Certainty Of Abia State Being Better Under Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah From May 2027.
Thursday (Orie) 18-06-2026.
Good and effective governance entails maximum deployment and utilisation of all resources at the disposal of Government to guarantee the overall welfare of the masses.
Since June 2023, being the first one month of the Presidency of His Excellency, Most Distinguished Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, the financial fortunes of the Federal Government of Nigeria, 36 State Governments, and the 774 Local Government Councils, made up of 768 Standard Local Government Authorities in the 36 States, and 6 Area Councils in Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, have increased astronomically. The result is that some States that were receiving a monthly average of Three Billion Naira now receive a monthly average of Twenty Billion Naira from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC.
The magic that gave rise to this humongous rise in revenue to the different tiers of Government was a very simple honest strategy, reflective of a strong political will in corporate leadership, contemplated, initiated and applied by President Tinubu. It was the removal of unsustainable Fuel Subsidy, that had, for many years, dangerously drained the economic purse of the Nigerian State, empowering just few individuals, with indescribable accumulation of wealth while more than 95% of the rest of Nigerians wallowed in abject penury. It was not an easy decision, though.
Abia State, by every conceivable description, was among States which monthly average allocation from FAAC hovered around Three Billion Naira. Unlike pre-Tinubu era, the State now receives a monthly average of, at least, Fifteen Billion Naira. This revenue boost is exclusive of her monthly Internal Revenue average of not less than N3.58b.
With the unusual high rise in the revenue profile of Abia State, it was never anticipated that Schools in Abia State will be found in very deplorable conditions.
No one ever imagined that with the type of financial allocations at the beck and call of Abia State Government, Primary Health Centres in the State would suddenly become incapable of treating ordinary fever that is not as a result of any underlying sickness. All the Primary Health Centres in Abia State are without even the commonest medicine, including Vitamin C tablets, which are the cheapest amongst common medicines.
Abians had honestly thought that with the huge amount of money at the disposal of the State Government, no Civil or Public Servants in the State would be deliberately frustrated by denying them their routine promotion, which is their entitlement, and their joy of service.
At no time, with all the revenue available to the State Government, did the people of Abia State ever imagine that the Labour Party Government in Abia State could be as heartless and inhuman as to sack more than 7,000 sons and daughters of Abia State from her Civil and Public Services. No excuses can justify that.
Markets in Aba, Umuahia, Ohafia, Lokpanta, and some other places in the State generate huge incomes for the State Government. Every right-thinking Abian had expected that, with not less than an octuple increase in the revenue of Abia State, Matkets would not be in such deplorable state that vehicles fall often and even kill passers-by in the market or even with a light rainfall, markets are flooded, constituting health hazards to both traders and buyers.
It is painful that Abia Civil and Public Servants are the least paid in the South-East Region. The New Minimum Wage graciously approved by the Federal Government of President Tinubu has been turned a subject of ridicule to Abia Workers, as there was no consequential adjustment in workers’ salaries. What a Level 13 Civil Servant in Abia State earns in a month is by far less than what a Level 10 Civil Servant in either Anambra or Enugu State earns!
Generally, Abians had wanted to witness, taking into consideration the extraordinary boom in Abia State revenue under APC Federal Government of President Tinubu, more roads, including in the rural areas that are now inaccessible because of the rains, Hospitals, Smart Schools and Human Capital Development Schemes, but, alas, there is nothing to be witnessed in these sectors.
The State Government uses the Media to create impressions that that actually do not exist in Abia State.
Above all, it does appear that the State Government’s public financial transactions are characteristically opaque.
All of the above, and many more not mentioned because of time and space, have avoidably combined to slow down the pace of development and growth of Abia State, especially arising from inexplicable high cost of projects, and claims of financially executed projects that are nowhere to be seen in any part of the State.
The 2027 Governorship Candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abia State, Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah, has taken note of the above abnormalities and have vowed to himself to make Abia State a better State.
Under Chief Opah, starting from May 2027, the following and many others will be regular;
(1) Civil and Public Servants in Abia State, including Teachers, will no longer be denied their customary promotions. Payment of their Leave Allowances will be automatic.
(2) Abia State Pupils and Students will study in an enabling Conduceive environment.
(3) Primary Health Centres in the State will be provided with enough facilities to guarantee functionality and effective service delivery.
(4) Internal Roads in Urban Markets will be given a boost.
(5) Enough and quantifiable emphasis will be placed on Integrated Rural Development, building a master plan of roads that will guarantee a network of inter-Local Goverment Accessibility for Economic Growth.
(6) Provision will be made for farmers in the State to have access to non-interest refundable soft loans.
(7) As one of the ways to facilitate youth empowerment and economic relevance, the Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah’s Government will reintroduce the 292 Electoral Wards lawfully created by Abia State House of Assembly, which unfortunately and unacceptably were discarded by the present Government of Labour Party in the State for no justifiable reason(s). When that is done, it would mean injection of an additional 106 young men and women into the formal political dynamics of Abia State, creating economic stability.
(8) One of the reasons why there is abject poverty in Abia State is the State Government’s obduracy not to allow the Local Government Councils have control over their statutory financial allocations from Abuja. Even their internal revenue windows are all not only sequestered but strangely frustratingly confiscated by the Labour Party Government.
Under Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah, the Local Government Councils, which are a Third Tier Government by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, will enjoy a high level of Financial Autonomy, with an equal sense of honesty, transparency and accountability, for maximum service delivery.
(9) So far, there is a strong feeling amongst many Abians that cost of execution of projects in the State are unprecedentedly exorbitantly high. It is doubtful if Procurement procedures are actually observed by the Labour Party Government in the State. It is, therefore, not impossible that what the Labour Party Government claims it expends in a given project could, if properly scrutinised, deliver, at least, three of such projects.
The tide will surely change when APC, with Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah, takes over the reins of Government in May 2027.
Certainly, better Abia State will be attainable under Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah.
Sir Don Ubani is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State, and Publisher of Equity Global Reporters.
