Abia in a new dispensation, Olehi

Culled from EKWE OHA BLOG



Since his inauguration as
Abia's fourth Executive
Governor about 65 days ago,
Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu has
chosen to carry on with
governance in uncommon ways.

And the dividends of
this creative leadership
approach are many.

One of the early
pronouncements of the
governor was the directive to
discontinue with the
appellation of "His Excellency"
as his official title.

He also went on to discourage all
forms of praise-singing,
sycophancy and frivolous
courtesy visits.

With this
distinctive departure from the
past, Dr Ikpeazu has come to the level of ordinary Abians,
adorning the toga of "a
common governor doing
things in uncommon ways.

" He has also been spared the
needless distraction of army
of visitors who have very
little to do with
developmental governance.


Not a few have equally hailed Dr Ikpeazu's prudent
management of lean financial
resources of the state.

Modest
and frugal to the bones, the
governor has drastically
pruned the usually high cost of governance.

And no longer
business as usual, Dr Ikpeazu
travels with a few aides.

He has also cut his salary by
half, while pledging to pay
workers before the end of
every month after the holistic
staff audit that would flush
out ghost workers and enhance an innovative
revenue generation and
collection regime.


Dr Ikpeazu
is also repositioning Abia as
prime investment destination
with focus on Aba, the state commercial capital.

Tackling the city's
infrastructural deficit through
an urban renewal initiative,
the governor is desirous of
improving the state's
Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). Dr Ikpeazu targets N1.5
billion IGR per month.

To this
end, he established three key
government agencies: the Aba
Urban Renewal Bureau, the
PPP and the Abia Investment Promotions as well as the
Economic Advancement Team
(EAT) personally headed by
the governor.

These agencies
have since gone to work to
realize their mandate in the overall socio-economic
interest of Abians.

Also to be
noted are the massive reforms
silently going on in Abia in the
last 65 days.

Starting with the earth-
shaking biometric staff audit
which has saved the state
some N160 million, the
planned automated and
harmonized revenue collection policy would also ensure
accountability.

The governor
has again sustained the
momentum in the area of
road construction and allied
infrastructural development.

To say the truth, Abians
knew better days are here
when Dr Ikpeazu flagged off
repair of some seven roads in
Aba and some other parts of
the state on his first day in office.

He has even added
more, all from projects earlier
approved by the last State
Executive Council.

And with some of them
nearing completion, more
interventions have also been
initiated as quick fixes as the
rains and largely ill-maintained
roads mess up Abia.

Still on the environment,
serious work has equally been
going on especially in Aba and
Umuahia where the drainage
systems are being cleaned up.


The Abia State Environmental Protection Agency has since
evacuated refuses in urban
areas.

In fact, all necessary
equipment for the continuous
clean-up of the state is now
on ground, courtesy of the current administration.

In the area of peace and
security, the government has
been exemplary. Peaceful and pragmatic in
nature, Governor Ikpeazu has
a near-perfect working
relationship with heads and
members of law enforcement
agencies, traditional rulers and other stakeholder.

The benefit
of this synergy is a largely
peaceful state.

Security experts have equally
commended the governor's
handling of two major
security challenges in that last
few days.

First was the
breach of peace in Powerline, Ariaria Market, Aba after men
of the NDLEA allegedly killed
two traders, while hunting
for drug users.

The overnor
has since contained the
situation even as investigations into the extra-
judicial killings have
commenced.

He also advised
the NDLEA to hence carry out
their duties with restraint and
caution.

Another ugly incident which
the governor handled with
unequalled sense of
responsibility was the razing
of the INEC office in Mgboko,
Obingwa Local Government Area.

Governor Ikpeazu, who
inspected the scene of the fire
which occurred on Sunday,
August 2, expressed shock at
the level of damage done to
the building and charged the police and other law-
enforcement agencies to
ensure that the culprits are
brought to book.

According to the Chief Press
Secretary, Mr Godwin Adindu,
the governor also called on
the police and the army to
beef up security in all INEC
formations in the state to forestall such incidents.

He lamented over the
tendency of some disgruntled elements in society to
vandalise public property,
saying that it is a big
drawback to the effort of
government in providing
dividends of democracy.

While reiterating the
determination of his
government to maintain law
and order and protect life and
property of the Abia
citizenry, Ikpeazu used the occasion to warn perpetrators
of such acts to turn a new leaf
as the current administration
will not tolerate such deviant
acts.

Governor Ikpeazu has also
tasked, empowered and
mobilized security agencies to
track down kidnappers and
chase out armed robbers from
God's own state.

And this has radically reduced violent
crimes in Abia. Generally
speaking, Dr Ikpeazu is
navigating the ship of state
with a great sense of focus,
passion and transparency.

He's also mindful of the fact
that Abia is expected to
emerge the most
commercially viable state in
the next few years.

"It has been 65 days of serious
and creative governance.

In
fact, Dr Ikpeazu's first 100
days in office would amaze
the world.

Abians should gear
up for better days, having elected a visionary leader who
is determined to change the
narrative of the state", a
public policy analyst
predicted.


Uche Olehi is Senior Special
Assistant on Media to Abia
State Governor.