By: Chika Nwabueze
Erstwhile executive chairman Umuahia North local government council and General Manager Abia state Transport Corporation, Reverend Sam Ekeledo, has said that governor Okezie Ikpeazu has turned his back on Umuahia, the Abia state capital, describing it as rather unfortunate. He also posited that there is no room for impeachment in the relationship between the T. A Orji family and Governor Ikpeazu.
Ekeledo spoke against the backdrop of the deplorable state of infrastructure and social amenities in the state capital of Umuahia and governor Ikpeazu’s seeming lack of interest in addressing the trend.
For instance, all the major roads in Umuahia are in total state of disrepair with mountain of refuse dumps adorning all the strategic points in and around the city. Umuahia is such a mess that at the moment dangerous potholes are even closer to the Government House, Umuahia that one could imagine.
The former executive chairman while speaking in an exclusive interview with News Critic, lamented that he will be hermit not to tell the governor that the idea of state capital is not only symbolic, that it is also an explanation of the living standard of the people and governance standard. ‘’This is an advice not criticism, he pointed our’’.
On the formation of the new state executive council, he said that he expects there should be a marriage of political strategies. According to him, it is right to say that the governor should bring in knowledgeable persons, who can bring pragmatic solution to the problems of Abia economy.
Said he, ’’how do we stem the tendency of urban migration of our youths’’, and again what are we doing on industrialization? To him the Enyimba Economic City is a federal government project, adding that any claim to it by the state government is a ruse.
He, however, pointed out that our people should move in and tap into it, while maintaining that the state government has to explain the details of the master plan, so that the people will know how to tap into it. ‘’ We have lost too much opportunity here and we are lagging behind, he remarks. He went further to say that it behoves on those in political authority to all begin now to address issues of welfare of the people.
Ekeledo noted that the elites must retain the conviction of their conscience and speak truth all the times.
Speaking on the emergence of Engr. Chinedu Orji as Speaker of the 7th Abia State House of Assembly, he said that he did not make mistake in his previous interview with this newspaper wherein he said that the governor has no choice than to return Ikuku as speaker in fulfilment of the arrangement.
He said that he wants to speak the obvious and not to alarm anybody, but for us to understand that this is the agenda of the government. That ‘’there is a deliberate and strategic policy to do a new zoning arrangement that will return power to Abia North through the Abia Central senatorial district’’.
Ekeledo observed that the Orji/ Ikpeazu marriage has been consummated and projected into the future, adding that impeachment is not an option because Rt. Hon. Orji will be shooting himself in the right foot. So ‘’I must tell you that there is no room for radical behaviour in this marriage’’.
