QUICK FACTS:

1991, with Umuahia as capital

pointer to the absence of the kind of positive and visible change the people are yearning for

progress in the development of the state. No matter how hard Governor Okezie Ikpeazu thinks he is trying, something appears to be missing: the rapid transformational touch that makes a city to shine for all to see

- able lapses in the first four years of his administration. But he assured that he was committed to make amends in areas he got it wrong

and give a modicum of infrastructural development was only during the administration of Senator Theodore Orji. He not only relocated all the markets that clustered around the city centre but also built infrastructures that today give Umuahia some semblance of a capital city. These include the International Conference Centre (ICC) and a modern state secretariat which has made it possible for the ministries hitherto scattered around the state capital to be brought to a single location

*Unfortunately, the development of Umuahia started by Orji has not been sustained by his successor, Ikpeazu. The new government house which Orji started at Ogurube layout has remained at the

stage he left it

domiciled in a rented premises

Umuahia becomes a cocoon of darkness at sundown thus economic activities grind to a halt much earlier than in the capital city of other states

- rienced during the first 100 days of the Theodore Orji administration. It was short-lived as the taps went dry following damage done to the old pipes

of Ngwa extraction and was actually expected to drastically change the face of Aba, more so being an “Aba boy” himselfhimself

promoting commerce and industry. His campaign for Made-in-Aba goods and encouragement of the growth of small and medium scale (SMEs) enterprises has caught not only national but global attention

recognized Abia as the SME capital of Nigeria with Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo coming to God’s own state on several occasions to foster the partnership for the growth of SMEs

grapple with the challenges of infrastructural development he has got no respite on issue of salary and pension arrears. The issue has so blighted the administration of Ikpeazu that nothing he does counts so long and workers are hungry and angry