My Dream for Ebonyi State
My ‘A Manifesto I never wrote’ published on this tabloid on 15th Dec 2018, was an imaginative flash of wishful thinking about a preferred future for Ebonyi State, conceived in outline business case-status of a full business case-federation. While acknowledging the SWOT analysis of the current affairs of the state, my dream for Ebonyi was that of a secure, stable and prosperous state, with sustainable economic opportunities and prudent social inclusion. Published in two parts on this same newspaper in April 2017, my dream was a synopsis under Pharaoh, of Joseph who a dream got into prison, out of which a dream got him. But while in prison he was not a part of open society and having no friends or enemies therefore, could govern without fear or favour.
Pharaoh, whose dream Joseph interpreted, in translation of the vision, was so intrigued by his sophistication, such that he decreed that only in the throne shall Joseph be lower than him. So, while Pharaoh remained king, Joseph the son of Israel, became a busy civilian prime minister working behind the scenes, as the skeletal-spine of authoritarian structure and configuration of power, of organs embodied in a state-ship built with gopher... I went on to posit the head as man, date of whom is the ship, his woman and that if a man can paint a fascinating picture, his date would dis-embark from a grand prix vehicle to take a walk with him to destiny.
The vision of ‘My Dream for Ebonyi State’, in ‘A Manifesto I Never Wrote’, was invariably a strategic trajectory of public policy in onomatopoeia, idioms and metaphors. The manifesto was therefore not elaborate but was detailed enough to include, private-sector partnership in delivery of independent power plant, inter-locking pave-ways, cattle ranch, poultry, fish ponds, full-value chain rice mills, table salt plant, cement factory, waste-recycling plant, Semitic farm settlement, social intervention with business service providers, international standard artisan scheme with City and Guilds UK and Full-bright scholarships with ivy-league foreign institutions. A manifesto is usually a detailed expression of intent to govern, constituted on downreaching partisan ideology and personal convictions, it is therefore unlikely to close-out a SMART-brief in any single newspaper article. My treatise therefore represented thoughtout-lines of hypothesis, for a test in questions, and answers to be found in expression of my intent to the fullest extent. But discerning readers of those articles have inundated me with questions as to why urban re-modelling should appear to have occupied the defining leit motif of my postulations.
To begin with, in possibly addressing such curiosities or interests, one is of the conviction that if the people and rulers of the United Arab Emirate (UAE), should be swapped with those of Lagos State for instance, within a space of four years, an exchange of phenomenon in city-statehood would have considerably obtained. It would therefore appear that, fantastic inspiration, human dignity, cultural ennoblement, societal civilization and public order would be expedient, though superior infrastructure performance is necessary, for a world class city-state to evolve. It therefore becomes a truth we can hold to be self-evident, that though built, to keep the city would require a cultivated middle class of citizens who would make the right choices in control of their own existence.
It equally becomes implicit that urbanization and civilization can be mutually exclusive. This must be so, hence, the proletariat are known to live in slums around central business districts, while aristocrats dwell in rural settings of spacious homes at urban commuter zones. While the intention of my ‘manifesto’ was therefore to bring government more into the social space, lower the cost of living and re-invent a middle class of Ebonyi citizens, the motive was for a re-modelled Abakiliki to fabulously inspire a people own self-respect, fascinate ideal socialization and mobilize virtuous energy towards a euphoric dream.
It would nevertheless be difficult, if not impossible in fact and in law, for such a fundamental transmutation of Abakiliki town-ship as presently constituted. So to verify the experiment, we would need to set up a control in which all other factors, except the variant being tested are kept identical. The control urban specimen, a bourgeois estate of the state, to be known as Greater Abakiliki Feasibility Demonstration District, shall be a restricted area, ingress and egress of which shall not be without let or hinderance, in exclusive rendition that can neither be affordable to down-graded value chain nor can surrender to petty-market forces.
There shall be within the precinct, significant Caucasian mingle with natives in a hybriding-scheme of valuecross pollination as well as foreign municipal and cultural exchange programmes with the UAE and Singapore, to verify implementation strategies and mechanisms, understudy human and infrastructural capacity building approaches, observe and document processes as well as physical and administrative infrastructure, all in strategic security partnership with Israeli Mossad Aliyah Bet.
The city shall be our national pride, heralded by a mini Champ Ellyse of superlative thoroughfare- tarmac, bounded on both sides with expansive tract of grassland dotted by trees, flowers and shrubs, adorned with a bunting of flags, uninterruptible streetlighting, full-signages, milestones and standard culverts. It shall be a small layout for discriminate public allotment, of main-roads, collector-streets and green-spaces, named after iconic such as Mansa Musa Horse Race Course, Amilcar Cabral Boulevard, Kamuzu Banda Crescent, Ordorbro Drive, Dan Fodio Polo Park, Yoweri Museveni Bye-pass, Benjamin Netanyahu Golf Course, Starehe Boys Scout Lane, Chike Obi Mathematical Research Institute, John Momoh Strategic Retreat Camp, Nduka Obaigbena Inter-governmental & Conflict Resolution Academy, Queen Moremi Heroines Arcade, Gbazue Agu gbazue agu Round-about, Mai Shombe Close, Owei Lakemfa Drive... But to ensure that the community roads lead to nowhere, the city shall be conceived in intellectual hubby and resource personality.
So in addition to the foregoing we shall be looking at a full bright scholarship business academy with academic halls and faculties dedicated to Aliko, Fajemirokun and Sir Louis Ojukwu, a monastery and seminary to be known as Aladin Hall, a multi-lingual center, full-detail public library, a newspaper press, a consortium of conference managers, dedicated solar energy farm and wind energy mill, waterworks, underground reticulation of pipe-bourne water and fuel-gas, a super-deluxe hotel, a mega-helipad, hydroponic gardens and so on.