When the paired word ‘Legacy Projects’ cropped up in the political lexicon of Abia State a few years ago, many people thought it was conceived by Governor T.A. Orji for the genuine development of the state. However, little did they realize at the time that it was an ingenious scheme designed by Governor Orji to pull wool over their eyes! And that was what it exactly turned to be – a drainpipe, a calculated design to deceive the people.
But my instinct told me instantly, when I heard about the ‘Legacy Projects’ that the idea behind it was not wholly genuine. I knew the governor very well, and knew he had something up his sleeves. And so, I kept my ears to the ground, with eyes wide open, to know what tricks the governor was going to play next on the gullible and helpless people of God’s Own State.
The reason for my alertness was occasioned by the desperation exhibited by the governor as soon as he mounted the saddle of leadership in the state, particularly since he did not take kindly to the innocuous advice I offered him to sit up and perform according to the expectations of the people who elected him. You could recall that before the introduction of the legacy projects the governor had secured loans running into hundreds of millions of naira from banks without any projects on ground to justify the huge borrowings.
So, information started filtering out from the banks that the governor was borrowing huge amounts without any veritable repayment plan. Alarmed by the reports I opted to conduct a private investigation. The outcome was positive.
I approached the governor with the information, but surprisingly he denied it. And instead of making amends and taking steps to ameliorate the situation he took to the trenches, declaring a total war against me and anybody connected to me in any way.
Surprisingly, he has sustained the onslaught against me for the simple reason that he sees me as the only obstacle to his looting agenda in Abia State. I have written about my relationship with him and how I sacrificed everything to make him governor. As such, I would not want to bore you with the story again.
But one thing is certain: Governor Orji has done a great disservice to our people. He has made promises he has not bothered to keep. The Legacy Projects were never a part of his original plan for the development of Abia State. As I indicated from the onset the scheme was put together as an emergency measure to hide the thieving plot of the governor and offer justification for the billions of naira looted by him, his family and their cronies.
It has never been in doubt that the first four years of the governor was used by him to chase shadow – fighting imaginary enemies and perfecting his plot to pillage the resources of our state.
The plot came to the fore when he chose to jump ship and pitch tent with PDP. He had reasoned that his malfeasant activities would better be protected in the party. However, unknown to him the searchlight will still catch him wherever he runs to.
Because of the wasted first four years of his tenure the governor conceived the legacy projects to cover his tracks and justify the huge borrowings from the banks and the allocations from the federation account – a substantial part of which is diverted monthly to other self-centred purposes. I have challenged the governor on a number of occasions in this column to justify the huge allocations the state has received from Abuja since 2007 when he assumed office as governor – running into hundreds of billions of naira. Up till the time of writing this piece, he is yet to respond to that challenge.
The state of things in Abia State gets worse by the day. Workers are not paid. Those paid are not paid regularly. Pensioners have not been paid in the past 10 months. The same is the case with primary and secondary school teachers – many of whom drop dead like chickens for lack of salaries.
Now wait for this: there is no single project, including the Legacy Projects, worth up to N1billion in the entire Abia State. I challenge the governor to publish the financial involvement of each of the projects, especially those in the Legacy Projects tranche.
The fraud that the legacy projects became manifest when the government of Abia State, with the express consent of the governor, invited some media bloggers, select journalists and social media commentators to the state to see ‘things ‘for themselves. In the governor’s estimation, the visit would enable the government to buy its way into the hearts of the media team and, by so doing, influence their reports. Unfortunately, that plot boomeranged as many of those that made the team to the state wrote exactly what they saw. From their reports it was clear that the so-called legacy projects were a ruse – a well-orchestrated scheme to milk the state dry.
I have personally read some of these reports and still have them in my library. One of the reports openly challenged the governor to tell the whole world what each of the legacy projects costs. The same challenge I had posed to the governor on a number of occasions, to no avail.
In fact, it was a thug-of-war between the media team and the governor’s aides who accompanied them on the verification tour as the aides were reluctant to answer questions posed to them with regard to the costs of the ‘legacy projects’. Embarrassingly, each time the question was asked it was rebuffed and the team curiously referred to the governor for appropriate answers. If the legacy projects were not designed to defraud the state why then are their costs a hidden matter? Why has the state government not found it worthwhile to publish the list of the projects and what they cost Abia State taxpayers?
There are more questions than answers. Let us continue. Why has the government of Abia State refused every request to give the costs of the projects if indeed its hands are clean? The worst part is that the governor has been very evasive on the matter. In all of the publications by his administration on its performance none contains any information about the costs of the legacy projects.
But from what I have been able to glean all the legacy projects put together are not worth over N5 billion.
The concentration of all the legacy projects in Umuahia – the state capital – and ancestral home of the governor – makes the whole thing look tardy and suspicious. Almost 60 per cent of the legacy projects were renovated structures. For instance, one of the structures in the new state secretariat complex was actually an existing structure that was reroofed and repainted. It is even on record that our own administration did some renovation in the same complex when some of its pillars were found to be collapsing.
What of the Amachara General Hospital – another Legacy Project? The hospital has been there since the creation of the state. Even our administration (1999-2000) carried out some renovation works on the hospital. What the present administration did, in the name of legacy projects, was to carry out some renovations and get the whole place repainted, and its signboard mounted. There is nothing wonderful about it. I regret to state here that the things one sees outsider do not portray what is inside. What one finds inside is a totally different story all together.
The Mecure Specialist Diagnostic Centre in Umuahia, which the government of Governor Orji flaunts as a legacy project once housed the Alaoma Hospital – a private hospital owned by Dr. Anagha Ezeikpe, which he sold to the state government. The structures in the complex were simply repainted and their roofs replaced. The same situation obtains at the State’s Customary Court of Appeal located in Umuahia. The entire complex was renovated, reroofed and repainted. There is no single new structure on the premises. The first renovation works on the premises were executed by our administration (1999-2000). What the outgoing government in Umuahia did was to renovate it further to look as if it were a new project to hoodwink unsuspecting members of the public.
What about the Commissioners’ Quarters? Who in Abia State does not know that the project was executed by our administration (1999-2007)? Shamelessly, the governor contracted a firm to repaint the whole structures and place a signboard as if the project was done by his government. What a fraud!
From available records, it is clear that the government of Chief Orji is laying claims to the 1000-units Ehimiri Housing Estate. How on earth could the governor be so unabashed as to lay claims to a project he did not even start let alone complete? Our government (1999-2007) constructed the Ehimiri Housing Estate, completed and allocated it to the beneficiaries – many of whom are civil servants. Imagine what would have happened if we had not had the wisdom to start and complete the housing estate considering the perennial shortage of decent accommodation in the state? I was travelling to Uyo some time ago and saw a huge signboard with the governor’s photograph adorning the entrance to the estate.
To be fair to the governor there are a few projects he started under the legacy projects scheme, which, for I know, do not have any relevance to the pressing needs of the people. In fact, they are not people-oriented projects, but were started to serve as conduit-pipes to fritter away the state’s financial resources. Some of these projects are the new International Conference Centre, Mega Events Centre, Obani Main Market (which replaced the demolished Umuahia Central Market), the new industrial market, and the new Government House. Out of the five projects only the Obani and Industrial Markets had been partially completed. The other two are less than 30% completed. It is important to state here that the Obani Market situated on the outskirts of the state capital has not served any useful purpose to traders since it was commissioned about two years ago. They see it as a curse rather blessing.
It is a pity watching traders stay from morning till night without any serious patronage as nobody would risk doing a 10-kilometer journey everyday to go and shop when one can easily access smaller markets in the city and its environs or better still patronize the Onu-Imo Market in Imo State, which is closer.
Obani market was hurriedly built and this made it lack some basic amenities such as water, toilets, and health centre, etc which should have made life a bit comfortable for the traders. There are provisions for these amenities, quite all right, but up till the time of writing this report their absence has caused the traders untold hardships. What sense did it make to Governor Orji to build a market that does not serve any useful purpose for the people of our state?
The mega events centre, which is under construction, is not a priority project. What purpose will such a utopian project serve the people who daily groan under the weight of excess taxation; unpaid salaries and pensions, and dearth of basic infrastructure such as roads, pipe borne water, decent accommodation. Now when completed, can an average Abian who is impoverished by the eight years of waste under Governor Orji afford the luxury of such a high-class event centre?
Experience has shown that such projects do not thrive in poverty-stricken places like Abia State. When we were in office as governor we offered many Abians opportunities to develop themselves cognitively and materially. In fact, no administration before or after us has made life as worth-living as we had done. We took government to the doorsteps of every Abian and made every resident – indigene or non-indigene – feel at home. Security was provided all year-round with salaries of workers paid as due. Ask anybody in Abia State who lived in the state from 1999 to 2007 to compare and contrast our two governments. He will tell you the difference is clear. Even the governor himself can acknowledge this fact if he can be truthful to himself.
It was because of the tempo of development and the enviable strides we made that skewed the tide in favour of Chief Orji to succeed me. We had reasoned that as an insider he would be able to sustain our collective vision and work with increased vigour to develop our state. But the reverse turned out to be the case.
I find it offensive and the height of insensitivity that Governor Orji would dump a well-designed manifesto of 2007 to chase shadow. The script he is acting was written without my knowledge or the knowledge of any member of our team. His own script is self-centred, insensitive, purposeless and without clear-cut vision. As indicated earlier it was designed to hoodwink the people and bring fortunes to the T.A. Orji Dynasty.
His desperation to install a puppet, go to the Senate, and his son, the state House of Assembly, is all part of the grand design to perpetuate the dynasty. When I was governor I was accused of ‘mamatocracy’ (even when this allegation was untrue). But what will the governor who made his son the de facto governor and his wife one of the henchmen of his administration? We can call this one, ‘familiocracy’.
The long and short of it is that all the arm-twisting tactics, media blitzkrieg, antagonism and hatred by the governor are all part of a grand design to cover his tracks and shield himself from possible prosecution over the fraud that the so-called Legacy Projects have been.
But time will expose his evil deeds and bring him to justice.
