60Enyimba Economic City: Okezie Ikpeazu Speaks Of His Legacy Project

Forum 1 year ago

60Enyimba Economic City: Okezie Ikpeazu Speaks Of His Legacy Project

The journey to this point hasn’t been very easy, but I thank God. He gave me the strength and resilience to continue to move on and the manifestation of our burning of the midnight oil has begun to show.

Abia State, in terms of resources, is blessed with great people, very honest and hardworking people. The things that our people need to eke out a living for themselves are few, as it were, and we have dedicated all our time this past seven years to create a platform that will enable our people to blossom to their full potential.

I want to say also that the days ahead will be better because we’ve laid very strong foundations for an economically strong, viable and sustainable state. I could say, if I want to be immodest, that some of the steps we have taken are irreversible. I say this because Aba, Umuahia and Ohafia had no masterplan when I came in. But today we are in collaboration with UN-Habitat to develop a master plan for these three cities and indeed we were commended recently through a letter from UN-Habitat for our vision towards ensuring that we bring about structured and organized development for our major cities, and they adjudged these cities as among of the contending cities for most resilient cities in Africa.

Beyond that, Abia had no industrial policy and, when you talk about job creation, you are speaking to industrialization, and if you are talking about industrialization, you must formalize the pattern, you must provide the compass for that process to happen. Here again, for the first time, we have delivered, collaborating with UNIDO, the first industrial policy for Abia State. This government is also bequeathing, for the first time, a long-term development plan, the 30-year plan for the development of Abia State, which, by my calculation, will serve as a compass to guide successive leaders to continue to move in a progressive manner so that we can achieve our goal.

Could you tell us about your Enyimba Economic City (EEC)?

It is part of the critical elements of our development plan. Incidentally, like all transgenerational projects, EEC is something you may not see today. But we are planning a summit in that regard on my birthday, where we intend to talk to our people about how far we’ve gone and the things we have done so far and the promise it holds, provision of 600,000 jobs in the next 20 to 30 years for our people is the clincher. That’s the only way we can ensure that, going forward (in spite of) insecurity, unemployment, economic downturn, (it) will create sufficient buffer to lift our people because, for the first time, through EEC, the Igbo man is going to have a platform from where he manufactures and exports without going to Lagos or anywhere else.

This is what is missing and it has discouraged our people. If you go to the entire South West, its economy is propelled by the hard work and drive of our people. And here, we are saying, how can it be that we have a rail line connecting our state through to Kano from Port Harcourt? Indeed this rail line starts from Abonema Wharf and there’s the Onne Wharf. So, its an irony that we can’t create an economic city that can leverage that existing rail lines for the distribution of goods.

Onne and Abonema wharfs are less than 30 minutes from the location where Enyimba Economic City is being sited; so, we can leverage the proximity of those seaports. Akwa Ibom is looking at Ibom deep seaport, which is about 40 minutes from EEC. So, the only way to think futuristically is to create an economic city and we gave 9,300 hectres of land between Aba and Port Harcourt. Technically, we want to close the economic (gap between) Aba and Port Harcourt so there won’t be any difference. And we have gotten to the point that we are looking at financial closure before the end of this year, which is driven by Afrexim bank.

To do the plan alone, the same people that designed Dubai and Singapore took a million dollars to design EEC. It is the most irresistible project that has come from Nigeria. I’ve been to South Africa, I’ve been to New York, I’ve been to Egypt many times, I have been everywhere, and each place I go, people always welcome it. It is the most viable export free zone from Nigeria. In fact, it is the hope of Nigeria to participate in the Continental Treaty Agreement.

Today, we have received approval from the Federal Executive Council concessioning the A4 Road between Aba and Port Harcourt-Enugu to EEC. We have contractors that are ready to do that road; so, it is no longer in the hands of the Federal Government. And just the other day, somebody posted to me the official number plate by Road Safety. So, some of the vehicles of our businessmen who will do business here will bear EEC. We are looking forward to when, before the exit of this administation, we will do ground-breaking and then construction will effectively take off. But, before that, so many tenants have indicated interest that they want to build health city, an education city, wharehousing and logistics in EEC. I participated in all the meetings.

What I see of this environment tomorrow will change most of the states in the South East and South South; what I see will repatriate effectively the efforts, sweat and hard work and wealth of our people. I am happy that I am associated with it. Life-changing projects are usually not quick fixes, but every leader must dredge up sufficient courage to see this kind of long-term vision, invest in it, embark on it and then ensure that you push it forward, even when you are no longer governor, for the benefit of our children. If we don’t succeed with EEC, we will be running round in circles. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the truth.

Because population is growing geometrically, the only way we can stop the slide in our economy is to make sure that we do that economic city so that we can provide jobs quickly and suck up the various capacities and energies of the young ones we have, almost about a million, people involved in garments and leatherwork here. If you calculate 250,000 people in Ariaria, Ahia Ohu (New Market), Shopping Centre, Ngwa Road axis and then multiply it by four, four apprentices, this is nearly four million people. And these are hardworking people. You don’t even see them. They don’t have time for crime because some of them will be sewing shirts from morning till night, all through, their wife will just give them food right there in their shops. They sleep there to continue the following morning, especially as December is approaching.

I’m happy and excited that this has happened; let me pledge that I feel encouraged. Our foot is already on the throttle and we will fire on until the end of our time here and, God blessing us, we will be able to also hand over to somebody who can continue along this trajectory for the benefit of our people.

The problem we have in this part of the world is continuity. What have you put on ground to ensure the person who will succeed you will complete Enyimba Economic City

The leadership recruitment process is a very big problem; it’s part of the problems we have because our leaders are very emotional; they respond to impulses that are not deep-rooted, impulses that are personal, that have no connection with the needs of the people. So, when they react to all those, they miss the mark. The second reason is that you see how long it took us in Abia to think of a long-term development plan. I have spoken the way I did because I am speaking to people like you who understand. It is better for me to campaign with the newly completed Azikiwe Road, than to campaign with a long-term development plan, whereas, the long-term development plan is the software that drives development.

But the Aba man will be happy that I did Azikiwe Road. In other places, a leader can just come and say, ‘I gave you long-term development plan, for that, vote for me,’ and they will see him as somebody who has achieved something. What I’m coming to is the fact that some of us who push towards having a hand in who succeeds us have a good reason. For me today, my confidence in pushing for a successor is that I will hand over this long-term development plan to the successor and I will extract an agreement with him that he will flip through and read it and push it and develop Abia along that trajectory.

If I succeed in doing that, I don’t need any other thing. But, otherwise, somebody in my position could be looking for a successor because he wants somebody to cover his back, he wants somebody to do this or that for him. You know, reasons that are not tied to creating a better life for our people. These are the two major reasons. Every leader should have his reason dovetailing from what he thinks is good for the people.

Beyond that, there are a few things that I have earned as governor. One of them is that Abia is one of the few states where there is no problem between successor and predecessor and we have managed our relationship. This is not to say we don’t disagree, even husband and wife disagree. We are in a place where, whatever thing it is, we find a way to resolve it because we create our red lines and we create our green lines and we do not go beyond none of that.

I have also lately extended it to all my predecessors. I call them on phone and they come to see me and I go to see them and all of that. So, I have earned that. I will expect my successor to also carry on along that line and not to destabilize the political environment. I inherited a few projects from my predecessor: the International Conference Centre, and I completed it; ASUBEB building, and I completed it; JAMB building, and I have paid all the money that is required to complete it; I inherited a new Government House, I am working hard, I am believing God that I will also complete it. I can tell you that, around January, February, in fact, my pledge to Ndi Abia is that I will sleep there.

Like I said before, this EEC project, we have no option in the matter. In the first place, why did I bothered to send 30 young people to China to go and learn how to use machines to make shoes? Because I know this is where I met my children, using hand to cut leather. As the chief marketer of ‘Made in Aba’, I could not speak to consistency in quality, I could not speak to speed, I could not even speak to how long it would take to provide 1,000 pairs of shoes. How do I solve the problem, should I leave them in the 21st Century using their hand to cut leather, using hurricane stove to warm leather? I said, No, the best thing for me to do for them is to introduce them to the way it is done now and so we have elevated our standard, our processes and procedures for shoe manufacturing.

If we don’t talk about EEC and push it, even in the next administation, how will the incoming administration provide 600,000 jobs that will be able to match and outspace the population explosion that is imminent? This population will effectively double in the next 15 to 20 years. This is why I said it is existential and it is contending that as part of our trajectory for development in the next 30 years. It is also going to be contained in my handover note, but the most impetus that is driving the EEC is beyond one man, because I was able to get the House of Assembly to give me a law that gives EEC some quasi-autonomy; its like a small state in a state; it’s like Vatican in Rome. They have all their things. It’s not a place where a local government chairman will come in and begin to give orders. It’s a prerequisite, otherwise you won’t have the foreign investors to come. That’s why I go everywhere with them and I usually deliver the lead speech. I make sure that part of what I must say within the first five sentences is that there’s a law establishing it, that puts it beyond my own control. Unless they are doing something that is undermining the peace, security and stability of my state, otherwise, they are in a place where nobody can take control over them. The private sector entity that is pushing EEC has sufficient muscle to push it through, irrespective of the reluctance or whatever the man who is coming will think. These are the three double-locks that I think will make it a project that will remain on the front burner.

Your passion for the EEC is very infectious, but there is the problem of insecurity. How do you plan to get around it?

Let me start by saying that I’m a firm believer that security is of the Lord, but South East has been described as safer than most regions, irrespective of what anybody wants to say. Even within South East, they have regarded Abia as an oasis in the desert. I’m careful about choosing my words, especially to avoid me appropriating the glory that should go to God. But let me say we understand our security challenges and we read it well. However, because we don’t have sufficient control, like many other states, we are constrained to make all kinds of makeshift arrangements. We understand what the security situations are and we can protect not only Abia State but also EEC. The security challenge is germane. It’s a concern for Nigeria. In Abia, we have a way of tracking what is happening in our various communities and we understand what is happening; we follow up and deal with it. And we have had an average of about 65-70 per cent chances, if you commit violent crime here, you will be caught, if it is not that day, a week after.

We have profiled most of our criminals; we have a digital data of some of the people we are looking for. If something happens, we know one or two or three people we will query first. This is saying there is room for improvement, we can do better and I expect whosoever coming to improve on what we have done so far.

When they mention your name, people don’t really believe you have achieved much in office. Would you say that people play down on your achievements?

That’s true. People don’t really want to acknowledge it. People don’t want to even give me credit for what I have done.

Why?

Partially, it is my fault. I am a teacher and, if you are a university lecturer, your only duty is to teach, research and write papers and publish them. You don’t need to tell anybody when you are writing; when it is time for promotion, all you need to do is to forward your papers. The assessment will be made without you lobbying or promoting yourself. That’s my background. When I came, I had two issues. The first one, there was much to be done and I needed to roll up my sleeves and I began to work immediately. At first, I needed to keep my vision clear and steady, find a way to pursue this vision in the midst of a badly corrupt and reluctant civil service. At that time, I had 13 court cases; some of my detractors and some of my political enemies thought that Abia was their birthright. They had access to social media; they also had access to regular media. So, they were spending huge sums of money every month on propaganda: once Ikpeazu or Abia’s name comes up, they attack it, and it continued. I didn’t want to bother myself with them.

However, I quickly ran to my people here; my style has a way of appealing to my people. There is no inch of road today in Aba that you put your tyre that doesn’t have my signature, from Park Road to East Street, everywhere. In fact, at a point, the ordinary problem of water took 10 palliative interventions, and you couldn’t solve it. That’s why, today, if you ask me my greatest achievement in road construction, I will not mention it in terms of the number of roads or kilometres, I will say, ‘I started rigid pavement before others did it.’ And it has caught on to the point that, some weeks ago, a church invited me to inaugurate a road they did through self-effort and it was rigid pavement and they said the reason was because I taught them.

The hallmark of leadership is to be able to innoculate those that are following you. I’m known in this country for putting a pocket square in my pocket; go and see how many people in Abia are today putting pocket squares. For 60 years, nobody did road around Ngwa Road axis, but I have done six roads there. The people were forgotten; the last time I went there, young people in this Aba removed their trousers and came out naked. If Aba people want to celebrate you, at times they do that kind of thing. The time Enyimba FC won CAF, we saw many naked boys on the streets here. If they do it, what they’re saying is, ‘See, we’ve given you our life’.

I monitor projects. At times, I leave here (Governor’s Lodge, Aba) by 11pm, 12 midnight and go and stand alone on the streets and I talk to everybody. Remember, we have gone through Operation Python Dance here, they thought heaven would fall, but it didn’t consume us. People planned at that time to burn Ariaria (International Market), but it didn’t work. We’ve gone through #EndSARS, our own was not as bad as other places. At some point, we had to come out and say to them, ‘Please let us not do this, nobody will help us’. At that time, I was beginning to look at what N50 million would do for me, because a tonne of asphalt at that time was about N26m to N30m, but now its about N72m. So, I had a bill of N100m, I would be looking at asphalting three kilometres of road. But it didn’t pay me well as an individual. Today, let me challenge you people, please, ask my people to give you my inaugural speech and then give you my list of achievements. I have checked almost all the boxes, because I have my inaugural speech off hand. I can re-write it. I have checked all the boxes, but that is not even the strength of what we are doing. The strength of what we are doing is that there’s a complete integration in our interventions.