ABIA STATE: WEVE BEEN SLEEPING FOR TOO LONG; ITS TIME TO WAKE UP. A reversed version of my article titled If I am The Governor of Abia State by Agbai Ina Obasi. PREAMBLE: My people, the time has come again for us Abians to elect a new Governor of our Gods Own State - Abia. For the past decades, the people of Abia has suffered untold hardship in the hands of their elected leaders. I recalled years back in the late nineties when I had the opportunity of managing one of the new generation banks in Aba. At that time, Aba was known as the Japan of Africa because of the enterprising nature of her people who had successfully built numerous small scale industries/enterprises. Shoes and other items manufactured in Aba were sold through out Nigeria and its neighboring countries. Other businesses in Aba like the textile, the spare parts, the electronics market etc were thriving in a peaceful environment. Aba was the toast of its neighboring towns whose people troop into Aba to transact various businesses. That time is now history as our people now languish in one of the worst environment in our country with most of our best minds in business now residing outside the state. Each time I see pictures of our Enyinba City now, I could hardly hold back tears for my people. How could our leaders suffer our people like this? How long will our people suffer like this? Is this a course? How could our leaders commit these atrocities and still live peacefully and happily among us enjoying their loot? This article will focus on why Abia State is so badly governed, what Abians can do to change their situations and what I will do if I was the governor of Abia State. A) WHY ABIA STATE HAS BEEN SO BADLY GOVERNED: 1) Coronation of incompetent successor by the out going Governor. 2) The sychophant nature of our people. 3) Absence of checks and balances. 4) Election rigging Why do out-going Governors keep insisting on coronating their successors? The answer is simple: to protect their loot, saddle the state with Incompetent new chief executive and loyalty. Indeed the ex governors have been successful in protecting their loot and saddling the state with incompetent successor as record shows that no ex governor in the state has been successfully investigated by the successor for corruption. However, they have not been so successful in retaining the loyalty of their successors. Usually the new governor will maintain a semblance of loyalty in the first few months to secure his position and learn the art of looting and thereafter become a master of himself. The successor will then employ every tactics to out- loot the predecessor so as to be relevant in the scheme of things after leaving the governorship post. But what do we expect when the successor watches his predecessor enjoying his loot and acting as a king-maker after leaving office. So the vicious circle and competition for who will loot the most out of our treasury continues. Secondly, our governors have realized that the absence of an active engaged electorate is to their advantage. So they ensure that our people are pauperized the more, creating a conducive environment for sycophancy to thrive in the state. Sycophancy is a disease that has turned our citizenry into a docile lot willingly accepting the atrocities of our elected office holders? ( a fact that was detailed in my book titled Financial Independence). This disease is worst than corruption as it debases our peoples minds and make them hero worship their leader even when the said leader is doing some thing wrong. It shots down our power to express our minds ( our God given right) with its adverse implication on effective participation on our governance. It is sycophancy that makes our people to be contented with plates of rice and chicken and other crumbs freely distributed by the elected officers during campaign rallies and while in power. Sycophants neither criticize nor proffer solutions; they only do praise singing. Thirdly, democracy thrives on Checks and Balances by the various organs of government- the executive, legislature and the judiciary. The absence of these checks and balances is a major flaw in our democracy. Our state legislature has been dormant at worst and sycophant at best. Legislative tools like impeachment to remove incompetent governor are unknown to our legislature. The reason for this is simply because we allow our governors to pick and decide or fund members of the legislative houses who are there in office at the mercy of the governor. The judiciary is weak to act as the third arm of government either because it is starved of funding or appointment into the bench has been compromised. Either way, the judiciary lacks independence required to exercise its constitutional role. The same goes for the Local government areas whose funds are controlled by the governors. Fourthly, where the electorate summons up courage and organize to exercise their mandate, that mandate is rigged if it is not in favor of the governor. This is possible because of the active conspiracy between the electoral officers and the governor and the involvement of political thugs who harass, maim electorates and destroy ballot boxes not in favor of the governor. The governors do this by corrupting the people involved with large sums of money stolen from our treasury. Another reason for the governors to loot. B) WHAT CAN ABIANS DO?: 1) Support the fight against corruption/ restructure of our political parties. 2) Be willing to express themselves and become active participants. 3) Defend their mandate 4) Get to know the candidates and vote for a competent leader First and foremost, for the avoidance of doubt, let me be clear and state unequivocally that Governors will continue to loot our public treasury with impunity as long as there are no adverse consequences to them for doing so. No society had moved forward when its leaders go unpunished for corrupt enrichment while in office. While we cannot prosecute sitting governors for corrupt practices, why have we failed to do so when they are out of office/power? Consequently, we can begin by electing the right persons into office and insisting that they bring ex corrupt officials to book. For us to fight corruption, we must start from disciplining ourselves and send the right message to our elected officers. I realize that It is difficult to fight corruption in an empty stomach. But nothing will change unless we are willing to make the necessary sacrifice. If not for ourselves, why not for our children?. Are we ready to continue to mortgage our children future for a token? Therefore, we must start to resist the little things/gifts from our leaders that corrupt our own minds if we must insist on our new leaders doing the right things. Closely related to the above is the urgent need to restructure our political parties so that election of party candidates will be based on popular participation of the people and not by an out going Chief Executive whose primary interest is to protect his amassed wealth from the peoples treasury. Secondly, our people have bottled up grievances over the years from bad governance, signs of which are every where. This is the time to freely express our selves. It is our constitutional right. Its is time to stand up in rallies and ask the candidates serious questions about our future. The current practice is that the majority of our people are busy sharing rice and chicken and money that they dont even know what happens in a political meetings and rallies. We get preoccupied with these minor things and forget the main reason why we were there in the meeting or rally. Consequently, we are taken for granted. Its time to express our anger at the way we have been governed so far. We have been sleeping for too long. Its time to wake. There are so many things we can do to express our collective disgust. I have seen raw eggs being thrown at the wind screen of motorcades of corrupt leaders. I have seen people shout ole in the face of their corrupt leader. I have seen multitudes sitting down and blocking every important public/government offices, facilities, major roads, tarmacs etc in peaceful protest against corrupt leaders. But what I have not seen in other parts of the World is where people just sit and do nothing in the face of massive looting of their collective wealth by their elected leaders in a democratic setting. Additionally, we must insist and organize a state wide debates for the front runners and watch them sell their program and face serious questions from us during the said debates. Thirdly, because of their unpopularity with the electorates, the governors rely on rigging as a means of winning election. But let us remember that election rigging is done by human beings and human beings can stop rigging too. What is required is a watchful electorate determined to defend their mandate during election. We must therefore go out to vote in mass and stay back to defend our votes with all it takes. When the riggers of our election see the fire in our eyes and realize that we are determined to defend our mandate, they will retreat. That is the peoples power. Let us us exercise it collectively. Above all, we must vote for a competent candidate. For us to do this, First and foremost, we must put these candidates to the strictest test; dig deeper into their past and the sources of their acquired wealth, character and their program for the development of the state. This is partly what the Governorship Debate will seek to uncover for the electorate. A major reason we must insist on these debates anchored by professionals is to help expose the candidates past and gain insight in their programs and abilities to think on their feet . Investigative journalists and the campaign teams of these candidates should also be encouraged to dig deeper into the finance sources of these candidates and share their findings with the electorate in their newspapers and in their campaign tours/rallies respectively. A vote for a candidate with an unverifiable sources of wealth is a vote to loot our treasury again. Let us therefore make this governorship campaign robust, issue based and fact finding to help the electorate make a wise decision. An electioneering campaign of the above nature will help the electorate in their decision to vote for the right candidate who must be among other things: A person willing and determined not only to fight the looting spree but must also put our state on the path of sustainable development. A person who has track record and understands that there is more to life than this primitive accumulation of wealth and looting of public funds. A person of honor and strong will. A person who will confront the status quo fearlessly. A person with genuine desire for our peoples progress. A person who understands that the greatest reward for a public officer lies in the love of his/ her people for good governance and how many lives he/she positively touched. A person who will differentiate between loyalty and sycophancy. A person who truly fear God. C) IF I AM THE GOVERNOR: In view of the above, if I am the governor of Abia State, the following will be my goals which must be achieved in my first term or at least substantially so: i) Road Infrastructure/ Clean Up. 1) The state will construct a PAVED dual carriage road in Aba from the Osisioma junction through Aba -Owerri road to the Aba park; and from the park, through Port Harcourt road to the Enugu - Port Harcourt Highway. And from the Aba park through Ogbor Hill road to the boundary of Abia State with Akwa Ibom. 2) Along with this road construction will be to clean up Aba and other major towns in the state. The state shall partner with the private sector to build waste recycling plants capable of handling waste produced in the towns and turn it into manure to support our agricultural goal. 3) The state will construct major paved roads from Umuahia, the state capital, linking all the major areas of our state like Ngwa land, Arochuku, Isikwuato etc. ii) Education: Each LGA will have at least three to four model schools- primary and secondary - depending on the size and number of towns in the LGA while ensuring that no teacher will be owed a salary at the end of every month. Our education must produce graduates with 21st century competitive edge geared towards science, mathematics, engineering and financial knowledge. Therefore, emphasis will be led in these area from the primary stages. iii) Agriculture: The state will encourage and provide counter part funding to each community to come up with its own Community Farm similar to the existing Community Banks. These will encourage communal farming in a mechanized form, engage our teeming youths and make Abia state the food basket of the region. iv) Health: Each LGA will have at least a modern, equipped hospital that will handle our most pressing health needs. The state will align with medical professionals from each LGA within and outside the country to ensure that these hospitals are properly manned, equipped and managed. v) Small Scale enterprise: The state shall provide infrastructural amenities and incentives that will support the growth of small scale enterprises - the engine of every economy - where entrepreneurs will be encouraged to invest and grow with little or no government interference except for taxes after the grace period. In furtherance of the above, the state shall partner with different groups to build industrial clusters to encourage growth in certain strategic sub sectors like small scale manufacturing, high tech, etc.. vi) Appointment of Commissioners: This shall be based on the persons commitment to the core belief that THE WORK MUST BE DONE. A commissioners stay in office will depend on his/her productivity to the people of Abia. Commissioners shall no longer be left for the sycophants whose major goal has been to either helplessly and/ or selfishly watch the governor do the wrong things or actively conspire to enrich the Governor while accepting crumbs at the expense of our people. The above is a summary of my priorities in the first year if I am the governor of Abia state. With these basics in the kitty, we can begin to plan and do big things for our people subsequently. These projects are achievable if our people commit to them. The only snag is that the funds looted by the governor will be greatly diminished by these projects. But we are not elected governors to loot public funds. I therefore challenge the candidates to come up with their plans for our state and people and LET THE DEBATE START. Change is what we need and the time is now. Are the candidates, their campaign teams and the electorate ready? Abia State: Weve been sleeping for too long, its time to wake up. Agbai Ina Obasi ( BA, JD) Author: Financial Independence
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 18:54:47 +0000
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