THE URGENCY OF NOW – FULL SPEACH
Nkaa G’eme – Kanyi Kesandu
Our present situation in Abia State demands immediate response. There is no room for margin of error, or trial and error. The principles of fresh esoteric management theories have no place in the present governance need of Abia state. The solution lies with known and workable principles that can guarantee the urgent emancipation and migration of Abia people who are currently locked up within the enclave of decrepit deplorable despondency into self-assured dependency born out of certainty embedded or encapsulated within the single affirmative and assertiveness in the principles of Nkaa G’eme!.
The urgency is now! because we all are now working dead in a land that was just a couple of decades ago reputed for its ascendency within the comity of the nation as one of those critical components of our union, our sovereign pride Nigeria, that was racing towards becoming a world superpower by 1980.
Wait a minute what then happened?
We became serially, politically depraved while politically good men stood akimbo or lost the zeal to intervene with the strength and vigor needed for our collective rescue. Today all that is set to change with my humble self-throwing my hat in the ring,
In the apt words of Martin Luther King Jnr
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action”
Wait a minute again, but who is this Chidia Maduekwe and what can he do differently?
I am the last child of a trained teacher and Reverend Minister who sometimes doubled as a village headmaster in some rural primary schools he served then. He graduated from the prestigious Hope Waddle Training Institute in the 1920s shortly before Nnamdi Azikwe and found a calling in giving back to the society at the lower rungs of the societal ladder rather than the upper crust of the society despite his early qualitative education for higher-income earning jobs such as the P&T, District Officer Custom& Exercise, and the railways. Mother was trained by the then Church of Scotland mission and worked with the church in training younger girls and fighting against the killing of twins in our part of Igbo land sometimes referred to as the cross-river Igbo by geographic proximity to the Cross- River.
This above humble background impacted on me the zeal and hunger for community care services from childhood. The aforementioned remains the honest test for my passion to deliver Abia State if given the opportunity to fly the APC flag predicated on the simple litmus test of my antecedents driving our expectations. I shall today avoid promises of what will happen and may never happen. I shall only insist on this single promise of Abia good governance, Nkaageme, Kanyi Kesandu!
Today may not have been set aside for the unveiling of my manifesto suffice it to say that I am prepared to give Abia people good governance that will be centered on agenda 3 E’s and I as the core pillars of my good governance program.
Breaking it down, we shall make EDUCATION our topmost priority since we must build on our strength and not on our weakness. Education here connotes both formal and informal education. As a child growing in the East it was fashionable for mothers and fathers to aspire to be addressed as Nne Doc or papa Doc or papa Engr etc.
The value of education with its accompanying value chain must be brought back to the front burner if Abia must unlock her highly rated God-given potential to be counted as one of the Nigerian states leading our country in different spheres of human endeavor. No Abia child shall be left behind. Associated educational infrastructural development shall be pursued all through its value chain. Singapore instituted similar agenda despite being far behind Nigeria in the 60’s today we can feel how far behind as a nation we are trailing.
Nowhere in the world has productivity been archived in the absence of ENERGY. I intend to make Abia the topmost green and renewable Energy state in Nigeria. Most of our oil wells in Abia state are capped over gas wells, from the gas fields of owaza we shall work with the relevant federal government agency to encourage Abia to tap into their God-given resources in the compressed natural gas -CNG sector. The national grid shall become a secondary source of power in the Abia state after 24 months we mounted the saddle. There shall be a natural gas revolution with associated productivity and advantages of the entire value chains
The 3rd E is the ECONOMY. Our Economy shall be smart once the two earlier components of Education and Energy are well emplaced.
The fourth pillar of Abia’s good governance is “I”. It stands for INFRASTRUCTURE; However, I make bold to emphasize that this – I- has a very crucial flip side. The flip side of this I is for the “INDIVIDUAL” if individual leadership and the led are antitheses to the adumbrated pillars of good governance, then Abia shall never be successfully be led out of its current traumatic deplorable condition.
The flip side of I – Individuals must be transparent and accountable. Opaqueness in administration shall have no longer be in reckoning if Abia state must be redeemed. As a mark of serious direction for the- I- individualism, I make bold to say that within 60days in office the State Assembly shall be encouraged to pass two bills amongst others;
(1.) Abolishment of the humongous drawings of security vote to a collectively acceptable limit not exceeding 20% of the current monthly drawings.
(2.) Urban renewal authority bill to be passed by the State Assembly shall focus on ensuring three cities in Abia takes the center stage with infrastructural developmental stride. These cities in other of priority shall be
[1.] ABA– The Enyimba City, to transform into the Commercial city for Nigeria and the sub-regions.
[2.] UMUAHIA – The state capital, our seat of power for administration and leisure
[3.] OHAFIA – The Innovative and Digital city of Abia state
Once again, the urgency of time cannot be overemphasized. Demographic disaster is what awaits Abia state if we fail to report the dire situation of the state as it is currently while taking the requisite bold steps needed to remedy same and seek the desirable support from all and sundry. We must at this juncture consider it expedient to first and foremost emplace a trusted leadership whose antecedents should ordinarily drive our anticipations.
My media family, Buhari Media Organization -the BMO, we have both been in trenches jointly and collectively with every one of you present here today during the last 7 years. We have shared commonalities that can surely lift Abia’s state out of the abysmal dysfunctional near-comatose state that she has been led to by men in leadership that have no humanity left in their soul. Aba remains the commercial nexus for Africa since most of west Africa, Central African states, and beyond have identified it as a good business location. Restoration of Aba back to glory is a national duty that will rub off in no small measure to Nigeria as a whole hence Aba is beyond being called an Abia city, it is INDEED a Nigeria city and proudly so and can only be restored to glory through the combined effort of every Nigerians. This crux of the matter that has brought me to your midst this afternoon…
I am here today to plead with everyone individually and collectively to join me as we set on this journey to restore, reinvent and realign Abia for the change long-desired having achieved the same narrative at the center. This shall be to the greater glory of God and humanity and the next generation shall remember us kindly in history. It is not by accident that on a day like this men and women in the fourth estate of the realm are gathered under one roof to accept the challenge to demonstrate ability and strength in changing Abia state from VERY BAD GOVERNANCE TO VERY EXCELLENT GOOD GOVERNANCE COME 2023
NKAA G’EME
KANYI KESANDU
THE URGENCY OF NOW!
Thank you.
Dr Chidia Maduekwe – Ishinkaa Ohafia
