My instinctive response to Ndukwe Iko’s vituperations, against Governor Ikpeazu, was to ignore him and walk away. Afterall, Iko belongs to the political class that can best be described as Urchin.
He has no political homestead, having long dissipated what should have been his political home.
Iko, in the real sense of it is the one that is rudderless,that is, lacking a clear sense of his aims or principles, because Ndukwe is the one struggling with an uncanny temperament that puts him at loggerheads with everyone : from his party leadership to the political ideologies of his acclaimed party.In Abia he supports APC. In Edo, he supports PDP. He brazenly stands against all that his party stands for.
Does it not surprise you that Ndukwe Iko is also working against the ruling APC government that he claims to support? He also criticises his so called party leaders unabated!
If Ndukwe is stable, and not rudderless, he would have long left APC having realised that the Party,he parades the toga of a stalwart, have failed Nigerians and even Iko himself.
Honestly, a man with Ikoh’s pedigree cannot be taken seriously. He is either unstable or disoriented. Hence,regardless of my earlier position to walk away from his delusive interview, I however offer, as an Abian, to place few clarifications on the table, at least, to put the records straight.
Firstly, Iko traded in crass malfeasance by avering that the Governor Ikpeazu’s administration is “rudderless and vissionless,” that “the Government has no plan to affect the lives of the people positively.” May be, Iko mistook Ikpeazu’s Abia for APC that the youths ,including Ndukwe Iko, trooped to the streets to protest against their bad Government.
If rudderless is what I know it is, then, Iko should revisit Ikpeazu’s 7 pillars of development, that depicts everything but rudderless and visionless.
But for Iko’s myopia he should have known that Governor Ikpeazu is religious in implementing the agenda he sets out to achieve. Even the Enyimba Economic City does not look like an idea that is coming from a “rudderless” and “visionless” Governor.
Iko also accused Governor Ikpeazu of neglecting the Infrastructures in the state. And I ask, which Infrastructure? The Golden Guinea Breweries that have directly and indirectly employed over 500 persons or the over 90 economically strategic roads constructed in Aba, Umuahia, Abiriba and other parts of Abia State. Not even to mention the automated shoe factory that will obviously boost the activities around the leather business in Aba.
As a latter day patroit, why has Iko looked away from the highly dilapidated Federal roads criss- crossing the entry and exit points of Abia State? Because APC is involved? Regardless of that visible shame, Iko has the efrontery to accuse Governor Ikpeazu of being insensitive to the state of infrastructure in Abia State. Think of the Aba-Ikot Ekpene, Umuahia-Ikot Ekpene, Aba-Ph, Ohafia-Arochukwu and Umuahia-Ohafia Federal roads. Then, think of Iko and his sanity !
A visionless Government would not have assembled some of the best brains in Education to forge a way forward for Abiapoly or so vigorously spearhead the marketing of Made in Aba products to the extent that Aba products are internationally accepted.
Ikpeazu lacks vision but he was so proactive in his management of the novel covid 19 pandemic to the point that a post economic recovery committee comprising of the worlds best brains,including the highly sort- after Dr Okonjo Iweala was inaugurated and their reports already received.
Ikpeazu is visionless and rudderless, but thank God that he has, masterfully, superitended over a party with almost zero % record of in- fighting unlike what is obtainable in Iko’s APC. Even the recent renovations of the Michael Okpara auditorium does not seem like a feat by a visionless Governor!
Shame shall be your portion,Ndukwe Iko, if you ever drive through the Ubakala- Isi court axis of the Old Aba road or the Ohafia Abiriba ring road or,worst still, if you drink our rebranded Golden Guinea any time!
Let me assume that you have not been to some of the villages where the Poultry Clusters are already located to see,for yourself, what plans the “visionless” Ikpeazu’s administration has to improve farming.
You are also blind to see the Tenares palm trees already sprouting across the states. Nonetheless, the Abia State Community and Social Development projects(CSDP) scattered all over the state of Abia.
Your ears, sadly, are shut so you never heard of the Osikapa(Abia)rice, the Imenyi erosion control nor the Ozuitem water scheme.Those are uncommon innovations from an uncommon leader.
My brother, you smacks of delusion when you asserted that Governor Ikpeazu cares less about the welfare of his people order than that of his “cronies.” I challenge you to do a random check,around Nigeria, and you will find out that no state was as thorough and transparent, in the distribution of the covid- 19 food paliative, as Abia State was. Do your investigations and revert to me.
No State ,may be a few, that have encouraged and empowered her youths as Ikpeazu has done through YESSO and other youth empowerment programs.
Even with the dwindling revenue, across the nation,Governor Ikpeazu has remained forthright in salary payment and payment of the monthly pensions.This is in addition, to the fact, that Abia is among the states that implemented the consequential wage increase without much ado.
You had incited the public by avering to such misinformation that Ikpeazu is careless about the people’s welfare. I pray that the civil servants will not lynch you!
Have I not dignified you enough Iko? Otherwise, i would have gone on and on to educate you on the facts that you have chosen to overlook. But one thing you must note is that your APC, even when it has finally recovered from its self imposed stupor, cannot match , as much as I pray they do,the achievements of Governor Ikpeazu, which he has, painstakingly, engendered amidst a horrifying economy.
Ndukwe Iko get sense!
Kennedy Onyenma writes from Umuahia.
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