I ‘ ll run Abia like enterprise – Greg Ibe
. Hints on how to rebuild Aba
By Steve Oko
The 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in Abia State, Professor Greg Ibe, in this interview with Wawa News Global, said he would run Abia like an enterprise if given the opportunity.
He also hinted on how to make Abia a leading industrial hub in Africa. Excerpts!
Q: If given the opportunity you are seeking, what practical steps are you going to take to quickly fix Abia?
A: They are contained in my manifesto and I read them on the day I declared for the race. I want to give Abia the proper definition of enterprise. An enterprise is an idea that is well planned, and when implemented, it will create activity, and that activity will lead to rewards.
If this state should be run as an enterprise, then an idea of what happens in the state must be well planned, and must be implementable, and it must create activity. Not just in one small corner but everywhere across the state. Under my watch, there will be total decentralization of governance.
There will be no discrimination because if you discriminate you will be living a child behind. If you fail to give equal opportunity to every Abian you will be creating a vacuum and that gap will continue to widen. But I don’t believe in that ideology. My ideology is that every child should be given equal opportunity.
I will take development closer to the people. At a point Abia was the second largest producer of cocoa. For many years the Lebanese, and the Yorubas were coming to buy our cocoa, and after take them to Shagamu for processing, yet poverty is killing my people here in Abia.
The British came and decided to locate ceramics industry here in Umuahia because Umuahia has the best kaolin for all breakables and tiles. But that company is dead today. The Lebanese come to Umuahia and take our kaolin, and take it to Kogi where they are producing tiles because of the gas pipeline that passed through Kogi.
Q: How do you intend to handle this?
I’m one Abian that has worked with past Heads of State including President Ibrahim Babangida, Obasanjo, up till Jonathan. Have I not ‘carried bags’ in politics? I think I have got enough tutelage. Am I looking at the elite or the people? It’s the people I care for. The elite may be the vehicle but the same elite should know that there must be a paradigm shift.
The man Greg Ibe has something excellent to showcase. I have antecedents, I have added value to lives. I know what I want to do for the people. I want to leave an enduring legacy. The Imo Airport, Abia State University and the Abia State University Teaching Hospital Aba which the Old Imo State prided itself with, who built them? I’m the one that did the three projects.
So, if I want to build an airport today in Abia will I need to look for somebody to do that? I’m building a 100-bed hospital for Gregory University at Okigwe Expressway. There is nowhere in Nigeria that has well-planned, purpose-built hospital than the one I’m building. But I’m quiet about it. I still go to the classroom to teach.
I’m above 50 years, and I have no pleasure in food anymore. My children are already made. I don’t need to steal state funds to enrich them. My children live in the US, and if I take Abia money and send to them the US Government will come after them. So, why should I mess up my clean record which I have built over the years?
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