“We will continue to celebrate the flag off sessions of rural road projects at every turn the Governor, Dr. Alex Otti show up as it is only us that can tell our sordid stories of the past to the rescue operations going on across Abia State today”
By Njoku SaintJerry A.
On the 26th of March, Labour party leader, Governor Alex Otti will be flagging off the 11.5 kilometers Nunya-Eluama- Isiukwuato road in addition to the recent 30 Kilometers Arochukwu-Ndi Okrereke-Ozu Abam road and the 67 kilometers, Umuahia – Uzuakoli – Abiriba – Obafia road.
These are community link roads to trade and commerce between the Urban regions and the communities that have been completely cut off and abandoned for close to 30 years shutting down age old trade of farm produce and transportation to the city and nearby eastern states.
All over Abia State today, evidence of a man committed to rebuild his homeland to a functional state abound, from sports and entertainment, to education, industry to agriculture and most importantly accessibility to sources of productivity to boost the economic cycle of a state once declared most backward, unproductive and dirty, just less than a year ago.
Abia’s meteoric rise to occupy front page news as a state to reckon with in its commitment to administrative competence and capacity to sustain south east leadership and industrial revolution is not an overnight success. One man made that feat a reality and certainly deserves all the accolades for standing up against mediocrity, sycophancy, laziness of individuals who have become political liabilities and using state powers to stifle development and impoverish the citizenry.
In the past, Abia state was reckoned with everything wrong with leadership in Nigeria, from negligence to duty to impunity of political office holders and wrong choices of state actors who perhaps knows very little about the basics of building a viable economy that is sustainable. Today, that is history as such characters of men and women have been summarily uprooted from the fabrics of governance of the state.
Labour Party leader, Gov. Alex Otti (OFR) made that possible for the emergence of the New Abia that has become the toast of every discussion both at social and business gatherings.
I came from a peaceful community of rice farmers; I remembered how truckloads of bags of rice will drive from my village Isiugwu Ohafia, to Ndi Oji-Ndi Okrereke-Ozu Abam connecting back to Umuahia. During peak harvest seasons, at least 5 trucks loaded with milled bags of rice departs Isiugwu daily until the late 80’s when routes leading to these farms and connecting to center of deliveries were gradually cut off due to bad roads and completely abandoned when it became obvious nobody would be bold enough to take such risks of plying dangerous routes with his hard earned proceeds from the farms, before we knew it, the trucks stopped coming, those roads were covered with bushes and trees as if they never, ever existed cutting off the communities and shamefully returning us to stone age era of primitivism.
Majority of the rural roads, Gov Otti has flagged off reconstruction projects today were in similar conditions taking Abia far behind in every economic indices of development, not in agriculture, not in trade and certainly not in human capital development index. Virtually everything was brought to its knees from the rural communities up to the urban centers.
This sheer negligence gave rise to adverse security situations and overall economic flight. Majority of my people left the farming communities until not a single truckload could be found in Isiugwu again and coming to the urban areas, many deserted Abia State to nearby Ebonyi and Anambra state.
To this effect, we will continue to celebrate the flag off sessions of rural road projects at every turn the Governor, Dr. Alex Otti show up as it is only us that can tell our sordid stories of the past to the rescue operations going on across Abia State today by the virtue of one man who chose to stand up against injustice, treachery and leadership rascality that was a common feature in the old Abia.
As it applies to our communities, that are being lit up with Solar Powered Streets lights, so it applies to our rural roads that have been abandoned for more than 25 years and are undergoing massive reconstruction. More so, as it affects our sports that was near comatose, so it applies to our stadia that became such an eyesore of infrastructure edifice that rarely was any sports activities of note embarked upon across the 17 LGA’s in the state.
This was the sordid situation across the state until the emergence of the man with the midas touch to political and administrative leadership to make everything become new and resurrect every dead bones in Abia State to live again.
This is why Abia will continue to celebrate and adore the labour Party leader, Gov. Alex Otti (OFR) for such feats that once appeared insurmountable until the entire citizens rose up and stood behind the man for the mission.
Welcome to the new Abia
