Orji: I Support the Call for National Dialogue

   Orji

ABIA STATE GOVERNOR, CHIEF THEODORE ORJI, IN THIS INTERVIEW WITH JOURNALISTS IN UMUAHIA RECENTLY, SPEAKS ON THE RECENT CONSTITUTION OF A COMMITTEE ON THE NATIONAL DIALOGUE BY PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN, THE CRISIS IN THE PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY AMONG OTHER ISSUES. CHARLES AJUNWA,  PRESENTS THE EXCERPTS…

Just few days ago, Nigerians celebrated the country’s 53rd independence anniversary. What is your assessment of Nigeria?

So far so good, it can’t be worse. You can’t compare Nigeria of 2013 with the Nigeria of 1959, 1960 or 1961. Improvements and developments have taken place and democracy is moving on. I don’t believe that we are not making any progress; we are making progress. If we have lasted in democracy from 1999 till now without any military intervention or incursion into government, it shows that we are improving.

Before 1999, it was a question of civilians coming for two years and the military coming back and staying for several years; at least that aspect shows that we have some improvement and people are coming to appreciate the essence of democracy as one of the best forms of government. So we are moving and as far as Nigerians will be patient enough and participate in the democracy to grow it, we will be very good in the future.

There are so much grumblings in the land and many people are saying because of the state of the nation, there should be no need for any celebration this year, what is your view on this?

Countries and nations have their peculiar problems, we know that advancement brings also complex criminality. For instance, we didn’t know about kidnapping before but it was present in other nations eventually it surfaced in our nation. It came as a result of advancement in technology, yes of course poverty may be there but advancement in technology is part and parcel of what brought about kidnapping in this part of the world. Now, there is the other one you call Boko Haram, which has gone to the extent that no person should appreciate at all.

They know their reasons for doing what they do and we know why it is being done but the killings that are coming up from the Boko Haram is what should be condemned because God condemns bloodletting or taking the life which you did not create. If any person in Nigeria has any problem whether that of leadership or economic, there are many ways of venting the annoyance. There are many ways of showing it and there are many ways of tackling it, but it is not definitely by killing people. After killing the people who will stay behind to do the reform? So, we should condemn the killings that are going on in some parts of Nigeria, the bloodletting that is going on should be condemned entirely.

President Goodluck Jonathan has just announced the constitution of a committee on national dialogue, what is your take on this?

My take on it is that the President’s attitude showed that he is a democrat. You know this has been the yearning of Nigerians, for us to discuss, some Nigerians have been calling for a dialogue and such calls have persisted. The attribute of a good leader is to listen to the people who gave you the mandate. The people are saying that we should discuss to know the problems of Nigeria and how to go about it and the President has said, ‘yes, it is proper to discuss,’ I support him because it is proper to discuss.

First and foremost, is that this discuss will at least engage people. There are people who are not doing anything, everyday, they stay in their houses and bring up ideas; positive and negative ideas but when you bring them together and they start discussing, you have engaged them. They are positively busy and eventually they are going to bring out ideas that will eventually be considered. Those ones that are good for Nigerians will be incorporated. So that it is a good idea, and I support the President that there should be dialogue, let us discuss because everything ends on the discussion table whether it is war or family quarrel, everything ends on discussion table where the people agree on how to go about the situation.

One of the arguments that arose shortly after the President’s broadcast was that we have had several conferences in the past yet none of them has been implemented. Secondly, what is the Southeast going to take to the conference?

Well, people must always criticise. When they say that we have had discussions before and that such conferences have come and gone but that nothing came out of them, were those conferences under President Jonathan’s administration? They weren’t under him, this is a new leadership under President Goodluck Jonathan that is instituting this conference, and from experience, if nothing had come out of the previous conferences, I am sure that he will make sure that the outcome of this conference will be implemented. I am sure he will do that.

When the conference is on, the Southeast will also articulate its own problems. We have our problems and challenges, so we are going to bring people together, they will make inputs and such inputs will be taken to the conference. One thing that we have been agitating for all these years is that there must be parity in terms of state creation. That is one of the things that concerns us right now because others cannot be having six or seven states and the Southeast will only have five. We have been consistent on that and that is the first thing that we are going to lay on the agenda. I am sure that we will demand that more states should be given to us that is the number one before we start to talk on other things.

Will Jonathan run in 2015 or will the North take over? One Igbo leader was quoted as saying that whether it is an abomination for an Igbo man to sleep in the Aso Rock?

There is no written document at all. You and I know how the president emerges. The Igbo can go and contest, but before you go into that contest, you have to make sure that you will win. It is not just going to the contest to try your luck; you have to make sure that you will win. The argument that we have not been in Aso Rock and it is the turn of Igbo man to go to Aso Rock but the man alone cannot take himself   to Aso Rock; people will help him to go there.

Therefore, you have to get the consensus of others to go there. The North,  South and West for you to make it because the whole thing is based on population; it is a game of numbers. So when an Igbo man says that he wants to be the president, he has to look at the appropriate time to pursue it and once you go you get it but not at the inappropriate time because you cannot make it, you don’t have the population. If you don’t have the population and the time is not ripe, you cannot make it, even if you don’t have the population but the time is propitious, you can make it because others will come to your aid and say, ‘you have not gone there before, this is your turn go there and taste it.’

What do you think of the activities of the New PDP, especially their conditions for peace, which is that President Goodluck Jonathan should not run in 2015?

The point is that there is nothing like New PDP, we have one PDP. If you go to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s office, you see that the party that is there is the PDP. There is no old PDP or new PDP. What you have to bear in mind is that we have only one PDP. What is happening in the party now is not peculiar to the PDP, it has happened to other parties and it will continue to happen to other parties also.

That people are not happy with what is happening in the party and they now want to cause small confusion in order to be heard, but the PDP has the capacity to solve the problem that is my confidence that all those things will come and go. But let them come out openly and say the reason they are doing this and the party will be in the position to address those problems and placate everybody but as far as we are concerned, we have one PDP.

When you have stayed so long in a system, you have the right to say your mind but it will boil down to the fact that if you continue to try and try and then you discover that you are no longer comfortable with where you are then you find a new ground. You can go somewhere and try your luck but those who are comfortable will continue to stay.

Let’s zero down to Abia State, what are the areas that give you joy as we celebrate Nigeria’s independence anniversary?

When I look back at what we have covered, I feel very happy. The first thing is that we now have peace and security in Abia State that makes me happy. Another thing is that if you talk about unity of purpose and in politics, Abia should rank either first or second in the entire federation.

The fact that this government is able to bring all Abians to the mainstream of politics and they are happy that they are there is a big achievement. Have you heard of the new PDP in Abia? You can’t hear it because who-is-who in Abia politics is in PDP and we have one common goal, which is to move Abia to the next level but it wasn’t like this before. Previously, Abia was polarised, most Abians in Lagos were not coming home, the same was applicable to those in Abuja, but today, during any function in Abia State, you see them coming because they are happy with what the government in power is doing.
That is another major achievement, which people may tend to overlook.

Before now, Abia had no voice at the federal level as a result of that we were denied a lot of things; there was no development and nothing was coming to Abia but today, no person will say that Abia is denied anything that is being given to other states because we have a voice in Abuja. Not only the single voice of the governor, but a corporate voice of the people, so it gives me joy.

Your commissioner has given us the analysis of the ongoing transformation in Aba, what are you hoping to gain by repositioning the city?

There are many things to gain. You know Aba very well, that it is a commercial hub not only of Abia or the Southeast, but Nigeria in general. However, because of certain things that have happened in the past, the city seemed to be neglected for a very long time. The kidnapping saga made entrepreneurs run away and that pulled us back. The contractors and developmental partners that would have come during that period stayed away, so it dragged us back for sometime.

We want to ensure that goods that are made in Aba are recognised. That is how Japan started. In those days, people were deriding the spoons and forks that were made in Japan, but today people are struggling to have Japanese goods in their homes. There is no home that you don’t see any Japanese item.

What is the vision behind the relocation of Umuahia Central Market?

The vision is to first and foremost expand Umuahia. At times when people come to Umuahia and end up with the market and railway lines, they go away with the bad impression of Umuahia not knowing that development is happening at the periphery of the town. You should know the history of how this market started; the first market that the colonialists established was the Garki, where the northerners offloaded their cows from where the cows are distributed to Port Harcourt and other areas. Umuahia used to be the centre for cows.

This market at the centre was for palm produce because we have the rail line, but when the colonial masters saw that having a market at the centre of the town would hinder expansion, they started thinking of how to move away the market since 1935, it is historical, since that date till now, no person has done it.

When we move this market you will appreciate the beauty of this town. The town will look more as a state capital than being a local government capital because we are going to make sure that the place is cleaned up and we will put in place a structure that will befit the town. Secondly, another town is going to be developed in Ubani, it is now developing because currently we have about 500 houses on ground in that place, so these houses will be occupied by people. We have schools, hospitals and other facilities there.

Fighting Poverty

                                          Mrs. Orji
                                         

With pervasive poverty, a novel idea to help the indigent of society work together through savings groups and a support programme is helping to get lives back on track in Abia State, writes Charles Ajunwa

“What we are doing in Abia is to make sure that people prosper. That is why I keep moving around the state mobilising people to engage in income generating activities in order to promote their standards of living,” said Mrs. Mercy Orji the First Lady of Abia State. “Since I realised this innate gift from my creator, I have never stopped giving especially to the less-privileged in the society. This is what God wants me to do, and I will continue to do it for the rest of my life.”
Like elsewhere, families still struggle to buy school supplies for their children in Abia State, but the wife of the governor, Mrs. Orji is taking to heart the challenge faced by the poor.

On a recent Saturday, Hannah-May Foundation, a charity managed by Orji distributed various empowerment items to the indigents and unemployed in the state.
A total of 850 beneficiaries drawn from the 17 local government areas of the state got various items of empowerment from the organisation at a ceremony that took place in Umuahia Township Stadium.
The items include sewing machines, generating sets, barbing kits, hair dryers, grinding machines, desktop computers, weaving machines and vulcanising machines.
Mrs. Orji who personally supervised the distribution of the various empowerment items, urged the beneficiaries to utilise them to break away from poverty

An elated Mrs. Orji told the beneficiaries who were singing and dancing that the items, if properly managed would make them become self-reliant.
She had also in the recent past distributed wheel chairs, artificial limbs, foodstuffs and even built and furnished homes for some indigent men and women who have nobody to support them. The philanthropic work embarked upon by her NGO, according to Mrs. Orji is in line with the policy thrust of Governor Theodore Orji’s government.

According to her, the multiplier effects of such philanthropic gestures will help many indigent people in the society to become self-reliant in addition to creating employments for others.
The Abia First Lady who is never tired of assisting the less-privileged had earlier distributed gift items like bags of rice, salt, beans, treated mosquito nets, cartons of beverages, toiletries, cosmetics, detergent among others to 34 less-privileged homes in the state. The beneficiaries include, Uzuakoli Motherless Babies Home, Ahieke Ndume, Agape Orphanage, Nigeria Prisons, Umuahia, and School of the Blind in Afara Umuahia.

Apart from giving out free gifts to the less-privileged, Mrs. Orji facilitated the construction of a skill acquisition centre in the state capital to enable the youths and women to be trained in various trades.
And now that centre is a beehive of activities and a place of fulfillment for many who are getting their lives back on the track.
“I believe the modern skill acquisition centre located at the New Umuahia Layout, is a dream come through. During my husband’s electioneering campaigns across the state, I promised the women and youths that I will build a befitting skill acquisition centre and today, I am glad that the whole idea has been realised. That beautiful dream has turned into fruition. I give God Almighty the glory for enabling me to realise this project, which is my pet project for the state. Of course, this was made possible through the support of my darling and caring husband, Governor Theodore A. Orji,” she said.

She added: “Honestly, the whole thing was influenced by my personal experience in life. I want to use this opportunity to specially thank my husband for always being there for me. I was able to realise this today through his active support both morally and financially. We have about 10 trades offered at the skill acquisition centre namely--Information Technology, fashion designing and interior decoration, shoe making, electrical, catering and home management, electronic and radio repairs, plumbing, wielding as well as GSM repairs.”
Orji said that Abia youths would continue to enjoy the services of the centre, long after she leaves office because “we have capable hands that run the centre after I must have left office. For example, the permanent secretary in Women Affairs and Social Development, which is affiliated to my office, is a no-nonsense woman. When I leave office the next person that will come in will not allow the project to collapse because the whole programme is targeted at the youths, men and women. 

“I will like to be remembered for good when I go out from here because of the good work I have done in Abia State. I want to leave a legacy so that I will be remembered just like my husband who is leaving behind very good legacy in the state.”