The Methodist Archbishop of Umuahia, Most Reverend Dr. Chibuzo Raphael Opoko says, he wants an ideal Abia State where all will be happy due to the style of leadership and governance in the state.
This prayer, he also said is for the nation, Nigeria.
He made the wishes and prayer in his 2023 Easter message to Abians and Nigerians, stating:
I want to see a new Abia where you will go to the state capital, everywhere is neat. Go to the (Isi) Gate there, it is very ramshackled. Look at what is happening at the Gate, how can the state call this place a state capital? This is not a state capital. I want an Abia when you arrive, you know that you have arrived a state capital.
I want an Abia where salaries are paid, not just at 31st ( of the month), but even before 30th of every month, salaries of workers are paid. When you pay people salaries, the money will circulate.
I want an Abia where Local Government (Areas) can be able to do something, projects within their wards as I see in Lagos. When I was in Lagos, Local Governments tarr roads in Lagos, they make drainages, they build bridges, they build culverts.
I want an Abia where Local Governments can impact on the people at the local level. I want an Abia, where the civil service, when you want to hire people, you advertise. You can’t tell me you hired more than five thousand people. Where is the advisement?
Give me newspapers where it was advertised. Was civil service procedures followed? So, I want an Abia that follows procedures. An Abia that is lawful. An Abia that fears God.
An Abia that cares and has compassion for the people they rule. An Abia that can turn around and pray for the leaders because the leaders are doing well. That is the kind of Abia that I need.
An Abia where youths will be employed. An Abia where electricity will be on 24 hours. I don’t see why electricity cannot be on in Umuahia for 24 hours. I don’t see why.
How much is the total revenue that everybody pays for electricity to power? Even if the government decides that the state capital must have light, it will have light. Pay that money, let them constantly provide light instead of people buying various generators and phones, coming out there and destroying the atmosphere and the environment.
Do you know how much people are paying to buy fuel for generators? Buy diesel, who can afford diesel? What about those hair dressers? What about those who are welders? What about those who are joiners? Who will give them the money to buy the generator to do all these?
So, whenever they buy the generator, they borrow. When they borrow, they pay interest. They now work the interest into the services they render and the poor man is at the receiving end.
So, we are not paying double taxation, we are paying multiple taxation. I want an Abia where a single tax can be given and that tax money can be utilized.
I want an Abia that Aba, being the commercial nerve centre of the east can be re-visited, revived, so that those from Cameroon, as they use to do in those days, Cotonu, Dahomey, all of them will come by road to come and buy things here in order to go back.
Where is the road? Where is Port Harcourt Road?
A lot of challenges are for (Dr. Alex) Otti, but with God, all things are possible. If people fear God, they will do (well).
History repeats itself. Posterity judges. You have a lot of sycophants. When the governor has not done anything, they will say the governor has done, infact, the gover has built a sky, a mansion in the sky.
Go there, you will see Government House near Ehimiri. For 8 years, have you seen any job done there?
How long did it take Akpabio to build the Government House in Akwa Ibom? How long did it take Odili to build the Government House? How long?
Just go to Akwa Ibom, you will see the Government House in Akwa Ibom. Just go to Port Harcourt, you will see the Government House in Port Harcourt.
Odili never had a good one, but he left one. Akpabio didn’t have a good one but he left one, a good legacy that you can think of.
Here, I think we are still tenants because somebody is there. I want an Abia State that we can no longer continue to be tenants where our Government House dwells. Either you buy it outright and know it is your own property or you go and develop your Government House.
I want a new Abia where there will be faith and confidence in those who are ruling. I want a new Abia where Civil Service Commission will do their job, where Local Government Service Commission will do their job.
I want a new Abia where employment can be transparent. I want a new Abia where our youths, everywhere, can be engaged. I want a new Abia that can be thinking of dredging the Blue Water in Ukwa area, so that we can have a river port. That is the type of new Abia that we can have.
I want a new Abia that can go to Obuaku City, instead of making it just Obuaku City, turn that place into an industrial city. Fortify it, build the roads, give facilities to people, give incentives to our people who are in Lagos and let them come and build their headquarters in Abia.
Go to Lagos and see Abians who have factories and big factories manufacturing and yet, they are treated the way they are treated in Lagos. Get them opportunity to come over here and put their headquarters here.
I want an Abia that will operate their own Insurance Company so that every money you do for insurance here stays here, it does not go to Lagos.
So, I want an Abia where you will be happy, you will go to the streets and you see people happy, smiling. Just walk along the streets, you will see everybody, their faces are puffed up. Why? They are angry, they are hungry, they are sad.
The same thing I pray for Abia is the same thing I pray for the whole Nigeria.
But I tell you, if Abia is good, the whole Nigeria will be good.
