Ikpeazu: Foreign Direct Investments and a Governor’s Strategic Thinking

By Jude Ndukwe

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” Proverbs 23:7

It was Steve Jobs who said, “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Moving mountains is a product of the mind. A thinking mind will always achieve things that are quite staggering and audacious. Sometimes the results from a thinking mind make mean people confused and can also make one’s traducers go berserk. They question the possibility of the exceptional results of a thinking mind. They cannot fathom it. Most times they wish it never happens.

This is not strange. It has been like that from time immemorial. This is because a man who thinks, not just think, for everyone thinks, but according to Christopher Hitchens, “The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks”, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu has proved that he does not just think but thinks far and strategically, not just for the election but for the next generation.

For Abia State to continue to grow beyond its status of average height to an Olympian status in not only Nigeria but also globally, in education, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, health, agriculture, youth employment, women empowerment, security etc, it needs a governor who thinks outside the box. And thankfully, God has blessed the State with someone like Ikpeazu, a critical thinker, a flawless and scientific assessor of events and indices around him for better results just like the accomplished scientist that he is.

It is therefore not a thing of surprise that when Abia State was recently announced as one of the top three investment destinations for foreign investors in nigeria, after Abuja and Lagos, tongues started wagging as to how such a thing could happen in Abia State.

In that report, for the last quarter of 2018, “Abuja had $2.5 billion capital inflow with a ranking of 42 per cent performance; Lagos, $1.6 billion capital inflow with a ranking of 30 per cent performance and Abia, $1.2 billion with a ranking of 23 per cent. The other states ranked between zero and 0.2 per cent”.

The most amazing thing is that the gap between Abia and Lagos is so close that with Governor Ikpeazu’s continued drive in infrastructural development and continued improvements in human and societal developmental indices, the State under Ikpeazu is poised to overtake not only Lagos but also Abuja to become the number one foreign direct investment destination for the whole of Nigeria in a very short while.

Abia has done it in education where she has remained first consecutively for four years in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, in the ranking of WASCE. If it was possible in education, it surely is also possible in attracting foreign investments to the State.

Yet, this is not accidental. It certainly is the result of a mentally committed and physically involved governor who, from day one, had Education as one of the Developmental Pillars and Enablers, and Ease of Doing Business as number one Enabler of his administration.

Following this, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu gave mouthwatering and irresistible offers to potential investors who wish to do business in Abia State as follows:

1. 100% waiver on all levies and dues (excluding user fees and PAYE) for new investment in education not less than Five Hundred Million Naira (N500,000,000.00) in verified value with a workforce of not less than 100 persons.