GOV. ORJI OF ABIA STATE
Abia State was created in 1991 by the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida's military regime. ..
Successive administrations both
military and civilian have come and gone without making any impact at
infrastructural development. At the outset of democracy in 1999, many
Abians looked forward to a better society that would witness a
remarkable improvement in its level of development. But that hope dimed
because after eight years nothing appears to have changed. Today, Abia
has been able to rediscover itself and is marching towards achieving
greater heights courtesy of the administration of His Excellency, Chief
T.A Orji. Just within the first year of his second term in office,
Governor Orji has pursued the implementation of his programmes with
greater vigour and has demonstrated his love for the people of Abia in
so many ways. For instance, in Umuahia alone, he is building a
multi-million Naira workers secretariat, an International Conference
Centre and a new Government House. The two new ultra modern markets
have reached completion stage, while three new housing estates have been
constructed. The same feat is being replicated at Aba and other areas.
In this interview with a select Journalists in Umuahia, Chief Orji
promises not to leave behind uncompleted projects. He also gave reasons
why his government has refused to borrow money from the Capital Market,
saying that he does not want to mortgage or burden the next
administration with debts because of his sad experience when he
inherited a N29 billion debt. Speaking on the status of Aba, Chief Orji
disclosed that he has created the right environment for business to
thrive. CHIKA NWABUEZE was there for Business Hallmark. Excerpts
Although Abia State has been on the
claws of vulture political godfathers who, for so many years, drained
God’s own state of the much-needed resources to build critical
infrastructure for accelerated development.
But by pulling the State out, the incumbent governor, Theordore Orji, has laid the desired foundation for Abia to grow again and take its place as the business hub for the entire South east and indeed, Nigeria.
But by pulling the State out, the incumbent governor, Theordore Orji, has laid the desired foundation for Abia to grow again and take its place as the business hub for the entire South east and indeed, Nigeria.
His Excellency some of us have toured
round Abia State on fact finding mission, particularly Umuahia and Aba
to see some of the completed and ongoing projects initiated by your
administration, some of us are impressed. Is the revenue that accrues to
the state coffers enough to sustain the current development?
This things have to do with our allocation profile which is there for you to use to assess our performance. The Accountant General told me this morning that he went for FAC allocation, any month we get N3.5 billion we thank God; before the N18000 minimum wage was approved our wage bill was N1.6 billion. After the new minimum wage came into effect in Abia we are paying N20100 to every civil servant which pushed up our wage bill to N2.9 billion and we have to service the government and carry out all the statutory functions required of us. Aba-Owerri road contract is N1.8 billion; Port Harcourt-Aba road-the contract is N1.7 billion and I am only talking of Aba alone. I have not talked about our internally generated revenue because before now people collect the revenue and divert it. Now that we hired consultants who manage it we strive to reach N500 million every month, whereas in the past it was N250 million maximum. When I came on board it was N150 million before I took it to N200 million. So I want you to assess us from that background in view of the fact that the revenue profile has not changed.
Now since I started my second tenure I have not accessed any facility from the bank or gone to Bond Market to issue bond. The only loan I have collected is the N1 billion agric loan which the federal government received from the Central Bank and the CBN has conditions attached to the loan in respect to how to spend it. So, even that one is deducted from the state's allocation at source. Now compare this with what we are in Abia State, the numerous projects we are executing and tell me if we don't deserve commendation. I'm sure the Journalists went only to Aba and Umuahia. Did you visit Arochukwu, Ndiochi, Ndiokereke, Ozuabam; you have not gone to Nunya, Isikwuato where I am constructing about 4 roads at the same time. Then you should think about it and how we were able to confront the security challenges we faced initially. You have to equip the security operatives very well for them to be able to combat kidnapping and other forms of criminality in the state, all that we did and mind you information is not free.
I know sometimes people will visit Akwa Ibom or Rivers State and they will start to compare us with such states. Go and cross check it, all the governors both military and civilian that governed Lagos State all did well, none of them is a write-off. This is so because they have the funds, Dr. Peter Odili did well in Rivers, Rotimi Amaechi is doing well. So I will like people to assess us based on the peculiar situation we found ourselves into, by what we get as allocation and IGR. If you don't have money will you perform?. I want to tell you that why we are able to do what we are doing is due to prudence in the management of our resources. Go and verify it, before I came to office there is no public building in the entire state capital. I challenge anybody to come and show me any structure that was erected in the capital before my administration was inaugurated. Today, I can count on my fingers the big projects we are doing in Umuahia. We are building a state secretariat, the international conference centre, we are building a new Government House; we are adding more structures to the Commissioners quarters that we have here. The new Diagnostics hospital and Dialysis centre in Umuahia has come on stream; then you visit the Amarachara Specialist Hospital, the House of Assembly Complex; the office block under construction at the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia(BCA). Then we have built the Amaokwe housing estate, Amoba, Ishieke housing estates; the two markets that are being constructed simultaneously in Umuahia within this my second tenure because these things I could not do them in my first tenure due to circumstances which most of you are familiar with.
What I am doing now within the first year of my second term if I had the liberty, if I was allowed during my first tenure you would see the wonders I would perform in Abia state. I met no foundation here, I am starting to build Abia State from the scratch. If I have a Government House I won't be talking of building one. All my colleagues surrounding me have foundations laid for them, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Imo State have a Secretariat etc. So that is the problem, our revenue profile can be obtained online for you to understand what is happening.
What about the Golden Guinea Brewery Umuahia, what is the government doing to resuscitate it?
Then on the brewery, there was a time the place exploded which brought production to a stop. The company was about being liquidated because of a loan they took from First Bank. When I came on board I asked questions and was told that the place has been mortgaged sort of thing. There was a business tycoon that brought money and invested and wanted his money back. I brought investors and any investor you bring they will make inquiries after which they will leave. They were afraid of litigations. So we assembled major stakeholders to discuss the way out. There are investors who are showing interest, but the last team that came and assessed the place said that all the equipments are obsolete, they can't work again. That to revive Golden Guinea Brewery the investor must bring in new equipments. So as a government we will prefer to use that money to build structures for my people who elected me than sink it in the revival of GGBL.
Your Excellency you said that you are able to carry out these projects because of prudence management of meagre resources. Can you tell us how you did it?
This question about the magic I did in plugging holes and ensuring that we utilize the meagre income very well is our secret. If you think it is easy go and try it, so I know what we did. It is like during the period we faced serious security challenges in Abia we knew what we did.
You did say that your government has not borrowed any money to fund development projects, but other states are issuing bonds. Is there any particular reason why you are against leveraging?
The first thing we must realise before anything is that you must cut your coat according to your cloth. It doesn't mean I am not going to borrow money to complete the projects that we started because I do not want to leave behind uncompleted projects. I will leverage, but let us manage what we have judiciously since I don't want to put the state into debts because we have suffered a lot. I inherited a debt of N29 billion, while my predecessor told the world that he left behind money in the state's coffers until I went to the ministry of finance to produce the documents including N26 million which we owed Sun Newspaper, he never replied again. The Transition Committee Chairman that left with my predecessor left behind a bill of N2.9 billion as unpaid salaries for me. It was only debt that I inherited and I am paying all of them. So I don't want to burden the person coming after me, even if I leave behind any debt it is going to be a manageable one. We are in debt, if I did not inherit N29 billion debt that amount can solve a lot of problems for us. I am not only a manager of human beings, I can also manage resources and that is what I have done, it is there for everybody to see. Even stakeholders of Abia State are urging me to go and access funds to raise the level of development in the state. I will take a loan that I can be able to liquidate before I leave office, and it would be used to complete projects that we have started and initiate new ones for the man who is going to take over from me may continue with. So, I will issue a bond or raise money from the banks at the right time.
We appreciate your efforts with regards to the infrastructural development of Abia State, however, there are other sectors that equally need attention, especially youth empowerment. What other programmes do you have for Abians?
I will tell you the ones we have done and also those we will do, while we are concentrating on roads is because the average Nigerian is so passionate about roads. To them it is the standard measurement for performance of any chief executive officer of a state. They seem to forget other sectors which are also essential. Like here we give priority to health, like I always say it is a person who is healthy that will be excited about good roads to enjoy life. So, health is important to us. As at today we have constructed about 250 health centres, we did it under partnership with the MDG's of the federal government through counterpart funding. There is no local government in Abia that you will not find about two or three functional health centres, to take care of the health needs of our people at the grassroots. Apart from that you have seen the Diagnostic Centre which we are expanding, the Amachara hospital, the Abia State University Teaching hospital etc. If you talk of education, we have the Abia State University, the College of education Technical and the Abia state Polytechnic. And we are funding them adequately, paying their salaries. Today we have rehabilitated more than 400 schools. We have equipped them through ASOPADEC, that is part of the money we get from derivation. Our students are among the best winning laurels for the state. In fact the UBE award fetched us N70 million. We also give scholarships to our students to study at home and abroad.
In the area of agriculture, everybody knows that we produce high quality cocoa and we have a school for manpower training in the production of cocoa. Oil palm, we are now trying to revitalise the farm settlements that late Dr. M.I Okpara built. We have the oil palm in Ohambele which we are doing in partnership with an Italian company to produce enough oil. We are also trying to boost our rice production and we are in partnership with ADP to achieve that. So we are doing very well in that area and I told you that we have gotten agric loan which we will disburse soon to genuine farmers. Then in youth empowerment, we also realised that one of the things that make people to go into kidnapping and armed robbery was lack of jobs. We have youth programmes where we buy vehicles and give out, before now it was wheel barrow and shovel that was been given to youths as empowerment. I stopped the use of Okada in this state, and we moved on to Keke NAPEP. We have given out thousands of it to our people. We recently employed 4500 youths the highest in the country. I am touching all sectors, but the one that makes our people happy is the roads.
What effort is your government making to transform Aba to a sort of African-China and make it the pride of Nigeria?
What dragged us behind was the kidnapping, we had made tremendous efforts before the incident of kidnapping crept in. And because of it all the small enterprises we have in Aba folded up. And for that period that kidnapping was on businesses were slow, nothing was working. It really took us back, but now it is no more so these entrepreneurs have returned. We have started again, the market we are building in Umuahia, we have asked the Aba shoe manufacturers to extend to Umuahia if the place is tight. We have a common facility in Aba which we built in partnership with the federal government where these skills are impacted to our people. Leather works, shoe works, etc so we are doing everything possible to make the environment friendly for businesses to flourish. We have created the enabling environment for business to thrive, so businessmen are welcome. That is the most important thing that we have achieved. We also help them to obtain facilities from banks and other things.
You actually said that the projects you are executing now are what your predecessor could have done. Considering the fact that you played a very active role in that administration, at what point did you see things go wrong in Abia and what did you do?
This is a question that should be asked to all Abians, at what point did you see things go wrong and what did you do. Every person saw it at his own time, there are people who saw these things very early. I wasn't governor then because as chief of staff I was only taking directive, but now that I am governor I am accountable to anything that happens under my watch. We believe in loyalty but when it is misused and misinterpreted and people want to mess you up, you have to show that you are a man. For 8 years that I served him if I didn't do well he could have sacked me as chief of staff. That relationship was there and it continued but then at a stage I don't know what happened to him so that he wanted to disgrace me. I don't know if there is any governor in this Nigeria that can be issued a query. That was the height of insult, if I had done anything wrong you could have invited me for a discussion. It got to a level where I was brought to public ridicule that was when it dawned on me that it was time for me to change the course of Abia State, to separate with my predecessor. What I endured I don't think anybody can do so. This is a free world and there is freedom of association, with many political parties. You are living witness that PDP came to this place to beg me to join PDP, I first went to APGA when I left PPA. But PDP in their wisdom saw something in me that made them to come to woo me. By then my predecessor had tried to return to PDP and they rejected him.
During the last election, PDP won all the seats in this state, three senatorial seats, 8 federal House of Representatives; presidency and governorship we won. The 24 house of Assembly members are PDP, so when these parties are making noise on what basis are they making it. He sponsored people to run against us and was bragging that if he sponsors a monkey it will win and the monkey eventually failed. So I had to choose between my people who voted me and the people who do not want the progress of the state.
This things have to do with our allocation profile which is there for you to use to assess our performance. The Accountant General told me this morning that he went for FAC allocation, any month we get N3.5 billion we thank God; before the N18000 minimum wage was approved our wage bill was N1.6 billion. After the new minimum wage came into effect in Abia we are paying N20100 to every civil servant which pushed up our wage bill to N2.9 billion and we have to service the government and carry out all the statutory functions required of us. Aba-Owerri road contract is N1.8 billion; Port Harcourt-Aba road-the contract is N1.7 billion and I am only talking of Aba alone. I have not talked about our internally generated revenue because before now people collect the revenue and divert it. Now that we hired consultants who manage it we strive to reach N500 million every month, whereas in the past it was N250 million maximum. When I came on board it was N150 million before I took it to N200 million. So I want you to assess us from that background in view of the fact that the revenue profile has not changed.
Now since I started my second tenure I have not accessed any facility from the bank or gone to Bond Market to issue bond. The only loan I have collected is the N1 billion agric loan which the federal government received from the Central Bank and the CBN has conditions attached to the loan in respect to how to spend it. So, even that one is deducted from the state's allocation at source. Now compare this with what we are in Abia State, the numerous projects we are executing and tell me if we don't deserve commendation. I'm sure the Journalists went only to Aba and Umuahia. Did you visit Arochukwu, Ndiochi, Ndiokereke, Ozuabam; you have not gone to Nunya, Isikwuato where I am constructing about 4 roads at the same time. Then you should think about it and how we were able to confront the security challenges we faced initially. You have to equip the security operatives very well for them to be able to combat kidnapping and other forms of criminality in the state, all that we did and mind you information is not free.
I know sometimes people will visit Akwa Ibom or Rivers State and they will start to compare us with such states. Go and cross check it, all the governors both military and civilian that governed Lagos State all did well, none of them is a write-off. This is so because they have the funds, Dr. Peter Odili did well in Rivers, Rotimi Amaechi is doing well. So I will like people to assess us based on the peculiar situation we found ourselves into, by what we get as allocation and IGR. If you don't have money will you perform?. I want to tell you that why we are able to do what we are doing is due to prudence in the management of our resources. Go and verify it, before I came to office there is no public building in the entire state capital. I challenge anybody to come and show me any structure that was erected in the capital before my administration was inaugurated. Today, I can count on my fingers the big projects we are doing in Umuahia. We are building a state secretariat, the international conference centre, we are building a new Government House; we are adding more structures to the Commissioners quarters that we have here. The new Diagnostics hospital and Dialysis centre in Umuahia has come on stream; then you visit the Amarachara Specialist Hospital, the House of Assembly Complex; the office block under construction at the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia(BCA). Then we have built the Amaokwe housing estate, Amoba, Ishieke housing estates; the two markets that are being constructed simultaneously in Umuahia within this my second tenure because these things I could not do them in my first tenure due to circumstances which most of you are familiar with.
What I am doing now within the first year of my second term if I had the liberty, if I was allowed during my first tenure you would see the wonders I would perform in Abia state. I met no foundation here, I am starting to build Abia State from the scratch. If I have a Government House I won't be talking of building one. All my colleagues surrounding me have foundations laid for them, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Imo State have a Secretariat etc. So that is the problem, our revenue profile can be obtained online for you to understand what is happening.
What about the Golden Guinea Brewery Umuahia, what is the government doing to resuscitate it?
Then on the brewery, there was a time the place exploded which brought production to a stop. The company was about being liquidated because of a loan they took from First Bank. When I came on board I asked questions and was told that the place has been mortgaged sort of thing. There was a business tycoon that brought money and invested and wanted his money back. I brought investors and any investor you bring they will make inquiries after which they will leave. They were afraid of litigations. So we assembled major stakeholders to discuss the way out. There are investors who are showing interest, but the last team that came and assessed the place said that all the equipments are obsolete, they can't work again. That to revive Golden Guinea Brewery the investor must bring in new equipments. So as a government we will prefer to use that money to build structures for my people who elected me than sink it in the revival of GGBL.
Your Excellency you said that you are able to carry out these projects because of prudence management of meagre resources. Can you tell us how you did it?
This question about the magic I did in plugging holes and ensuring that we utilize the meagre income very well is our secret. If you think it is easy go and try it, so I know what we did. It is like during the period we faced serious security challenges in Abia we knew what we did.
You did say that your government has not borrowed any money to fund development projects, but other states are issuing bonds. Is there any particular reason why you are against leveraging?
The first thing we must realise before anything is that you must cut your coat according to your cloth. It doesn't mean I am not going to borrow money to complete the projects that we started because I do not want to leave behind uncompleted projects. I will leverage, but let us manage what we have judiciously since I don't want to put the state into debts because we have suffered a lot. I inherited a debt of N29 billion, while my predecessor told the world that he left behind money in the state's coffers until I went to the ministry of finance to produce the documents including N26 million which we owed Sun Newspaper, he never replied again. The Transition Committee Chairman that left with my predecessor left behind a bill of N2.9 billion as unpaid salaries for me. It was only debt that I inherited and I am paying all of them. So I don't want to burden the person coming after me, even if I leave behind any debt it is going to be a manageable one. We are in debt, if I did not inherit N29 billion debt that amount can solve a lot of problems for us. I am not only a manager of human beings, I can also manage resources and that is what I have done, it is there for everybody to see. Even stakeholders of Abia State are urging me to go and access funds to raise the level of development in the state. I will take a loan that I can be able to liquidate before I leave office, and it would be used to complete projects that we have started and initiate new ones for the man who is going to take over from me may continue with. So, I will issue a bond or raise money from the banks at the right time.
We appreciate your efforts with regards to the infrastructural development of Abia State, however, there are other sectors that equally need attention, especially youth empowerment. What other programmes do you have for Abians?
I will tell you the ones we have done and also those we will do, while we are concentrating on roads is because the average Nigerian is so passionate about roads. To them it is the standard measurement for performance of any chief executive officer of a state. They seem to forget other sectors which are also essential. Like here we give priority to health, like I always say it is a person who is healthy that will be excited about good roads to enjoy life. So, health is important to us. As at today we have constructed about 250 health centres, we did it under partnership with the MDG's of the federal government through counterpart funding. There is no local government in Abia that you will not find about two or three functional health centres, to take care of the health needs of our people at the grassroots. Apart from that you have seen the Diagnostic Centre which we are expanding, the Amachara hospital, the Abia State University Teaching hospital etc. If you talk of education, we have the Abia State University, the College of education Technical and the Abia state Polytechnic. And we are funding them adequately, paying their salaries. Today we have rehabilitated more than 400 schools. We have equipped them through ASOPADEC, that is part of the money we get from derivation. Our students are among the best winning laurels for the state. In fact the UBE award fetched us N70 million. We also give scholarships to our students to study at home and abroad.
In the area of agriculture, everybody knows that we produce high quality cocoa and we have a school for manpower training in the production of cocoa. Oil palm, we are now trying to revitalise the farm settlements that late Dr. M.I Okpara built. We have the oil palm in Ohambele which we are doing in partnership with an Italian company to produce enough oil. We are also trying to boost our rice production and we are in partnership with ADP to achieve that. So we are doing very well in that area and I told you that we have gotten agric loan which we will disburse soon to genuine farmers. Then in youth empowerment, we also realised that one of the things that make people to go into kidnapping and armed robbery was lack of jobs. We have youth programmes where we buy vehicles and give out, before now it was wheel barrow and shovel that was been given to youths as empowerment. I stopped the use of Okada in this state, and we moved on to Keke NAPEP. We have given out thousands of it to our people. We recently employed 4500 youths the highest in the country. I am touching all sectors, but the one that makes our people happy is the roads.
What effort is your government making to transform Aba to a sort of African-China and make it the pride of Nigeria?
What dragged us behind was the kidnapping, we had made tremendous efforts before the incident of kidnapping crept in. And because of it all the small enterprises we have in Aba folded up. And for that period that kidnapping was on businesses were slow, nothing was working. It really took us back, but now it is no more so these entrepreneurs have returned. We have started again, the market we are building in Umuahia, we have asked the Aba shoe manufacturers to extend to Umuahia if the place is tight. We have a common facility in Aba which we built in partnership with the federal government where these skills are impacted to our people. Leather works, shoe works, etc so we are doing everything possible to make the environment friendly for businesses to flourish. We have created the enabling environment for business to thrive, so businessmen are welcome. That is the most important thing that we have achieved. We also help them to obtain facilities from banks and other things.
You actually said that the projects you are executing now are what your predecessor could have done. Considering the fact that you played a very active role in that administration, at what point did you see things go wrong in Abia and what did you do?
This is a question that should be asked to all Abians, at what point did you see things go wrong and what did you do. Every person saw it at his own time, there are people who saw these things very early. I wasn't governor then because as chief of staff I was only taking directive, but now that I am governor I am accountable to anything that happens under my watch. We believe in loyalty but when it is misused and misinterpreted and people want to mess you up, you have to show that you are a man. For 8 years that I served him if I didn't do well he could have sacked me as chief of staff. That relationship was there and it continued but then at a stage I don't know what happened to him so that he wanted to disgrace me. I don't know if there is any governor in this Nigeria that can be issued a query. That was the height of insult, if I had done anything wrong you could have invited me for a discussion. It got to a level where I was brought to public ridicule that was when it dawned on me that it was time for me to change the course of Abia State, to separate with my predecessor. What I endured I don't think anybody can do so. This is a free world and there is freedom of association, with many political parties. You are living witness that PDP came to this place to beg me to join PDP, I first went to APGA when I left PPA. But PDP in their wisdom saw something in me that made them to come to woo me. By then my predecessor had tried to return to PDP and they rejected him.
During the last election, PDP won all the seats in this state, three senatorial seats, 8 federal House of Representatives; presidency and governorship we won. The 24 house of Assembly members are PDP, so when these parties are making noise on what basis are they making it. He sponsored people to run against us and was bragging that if he sponsors a monkey it will win and the monkey eventually failed. So I had to choose between my people who voted me and the people who do not want the progress of the state.
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