May we meet you sir? My name is Chief Chikwe Udensi like you know am 6ft 4. Am a black man. Am from Arochukwu in Arochukwu LGA of Abia State. I hold a Higher National Diploma and a Masters degree in International Marketing. I worked initially with Sun Gold International where I rose to the post of Managing Director. Am currently the Secretary General of ALGON administering 774 Local governments. In 2015, Nigeria will hold another election and you are aspiring to become the number one citizen of Abia State, on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, what is expected of you sir? If you ask me, honestly, I’m not preparing for elections, I’m preparing for swearing in ceremony because who am I going to contest with? Whosoever PDP brings out is going to fail, because the PDP government in Abia State have performed abysmally poor. We understand that the governor have tried his best. We are not saying that he has not, but we are saying that his best is not good enough for Abians. So, I will be contesting for the governorship of Abia, I have enough hard wares to play the hard game, I have my blue print in every area that will improve Abia and I will improve on what we have on ground. Like I keep saying most times when people ask me, am not going to look back on who has done what, I will simply hit the ground running to develop Abia. Abia has enough resources for development, Abia makes more money than Enugu State, and we make more that Ebonyi, Anambra and Imo states. By virtue of my office as the Secretary General of ALGON, I sit on FAC as an observer. So, what comes to every state. If you compare what goes to the state with the developmental activities in the state, what we have in Abia is painful. Abia has less than N3 billion naira wage bill in a month, and makes more than 5billion naira in a month from allocation, that does not include allocations to the local governments which does not get there. The intervention fund is not included. It does not include excess crude fund and money that comes from other donor agencies from international bodies or even ecological funds. So, if you see what comes to Abia, you will find out that it is a misnormal vis a vis the developmental activities. Since 1999, what has been the position of APGA in Abia State, since your office was opened only a few days ago? What we have in Abia is a mass movement, anything but PDP, but is not going to be anything because we have something better now. We have those who have what it takes to make Abia better. Election is not essentially offices, acceptability is not essentially offices, we ought to have done it earlier and we did it earlier, that was two years ago but we officially opened it now. The office has been there since two years ago and we have been operating and also strategizing, synergizing and just few days ago we opened the office for official touch. What is your take on rotation of power in Abia state? Two things, one, I’m not from PDP, but from APGA, APGA first zoned its governorship candidate to the North, and that was Onwuka Kalu and the second zoning was to the central and that was Uzodinma Okpara (Omekannaya), the 3rd one was to Ukwa-Ngwa and that was Regan Ufomba. Now we are zoning back to the north that is the APGA zoning strategy. However, if you recalled that we have had four elections, the one we are going to have in 2015 is the fifth election. The first, second and third even fourth elections were contested for by all the zones. The Ukwa-Ngwa you talked about now had more candidates then. Whose turn was it at the Ffirst time when everybody contested, the second time, the third time and the fourth time? You cannot midway to the match and change the goal post. Everybody will contest this time; moreover, Abia north has not had their turn. Central has taken, south has taken, Abia north have not taken. Go and check those who ruled before, and trace back their origin. We will find out that they have taken their own turn, so is now our own turn to govern the state and that is what I will take. With reference to Abia revenue allocation that you mentioned, how will you rate the present government? Is high time Abians rise and ask Governor T. A. Orji what he has been doing with their funds. For 48 months, Abia have consistently made over N5 billon each month till date, all these are allocations to the state. As I told you, it does not include the local government allocation which is over N4 billion per month, it does not include SURE P money, it does not include intervention fund, excess crude, ecological funds, even money from donor agencies. It does not also include the internally generated revenue in the state, still with less than 3 billion naira wage bill could not even pay salaries. There is a problem somewhere which only government can answer. The governor makes 5 billion naira basic excluding all these other funds that I mentioned and he cannot pay salaries. I have hosted the National Civil Service Union Abia state chapter, and they said that they are been owed 5 months arrears. And if you take a good look around Abia State, there is nowhere construction is going on. Let me give you information, my local government Arochukwu has made over 2 billion for the past 12 months by way of allocation. Come and show me where even covet is been constructed in my local government Arochukwu. Let alone changing the roofs of our primary and secondary schools, where does these billions go to? You can go and ask him, but we are not calling names, we are not picking on anybody, we are saying look at the allocation, where does the money go to? the allocation are being published every month in the papers don’t you see the papers?, where does this money go to and the elites in Abia state are not talking, they have compromised and we told they collect a lot of money every month, we told some get 1.5 million naira, some 1 million and some others 500 thousand naira every month, the money meant for the development of Abia are sent for shorting up the mouth of Abia elites and nobody ask questions that is one of the problems we have in Abia State. Sir, what is your take on the failed roads in the state? Well you have seen what we have, go around all the local governments in the state no construction work is going on, the existing roads are dilapidated, go to Aba, do you know ukwu mango, is it passable? Go to around Aba, the commercial hub centre of Igboman not Abia, we have allowed it goes down the drains, it is quit unfortunate. Those who are ruling us have no shame and the worst person to deal with is the man that has no shame. He should be able to explain what the situation is in Abia, no roads, you came through our road, you saw its state. If he claims that they are federal roads, are there federal governments living here? Let him build it like other state governors are doing and get back his re-embossment. Where will your main focus be if elected governor in 2015? Aba Why Aba? Aba is the commercial nerve centre, Aba is the revenue base of the state. Aba north and south have more than half a million voters, every community is represented in Aba, we will start there. I will move the seat of government to Aba for the 1st two years. And I will not use all these lazy, lousy and criminally minded Construction Company. I already have MOU with straubag to come back to Nigeria, I have an understanding with Julius Berger and also with Setraco. Am going to use qualified contractors to do the job. They will not for one day come to state ministry of finance to ask for their money, there will be a standing instruction from revenue account straight to their own account. The idea of begging commissioner for finance and all that will no be in Abia, and I will not commence projects I don’t have fund to accomplish. Commissioning of a pedestal bridge and bore hole with painting of a class room block will be a past things. What do you have for education sector if you become governor? School fees collected by the state government from pupils and students in the state mounts to about 450million per term, a term we all know is almost four months 450 million naira is a fraction of what the governor take home as his security vote. Under my watch as a governor of Abia state, education will be free. And it will be qualitative education, we shall not just make it free those who have the flair, capability and capacity to study in areas like sciences and some parts of social sciences will also receive bursary apart from having free education, education is what brings the children of the poor and rich in the same platform, education is the pivot of which all the developmental activities revolves, the great poet said that knowledge from education is like an egg of a praying mountains whosoever takes it takes the weight, and whosoever rejects it rejects the weight. We should consider education very primary, knowledge from education once acquired never wasted. One day somewhere somehow it will still be used in solving numerous problems in our persistence efforts in building a befitting society. Education is important and it has been neglected by this government. They have to be training programme for the teachers, the man who trains people deserve to be trained too. We have a problem with our educational sector in Abia state, it is moribund. What is your take on bad governance ? Is it from the party or from individuals whom the party chooses as their flag-bearer? Actually, I don’t believe in the issue of party, I believe on individuals who is there. After all, Enugu State is PDP, they are doing very well. If you put the right peg into the right hole, things will work. You don’t give a hungry man food for everybody to keep. “Onye ukpa adighi eji ihe oha”. If you a hungry man the food for somebody in the hospital, he will tell you the story of how he was knocked down by a car and eat the food. That is the problem we have in Abia. There are rumours that you came from nowhere to hijack APGA structure in Abia. How do you react to this? In 2000, Chekwas Okorie, Victor Ume, Dr. Menakaya, Chief Onwuka Ukwa, Anaegbuachara, and a host of others came to me and inform me they want to form a party for the Igboman. Let me not sound modest by telling how much I gave to the party but that was seed money with which they started the party. Over the years I have continue to sponsor and support APGA, go and ask the leadership of APGA they will tell you. The offices of APGA in Abia state are being sponsored by me, they only vehicles they have are purchased by me. So I don’t understand what you mean by high jacking.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 23:09:41 +0000