When Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji was elected in 2007, he was faced with a myriad of problems; ranging from poor infrastructure, social imbalance, godfatherism etc. In this interview with James Ume in Abia Government House, Umauahia, the Governor said he had liberated the state from godfatherism. Excerpts:
Abia State is 20 years old and you happen to be her governor at this point? Can you share? your experience?
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It has been a bitter-sweet-interesting experience. But I have learnt a lot from it. I say it is bitter in the sense that when I came into office, I had a lot of constraints arising from the issue of godfatherism.
That weighed a lot on the progress of the state. It had been present for a long time, but Abians have been fighting against it.? I inherited the burden and it weighed me down. That is the bitter aspect of my experience. But with the help of God and the people (I say the people, because a leader cannot do it alone), I was able to extricate myself from ‘godfatherism.? By doing that, I extricated Abians as a whole from the domination of one family.
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Many will not understand this unless you go into details…
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The narration of my travails will only take up space in the papers and cause some rioting in Abia State. I don’t want to put the people in jeopardy. I don’t want to endanger lives and property by going into details. Be it as it may, take it from me that ‘godfatherism’ is bad, condemnable and should not be practised, especially the type done here. I do not know if you understand what the term means.
How can one be governor and take the initiative when someone is behind, always calling the shots? Is that the type of governor you want to be; one who wants to appoint commissioners and before he decides what to do, a list arrives full of names of people you do not know their antecedents? How can you be a governor and somebody somewhere would convene a meeting of all local government chairmen without your consent/permission? That will give you a little insight into what we saw in the state.
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The Abia people rose up and said, “Enough is enough; Abia should be for Abians.” As an elected governor, you should be allowed to take decisions that are in the best interest of Abians, not in the interest of a family. Honestly, that was why Abians voted massively for me when they knew that I had done what they wanted. You know we had to move away from that evil past before the election. When Abians realised that the old order of one family controlling their resources and calling the shots were gone, they were elated.
They said, “This is what we have been waiting for. This is what Abia lacks and this man who has succeeded has earned our support. This is our fight.” That was how I won through what you in the press call ‘landslide victory,’ I got 614,000 votes and still counting. The next person got 49, 000. The people spoke out loud!That, briefly, is my experience, and as I am speaking to you, I am speaking the mind of Abians.
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Having so branded yourself as the liberator of his people, don’t you have a major burden in terms of service delivery and expectation?
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Of course, what you have said is correct. The burden is now on me because the expectations of the people are very high. They are saying, “This man who brought us out of bondage is the man who can lead us to the Promised Land.” I consider this a burden because we are now trying to lay the true foundation for the state.
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I met nothing in the treasury I inherited. All I inherited was a huge debt of almost N30 billion, which I am still paying. So, when you consider this, coupled with the fact that we had to start all over and deal with the absence or near-decay of infrastructure; and then the roads in Abia were terrible; you will appreciate our efforts. All I am trying to do is start again by repairing most of the roads. If there was a foundation laid for me, or if the roads in Aba were properly constructed with stone-base, the situation would have been better off.
All the roads are gone; none is in good state because none of them was built with good stone-base. None! So, how can they last? I am starting all over again and the burden is all on me. The people know no one besides the governor. So they say, “You have to construct this road, do this and that.” If the roads were in good state, all I would have done is maintain them, but as things stand, it is out of the question.
I have to construct more and maintain them. That is starting all over. The erosion and sanitation problems which have been left to claim so much land need to be attended to. Before this time, the Aba-Owerri road was always overtaken by refuse, yet there was a government. Go there now and see for yourself; we cart away refuse on a daily basis and these things are capital-intensive. In Aba alone, security, erosion, refuse are problems in need of attention. Umuahia, another urban area is there. We have not even started talking about the rural areas. If I had Aba, without Umuahia or the other way round, I would have focused on one. I would make sure I transform it to become a heaven, but that is not so. I have Aba with its size and problems, same applies to Umuahia.
If you attend to the Aba people, the Umuahia people will say you have forgotten them. If you attend to the Umuahia people, the Aba people bear you a grudge. I don’t hate any section of the state, I am only trying to distribute the scare resources I have equitably, to Aba, Umuahia and the rural areas, and touch everywhere.
How have you improved the internally generated revenue of the state?
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Look, what I met here was N125 million, but today, we are moving to N400 million, which is an improvement. People don’t pay taxes; they are reluctant to do that.? But they just have to pay. We have been trying to make them understand that they have to do that for the development of the state. Some are faithful to pay, others (the majority, do not care). Go to Aba; how many of them pay taxes. Aba is an industrial hub and its well-being should be a sort of agreement between the state and federal government.
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Is there any form of synergy between the state and federal government to provide for the development of Aba? as a commercial hub?
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You see, most of the industries you see in Aba are owned by people. This means they are small-scale. There are also large industries owned by corporations. The federal government has two of them there.
As far as I know, the federal government is helping us provide an enabling environment, by citing the NIPP project in Osisioma, and when it begins to function, that will be a big boost to the economy of the state.
The Ministry of Power has a power plant in Aba that should also help. In all, the federal government is trying to help Abia in its own way. They waded in during the security problems. We (I mean the state and federal government) have a common facility in Aba, where people come to practise their trade.? That is how much encouragement the FG is offering, but not in the form of establishing industries. But if they come and establish industries, fine. They should also come in and take care of the federal government roads in the state. That will make us very happy and reduce enormous pressure from the state government.
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Let’s talk about the disengagement of non-Abia indigenes in the state civil service; people have come out to criticise and condemn the policy of your government… ?
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(Cuts in)Those people who have come out to criticise the system may? not appreciate what they are seeing in Abia State.
Where were they when our people were disengaged in other? states. What did they say?
You mean Abia indigenes have been previously disengaged in the service by other states?
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Yes, of course! All these neighbouring states did it, including Akwa Ibom. It was only Rivers State that didn’t do it. Where were these people when our people were disengaged? They didn’t talk. Now we took on these people that were disengaged from these states and integrated them in our own civil service.
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Why do people always paint Abia in bad spot?
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Those criticising don’t see anything good coming from Abia. When there was insecurity in Abia, Abia was on the negative spotlight.
Now that security is under control, where are these people? They are not praising Abia for being on top of the security. Our people are responsible for this. When I came on board there were transferred aggression on me. They left the person who did the damage and put the blame on me. It was criticism on me because they wanted power by all means. They wanted me out of this place and their way was to embark on massive propaganda against myself and the government that nothing good came from Abia. They sponsored articles on papers full of propaganda – saying nonsense.? But things have changed now. But they have not gone to change the perception of the scene they have created on the sensibilities of the larger population.
When I was in another party (PPA) you will see sponsored articles being written by responsible Abians against me, that Abia was a failed state and nothing was happening. That was what they were saying. Those people that did that are now keeping quiet. What are they doing to erase that impression from the memories of people?
On the issue of insecurity,? yes there was a time it was bad, but we had to fight and bring it to the situation it is in today. I agree with what you have said, because when we had our insecurity challenge, other states around us were criticising us, even their governors were criticising me. Now such states have been hit with worse situations and nobody is talking.
?That is the problem we have in Abia – people see Abia from the negative perspective, while Abia is the best! What is lacking here? We have human resources, we have the material resources, and people don’t see that our children are the best in competitions, education wise. Like Enyimba Football Club, – nobody is talking about them.
The responsibility of service delivery and the welfare of the Abia people solely rest on you…
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(Cuts in) Yes I am responsible. I am in charge. I have done my beat by liberating Abia. It’s a big achievement, all the propagandists, where were they when the money was stolen? Weren’t they here? Hold me accountable for what happens now that I am governor.
Let’s go back to this disengagement of non-Abia indigenes in the service.
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You have asked that question and I said where were all these people when our people were disengaged and brought back to Abia? Now I have my people coming back from the North because of the problem we have in Maiduguri, Jos; should I leave them? I won’t. I have to provide for them. I am the governor of Abia State. Even the minimum wage of N18, 000, I never initiated it because I had done that when I was elected. I promoted all the civil servants in the state.? As far as I am concerned I have done my own and I am happy with my civil servants, and they are happy with me until this issue of N18, 000 came. Abians cannot sing a different song, since it’s an issue that concerns the welfare of every person. I agreed to pay it.
?On the issue of education, half of the teachers are not from this state, yet we do not lack teachers. In a public school, you enter a classroom and you see about five teachers against 30 students, when there should be one teacher taking 30 students. That goes to tell you that there are teachers taking salaries without working. Most of them in Aba are traders. We have to re-organise ourselves so that we can pay the N18,000 minimum wage. I said “how should I do that, should I start sacking them? No, it’s not the best.”
So I decided to transfer them to their states where their services are required. It’s not happening to non-indigenes alone, Abians are also affected.
We did the issue of permanent secretaries that were retrenched; they are Abians.
It is a way for the government to be able to pay their workers.
People should reason with us. Now, these people that are talking, what do they want us to do? Do they want us to have services that we can’t pay and they would be the same people that would come and criticise us that we cannot pay salaries? What is the suggestion they have? For those criticising, why don’t they say governor, give me 100? people let me employ. Why not offer a solution. This is a problem that is brought to the fore, and I have offered my solution. If it is not good, provide one that is better. We have agreed to give schools back to their owners.
Go and ask the teachers of such schools and they will tell you they like to remain in government schools. They want to remain with us because government is taking care of them.
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What about the issue of removal of subsidy as suggested by the Governors’ Forum?
Let us not go into that issue, I am a member of the Governor’s Forum, so whatever decision that comes from the Governors Forum I take it.
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What’s your take on the single term proposition by the president?
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Doesn’t the president have the right to express his opinion? The president is projecting ahead; the single term is cost effective.
The double tenure consumes money. Now, the single tenure allows you time, so as you know what to execute, knowing full well that after six or seven years you are off.? You would like to make more impact.
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The money spent on re-election can be used for development. That is the president’s opinion and I support it. Or is it because it is the president that proposed it that everybody is criticising it?
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What’s your take on the creation of additional state in the South-East?
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The South-East is well cheated in the number of states. We are asking to be given one first, let us be at pair before we start talking how to create more. We are not happy because in a country like Nigeria where things are done with population, others are having and we are deprived because of a systemic manipulation from other parts of the country. If there’s any region that deserves additional state, it is the South-East.