By: Chinweuba Wachukwu
Integrity is said to be a virtue not acquired through education, positioning or wealth, but rather by sheer strength of Character. Most at times we have seen highly placed educated men and women from noble backgrounds whom we look upto in the society display such characters that falls short of any atom of nobleness that one begins to wonder if actually he/she deserves the position he/she occupies.
As the Governorship campaign is about to kick start in Abia State, I advise all the gubernatorial candidates to make promises that they can fulfill and not to deceive the masses.
For, instance, in 2015, the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu PhD,, made a number of promises that till date he has failed to fulfill.
Topmost on the list of such unfilled promises is the payment of salaries of Abia civil servants on the 24th of every month, and also promised to clear all outstanding salaries and pensions owed Abia workers before the end of July 2017, He never kept that promise, instead pensioners are being owed more than two years pension arrears resorting to the elder statesmen taking to the streets to protest and demand for their due entitlements and Civil Servants in the state are owed several months salaries, especially in the education and medical sectors. Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu has succeeded in making himself the worst governor Abia has ever had when it comes to salary payment.
In December 2016 immediately after the swearing in of the 17 elected council chairmen Dr. Ikpeazu directed them to identify three projects in each ward within their various LGAs that will receive urgent attention from the state government through them. These promises caused problems between the newly elected council chairmen and the stake holders within their local governments, as everyone was busy lobbying to ensure that such a project as promised by the governor is executed in his choice location. Today it is either that the governor has forgotten he made such promises or it has gone the way of other promises made by him.
Also in February 2017, governor Ikpeazu promised to do a 10 kilo meter asphalted road in each of 17 LGAs that made up Abia state, as usual he again asked the 17 LGA Chairmen to identify and submit to him the roads which they will like to be done within their LGA, the joy and applause that greeted the pronouncement was overwhelming and the chairmen immediately sprang into action, but till date that promise ended fruitless. Even in some LGAs were some roads were constructed, the roads have since faded away due to poor quality of the construction, while some remain uncompleted.
Again, Ikpeazu promised to stop touting by creating jobs that will gainfully engage Abia youths, but till date, Motor Park touting (Agboro) has become the only line of employment open to Abia youths thereby turning them into agents of extortion in the guise of revenue enforcement.
Recall that at the commissioning of the reconstructed Immaculate Heart Avenue done by Ikpeazu’s administration in Aba, Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu promised also to complete all ongoing projects before he leaves office in 2023. We are keeping our fingers crossed and waiting to see if the two major roads in ABA: Port Harcourt road Aba and Fulks road Aba will be completed before he leaves office.
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu also assured/promised that no road done by his administration would be revisited by his successor. Today, 80% of all the roads constructed in ABA, has faded away. Roads like fulks rd, Cemetery rd, St. Michael rd, Cameroon rd, Ehi rd, Market rd, Clifford rd, Emelogu rd, Opopo rd, New Umuahia rd, etc these roads are of poor quality and have already started fading away few months after construction.
He even promised, that he will handover power to someone much younger than him, but he went ahead and chose a man old enough to be his father as his successor.
In September 2021, the administration of Okezie Ikpeazu demolished the popular A-line of Ariara International Market Aba promising to reconstruct it within three months and hand it over to the owners on December 2021. Till today (more than one year after the demolition) the shops are still under construction, causing untold hardship for the traders whose only source of livelihood is from their business.
Governance demands integrity and trust, while Integrity is a vital ingredient in leadership, it therefore becomes difficult to believe in trust deficient leadership and any government that lacks the basic trust of the people will not make any meaningful progress.
In all sincerity the volume of unfulfilled promises of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu is making the people lose trust and faith in his leadership, and even in his anointed successor, because “A snake will always give birth to something long”.
It is very difficult for any Governor who had displayed lack of capacity in promise, to enjoy the trust and confidence of his subjects. Such a Governor can never produce a dependable and trustworthy successor. Just as Gov. Ikpeazu has chosen/anointed a successor he can control and let go of those quality aspirants that he feels he cannot control.
As the political campaigns have just kick-started, I urge the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu to please kindly revisit the promises earlier made before the Party will go ahead to promise more during the electioneering campaign which they will never fulfill.
Abia State Government has indeed failed the masses.
Chinweuba Wachukwu, wrote from Umuahia