[dropcap]A[/dropcap]bia State has been lucky to have a leader who fits the description of a visionary properly defined. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu proved to be the meteor which appeared when least expected. For the period that he was governor, he shone brightly, lighting up the state with developmental strides that has made Abia a cynosure of states in the Nigerian nation-state.
On being sworn into office on 29 May 2015, Governor Ikpeazu left no one in doubt that he knew exactly what to do with the mandate the people overwhelmingly gave him. Thus, part of his inaugural speech informed the people that he was here to “steer the Abia Stateship to a destination where our indigenes burst forth from the shackles of tribalism, subservience, pettiness, blackmail, character assassination, inferiority complex, poverty, to a fulfilled, peaceful, virile and united Abia State.” Four years down the road, the Governor delivered on this promise.
Critics can easily advance the argument that Akwa Ibom State earns bigger allocations than Abia State. Agreed! But evidence has shown that it is not how much one receives that counts. What counts is how the money has been utilized. A reckless spender can squander N1billion naira in less than 24 hours, while a judicious and prudent manager can use the same amount to produce eye-popping accomplishments. While the Federal Government was hyping its transformation agenda, the Abia State Government under Ikpeazu was flaunting its tantalizing agenda. The so-called legacy projects were tantalizing projects, not life-transforming projects, which was what the people really needed. I do not subscribe to the school of thought which says leaders are born, not made. To me leaders are made by the circumstances that shape their development into adulthood. Power is the central element that shapes the lives of leaders. You can only know the real worth of a leader when you entrust him with power. Before he became Gov.Ikpeazu was deemed to be a humble, cool headed and resourceful person. At least that was what we were able to glean from his outward appearance.
The Holy Scripture states that when the ways of a man is pleasing to the LORD, he makes his enemies to be at peace with him. This assertion has been fulfilled for Okezie Ikpeazu PhD, Governor of Abia State and that is why many of Governor Ikpeazu’s former adversaries have turned his apostles.Is it surprising that those who led campaigns against him in 2014 and 2015 are today pleading with him to run for second term as Governor of God’s Own State?
The governor has indeed succeeded in demystifying the office of the governor and cut down on unnecessary expenses including his entourage and personal salary “all in an effort to boost the revenue base of the state and to also add value to the lives of the masses and develop infrastructure.”
Gov. Ikpeazu government has succeeded in introducing within the time of assuming office on May 29, a new initiative called Integrated Payroll Verification System (IPVS), which has successfully captured the biometric data of staff and all civil servants in the state taking governance away from the old fashion where there is bloated number of workforce and unprecedented numbers of ghost workers(War against Ghost Workers Syndrome).This has saved a lot of cost and wastage in governance and Abia people appreciated it.
Governor Ikpeazu administration has been a regime of work and projects in the midst of what should have been a huge distraction or a psychological setback for other people. What should have been a threat is rather a motivation and a source of inspiration for Governor Ikpeazu. He is being fired on by a seeming challenge. He is in full control of his environment, displaying doggedness and showing courage in the face of an obvious threat. He is inspiring everyone and this is the hallmark of a leader. After his inauguration as Governor of Abia State on May 29, 2015, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu resumed work the next day in the swampy streets of Aba. Residents of the Enyimba City which over years had lost its glory, as a result of deliberate neglect and abandonment by previous governments, were shocked when they saw the newly sworn-in Governor in rain boots walking in the moldy streets. Many doubting Thomases and political opponents made a mockery of him and alleged he was merely showing off and playing to the gallery.
Guided by passion and empathy, Governor Ikpeazu recalled how precious Aba is to the State and her residents. He immediately awarded contracts for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the roads in Aba. As soon as the contractors commenced work, residents of Aba began to jeer and questioned the wisdom of commencing road reconstruction works in the rainy reason.
Ikpeazu ignored negative comments and mockery of people who doubted his ability, sincerity and determination to rescue Aba from the mess which the former pride of the Nigerian business community had been debased to. He encouraged contractors not to be deterred but to endure the harsh environment and unfriendly behaviour of some Aba residents. All he requested of them was total reversal of the ugly and felonious narrative which Aba had been associated with since after the second republic when Chief Sam Onunaka Mbakwe,(now late) former Governor of old Imo State, paid good attention to Aba and reconstructed its major roads. It is on record that since 1984, no other administration either in the old Imo State or present Abia State, paid adequate attention to the wellbeing of Aba and her residents until 2015 when an Aba boy became the Governor of Abia State.
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu through his immense commitment towards the transformation of Aba, has completely changed the narrative of prolonged bad image of the Enyimba City. Majority of those who mocked and jeered at the commencement of the reconstruction works in Aba, have sang a new songs full of praises for Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, the only Governor after Chief Sam Mbakwe, that has rescued residents of the Enyimba City from destructive health challenges which they suffered for years due to huge refuge dumps and swampy/stinking impassable roads.
The Grassroots Publishers commended Gov. Ikpeazu on Umuagu- Umuda erosion control work where a lot of work has been done to control massive flood erosion that had threatened human existence within the area. Before the control work, many buildings including the residence of the former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala were at risk. In fact, some people whose buildings were badly affected before now had abandoned their homes and relocated to safe places. So, the State Government’s intervention was a welcome development which however did not come easily. Abia State Government had to pay a counterpart fund of N350 million to attract the World Bank’s intervention through a reputable company, Heartland, that is currently handling the project.One of the areas where the Governor Okezie- led Government has made major achievement is in the area of road construction.
At the last count, not less than 80 road projects have been awarded in parts of the State. Many have been completed and commissioned while steady progress is being made in many others. Aba the commercial nerve centre of the State is certainly the better. Roads which were hitherto abandoned have received proper attention. Worthy of mention in this regard include Faulks Road being handled by SETRACO, work has also commenced on the strategic Port Harcourt Road not to mention the Ukaegbu, Ehere, umuola and many others.
Aba Road, Umuahia, Nbawsi Road, Umunkpeyi-Amaiyi Road, Umuaro-Umuanunu-Ekwereazu –Akwa Ibom Road, Umuobiakwa-Owo-Onicha Ngwa Road, Osusu Amaukwa model school, Ukaegbu road, Ehere road, Umuola and Ururuka road projects.Osusu road, junction of Faulks road, Ugwunagbo Road, Ifeobara flood control.
Among over 40 ongoing projects include Construction of Ozuabam-Ndi Okereke-Arochukwu Road, Arochukwu, construction of Ebem Layout Road, construction of first ever flyover bridge at Osisioma,etc. Apart from the road projects, another project which is very important to the State, is the Nsulu Poultry cluster. When completed, it is expected that it will create job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths in the State. The idea behind the project is to provide a central facility where all those interested in poultry business will come and live.
Government will be responsible for the facilities and at the end of the day the proceeds from the business will be shared between the investors and the State.
Gov. Ikpeazu’s work is already speaking for him in 2019. Grassroots Publishers are happy with what he has been able to achieve since he assumed office.‘Our surprise is that Abia is one of the states that receive the least revenue but the number of projects we have seen in Abia is overwhelming which means that the Governor is working and he has performed very well.’He is a silent achiever. He has achieved so much for his people and delivered the desired goals and projects”, Dr Ikpeazu has surprised all with the level of work done at all nooks and crannies of the State. We commend him for achieving a lot and working silently despite distractions. We are impressed with the quality of the projects, asserting that the Governor is holistic in his governance. “Governance is not about making noise but leaving legacies”, we congratulated Dr Ikpeazu for doing a good job for Abians.
Evaluating the achievements of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration recorded since his assumption of office, one striking thing downed on me – Governor Ikpeazu has a larger part of his achievements made on ‘intangibles’.
One may ask, what are these intangibles? Intangibles are assets that don’t have a physical presence but are critical in ensuring and maintaining human capital development at all cadre, helps in building a competitive edge in economy growth of a State or nation.
We have seen massive ongoing road construction, we have seen immense efforts been invested in promotion and marketing of our indigenous products. We are also witnessing gradual but sure redress on the issue of salary payment, Osisioma interchange and other bridges are on speedy lane of construction. But all these put together does not equate Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s ‘intangible’ achievements, which points to the glaring fact that he is, indeed, ‘the servant leader’.
Robert K. Greenleaf, describes ‘The Servant Leader’ “as an ideal leadership form to which untold numbers of people and organizations aspire. According to him, servant-leadership seeks to involve others in decision making, is strongly based in ethical and caring behavior, and it enhances the personal growth of workers while improving the caring and quality of organizational life. The servant leader asks the questions: “do those served grow as persons: do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the less privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived?”
The GEEP loan programme of the present administration which in collaboration with the Bank of Industry gave out seed funds to about 30,000 Abians has put the Governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu on the drivers’ seat of a servant leader as defined above. That is one of the intangibles of the Okezie Ikpeazu administration. There are others of such intangibles which positively impact on the lives of the people of the State. The general outcome will be reduction in criminal activities among youths, youth restiveness and empowerment of the youths.
It should be recalled that previously in the state, youths of different ilk were empowered with the distribution of barrows, motorcycles and other empowerment which were designed to reduce unemployment in the State among other societal ills. As much as those were commendable, they didn’t address the intellectual dimension of such empowerment programmes which will adequately cater for unemployed graduates. Turning graduates to commercial drivers will undermine the potentials of some of these graduates who spent many years in the university to cater for the intellectual needs of the society.
Accordingly, on assumption of office, the State Governor decided to cater for the needs of these category of Abians hence the policy initiatives which will cater Abians across the broad spectrum of the State. That is what all these programmes and policy initiatives where designed to take care of. Some of these policies are stated hereunder:
– Inspected 90 Cooperative Societies business activities and operations in line with the cooperative law.
– Trained 3000 cooperative societies in the three Senatorial zones in collaboration with the CBN and stakeholders on Cooperative governance and credit opportunities. The training for the three senatorial zones was carried out on 5th of October 2016, 11th of October 2016 and 18th of October, 2016.
– Arbitration of cases of 5 cooperative societies to logical conclusions.
– Collaborated with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to train 2000 Cooperators in cocoa farming on the 17th of March, 2017 at Eastern Comfort Hotel, Umuahia.
– 20 women drawn from the 3 Senatorial Zones were trained in Enugu under Women in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
– On-going Reactivation of Women Development Centre (WDCs) in three LGAs, each in the three senatorial zones of the State in collaboration with National Centre for Women Development, Abuja.
The affiliation with the Australian NGO, Precious Kids Education Empowerment (PKEE), which has given birth to the training of 800 teachers on class room management, teacher student relationship, first aid management, security alert, professionalism in teaching and leadership management from May 2016 till date. It is another pointer to the truth that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has always shown burning interest and passion for human capacity building. No one can dispute the fact this initiative has brought tremendous positive result in Abia educational sector. By this single partnership, Abia State Government and PKEE took practical steps to not only train the teachers in the primary sector but also make some infrastructural rehabilitation.
Furthermore, in the area of education and in line with the Abia State blue print and vision of the State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu bearing in mind the SDG 4 –Education 2030 Agenda which is to “Ensure inclusive and equitable Education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all”; the Ministry of Education within the past two years, set SDG Agenda as her goal and policy thrust and has successfully built a Functional, Focused, Responsive and Inclusive education System that promote life-long learning opportunities for all. Consequently, the Ministry implemented the entrepreneurship and trade subjects curriculum in both Public and private Schools compulsorily as well as identified and trained technical and vocational subjects instructors in the State. The Ministry also trained and retrained technical and vocational teachers in the State school system and adopted a comprehensive Educational Policy for all schools – inclusive learning opportunities for both male and female students to acquire technical and vocational skills in school even as it converted some secondary schools to technical and vocational colleges as to meet the set target. These are the intangibles of this administration.
The E4E is another plank through which unemployment is attacked in the State. The graduands are educated but in the same breadth trained to be professionals and entrepreneurs. This singular policy has at the heart of its implementation the elimination of unemployment among the youths as well as make them capable employers. In pursuance of this objective, about 36,000 unemployed youths were identified in the State. This programme is packaged to give skills to the youths.
Already the first set of trainees are at the E-library undergoing training.In furtherance of the intangibles of the Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu administration, the Office of Wife of Governor trained over
500 youths across the State under its Skill Acquisition Programme. The said programme has gone to Obingwa, Ukwa Axis, and it is currently ongoing in Bende LGA. After the trainings, startup kits and seed funds are issued out to the
trainees by the Wife of Governor.
The Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology ensured that the State Government entered into a 1 billion Naira funding arrangement for MSMEs. Consequently the Bank of Industry has within a short time granted various supports and funding to MSMEs in the State to generate the immediate reflation of the State economy through the real sector.
Accordingly, the State Government artisans from the State have demonstrated the capacity to produce better quality
conference bags in Aba over the ones they import from China which has led to placement of orders by the ICPC for 2000 bags after samples were verified. Presently, they are the sole producers of all ICPC conference Bags for their events in all 36 States even as all the orders are shared amongst registered artisans with the ministry.
Additionally, the Abia Business community currently leverage on the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) to position the State’s products for export to America. About 20 SMEs were mobilized to exhibit Made-in-Abia products in New York recently. Proceeds from these exhibitions do not get into the State Government coffers but Government is mindful of the impact it will have on the State if the youths are employed, engaged in profitable ventures which will dovetail to growth in the real sector of the economy through human capacity building.
Other capacity building initiatives of the State Government which are intangibles of the present administration in the
State are the establishment of the South East Entrepreneurship Development Centre (SEEDC) in Umuahia for the training of new and existing entrepreneurs from the five (5) South Eastern States of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo.
Presently, the Centre has graduated five (5) batches of average of 500 in each batches of its participant- Entrepreneurs and the sum of N100m released to the technical advisory committee for start-up funds for the graduates of the South East Entrepreneurship Development Centre (SEEDC). Process of disbursement is on-going and in some cases completed.
The State hosted the maiden edition of the Nation Wide Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Clinic in Aba, Abia State, a programme coordinated by the office of the Vice President of Nigeria to offer MSMEs the opportunity to interact with stakeholders and development partners on issues confronting them and to showcase the products and ingenuity of Abia Entrepreneurs to the purview of the public. The impact has increased patronage of their products and services. The successful outcome of all these is that the participating banks have opened a wide window of opportunities to finance Abia Entrepreneurs. Currently about 1500 entrepreneurs have accessed this fund. These are the intangibles which people don’t see on the streets yet they impact heavily on the wellbeing of the people as they affect individual families with favourable outcome. Government also ensured the resuscitation of the N30m fund for Small Scale Industries (FUSSI) Micro Credit Revolving Loan to make it operational so as to meet the expansion and working capital needs of the existing MSMEs in Abia State. These constitute part of the intangibles.
Governor Ikpeazu has, in just three years and above, earned himself a ticket for a second term. Grassroots Newspaper Publishers Network of Nigeria has announced Governor Ikpeazu as their nominee for “Grassroots Governor of the year 2018”.
Politics aside, Ikpeazu, in less than four years, has surpassed previous records.He has unarguably changed the Abia
narrative.One good term,as they say,deserves another! Let’s support the Governor at work!
By: Grassroots Publishers