…5 Major Takeaways for November

By Dodoh Okafor

The security and welfare of the people remain number one on the agenda of the State Government: The Governor began his interactions by reeling out his litany of verifiable achievements in road construction, reconstruction and maintenance, health and healthcare delivery ecosystem, workers’ and pensioners’ welfare, urban waste management, security, and offsetting the State’s public sector humongous debt obligations which were accumulated in large part by the immediate past administration.
The key takeaway from His Excellency’s opening statement is that the Governor is very deliberate and strategic in managing the resources of our people and has identified priority areas where investments are bound to yield high economic and social returns for the people. It is important to re-echo his Excellency’s revelation that these glorious achievements happened without borrowing a single penny from anywhere, at home or overseas.
Every part of the State is important; the spread of social investments shall be even, and there is a systematic approach to getting things done in the New Abia. Abians from the Umunneochi area of the State have never stopped thanking God for using Dr. Alex C. Otti to end the scourge of criminality that took over our communities in the Okezie Ikpeazu days. Things were so bad that everyone just ran away from Umunneochi, squatting in neighboring towns and villages. Governor Otti made all the difference when he unleashed the power of the State security agencies to restore order in the LGA. If Governor Otti had just stopped at improving security in Umunneochi, many of us would be too grateful to ask for more. But our dear Governor does not believe in basking in the euphoria of old achievements. He announced that the road that transverses through Umuaku, Mbala, and Ngodo will be receiving the Otti touch in the days and weeks ahead.
The message was clear: the Governor sees security and road construction from the prism of an integrated development framework. Fix the roads and things become difficult for criminals.
On a personal note, Your Excellency, I want to thank you for being a leader who makes things very easy for his aides and supporters. We don’t have to conjure up lies to make you look good. The ordinary people on the streets have taken over the job of promoting the excellent accomplishments of the administration in their respective neighborhoods and communities.
Worrisome instances of abuse of access: The Governor of a State must never be reduced to the headteacher of a school in a rural community. Last time, someone asked the Governor about his plans for “reports of exam malpractices” in ABSU and I have never stopped wondering if the Governor is made to answer questions that should be directed at the HoD of a department in ABSU, who then will answer major policy questions on real development concerns of the State? Who answers questions about the budget, the State’s infrastructure investments, and economic development plans?
Again, the trend continued: “Governor sir, students are working in farms belonging to teachers in my village!” Should questions like this, assuming such events took place, not have been directed at the headteacher of the said school? So you had an opportunity to ask the Governor of the State a question on behalf of about 5 million Abians and all you could come up with was something that a councilor in an LGA should not be dealing with since there are layers of authorities that have the administrative disposition and mandate to handle such matters if, again, they are established to be true.
Is journalism to be confused with activism? I have operated from the trenches as an activist, I have also worked from a newsroom and I can tell the difference between the two responsibilities. As an activist, it is OK to generalize, exaggerate, and make difficult-to-verify statements based on hearsay.
As a journalist, however, only the facts of a matter should be your concern and no more.
From my observations today, I would recommend that heads of the news organizations that participate in these media engagements sit down with their teams to educate them on why only facts should matter when they want to raise an issue in the public domain so they don’t make what would have been an intelligent contribution appear lame. “I was told….” who told you? Did you make further findings? “Insecurity has taken over…” what is the basis of this statement? “People were employed and sacked without compensation in ministry abc…” Who employed them? The state or a private arrangement? Should you not have gotten your facts right before going public?
So I think it is great to again develop a better understanding of our roles when we handle specific assignments. Are you coming for these media interactions to regurgitate what you heard during a gossip session on social media or what you picked from one newspaper stand populated by our friends who always share news about what Trump would do about XYZ once he is sworn in?
This is not a flippant administration; decisions are thought through before they are adopted and made public and once that happens, everyone runs with it.
The Government cannot be reversing itself on a matter as important as the consolidation of the State University as a major citadel of learning in its main campus at Uturu.
It was established by the Full Visitation Panel set up by the Governor in February this year that the multi-campus structure is operationally inefficient and very expensive to run due to duplication of costs, power tussle, and administrative overhead costs. Why should a Government operating on very lean resources have to buy 3 units of, say, 150 KVA generator, fuel, and maintain them to serve students of one University scattered across several locations when the University can quietly run on one unit of the same generator? The same for computers, office furniture, personnel costs and what have you.
Oh, but one standards group said that all faculties of XYZ must be in the urban centers. I see, but how many urban centers do we have here? Are we suggesting we restrict the study of this particular course to just two locations in Nigeria that can haphazardly qualify as urban centers because there are not too many urban centers around here?
Ahhh, but people have invested in property on the old site; what happens to their investments?
What do we say to those who invested in property in Lagos in the 1970s and 1980s in the hope that the city will remain the nation’s capital?
So if the capital of a country could move, what reasonable argument can anyone present against the relocation of the faculties of a university to its main campus, from where they had operated for decades before the politics of “a ga I tii ya ishi mmadu” of a few years ago?
Well, this is a new era, and efforts must be consolidated to return the State University to its founding dream and glory of yore. Thankfully, Governor Otti understands what is at stake. He is committed to doing the right thing.

Dodoh Okafor writes from Umuahia