people in that ilk are elated by the miracle of Portharcout Road.
Available information show that Governor Alex Otti has done far more than PortHarcourt Road. In terms of Infrastructure he embarked on massive road rehabilitation, addressing long-neglected urban and rural roads. Key roads in Aba and Umuahia have been renovated and, in some cases , expanded. His administration restored accreditation to Abia State University Teaching Hospital. There are other things the Administration has done. I would not begin the endless list here less anyone think that this article is commissioned. The sole attraction for this article is the miracle of Port Harcourt Road. But the administration has done things beyond roads. I understand pensioners have not been left to groan at the end of every month. The other day I heard him marshalling his plans for Enyimba hotel, one of the oldest stagnated projects in the state, saying it would be a resort Centre, the like found in in Kigali Rwanda, said to be the best in Africa. It would be driven by the private sector. Those are ambitious projects for a state hitherto known for stalled ventures. One of the astounding facts of the miracle of Portharcout Road and such things is that the state, according to Otti, has not borrowed funds since he mounted the saddle. That is a clear show that the Governor sits well in the arena of finance of funding. He admits that he stands out in that area. Perhaps other State helmsmen should borrow a leaf from him on ways to finance projects such that the dividends of democracy would be replete in their states. The thrust of all this anchors on the fact that everything succeeds and falls at the place of leadership, courage and tenacity.
Now that the Governor is resuscitating stagnated projects, I wish to hereby draw is attention to another project, almost as old or even older than the state but nothing has been heard of that project. The Aba Glass Industry must have been forgotten for over 40 years now. The project has a history that dates back to the days of the highly revered but late Chief Sam Mbakwe, who governed Abia and Imo and parts of Ebonyi put together as Imo State before 1991 when Abia was carved out of old Imo State. The project is that old. I don’t know what has become of it but Governor Otti’s next miracle be a revival of that projects if it has not gone into irretrievable oblivion.