The Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has urged Abians and potential voters in the 2019 general elections to pray for peaceful polls in the state.
Ikpeazu in a New Year message to the residents and citizens of the state on Tuesday, January 1 also urge the residents to be vigilant so as to ensure that 5th columnists and enemies of peace do not use them to instigate crisis in state, stressing that regardless of people’s political differences, Abians must maintain the heritage of peaceful coexistence.
Ikpeazu who stated that most of the interventions, projects and policies of his administration from inception were intended to yield long-lasting and sustainable impacts, called on all candidates of various political parties vying for one elective position or the other in the state this electioneering year to ensure that they adhered to the tenets of clean electioneering campaigns devoid of activities that may disturb the peace of the state or stoke embers of crisis. This is even as he promised to keep his campaign clean
“As a people and as a State, we must reject fear-mongering, hate speech, divisiveness and provocation. I am committed to working with security agencies to ensure peace and safety during the elections.”
The governor who warned that his administration would no longer take it kindly with any form of financial wastage in the state fired note of warning to “underperforming and underachieving” parastatals, stressing that the government would not continue to commit huge resources to personnel costs without getting commensurate services from the personnel.
… “Let me use this occasion to sound a note of warning to heads of underachieving and underperforming parastatals that in 2019, it will not be business as usual. We cannot continue to commit huge resources to personnel costs without getting commensurate services from the personnel. Some parastatals are performing below capacity while cabals within others have frustrated every effort aimed at reforming the parastatals for efficient services. We will conduct a review and take a tougher stance against some of these individuals and groups in some of our parastatals.
“The parastatals make and retain revenue for their operations, without remitting any money to the Abia State Government yet they are still collecting subventions and owing staff salaries while their less buoyant counterparts in the private sector are thriving and turning in profits. I charge all Heads of Parastatals in Abia State to do an honest internal assessment to give the people of Abia State value for the monies we are spending on them.”
Speaking on the benefits of the economic policy of his administration in 2018, Ikpeazu stated “…the Enyimba Economic City which we have been promoting has been fully licensed by the Federal Government and all relevant Agencies and the project is set to commence. It is the first Export Free Zone licensed by the Federal Government in the South East of Nigeria.
This project, for which we already have anchor investors signed on, has the potential of creating hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs within the next 10 years. It will revolutionalise the economy of Abia State and launch us into the league of manufacturing and production centres… The level of massive support we have given for the realization of the Enyimba Economic City Project is proof that as a Government and as a people, we are committed to fully supporting all those who invest in Abia State.
“The core investors in the Golden Guinea Breweries Plc Umuahia are also enjoying the same commitment and support from us to ensure the revitalization of the iconic brewery. I have worked with the core investors to break bureaucratic and funding barriers and I am happy to report to you that Golden Guinea Breweries is on the cusp of a full return.
“This is the underlying essence of the mission of our administration. We have provided and will continue to provide massive infrastructure and social services and the results are there for all to see but more importantly, we have laid the foundation of a truly prosperous Abia State by supporting investments and promoting the handwork of our people.”
Giving an update on the road constructions going on in the state, Ikpeazu stated “With the advent of the dry season, our contractors have returned to our roads and construction work has resumed. We have opened up Faulks Road from one end to the other, a feat that has not been witnessed on that socio-economically important road for over 10 years. We have also completed Old Express Road and we will face other roads with renewed zeal and vigour as we believe that good road networks will enable better performance of all our five pillars of development.
“We remain committed to our 5 Pillars of Development. From Education to Agriculture, SME development, Trade and Commerce, Oil and Gas to the various Enablers like security, ease of doing business, infrastructural development, advocacy and social mobilization, we will continue to offer integrated services to the people of Abia State.
“I am proud that our policies in the educational sector have continued to pay off. Again, in 2018, for the 4th year running, we retained the 1st Position in the May/June WAEC Examinations. I am also happy to announce to you that our Public Primary School enrolment figures have jumped from 115,000 when we came into office to over 600,000 pupils as at September 2018. This is a remarkable 420% increase in school enrolment and the reason is not far-fetched.
“Abia State is arguably the only State in Nigeria that feeds pupils from Primary 1-6 meal a day in our unique school feeding programme. The Federal Government feeds pupils from Primary 1-3 but Abia State goes the whole hog from Primary 1-6.
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“In addition, we are training and retraining our teachers both locally and internationally to get the best from them while massively renovating our school buildings to ensure conducive learning environment for our pupils and students. These and many other factors have contributed to the stellar performance we have recorded in our educational sector and we are poised to do more in 2019.”
