Refuse and associated rubbish dominate the news in Abia state currently. There is fire on the mountain of refuse that defined the state over the last five years. What does it entail and to where will it take Ndi Abia?
Here is a sample news item from the AbiaFacts platform on WhatsApp. “The T.C Chairman, Isuikwuato local government, Hon. Chima Agbaeze constituted an emergency refuse evacuation team. The team leader, who is the Transition Chairman and Secretary, Eric Ikwuagwu, also has Enyioma Ekebuike, the HOD works and environment as members. The team will locate a suitable dump site, find ways of disposing the refuse heaps and device ways to prevent indiscriminate dumping of refuse. The team will within one week clear all the refuse heaps around Isuikwuato LGA.
“Let’s get Isuikwuato local government working again. #IkpeazuSabiTheWork”.
Many denizens of Abia state readily use choice words such as “putrefaction” to describe governance in the state. They refer of course to the stench of Aba, which has now extended to the state capital, Umuahia. It became so disgusting that various citizen groups began moves for an open agitation against the governor.
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Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia state governor suddenly woke up to declare an emergency on refuse management in the state. It is fitting that the governor’s first active role after almost five years is to fire the boss of the State Environmental Agency – ASEPA and then revert to his role as GM ASEPA, after Aba and Umuahia were swimming in filth. Craters are now visible on government house road, Umuahia. Umuahia had one of the best drainage systems as bequeathed by the late visionary Sam Mbakwe. Umuahia now weeps with the flooded roads when it rains.
The source and focus of outrage in Abia State is the state of Aba. Aba is significant to the entire Igboland. Aba is a critical mirror yet a compass to Igboland. It matters to all Ndi Igbo what happens in Aba.
The concerns with scatology should be familiar terrain to the governor. His people, Ndi Ngwa are adept at deploying scatology. They say that “the flavour of fart foretells the taste of excreta” and similar aphorisms.
At his election in 2015, my prognosis was that Aba would define and determine the legacy of Okezie Ikpeazu. Nwa Aba had taken charge of Aba with all the expectations. After initial bluster and much social media drumming, the results speak ill of the so-called actions.
The key arterial roads in Aba demand action. Is it Port Harcourt road upon which the governor and his team beat the drums about some action 18 months ago? Come today and Port Harcourt road is an eyesore. Is it the entrances into the city, east, west and south? The flyover at Osisioma and its surrounding swimming pools provoke the anger of everyone who drives into Aba from the Umuahia end of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway. Many years later, the song and dance about the “first overhead bridge in Abia State” has turned into a dirge while neighbouring Ebonyi has built three and counting.
Each obvious failing obscures the many successes that Okezie Ikpeazu has recorded. For each successful infrastructure project, you could point to one big elephant in the room signposting failure. Citizens then remember the inexplicable failure in human resource management in breaching the contract with the state’s workers. Abia ranks with the worst when citizens count governments that fail to pay their workers. Is it the much-lamented debts to teachers, civil servants and pensioners?
Prescient analysts foresaw this day. In “The historic and heavy cross of Okezie Ikpeazu” in The Cable of April 26, 2015 (https://www.thecable.ng/historic-heavy-cross-okezie-ikpeazu), I declared that the incoming governor had to win the battle of performance and perception. He came with a hunchback of negative perceptions concerning his godfather. He bore the cross of representing a demographic that had never governed with the notion of incapability.
The cross of perception is heavier today than ever before. It would be a shame if the odour of Aba becomes the undoing of the Aba boy who got the first chance to govern Abia State. The awakening of the elite and middle class of Abia State demanding performance should serve as critical impetus to bring Okezie Ikpeazu back to the path of performance and positive perception. Ikpeazu must change the atmosphere of Aba and Abia state to a sweet-smelling fragrance of good performance.
CHIDO NWAKANMA
