The State Government on Saturday, August 17, 2024, began to make good its vow to reclaim lands that were illegally acquired from government-owned schools by “smart” officials of the Okezie Victor Ikpeazu-led administration.
The Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, gave the hint concerning the resolve of the State Executive Council (EXCO) to recover all the affected lands.
Prince Kanu told journalists at a briefing in Umuahia that 180 public schools were “alienated and encumbered” through such unwholesome acquisition by functionaries of the last administration.
He said that Gov. Alex Otti had inaugurated a special committee to drive the process of the recovery of the parcels of land.
Interestingly, the committee, headed by the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Pastor Caleb Ajagba, with the Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Prof. Uche Eme Uche, as Secretary, commenced its assignment with the demolition of illegal structures erected on the property of the Government College, Umuahia.
In a speech at the demolition site, the General Manager of Umuahia Capital Development Authority, Kingsley Agomoh, described the exercise as a warning to those who have the habit of encroaching on government land.
Agomoh further said that the Abia State Government handed over the Government College, Umuahia to the Old Boys’ Association, along with a Certificate-of-Occupancy.
He, therefore, wondered why some individuals would throw caution to the wind and embark on the sale of government land, stressing the need for people to properly enquire before entering into such transactions.
Of course, the demolition at the Government College, Umuahia, where a great expanse of land was dubiously purchased by unscrupulous top government functionaries of the Ikpeazu’s unfortunate era, would be replicated in the remaining 179 identified schools and possibly more that might show up in the course of the committee’s assignment.
The racketeering that characterised the last administration, though typical of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was so highly irritating and scandalous as it was legendary of the party – a proof that a “leopard does not change its spots”. What a manner of irresponsible and indisciplined government it was that allowed such rascality to freely happen and the perpetrators are wishing that it be swept under the carpet?
Such a felony and large-scale offence against the state could only be ignored by a compromised government. Or, better still, a “kporakpo” PDP administration.
But it was fulltime for PDP’s litany of looting and acts of misdemeanor. Their crimes had, indeed, run full circle and God decreed that “Enough is enough!” Enough of the deceit, treachery and subterfuge in governance. God said that Abia must be free and His people liberated!
It is obvious that the recklessness in the governance of Abia was so possible for 24-long years because PDP strongly believed that it would remain in power “till thy kingdom come”, hence their slogan: “Abia is PDP; PDP is Abia!”
And now that a new Sheriff is in town and a Daniel coming to judgment, it would certainly be nothing short of an intentional and irreversible demolition of all the evil and wicked vestiges of PDP’s bad governance, wherever they may still be existing.
And make no mistake to expect a preservation of the anti-progressive status quo ante that stalled Abia’s prosperity and development for the more than two decades a bunch of insensitive political class in PDP reigned supreme.
It has been repeatedly recommended that Gov. Otti must take decisive measures that are not only disruptive in nature but capable of upturning the status quo to be able to successfully move Abia on the path of transformation and development.
Naturally, what is happening in the state today would not be welcoming to PDP and those that plundered and misappropriated the resources of Abia, having also wrecked the fortunes of the state due to their greed and insatiable quest for personal aggrandizement.
As Seth Godin, an American teacher and renowned author, would say, “If you’re not upsetting anyone, you’re not changing the status quo”. Gov. Otti is determined to step on toes to be able to fix Abia and certainly owes no apologies to those who had for many decades stood as a cog in the wheel of Abia’ progress. They are the ones so so upset, ranting and raving, crying wolf over such corrective policies and programmes of his administration.
It was here in Abia that a sitting governor of PDP stock purchased a state-of-the-art printing equipment, ostensibly for the state-owned National Ambassador Newspaper, only to allegedly divert the same to establish a private media outfit in Lagos. And, expectedly, nothing happened thereafter to date. That act of open thievery was swept under the carpet by the succeeding administration.
But this time around, it would be self-delusion and mere wishful thinking for any reasonable Abian to expect that any of such callous abuse of power by Ikpeazu and/or his political acolytes, who shamelessly and unconscionably coveted public properties, should be ignored. Doing so would on its own be tantamount to another crime against the state.
It is no longer a subject of debate or speculation that Gov. Otti has come to cleanse the Augean stables left behind by PDP, hence his government would continue to expose and deal with the mindless and unimaginable underhand dealings that were perpetrated against the state by PDP.
Nothing can be more motivating and gratifying than when the governor looks back to appreciate what he has so far achieved in clearing the Okezie’s mess in the 15 months of his administration.
Suffice it to state here that topping the list of his achievements is his effortless defrayal of the humongous N10 billion arrears of pensions bequeathed to his government by the Ikpeazu’s profligate eight-year tenure.
Next was the defrayment of the staggering N50 billion salary arrears accummulated by Ikpeazu’s administration, in spite of having the grace of benefiting from the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s over N1 trillion Bailout Funds to states of the federation in August 2015.
It is imperative to say that the Federal Government’s intervention was specifically tied to the payment of arrears of salaries and pensions owed by states.
Unfortunately and ironically, too, Abia’s share of the bailout funds, totalling N14.2 billion, was scandalously squandered, while Ikpeazu allowed salaries and pensions to pile up.
The same Ikpeazu-led government also received over N22 billion Paris Club Refund that was unaccounted for, yet Abia civil servants were owed several months of salary arrears under the pretext that Abia had no money.
Today, what was deemed impossible under Ikpeazu and PDP has been seamlessly made possible by the governor. Abia workers and the respected senior citizens now receive bank alerts for their salaries and pensions on the 28th of every month.
Little wonder the outcome of the 2023 Governorship poll caused Ikpeazu and his co-travellers in the ill-fated administration an unimaginable nightmare.
Many hold the view that the racketeering on the landed property of public schools was only one aspect of the last vestiges of the odious PDP-led government.
Consequently, it is expected that as more of such brazen misdeeds get uncovered, more bulldozers and necessary actions would be unleashed to deal summarily with them.
Today, the attention is on public schools, who knows where else such an impunity might have recklessly happened but yet uncovered.
As the efforts toward reimagining and building a new Abia by Gov. Otti’s administration gathers more momentum, the people expect the government to dig deeper to further uncover the hidden crimes perpetrated during Ikpeazu’s eight years. This is to further pave the way for greater sanity and unencumbered system.
The more such unholy vestiges and traces of PDP’s impunty and malfeasance are exposed and demolished, the closer the march toward the realisation of the envisioned new Abia.
Eagle Okoro is a Public Affairs analyst and writes from Umuahia.
