GOVERNOR T. A. ORJI: SOWING ENOUGH FOR A BOUNTIFUL HARVEST
Please rewind with me to May 29th 2011, as we gleefully replay the inaugural pledges that characterized the glorious and Godly second half of Governor T.A. Orji as the authentic and trusted steward of Abia State for another second term of four years. Let us kindly recall the Governors truthful pledges and believable avowals, as it gives us the pleasure to boldly disappoint his chronic and obstinate critics whose constant and crooked line of thought is that Governor T.A. Orji will eventually renege on his electoral promises as pragmatically articulated in his blueprint.
For the umpteenth time, the Governors unequivocal declaration is that Abia State is in the ‘era of reality’ given the effective location of our bearing and constructive co-ordinates.
Apparently proving that it will never be business as usual, Governor T.A. Orji is hurriedly giving a huge bite to his statement, as this endeavor shall attempt to chronicle. 
Our point of departure will in this wise obviously commence by applauding the Governors application of his unique administrative dexterity which gave rise to the conscientiously select crack team of government functionaries ranging from Commissioners to Advisers. Did I hear you say round peg in a round hole? Well nothing could have been more revealing, especially when we juxtapose it with the ugly and mediocre past of originating a list of high calibre State strategic positions from uniformed and base level quarters and the ridiculous fashion of having them to swear to an oath of allegiance outside the biblical injunction of heaven aboding God of Abians.
Basking from the exhilarating gains of this breath of fresh air, the Government of Governor T.A. Orji is expertly sowing for an unprecedented bumper harvest in liaison with his indomitable and impact tasty squad.
In the Educational sector which remains the bedrock and pivot of societal transformation, the Government of Governor T.A. Orji has just constituted assemblage of academic eggheads to mandatorily overhaul our institutions of higher learning. The first is the governing council, which is scheduled to sanitize and restore the academic clean slate of the State beginning with the Abia State University Uturu, Abia State University Teaching Hospital Aba, and School Of Health Technology also in Aba. With the emulative pedigree of personalities involved, expectations are that they will deploy innovative ideas in the adoption of bold and far-reaching decisions for the much-expected academic eldorado in the State.
Buoyed by the attendant success of that outing, Governor T.A. Orji followed suit by constituting and inaugurating the Boards of Abia State Polytechnic Aba and college of Education Arochukwu with a mandate to etch their names in the golden sands of time. This will predictably be a departure from the mannerless and name-pleasing era of racing for contract in our governing Boards while critical issues of State importance are treated with levity and utter neglected.
It is expected that Abia State Polytechnic Aba will cash in on this new and progressive body language of Government to play an indispensable role in Governments renewed drive to build a new and vibrant economy, with Aba as the dictator, as we shall elaborate further in the course of this endeavor
Even in the face of obvious and glaring financial hiccups, Abia State under the un-ruffled and un-assuming stewardship of Governor T.A. Orji had always ensured that Abians pay a sober and soul searching visit to the holy land; Jerusalem. But beyond that, what had actually tickled the fancy of yours sincerely is that for the first time since the beginning of Islamic hajj in the state, an indigene of the state will be leading our Muslim brothers to Mecca for the 2011 hajj exercise under the elevated position of ‘Amiru hajj. Coming at a time we are celebrating a landmark twenty years as a State, the message is simple and very comprehensive ‘let us begin to take our destiny in our hands and learn to do things our own way’.
With local and detailed knowledge of problems besetting the state, our sons and daughters, irrespective of religious inclinations will genuinely and selflessly share in the burden of committing same to God. After all, only he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches.
We cannot shy away from the driving and indispensable role of the Civil and Public service in re-shaping the society. With the mandate to institute executive blueprints and enunciations governor T.A. Orji’s resolve to over-haul the State Civil Service could not have come at a more better time than now. That genuine and well-placed intention of the governor was given a remarkable push, precisely in the month of July 2011, when the management of Abia State Civil Service Commission was constituted. With the rampant case of ghost workers and bold corrupt officials, the Commission in liaison with the new head of service will tirelessly work to bequeath the State with a twenty first century civil service. Abia chatter of equity must prominently feature in the consideration and allocation of values with a view to enhancing Senatorial and clannish harmony.
As earlier on somewhere highlighted, the strategic importance of Aba in the economic prosperity of Abia State cannot be over emphasized. Apart from the clarion call for the management of Abia State polytechnic to deploy their engineering ingenuity in bringing this to fruition, Government needs to be commended for rising to the initial security challenged occasioned by the alien kidnapping and hi-tech armed robbery which took the State by storm. It not only dealt a fatal blow to internally generated revenue, (IGR) but almost made some part of the State ungovernable.
But the recent and sigh heaving intervention of Government intelligently and boldly piloted by governor T.A. Orji, restored normalcy and created a new vista for the re-engineering of Government Instrument and apparatus for internally generated revenue. This determination resulted to the recruitment of Charmswitch E-Collect Technologies Limited. In the days ahead, this Government bold and wise step will yield mouth-watering dividends critical for infrastructural development and provision of essential amenities. It will untimely stream line operations and remove multiplicity in taxable remittances. Tax payers will in no distant time pay their tax and instantly collect automated receipts in Government designated banks. Government’s partnership with Charmswitch e-Collect will strategically help in smoking out ghost workers and their aiding accomplices it the sense that the soon to commence biometric data capture will have the capacity to record and store data analysis of every civil servant in the State beginning from date of employing to the date of retirement.
The man made fluctuating and bloated wage bill in the State will be determined and controlled while providing the appropriate guide line on which sector of the State is desirous of skilled man power. The sorry state of concentrating our man power and service providers on the administrative and accounting officers cadre will be jettisoned for the growth of the agricultural, engineering, and other technical cum vocational cadres.
With a mandate to restore the environmental sanity of Abia State, a task force on the demolition of illegal structures has been constituted. Government is evidently living up to an earlier statement that Aba will be cleaned up for attraction of foreign investors. The Governor, Chief T.A. Orji apparently proving that this is the era of matching words with action paid for and procured over fifteen refuse compactors for a comprehensive un-slaught on the war against filth. Government is also going to sow into the gainful venture of converting waste to organic manure, coupled with the executive endorsement for the resuscitation of Peoples Work Department in the State’s ministry of works. This gesture synchronizes with the ministry’s assurance that all major roads in Aba will be rehabilitated, but the present and pressing need being the structural importance of tackling the drainages.
Governor T.A. Orji has also sown in the housing need of the State by exploring the wise option of procuring pre-fabricated houses for a pilot project that will substantially address the housing need of the State.
Diaspora investment through the establishment of “One Stop Shop” is one success story that is waiting to erupt like a volcano. Abians in Diaspora are gradually cashing in on it to practically demonstrate and contribute their quota towards the development of our dear State.
Scarcely had we finished celebrating Juno-Hermes for pitching tenth at Arochukwu preparatory to the establishment of world class cement factory than a medical team of Abians in the United States recently visited the state for the establishment of an endoscopes and dialysis unit in Umuahia the State capital. This will complement the victory already been recorded from the State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Center, located in Aba and Umuahia. Penultimate week, Abians emptied at Ogwurube layout (formerly Umuahia Station layout) to witness the epoch making foundation laying ceremony of International Conference Center Umuahia and a new ultra-modern workers Secretariat with state of the arts facilities. The new Secretariat will put paid to the challenge of office accommodation, which has plagued the State since its creation in 1991, while the International Conference Center will launch us into the super high way of World-class Conference venues.
We are inching towards the global arena necessary for invasion of foreign investors. The will and silent revolution of Governor T.A. Orji will always make a way for an eye wondering and ear tingling bumper harvest. Patience is the antidote, let us faithfully wait for it.
Iyke Ogbonnaya wrote in from Umuahia.
