Your critics say you are neglecting Aba and concentrating on Umuahia, the state capital. Is it true? That is what our critics will say and they will always find something to say to bring you down. The criticism is not correct; it’s false. You know, Abia state has two important towns, Umuahia is the state capital and Aba is the commercial capital. There are some projects that you must site at Umuahia, like the government House, state secretariat, etc. Aba also will need projects that will be peculiar or beneficial to the town. The most important thing in Aba are the roads, power, environment, etc and we are not neglecting any of them. When there was kidnapping, it was in Aba that it was more severe than in any other place and then we concentrated our efforts in Aba and we fought kidnapping to a standstill. We gave Aba a conducive environment and people are no longer running away from the town. We have more resources that have gone to Aba, given the nature of the town, but what many fail to understand is that the money we put in Aba does not show out; it is difficult to notice like the one spent on Umuahia. The problems of Aba are many and we are dealing with them in the best possible way. Little money you spend in Umuahia is noticed. In Aba, for instance, there was a road we did for 1.8 billion but if I use such amount in Umuahia I will construct many more roads that will stand out because of the topography of the area. You will be surprised at the road of one hundred million naira you construct in Umuahia when you compare it to the road of even 500 hundred million you put up in Aba. Look, this Umuahia must look like a state capital in all ramifications. Most visitors that come to the state the first point of call is mostly Umuahia, they may come and go without going to Aba, so the impression they carry away will permanently be in their minds. So you have to make Umuahia look like a state capital. You see, the truth is that we have invested more money in Aba than in Umuahia or in any other town in the state, in terms of power, in terms of construction of roads, in terms of opening up the drains, erosion control, in terms of refuse disposal. Aba generates over 5000 cubic metres of refuse on a daily basis and you may not know how much it costs us to cart away the refuse. No other town, even Umuahia, the state capital, generates such waste. If you leave the refuse just one day and you don’t refuse it, there may be an epidemic there. It’s not easy to do some of these things but we are not relenting in our efforts. Our critics are saying that we have neglected Aba just because of roads, of course you cannot do all the roads in Aba the same time. It’s one after the other but we are not relenting. Is roads everything? If you have the best roads but with insecurity will you still walk on such roads without fear? I have provided a conducive environment for people in the state to do their businesses and we are not resting on our oars. Some of them that were here what did they do to address the security problem in Aba? There were times banks were not opening in Aba but such things have become history now because we pressed the right buttons. Before now many people in Aba were hiding their expensive vehicles for fear of being kidnapped or fear of armed robbers but is that still the case now? If those that claim they did a lot of roads in Aba are telling the truth, then why should the people complain just after few years, where are the roads they claim they constructed? Abians know their propaganda antics and are not taking them serious. I am a man that came and restored security which is very important, I came and restored the health sector to keep them healthy. Security is first and foremost thing which I have provided and I have improved the health services tremendously so that they will be alive and healthy to do their business. It is sad that some distractors are somewhere leaving the main issue and merely talking of roads forgetting that roads without other sectors in place will still amount to nothing. You have to be alive to walk on the road, you have to be alive to carry out your work or business. We are not neglecting any sector and until I leave office, I will not neglect any sector. You have to be alive to the roads because construction of roads is something that is continuous. You construct, it gets bad tomorrow and you maintain it. It is something that every governor who comes here will do but in the case of insecurity, it does not come every time and when it comes you tackle it head-on and still put surveillance on ground. I know how much we spent when there was insecurity here but now it is history and I am happy with what we were able to do.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 07:40:50 +0000
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