How time flies! One year is gone, just like yesterday! It is a time of stock-taking and Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State is stepping out to the village square, his scorecard in his hands, to show himself approved a workman that needs not be ashamed.
He has, with every zeal and energy, taken the tide at the flood and it is today clear where the Abia journey is headed. If you take the tide at the flood, as Shakespeare reasoned over 500 years ago, the journey “leads to fortune”. But, omitted, “all the voyage is bound in shallows and in miseries”.
Indeed, Ikpeazu has taken the tide at the flood! In just one year, he has laid solid foundations for a new political culture in Abia State. He has given political power a new meaning as a call to service. This new value re-orientation is permeating every facet of public service in Abia State today.
The personality of the leader in power is robbing off on the way and manner government business is conducted and the result is that, in just one year, Governor Ikpeazu is brandishing a scorecard of excellent performance.
He is flaunting sixty-five road construction works, out of which twenty-seven have been dully commissioned. This is in addition to having executed a massive desilting of drainages, gutters and storm water ways in Aba.
He raised the bar in quality and innovation in road construction by introducing rigid pavement technology also known as cement technology into the lexicon of road construction in Abia. Though the cost of this technology is higher than the conventional construction methods, the Governor decided to experiment on it as a measure to strengthen the load bearing capacity of some roads in Abia and boost the strength and quality of the finished work. This is because roads constructed with this technology has a sustainability guarantee of ten to twenty years.
The city of Aba has also been a major focus of the Ikpeazu administration in the last one year. This has involved a total repositioning that encompassed both infrastructural renewal, trade and investment, rebranding and capacity building.
To achieve this, he created the Aba Urban Renewal Authority and the body has been the anchor unit for the drive towards the infrastructural renewal of the city. The body has worked to restore order and sanity in building of shops, kiosk, office and residential buildings. The body also drove the new programme towards the park reform and general rehabilitation work of Aba.
This broad approach in dealing with the issues of Aba has given birth to many tactical actions directed towards developing the latent ingenuity and creativity for which Aba is celebrated. It has led to a renewed attention to the artisans of Aba and a review of the future of the fabled Aba Made Goods. It has led to a general sanitation of the city including the open markets, leading to war against street trading and illegal structures.
The Ikpeazu administration has also paid attention to the agric sector. Early in the administration, the government entered into partnership with the Songhai Farms in Porto-Novo, Republic of Benin, for the training of 40 youths annually on a train-the-trainer initiative in the entire agricultural value-chain.
The state later launched The Return to Farming and Women in Fish Farming Initiative, which is aimed at empowering the youths and women by setting up farming cooperatives which will help drive key government policy as regards agriculture. The government through the initiative would make land, finance and training accessible for farmers. The government followed this up by sourcing N1 billion Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan for agricultural revolution. The entire vision is to explore the agric-economy as a support base for the state economy.
There has been a concerted effort towards revitalization of moribund industries. This effort has taken the centre stage in the activities of the governor. He started by embarking on an inspection tour of Golden Guinnea Breweries Industry in Umuahia to extract a commitment and an assurance from the investor that the company will come upstream this month of May. Government and the investors are collaborating to achieve this time goal.
The governor later repeated the same performance at the International Glass Industries, Aba when he personally visited the site for on the spot assessment of the progress of work by the new managers who are working to revamp the moribund industry.
Today, the Aba industry has about 400 staff in their employ and has commenced partial manufacturing of bottles for pharmaceutical companies.
In the last one year, the government has also paid attention to rural infrastructural development. One of the strategies adopted in this regard is the establishment of the Abia State Rural Infrastructure Development Initiative (ASTRIDE).
This initiative is aimed at providing at least one project in each of the 184 INEC Wards in the 17 local councils and the idea is close the gap of infrastructural development in the rural areas. Many rural roads are being opened up for easy access to the city.
The Governor has initiated efforts to link Aba to the sea through the development of the Obuaku City Port. This will give a great boost to Aba as the commercial hub of the South East.
With the establishment of the Abia State Markets Development Committee, the Governor has conducted a successful review of the status of the markets. Through the Integrated Payroll Verification System (IPVS), he conducted several staff auditing exercise to ascertain the actual strength of the workforce.
The state has also recorded huge success in the area of government public finance restructuring. Through this effort, it has harmonized taxes and levies, waged war against double taxation, eradicated touts and illegal agents in the revenue drive and blocked all leakages and drain pipes through which government finances were being siphoned.
What strategy has he adopted to ensure security in Abia in the last one year? Sorry. I may not tell you about strategy when it comes to security. But, I can boldly inform you that Ikpeazu has contained the excesses of the underworld men of every category to the extent that Abia has become too hot for the deviant society.
Indeed, the workman is ready to give account of himself.
Adindu is the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor.
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