The rave in Abia State at the moment is whether the next governor ought to come from Abia South senatorial zone as a whole, or the Ukwa/Ngwa ethnic nationalities in particular. Depending on what side of the divide they fall into, would-be-contenders for the coveted seat all agree that it is the turn of Abians from the Southern Senatorial Zone to produce the governor, if equity is to be upheld in God’s own State.
Personally, I agree with this thinking, even if I have to add a caveat: only the most qualified person, cerebrally, intellectually and emotionally, should be presented by contending political parties for the governorship. Abia State has suffered too much neglect, maladministration and underdevelopment as a government policy to be handed down to another ‘yes man’ for whom the state coffers will become another perpetual avenue for primitive accumulation and self-aggrandizement. Indeed, Abia State has suffered too much.
And no place has suffered as much as Aba.
A hitherto hub of industrialization and pride of the South-East geopolitical zone, an emerging ‘China’ of the East, Aba is a shell of it’s former self. An evil, twin combination of insecurity and deliberate governmental neglect has turned this one-time pride of Abia State into a slum fit for degenerates and the base. Aba is a city in need of help, and, if help will come, there seems to be no better time than now, when it is poised to, along with the rest of Abia South, produce a governor for Abia State.
S/he who will be governor must understand that if Aba is brought back to it’s feet, Abia will be better for it. Through a deliberate and ambitious policy of re-industrialization, all those roads that lead to Ariaria international market must be tarred, dualized and lit up; all the factories that now lie dead must come alive, humming a new song of industrial machines spinning a new story of a state on the march to greatness; all the ‘made-in-Aba’ goods must become Nigerian envoys to other nations, telling tales of our ingenuity; and, above all, when we call Abia ‘God’s own State’, it must not be mere rhetoric, but a fact, a shining example of what a nation can achieve if only it will use its God-given talents for the development of its people. And the youth must drive this development. The next governor must harness the restless, creative power of our young people, and channel it into enterprises that will see Abia take its pride of place in the committee of Nigerian states.
In conclusion, let me state here again that although Aba, at present, is a sorry sight, I believe that once we get that dear city of ours right, we will get Abia working again.
So, dear contestant for the Abia State gubernatorial seat, what is your plan for Aba?
Believe in Abia. Do you?
