Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has said that he is focused on building roads leading to markets and other economic centres because he knew that a day would come when crude oil revenue would recede.
Ikpeazu who stated this while addressing members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, who came on a project tour to Aba, explained that he started thinking about how best to improve the economy of the state by looking at what the people can do better than others.
He disclosed that he was greeted with security and infrastructural challenges on assumption of office, especially on the issue of bad roads.
In his words; “We knew that a day like this would come when the revenue from crude oil would begin to recede. It will eventually cease, whether we like it or not. This is why in 2015; we started our journey to Government House, Umuahia by thinking about how best we can improve the lives of Abia people. At that time, we had issues of insecurity and infrastructure. We looked at what Abia people can do better than others. We came up with the need to support trade and commerce; both small scale manufacturing, oil and gas, agriculture and education.
Abia is blessed with enormous capacity, they can manufacture anything. If you want to jumpstart the economy of Aba, you must find a way to allow our brothers from Akwa Ibom and Cross River states to access Aba. Then, you also need to find a way for people from Port Harcourt and Bayelsa to come into Aba. I once tried getting to Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom, but had to spend five hours. Then, I knew that Aba was dying gradually. Traders in Ariaria market were not selling because there was no road into Aba and Ariaria.
“The first triplet of roads, Ukaegbu, Umuola and Ehere, that we commissioned was roads that eased you into Aba from the Akwa Ibom and Cross River flank. I had to do another road through Ekwereazu. With this road, you can get into Akwa Ibom from Aba within 40 minutes. Then, we moved to Faulks road. For the first time in 30 years, this government was able to do Faulks road from Brass junction through the Ariaria market to the Enugu –Port Harcourt expressway. Gradually, Ariaria is returning to life. We have done Samec road which is the widest apart from Faulks road. We have been doing these roads in clusters. We have done Eziukwu road leading to Eziukwu market. Eziukwu road has been without attention for 30 years. In doing Eziukwu, we also did Milverton Avenue and Ojike lane because you must tie that ecosystem together for us to get the kind of economic boost we want.
“You may have heard about certain mammy water at Ama Ikonne and Ifeobara pond. The mammy waters have disappeared courtesy of hitech engineering works we deployed at the two spots.”
The governor further disclosed that the roads done by his administration are built with cement pavement technology with drainages on both sides to ensure durability.
“All the roads we are doing are built with cement pavement technology with drainages on two sides. It is our standard; we better not do roads than doing it without cement pavement technology and drainage. The man coming after me will continue from where I will stop and won’t be going back to do palliatives on the roads I have done. All the roads we are doing are roads leading to markets and other economic centres. Abia is perhaps the only state in its economic bracket that has deployed three quality contractors to do roads and they have been here since five years.”
