We began this discourse last Sunday and it will end with piece despite the fact there is much to point out. Truth is no one administration can solve all the challenges of a society in a tenure or two but it can make tremendous impact if the vision is clear and relevant. Such government can leave very enduring legacy if it prioritizes, is frugal and has very sensible methods for deploying public funds.
Our observation of the level of development in the state was direct, pointed and very clear. Where we are is not where we should be by now. Even though we began small, we failed to graduate into the big or grand vision when the time required we do so. That abdication of responsibility or is it betrayal of mission has created its own problems. It is causing pains and massive dislocations. Pains demand solutions and that is where the state is currently. The people are demanding new solutions and ways of doing things. It is within this prism that the words of Albert Einstein become very instructive. Einstein gave very useful advice when he said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” What this means is we require new vision, new ways and especially new impetus. The touch of urgency must be very visible. In this regard, the current attitude of the president and many governors running against time trying to do what they had all the time to do is a lesson worth taking.
The foundation for big success would be deep positive spirituality. This is one aspect of leadership factor we play down, yet it is one factor pivotal to having good governance. Before Christ and around his time through to the present, palaces have remained centres of deep spiritual practices. Those who get there are into it, it is a known trend not spoken about in very loud voices. Often, helmsman are targets of spiritual attacks from desperate people who want a voice and favour. Only leaders who have spiritual stability survive these onslaught and stay strong to lead with clear vision. This point we reiterate is very important.
Having made the crucial observation we take on the other very important matters. The first would be to sit down and prioritize the needs. Needs would always out number resources available to provide solutions, it has always been so from time. It is moreso with us today with dwindling foreign exchange earnings from our country’s one source, oil. Prioritization is all the more pertinent at this point in time given the complexities that attended some malfunctions that were passed as mere hiccups, which now have grown to become monstrous in their nature. Unpaid salary and pensions fall into this category.
The campaign changer was salary, allowances, pension and gratuity. It has taken the front stage, the worker class may not constitute a high significance of the general population but their placing in the economy is strategic. Apart from keeping humans alive and healthy, as they say only the living can enjoy facilities, paying them as and at when due invariably will add to, and boost the economy since financial solvency would increase. Better purchasing power enhances living standards. The no money style added with delay in pension payments and in some cases salary arrears combined over time to squeeze the economic space. It wasn›t healthy at all.
The new governor would have to face rectification of the processes in this regard and to start payments. It has to be the take-off point of system that would involve creative multi-tasking. Beginning with salary and pension payments will restore confidence and improve legitimacy which is what practical politics is all about anywhere in the world. Every leader and his party wants to win re-election very easily. To do so successfully is to begin with policies that bury the leader right in the inner most recesses of the people’s hearts.
The next would be urban renewal and infrastructure transformation. Some of us recall an idea which an elder in our village sold to us as young men. He said whatever you do make sure you give number place to what the eyes can see, else people will write you off. This is very much relevant in political leadership. As observed much earlier in this discourse, clearing salary and pension arrears shouldn›t stall activities in the other critical areas. This is where ingenuity in financial management will come into play. Any great political leader should know citizens can be fickle too with their political support. When remuneration payments become routine it won›t be a surprise to hear same benefiaries lure others to say, “What is special in paying salaries and pension as at when due, after all is it their money? Can it be reason they couldn’t do anything else?”
The people over a very long time have desired to see Umuahia, Aba and some suburban settlements wear modern faces. The people’s joy will climb to high heaven if like what happened to Lagos, Calabar, Kaduna etc they begin to see Umuahia and Aba start to look very modern in terms of ultra modern road networks, well marked, standard road signages, street lightings, in fact everything that makes modern cities stand by the name.
The entry of Julius Berger construction outfit and others like them that may come into the state is due at this time but the job assignment should not be limited to doing one road or street no matter how long and strategic; the challenge this time should be to run away from the discredited path of tokenism to new era of grand vision expressed in total transformation of all the cities and even the rural areas into very beautiful living spaces. There should be grand vision to transform all parts beginning with the two major cities, tarring all streets in a standard way, lighting them up and making the environment very friendly for daily living and conduct of business. Someone said even the median on the Port Harcourt-Enugu expressway from Umuahia to Ukwa can be made to look very beautiful. I makes sense. The rural development must be factored into this plan.
Talking about road infrastructure, for any intending traveller in Abia, such a traveler should be able to move from one place to another on a standard road with road signages in place. This isn’t the case currently. And it is no rocket science. We suggest a local government area tour by the new governor, working tour in real sense of it devoid of the razzmatazz of the past, which included political ceremonies and wastages associated with such gatherings. This time it should just be the governor with a small team heading into local government headquarters, hearing demands from the people directly and administrators documenting it for action so government projects can actually meet real needs. It also gives ability to say with precision what actually has been done. It will serve as good avenue to carry rural development alongside. No one need tell anyone who has put himself forward to govern Abia that the Civil Service is badly bastardised. Many so called parastatals replicate functions of the ministry. Such duplication is wasteful and destructive. The sector will do with reforms. A civil service academy will be ideal.
It is important to advise the governor to take specific projects in the different sectors that could be completed within the first four years of the first tenure. This way achievements can be both visible, verifiable and measurable. We have mentioned urban renewal and infrastructure. Very important. On health, it is important we bring to modernity General Hospitals wherever they exist in the local governments, recreate the ambience, the buildings, equip them with facilities and staff that would operate from there and not from cities. Not absentee doctors who will still be paid. New ones can be built where none exist. General hospitals in Aba, Amachara, may be Ohafia should be upgraded to specialists or teaching hospital status. Signature projects here should be three Mother and Child hospitals located on virgin lands one each for the three senatorial zones. There should be an international eye and dental centre too. Currently, people from the state are among the crowd that go to Calabar for eye treatment. Abia State can be made the new centre for the country.
Sports, new olympic stadium for Aba outside the location of the present one is overdue. Nsulu Games Village should be made standard so teams and athletes can camp and train their. Paul Mba once brought private investors; he can be consulted or anybody else.
For Agriculture, the Michael Okpara vision of large crop plantations and agricultural settlements remain very valid. We have plantations rotting away in various parts of the state.
Abia can become biggest exporter of palm oil beside establishing huge palm oil mills more than five in each of the 17 local government areas in the state. It should indeed frighten any right thinking person that today the bulk of food items consumed in the zone come from outside, it wasn’t so in the past and it is not healthy. Our destiny should be in our hands and this includes food security. A very determined government can establish five modern mechanized farm settlements to start with. Real development and then best security begins with food security. We need to improve extension services and agricultural credits too.
On Education, the basis must be a return to public schools as foundation for eradication of illiteracy and harvesting of productive manpower. A poor backward society that wants to experience quantum leap in human and physical transformation must give prominent position to mass but qualitative education of her people. Commercial education doesn›t offer any lifeline, we see that already. Only the haves can afford education for their wards. It shouldn›t be so. Free education is critical. Then entire review of the education system has become imperative. Education policy should move from literary to productive education. Capacity building should be the focus. If this must be then curriculum revision is crucial. There are issues of teacher revaluation and infrastructure. It is unfortunate that school buildings and environments have remained at the level the colonial masters left them. We ought to rebuild schools and equip them. Abia schools should be rebuilt, classrooms, sporting facilities and premises properly fenced and security personnel employed to secure the schools day and night. The recommendation is that a number of primary and secondary schools can be taken over a particular time and remodeled. Policy on private schools is not so clear. Private schools should own sporting facilities too.
Transportation has suffered myopic vision, the style has been to chase about tricycle operators. At other times officials are heard expressing concerns about parking arrangements and ticketing for self-enrichment. It should change. Touts and harassment of persons on streets must cease. The thinking ought to be about mobility of people and goods across all the LGAs and of course beyond the state. So, Abia Line Transport Corporation comes into the mix.
That entity should be revived, made productive and an income earner. Founders of the state provided them a terminal in Ohobo axis, Umuahia. Some officials sold the place and drove the company into a corner of the town. The company needs thorough review. We need ultra-modern parks in Aba, Umuahia and for each local government area. We need well designated bus stops. Development of car parks especially in various locations in Umuahia and Aba would ease pains, enhance economic activities and earn revenue for the government. Such a park at Alaoji for instance will be wonderful. The expressway median at the location can be a starting point. River transportation and internal railway system are key.
Abia needs industrialisation and this is where “New Aba” and “New Umuahia” come in. We need new industrial layouts and housing estates. If great people would come in they would require great environments to live in. We don’t speak in terms of segregation but getting areas very suitable and beautiful to build a home. We have earlier said palm factories can spring in one year across the state. Same for cassava and the likes. Obuaku City project is germane and development of port/jetty in Ukwa area is vital to enhance productivity, drastically reduce unemployment and correspondingly improve people’s living standards. It is crucial to build up the oil producing community. Abia Oil Producing Areas Development Commission should be staffed with very capable but less rapacious officials and given full independence to operate. Security should be rejigged, police presence on streets, especially at night is low and then police presence ought not be about road blocks.
This space cannot take all, however, it is important we state that sound administration is key. We need high quality persons as members of the State Executive Council. Era of job for boys should be over. We suggest a Principal Secretary in the person of a well acclaimed retired bureaucrat be nominated to run Government House. This will mean doing away with the concept of Chief of Staff to the Governor. Secretary to State Government should be restored to his proper placing to run the secretariat and by extention be in position to monitor ministries and parastatals with authority to access the governor anytime. The COS has only succeeded in creating another centre of power that has served diversionary purposes. The governor must put his deputy to great use. The Deputy governor working with the SSG would produce immense results. We all owe our government responsibility to succeed. This is good politics.