ABIANS, WEEP NO MORE; HELP IS ON THE WAY!
A Text Of My Governorship Manifesto
-By Dr. Alex Otti.
As you may have realized, the darkest hour is just before the dawn. For our new beginning is just around the corner, and our only duty this time around is to make sure we participate in the electoral process. Also, to encourage others who have almost given up hope to fight to victory, and most importantly, fight to take back and rebuild our state.
I am indeed grateful to the millions of Abians in our various communities, thousands who live in various cities in Nigeria and overseas, who have remained steadfast, insisting that our vision and agenda represent the most practical pathway to transform our state from its present dysfunctional outlook to one that we all can be proud of. I am humbled by the fact that majority of those who started this journey with us in 2014 are still standing firm and believing that we shall get it right this time.
Many more have also joined us in recent times, in our fight to liberate Abia. I cannot thank all of you enough for your optimism,commitment to our course, and most importantly, believing that Abia is worth fighting for.
We have remained in the political space to disrupt the status quo that has reduced our pensioners, civil servants and teachers to beggars – a system that has made hunger,insecurity, infrastructural decay and other ills key stake holders in the state. Our goal is to provide an alternative governance model that works for one and all, not one that only works for those with close proximity to those in power.
If you hire me, I will devote everything in me to work with and rally all stakeholders and citizens to restore the pride and glory of Abia state. I have the experience to commence implementation of our program from my first day in office. The programs we plan to pursue are derived from extensive studies on the challenges facing the state and the unsettling changes required to reverse the rot and reposition Abia as the economic bride of South East, Nigeria.
We will ensure that civil servants can earn their legitimate entitlements on time and pensioners can spend their retirement years in joy and fulfillment. Abia’s resources must serve the economic and social interests of all who live within its borders. Gainful employment, quality infrastructure, clean and decent environment, access to quality public education and healthcare, including other countless economic opportunities that come with living in the 21st century, should be our right; not privileges to be begged for or auxiliary benefits to be negotiated.
THE ABIA ECONOMY
Abia State has an estimated population of 5million people. The state is noted for its prowess in leather and garment manufacturing. It is also an agricultural hub and has solid mineral deposits in commercial quantities.
The state has one of the lowest IGR per capita of N3,462 which is below the national average of N4,616 per person, making the state susceptible to the risk of incurring more debt. Its net debt per capita stands at N30,324, higher than the national average of N27,316 per person.
An estimated 51% or 818,926 of the state’s I.63m labour force cannot contribute to the revenue pool of the state government through income taxes as they are unemployed.
Furthermore, nearly 31% of the state’s residents live in poverty meaning they have very constraining purchasing power.
This is partly why its IGR per capita is lower than the national average. From the foregoing, it seems that the only path to economic recovery for the state depends on job creation, poverty reduction, industrialisation and fiscal restructuring.
Its internally generated revenue averages N15b annually while federal allocation has hovered around N60b annually. Total debt profile, though a subject of debate is about N140b. GDP is around N3.5m. As a result of infrastructural decay and other inefficiencies, the state is rated 32nd out of the 36 states in the “Ease of doing business index.” For context, Anambra state is rated 7th and Imo is at the 11th position. Sokoto and jigawa places 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Health and education spending per capita are at about N1000.00 and N1,400.00 respectively. Again, Jigawa’s numbers are N2,700.00 and N7000.00 respectively.
As would be deduced from this document, we must harness the enormous potential in the state and improve the IGR in geometric progression as we expect decline in Federal Allocations. We intend to double GDP in the next few years. We must also aim to be around where Sokoto is in the “Ease of doing business” and significantly do better than Jigawa in Education and Health spending.
ABIA SHOULD BE FIRST BUT…
Across the South-East and South-South geographical zones of Nigeria, we have seen tremendous improvements in states with less revenues and potentials. Good quality roads across urban and rural areas, roads that can last for decades, built by quality and reputable engineering firms, have replaced bush paths and pothole ridden motorways. Our neighbours have long outlived most of the mundane issues that dominate our politics in Abia. They no longer celebrate routine activities such as paying salaries and commissioning one, two, three kilometers of poorly constructed roads. They are now implementing development master plans that will transit their states into mega smart cities and technology hubs. In some of the places that were metaphors of underdevelopment before now, serious attention is now being paid to education whereby their pupils and students are leading nations in critical areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The fact, my dear brothers and sisters, is that our neighbours have all left us behind. They have set off on a journey of actualizing their potentials, maximizing their resources to serve their present and future generation.
FOR HOW MUCH LONGER?
It is strange and sad that our memories of developmental and pragmatic governance date back to the glorious days of our progenitors. Many of us still remember when Aba used to be a model city, the glory and testament to the Igbo man’s resilience, ingenuity and phoenix-like personality.
How did we become a land that abandoned its history? How did we toss aside the economic and development blueprint of our father, Dr. Michael Iheonukara Okpara, the very model of leadership that made the Eastern Region of old the fastest growing economy in the world at a time? What happened to those glorious secondary schools that produced global thoughts leaders like Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Christopher Okigbo, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Clement Isong, Justice Udo Udoma, and several others?
It would not be difficult to admit that we have failed to live up to the footprints of our foresighted and visionary fathers. The leadership we have been burdened with in the last two decades has done nothing but superintend over a wasteful system of rent seekers. Governance has been made a private enterprise for the leaders and their cronies. The consequence is that all the enabling institutions that epitomized hard work, creativity, integrity, and service have been completely degraded. It is a tragedy of immense proportion, with an outcome of travesty, which is the mess that we see all over the state today – the collapse of governance, our children being out of school due to the government not paying salaries; regulatory bodies withdrawing accreditation from higher institutions; doctors in public hospitals being perennially on strike; and most of our link roads now death traps.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, unemployment in Abia is Presently at 51%. this is higher than the national average of 33%. About 31% of Abia people live in poverty. Our debt profile has grown in geometric progression from about N35b in 2015 to over N140b by 2021, and continues to grow.
My manifesto stems from a conviction that despite the economic challenges in the country, not peculiar to Abia state, there is yet ample headroom to fully exploit synergies with the federal government, other progressive states, Development Financial Institutions (DFIs), and private investors to build a prosperous and secure state.
We believe that our people are blessed with the innate dexterity and drive to achieve, if only the government can provide the enabling environment, and then nudge them in the right direction. We see huge opportunities for our state even beyond the confines of the state and country. We are a global people. A strong, innovative and productive Abia homeland can leverage on the economic window that the new African Continental Free Trade Agreement Area (AFCFTA), with a market size of over US2.6 trillion, to grow.
Our key objective will be to provide an enabling environment that will ensure equal opportunity for wealth creation, the establishment of micro, small and medium scale industries and businesses. We plan to situate Abia as a centre of excellence for 21st century compliant human capital development, and actively equip them to gainfully partake in the global digital tribe. We will roll out fit for purpose smart cities, towns and markets in a sustainable green and habitable environment. We will restore and normalize the fundamental Igbo principal values of hard work, ethics, compassion, and competition.
Our aim is to achieve fiscal independence from the federal government of Nigeria, by creating wealth and to significantly grow internal revenue to the extent that Abia will not require allocations from the federal government to meet her recurrent expenditure, in the first three years after we are sworn into office.
Our vision is to install a public service that is well trained, highly motivated and responsive to deliver the agenda we have promised the people, in a seamless professional manner. The yard stick to measure our success will be when our homeland transits from a location where the citizens are actively looking for alternative residences, for better economic opportunities, to a destination that offers economic prospects and social security for her existing population and prospects.
We are committed to an open and transparent leadership, and shall dedicate the people’s money to work for them. They will reserve the unhindered right to ask questions, and demand answers from the leadership they have elected. Due process shall be the active mantra of our administration, no citizen, no matter how highly placed, shall have undue access to our collective patrimony, under our watch.
I do not pretend to have the answers to all the challenges that we face as a state. I will therefore set up avenues through which citizens can offer their ideas, and can even complain as feedback to enable us improve. To achieve this, there will be dedicated hotlines, email addresses and other media channels through which we can be accessed. These channels will be manned by well trained and highly motivated people to make sure that complaints and suggestions received are escalated to the point where they will receive the necessary attention. Periodic town hall meetings shall be organized to hear directly from the people. We will actively seek collaboration with town unions, the church, and other religious bodies, other states, regional blocks, traditional rulers, international financial institutions, and donor agencies in our quest for a better Abia.
We will ensure that ‘made in Aba’ regains its lost glory, and that any product with Aba as its originating location has the stamp of quality, we will achieve this by establishing quality assurance agencies that will enforce compliance. We will empower SMEs and artisans in the state by patronizing them. Government will not pay for the purchase of services or goods that can be made in Abia.
I am a firm believer in the oneness of our state. To manifest this, under my leadership, government infrastructure and political appointments will be fairly distributed across the state and interest groups. We will accommodate non-indigenes who are desirous of contributing to the realization of our agenda.
We will work with other government arms to ensure that we are all pulling in the same direction, which is necessary for checks and balance.
To be continued next week on Freepressnews.com.ng
Dr. Alex Otti, (OFR) is the governorship candidate of the Labour Party for Abia State of Nigeria in the on-coming general elections in 2023.