The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Makeover

  • Profiles in makeover

    There is obviously ample capacity within the Muhammadu Buhari administration for redressing what we may call faulty discharges of presidential verbal currents. But this capacity, as it seems, does not lie with the president in person; and so, there may be a need for internal conversation in The Villa on proprieties and best practices in presidential communication.

    The standard practice by the administration hitherto has been that whenever the president let slips a verbal mishap, presidential spokespersons rally to spin off redeeming narratives out of the problematic commentary. But those after-the-fact slants at the best of times have really been less than redemptive, and oftentimes they left the distaste stoked in the citizenry by the original comment rankling.

    It gets more complicated when it is the president himself who hazards the makeover, because he could end up reinforcing rather than relieving the narrative that was problematic ab initio. That seems to be the case with his recent comment at a Commonwealth forum in London in which he was widely construed to have said most Nigerian youths do nothing and only feel entitled, nursing idle expectations of oil rents.

    During his visit to the United States last week, the president by all ratings put up a sterling performance compared with the London outing earlier in April. But he also took out the time in Washington to push back against criticisms of his controversial comment at the Commonwealth forum in London, saying those criticisms arose because the media willy-nilly left out crucial aspects of what he really said.

    The Nigerian leader had been quoted, even by Presidency accounts, as saying in response to a question at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London on April 18 that: “We have a very young population; our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million. More than 60 per cent of the population is below the age of 30. A lot of them have not been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria has been an oil producing country, therefore they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare and education free.”

    In an interview with the Voice of America (VoA), Hausa Service, last Tuesday, President Buhari said his words at the London forum were misrepresented by the media. He told the radio service: “You know Nigeria’s population is now between 180 and 190 million, and 60 per cent of this population are youths – that is 30 years downward. In the North, for instance, most youths have not been to school or are dropouts. If not that we had favourable rainfall in the last two farming seasons, most of them have no jobs and are just idling away.

    “These youths, even if they travel out of the North for greener pasture, they hardly make enough to pay their rent, not to talk of feeding, clothing and transportation back home. I made all these explanations, (but) they refused to highlight them in their reports; and you know the media in Nigeria in most cases only do whatever they like. For instance, the nation’s achievements in the agricultural sector where millions of Nigerians benefited financially were left unreported by the media.”

    And so, it is the racy media – not even political mischief-makers earlier fingered by government spokespersons – that get all the knocks for the ‘#lazy Nigerian youths’ windstorm. And let’s not even dare to feign hollow innocence here: a broad segment of the Nigerian media truly gets sensationally negativistic on many matters that are plainly developmental.

    Still, you could hardly say President Buhari’s clarification to the VoA served the image of the Nigerian youth before the world better than his controversial comment at the London forum. Because the VoA clarification not only reinforced the image of Nigerian youths – this time, more specifically in the North – as mostly illiterate and idle, it also portrayed whatever contribution they have made as happenstances deriving from lucky breaks in the fickle conditions of nature. To put this in other words, there is little creativity or none at all to the youths’ engagement with nation building.

    Perception, however, is notoriously subjective and dependent on the lens through which the perceiver views his subject matter. It is like the proverbial cup that is half filled with water. A cup that is neither full nor empty can be described from whatever prism one views it: a positive-minded person will say it is half full, thereby celebrating what is available and the prospect of further growth; whereas a cynic will bemoan the cup as half empty, thus focusing on what has not been achieved and the possibility of what is available being depleted.

    By application, even with a measure of makeover in the VoA interview, Nigerian youths through Mr. President’s viewlenses remain predominantly an embattled and wasting lot. But if you want to view these youths and their role in national development from a whole new prism, you need not even go outside the Buhari presidency. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, last week, called out many young Nigerians who have made outstanding and innovative strides in sundry sectors that not only contributed to building this country’s economy, but have also boosted national pride.

    In a keynote address at The Platform, a civic forum instituted by Lagos cleric Pastor Poju Oyemade to facilitate national exchange of ideas, the vice president argued that government’s role is to formulate the vision and create the environment for nationhood. “The real building of nations is done and is best seen through the efforts and accomplishments of many outside of political leadership – men and women in business, agriculture, education, entertainment and the arts, who by just doing their business diligently, serving faithfully or making sacrifices, contribute to building the economies and social systems that ultimately build the nation,” he said.

    To that extent, the vice president articulated a long list of Nigerians youths, outlining their profiles and the courageous startups they’ve enacted in innovation and technology, healthcare, agriculture, beauty and fashion, literature and the arts as well as entertainment. His presentation not only identified these young Nigerians by name, with their thrilling accomplishments and the contributions these have made to national life, it also highlighted the positive impact their efforts have had on the overall national image. Also noteworthy about the presentation was that it factored in young individuals in industry sectors like teaching, government and military services who have been outstanding in their careers and have sacrificed enormously – for those in the military, with their very lives – for the good of our country.

    You would hardly believe it is from the same breed of Nigerian youths that Osinbajo was drawing his copious examples. The vice president’s keynote address at The Platform was a zestful makeover projecting the resourcefulness and enterprise of the youths. And the whole import of his presentation, to my mind, was to recalibrate the Buhari presidency’s narrative about Nigerian youths and show that there is deep appreciation in the government for their contributions to nation building. But I would think this message needs first be deeply internalized in the Presidency to have the full effect on the populace.

     

    • Please join me on kayodeidowu.blogspot.be for conversation.

  • Obasanjo’s makeover

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo posted an epic switch in political ideology lately when he advised power actors that elections in Nigeria needn’t be a matter of life or death. But you might miss the significance of this counsel if you didn’t know just where he was coming from.

    The elder statesman, arguably a legacy ruler of the present republic, admonished that politicians’ pursuit of power through elections ought not be all-consuming as it typically gets, since there are multiple options for rendering service to fatherland. “If you cannot be the chief servant, you can be the assistant chief servant. This is because the chief servant cannot do it on his own, he has to work with others,” he was reported saying.

    Speaking in Calabar at the public presentation of a book on the paramount ruler of Obudu, Cross River State, the ex-president enjoined politicians who failed in elections to help winners succeed in office. His striking counsel: “Politics should not be about life or death. Politicians should learn to tread with caution as the 2019 elections draw closer.”

    Host state governor at the event, Professor Ben Ayade, backed up what Obasanjo advised by underscoring the transient nature of power, saying: “Power is like the wind that blows away. In (exercising) power, one must do so with the fear of God.”

    By all reckoning, the former president has impressive credentials to dish out from personal experience beneficial codes of political behaviour. He had been at the pinnacle of power in this country both as military head of state and a two-term civilian president. But going by the new creed he postulated, his conversion couldn’t be more drastic if he was the biblical Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. What was not too clear is the exact point of his transforming encounter, like what we know of the flashing light that brought feisty Saul down and blinded from his marauding horse on Damascus road.

    It was Obasanjo who vocalized and gave imperial assent of some sort to the deeply ingrained streak of nihilism in Nigerian political culture by declaring the 2007 elections a ‘do-or-die affair’ for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of which he was at that time standard bearer. Speaking in the heat of electioneering at a parley with party stakeholders in Abeokuta North council area, a couple of months before that year’s general election, the then president had declared: “I will campaign. This election is a do-or-die affair for me and the PDP. This coming election is a matter of life and death for the PDP and Nigeria.”

    He made clear though that the poll was ‘do-or-die,’ so to block persons he perceived potentiated to drag the nation backwards from getting into power. In other words, it was beyond contemplation for him to leave that determination to the electorate, who ideally should just be empowered with useful information and allowed ample berth to freely exercise their franchise; and thereafter, whose choice, no matter what, must be respected and given unmediated effect. After all, voters deserve the leaders they freely choose. But all that seemed like idle talk to the then president, who revved up all levers of incumbency to craft the political field in his own image, code-naming the general election ‘operation totality’ and charging party members to snatch victory at all levels.

    That was the political ideology the ex-president professed in 2007. And the result? That year’s poll hugged perhaps the lowest point of credibility ever in Nigerian electoral history: an infamy that no one – not even beneficiaries of the outcomes – could in good conscience live with. Wasn’t that the reason the late President Umaru Yar’Adua couldn’t wait to hustle in a programme of electoral reforms after he took office?

    Well, it was the same Obasanjo who sang a new and profoundly edifying tune at the Calabar book presentation penultimate week. His words again: “Politics (in Nigeria!) should not be about life or death.” He is, without doubt, reputed for pushing doctrines that sum up to that ideology in his sundry election observation and truce mediation missions across the world as an international statesman, since the time he effluxed from the Nigerian presidency. But thank Heavens we live to see the day he openly recanted on the ruinous world view he elevated to state policy as leader of his home country; and really, we must acknowledge it was gracious of him to have outed with that self-overriding declaration.

    Still, it appears that the underlying assumptions in Obasanjo’s articulation of his helpful ideology misses some fundamentals of the bedeviling zero-sum disposition by Nigerian politicians towards electoral contests.

    The ex-president seems to presume, for instance, that the political elite, in seeking public office, are keen on rendering service to this country; and as such, he advised that there always would be other openings for service if one loses out on an office being sought in a particular poll. Experience shows however that a negligible few, if at all, among contenders in Nigerian elections seek public office to render service. Hence the idea of ‘chief servant’ or ‘assistant chief servant,’ as the ex-president teased, does not genuinely resonate.

    Truth is, the intention of most Nigerian politicians in seeking public office is never to serve, but rather to profiteer from those offices. The bloated returns – licit and illicit – that attend political offices in this country are more than sufficient motivation for the unbridled desperation we see. In the familiar parlance of politics, public offices are ‘captured’ (Obasanjo himself used that word in regard of the 2003 poll), not won by way of uninfringed pleasure of voters. And to a typical politician, electoral contests are concerted heists by another name; against which the election management body must continually wage a counter-battle to the extent of its integrity quotient.

    Meanwhile, it isn’t that the governance model we have adopted and the statutory framework for its enactment really help the zero-sum political culture. For instance, the winner-takes-all endgame of the presidential system we run on first-past-the-post track rules cannot but fuel raw desperation in power predators, much unlike the everyone-gets-a-pie outcome of the proportional representation model. You could argue, of course, that the winner-takes-all model works perfectly well in the United States from where it was copied. But also bear in mind the sophistication of that country’s legal architecture and the norms enshrined through centuries of unbroken practice, among other things.

    So, what do we make of Obasanjo’s new ideology? My view is: the ex-president did great service by pointing out the path of rectitude for political culture in Nigeria at the cost of tacit self-repudiation. He is like a prodigal returnee speaking out to the following effect: ‘Track back from that ruinous road you are committed to; never mind that I have not myself been a good example of what is right to do!’ He should by all means be heeded and his wise counsel taken to heart by his addressees, that is politicians, like it is scripture.

    But the point must also be made that the infamy of our political culture in this country will not end in self-willing morality. There is a crying need to rework the governing statutes, and no time seems more opportune than now, with the ongoing review of the electoral laws. We could well begin by taking out the perks that make political offices so attractive.

     

    • Please join me on kayodeidowu.blogspot.be for conversation.

  • When corruption gets a makeover

    IF we do not kill corruption, present and future generations may end up being consumed in unusual ways by the audacious monster. This has always been well known and well interpreted too, in popular sayings in this country. The problem is that this swansong has been corrupted by too many years of voicing it without potent joint action to bury it. Instead, our collective inaction has emboldened corruption to sneer back at us with imprudent haughtiness. Consider the fact that since the unfortunate event of Nigeria’s first coup d’état in 1966, there is hardly any regime in Nigeria, be it military or civilian, which did not pick up boxing gloves and some measured rhetoric against corruption. More often than not, it is always top on the agenda. Ironically, this endless ‘battle’ has witnessed the monstrous growth of this killer of our dreams and aspirations. The few persons that lay siege to our economy right from independence have perfected the art of deception so much that they have continued to pass the blighted torch of white-collar crime to a select few till today.

    Together, they have become a cult of ravaging elite whose records are never tainted by the corrosive corruption that persists even if no one has been able to link their stinking lucre to any visible money-making venture or industry. Yet, they are the ones holding this nation by its balls and daring it to free itself from that tight grip. We, the people know these rapacious and unscrupulous lots who taunt us all daily with such daring effrontery.

    The grim picture notwithstanding, hope (or something like that) that the battle is still winnable with the right attitudinal change was rekindled earlier in the week when those that should know gathered in Abuja to proffer solutions to the cankerworm. It was a rare occasion where the high and the mighty left their comfort zones to interrogate this topic with such bizarre openness and frankness that all Nigerians should be proud of. Credit, I must say, should go to Senator Dino Melaye who seized the opportunity of his book launch on corruption to make a big statement about his uncommon political relevance in a country where hypocrisy, laden with prudish mischief, walks on four legs. Or how many ordinary Nigerians, no matter how well-meaning, can pull the kind of show-stopping stunt Dino pulled at the prestigious Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja last Monday with a book said by some to be so light on substance? It is not for nothing that the Kogi State-born politician brought some of the known generalissimos of the corruption debacle to a roundtable, for an introspective exchange of ideas on the way forward. Way forward – what audacity! What makes the occasion spectacularly special was the patriotic sense of purpose that pervaded the atmosphere.

    Suddenly, everyone that is somebody became an expert, pontificating on why the President Muhammadu Buhari administration would continue to suffer deadly blows as long as he engages corruption in the ring with neither sense nor style. Chai! Buhari don suffer! So, what exactly is the problem and in what way can Dino’s book, ‘Antidotes for Corruption: The Nigeria Story, help in giving the needed fillip to an issue which is a major cardinal point in the Buhari change mantra? If you will pardon this slight digression, I want to assume that the fundamental grammatical flaws in Dino’s book title can be blamed on the hastiness with which he rushed to the publishers to meet the set date for the triumphal launch. In less than five days, the title has hovered between the original title above and another one, ‘Antidotes for Corruption: The Story of Nigeria’. In both, the English grammar received knocks. I am sure an antidote against the multiple blunders would reflect in the revised version. But that is beside the point.

    The answer to the poser on what the book, which is largely a collection of essays, bills and badly written pieces – thoroughly badly written, in some instances – on corrupt cases, offers to the corruption discourse lies more in the hidden truth behind what was voiced at the event which had, as special guest of honour, the inimitable Dame Patience Jonathan, a self-acclaimed victim of the present administration’s “selective war on corrupt and corruptive elements” in the recent past. The occasion, which was chaired by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba, was bolstered by the presence of the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Bello Mohammed; Labour and Productivity Minister, Senator Chris Ngige; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim; and a host of other heavyweights. It was nothing but a productive gathering for the intellectual elucidation of a cancer that has been killing this nation for years without any headway. With this gathering, no one should blame us if we conclude that help is on the way, right? No! Did the speakers make any sense of this vexing matter? Yes, they did with twist of the tale in their favour. Dino, the self-acclaimed anticorruption czar, mounted the rostrum to chant about how endemic corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of the nation.

    He blamed the petrol attendant, the orange seller and the market woman for the little bits they steal from their hapless customers. To him, not much need be said about our tribe of elite kleptocrats in the corridors of power but all have fallen short and abysmally failed the integrity test as long as corruption is the topic. It is not just about the looted millions and billions stashed in vaults across the globe by a generation of Nigeria’s sickening kleptomaniacs. All are thieves and that is all there is to it. What we need is a systemic change, a preventive rather than a punitive measure which has yielded nothing. I guess Saraki took a cue from Dino when he had his chance on the podium.

    For a man still grappling with multiple allegations of graftrelated cases brought before him by the state, there couldn’t have been a better time to knock the government and reel out some hard facts on why the pushing and shoving would never serve as deterrence to those with professional expertise in stealing from the public till. But before treating the audience to his prognosis, Saraki gave his testimonial about the author—his staunchest supporter in the Senate and, if you like, lackey. In the foreword to the book, Saraki paints Dino thus: “He is the kind of man who would not call a spade by any other name because he wants to be in anybody’s good books. Dino’s story is such a remarkable testimony to courage and single-minded determination. His is a classic grass to grace story which would undoubtedly inspire generations of young people for years to come”.

    Hmmmmm! If only the Kabba group that recently accused him of being an antithesis of his people’s cultural traits would agree. Admitting that corruption has somehow “defined Nigeria’s politics over the years”, Saraki, speaking from the mindset of another victim of Buhari’s anti-corruption battle, would go on to suggest that winning the war would take more than what he called the ‘showmanship’ by the various anti-graft agencies. He said they would have to dwell more on the substance which is basically preventive. In other words, instead of sweating over the recovery of funds that had made some grass-to-grace stories effectively easy for some persons without any link to legitimate earnings, it would do all of us a world of good to develop mechanisms that would curb the blind larceny that defines public service here.

    I can only imagine that the thunderous applause that greeted Saraki’s proclamation would have been inappropriate were it not to be a conclave of like minds. Perhaps, Saraki and his co-travellers were right when they argue that placing punitive measures before deterrence would never solve the problem as long as our democracy and judicial system care more about the innocence of an accused until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction “beyond all reasonable doubts”. But, if the truth must be told, we must agree that these fundamentals of democracy have merely legitimatised the tyranny of the rich over the poor in our society.

    Seated among those urging Saraki to fire on that day were powerful Nigerians who continue to breathe the fresh air of freedom outside the gallows today because they have accumulated enough wealth to buy justice from a patently corrupt judicial system. These ‘innocently guilty’ ones appear to be winning the battle. And so, Monday’s parley was, at best, for self-enlightened interest and they seized the moment to snigger back at those on their trail. That’s the kind of thing you get in this warped system of ours. The funny thing is that it is this same privileged set that now speaks glibly about the need to make the anti-corruption agencies not only empowered to be thorough in its painstaking investigative strategies, but also to be “truly independent and manifestly insulated from political interference and manipulation”.

    How wonderful! How can that happen when they make it practically impossible for the anti-corruption agencies to operate independently? In climes where integrity counts for something, the crowd that converged on the Yar’Adua Centre that day wouldn’t have happened. At most, majority of them would have excused themselves until such a time when they would have cleared their names from the various cases of blind looting hanging over their necks at the courts. Among this set of people are the ex-governors-turned-senators who would also grab a seat to read the hard copy of Dino’s book which sells for N50,000 and which the National Assembly leadership has gratuitously agreed to buy for all the 109 senator and 360 House of Representatives members. When you do the Math, you’d find out how much Dino would be taking home for his efforts. Now don’t ask me if the fund for the purchase has been captured in the 2017 appropriation bill as approved by the lawmakers. It shouldn’t be an issue even if the books rot in the National Assembly warehouse.

    In a country where rent seekers, portfolio contractors and light-fingered political elite butcher the national cake at whim, doling out about N24m to Dino for a yeoman’s job in compiling records on corruption shouldn’t be a difficult task. In any case, why should that be difficult in a National Assembly that projects to spend N74m only on sewage charges this year. Or would it? Hey, did they just gather to reinvent corruptive practices and dab it with a graceful scent? Even corruption is rolling in laughter!

  • 19 benefit from group’s dental defects makeover

    19 benefit from group’s dental defects makeover

    Five of the 19 beneficiaries of Project Smile have certain things in common:  dental flaws and defects. Destiny smiled on them through the Project Smile, a corporate social initiative of Smile360 Dental Specialists. OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA writes on how the programme is transforming people’s lives.

    Project Smile is a social initiative that identifies individuals with dental flaws and defects who would want their defects corrected but are handicapped financial.

    Designed to engage individuals through a contest, the initiative encourages response to its eight-week call for entry campaign. The candidates are subjected to various stages of screening and shortlisted for the final clinical evaluation. Finally, three winners are determined in three main categories-severe, moderate or mild. The goal of the initiative is to transform 500 people with a smile makeover by the 10th season. In all, 19 people have emerged.

    For a 36-year-old civil servant, Mrs Funmilayo Olufa who had an accident and lost all her teeth in the process and developed a severity of dental flaw, life was never the same again. She lost her confidence. According to her, she regained her confidence after undergoing the Smile makeover.

    Before the Smile makeover, Funmi’ lost her looks but few stages into the Smile makeover, her friends could recognise her. She recalled: “A friend and long-time classmate of mine that I lost contact with some 15 years ago saw me at a bus stop and shouted my name. I was happy she could recognise me because some couldn’t before the Smile makeover. I am so happy that though the Smile makeover is yet to be completed, the positive effects on me are tremendous. Regaining my confidence is the best part of my transformation story thus far.”

    Chichi Anosike, sole beneficiary, Project Smile maiden edition in 2011 had an accident that damaged her dentition and seriously affected her facial expression. She heard about the Project Smile and was requested to write why she thinks she needed a Smile makeover. She had completed her Smile makeover and today she says with confidence, “I can flick off a dazzling smile easily without being conscious of it.” She thanked Project Smile and Smile360 for restoring her dentition.

    A 24-year-old creative writer, Adelekan Tayo, said whenever he talked to people, they are ever conscious of his teeth. And he always feels dejected as a man. He was always worried and perplexed. He got to know about the Project Smile through listening to the jingle on a broadcast station.

    According to Tayo, he reluctantly put in an entry, thinking that it couldn’t be true. When he was selected through a credible screening done by an independent panel, he said he couldn’t believe it. Going through the Smile makeover, he was delighted, aware that it was what he had always desired.

    “The project is not about reconstructing the dentition alone but also building on the psychological confidence. I did not pay a dime. The members of staff are wonderful. It is a life-changing experience. It is a wonderful initiative,” he stated.

    Mobola Abodunrin, 31-year-old Marketing/Brand Manager said: “As an image maker in a communication firm, having an over-protruding gum and teeth could be worrisome. That is always the focus of attention when I am interacting with people. I became an introvert inadvertently because I was disturbed emotionally.”

    Mobola heard about the Project Smile through a friend and put in an entry. She was lucky to be selected and just going through the Smile makeover, she is already experiencing a turn-around. When Mobola was on the braces, some people actually thought it was for cosmetics reasons and complimented her equally. “I like your rocks,” they would say.

    Mobola said: “I corrected their impressions I told them that it was part of medical procedures. And now I am gaining more confidence than before. People do admire me wearing the braces. I don’t receive curious looks or comments again. Though I am not through with the Smile makeover, the stages I had gone through have already changed my life and psychology. I knew I needed the Smile makeover but could not afford same. For this, I am grateful to Project Smile.”

    For 22-year-old Dumebi Olanne; a final year student of Mass Communication at Babcock University, it was a real life changing experience; having gone through some stages of Smile makeover. Being born with bad dentition, she had lived an hermit life. She loved surfing the net and one day, she stumbled on Smile360 Project.

    Her mother encouraged her to put in an application. She did and was shortlisted but no sponsor was there for her. As she made to depart the venue, a participant saw her dejection and wouldn’t allow her to go with that look. The participant sponsored her for the Smile makeover and today, Dumebi smiles more, talks more and is looking forward to a more prosperous life as a budding lady.

    Dr Amy B. Traore-Shumbusho is the founder of Smile360 Dental Specialist, Ikoyi Lagos.

    Explaining the rationale behind her effort, Dr Amy, as she is fondly called, said the ability to change people’s lives with a great smile is powerful and a privilege.

    Recounting some of the achievements of the initiative in the past three seasons in view of the goal and mission set out to give great smiles since the commencement of the project in 2011.  Dr Traore-Shumbusho said the last three seasons of Project Smile has achieved remarkable success with a record of 19 beneficiaries most of whom are still undergoing their dental corrective surgery and treatment.

    “As we joined all dental stakeholders and the general public to mark this year’s World Oral Health Day, (WOHD) there is no better time to pause and recount our successes than this momentous period in the dental world. The World Oral Health Day has always been epochal in launching each season of the Project Smile Initiative.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Makeover in Aba

    After years of neglect, Aba, the commercial heart of Abia State, is changing for the better, reports UGOCHUKWU UGOJI-EKE

    The effort of Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to change the face of Aba, the state’s commercial hub, is yielding fruit. The forgotten city is enjoying some infrastructural makeover.

    The renewal of the city started immediately the governor took office, commissioning the building of 25 roads with the promise that they will be completed within the first quarter of his administration, despite the fact that the work started during the rainy season.

    The reconstruction of roads is not only in Aba. Many parts of the state also have their own share of road construction including Ohafia, Abam and Umuahia. The Item Ring Road in Bende Local Government Area of the state will soon be commissioned.

    Much of the work on Aba’s poor roads in the past has been palliative. Ikpeazu’s efforts are more enduring. His administration introduced the cement technology, which involves using cement as base with iron rods before laying tar.

    The beauty of the roads being done by the present administration is that they come with stone bases and standard drainage system, bearing in mind the unique topography of the city of Aba which is virtually flat and also accompanied with streetlights to illuminate the streets and help to reduce the activities of night marauders.

    The governor, whose country home is just about five minutes’ drive from the heart of the city, has not spared anyone whose house stands in the way. He has demolished the fence of his maternal uncle which was obstructing the expansion of Old Umuahia/Aba Road.

    Speaking while flagging off the road construction, Ikpeazu said that his administration was in a hurry to return the city to what the colonial masters and its founding fathers planned, so that the lost glory of the city would be redeemed.

    Ikpeazu said if the old Imo State under the government of the late Sam Mbakwe could rebuild Aba and get all the taxes it needed to run the state, there is nothing stopping the present government from doing same especially now that the state is smaller and the people willing to cooperate.

    The governor noted that once you get Aba right, it is a small job to run the affairs of the state, as the people of the city are willing to pay their taxes so long as government is willing to provide them with the necessary amenities that are required for a place to be called a township.

    One of the houses that was demolished was a church building along Ngwa Road by Emelogu which was standing in the way and when the governor got there he said that he was not seeing a building but an obstruction which must give way for a standard road to be constructed and free flow of waste water from both Emelogu and Ngwa roads into the Aba River.

    Since the governor started his road construction in Aba, Kamalu, Ommne, ENUC, Umuola, Ukaegbu, Umule roads have been built and completed while Ube, East, Georges, Weeks, Park, Pound, Ochefu among others have been resurfaced completely, while it is expected that in no distant time more roads will be completed.

    One of the roads that was newly constructed with cement technology, Umuola Road at Ogbor Hill part of the city was commissioned by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo during his first visit to the state under the present government. The former president described the road as not only standard but a thing of beauty which should be copied by other state governors if they want their roads to last.

    Obasanjo, during the commissioning of the road, stressed the need for the government to pay attention to infrastructure, health, agriculture, transportation and power as major elements that will drive development and reduce poverty among the people.

    The former president described Aba as the focal point of economic development in the South East was of the view that if the people are empowered and provided with skills in Aba it will augur well for the entire South East and South-South zones and their people.

    He commended Governor Ikpeazu for his dream to transform Aba and thus enhance the socio political and economic in the state and described him as an achiever, and used the forum to appeal to Aba people to desist from blocking the drains with refuse if they want the roads being built by their governor to last long.

    Since the governor started his road construction and rehabilitation across the state, Abians are happy with the development and have scored him high on his zeal and passion to provide motor able and durable road network for the people especially those in Aba.