How Alex Otti is changing the face of governance in Abia State – Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo

Says Otti’ s antecedents prepared him for results-oriented governance 

Speaks on Shell and 24 hours power supply in Aba

Efforts to rid the market of fake products and producers

 

Ogbonnaya Ndukwe I  Monday, Feb. 19, 2024

 

ABA, Abia, Nigeria – Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo, Chairman, Eziukwu Road Market Traders Association, Aba, has regretted the new tag, identifying the market with fake and adulterated products, but said some NAFDAC officials, had for long, been hobnobbing with the culprits while it lasted. 

In this interview, he proffered solutions that could remedy the dent, and lauded Gov Alex Otti administration’s move towards rebuilding and repositioning Abia State.

You’ve been associated with various administrations in Abia, since the return to civilian rule in 1999, can you assess the eight months old Alex Otti government? Isn’t it too early to start looking at what it has or has not done?

 

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To be honest with you, what the administration has done in eight months, has outweighed what some of his predecessors did in eight years. We have observed the governor, working with a human face, human heart and feeling, in his handling of issues affecting the state’s development and the wellbeing of it’s people. 

Let’s start with what just happened within our markets. There was a fire incident on February 6th, that destroyed traders’ shops and goods. Without much ado, the governor was at the scene within 24 hours to see what happened and sympathise with those affected. Two weeks ago, shops were also, destroyed in a fire outbreak in Ngwa Road market, and he went there the following day, to commiserate with the traders. He went to see what happened first hand, he didn’t send emissaries. That’s what governance is all about, to identify with the people, know how they are faring and find solutions to the problems they have. 

Except one or so, none of his predecessors did that. The governor’s mere presence in such situations assuaged the people’s bad feelings. Okay, it was while visiting the fire victims at Eziukwu Road market, that the governor, despite promising to assist them return to business, saw the decapitated state of the building structures. He used the occasion to restate his administration’s resolve to restructure all markets in Aba, to acceptable modern standards. Eziukwu market was built in 1987, while that of Ngwa Road (Ahia Ohuru), had been with us from the 1960s, before the Nigeria/Biafra war. Otti saw the need to restructure the markets to modern standards, since they form a major fulcrum of the internal revenue generation base of the state.

Looking at road infrastructure, in the past, it was difficult to traverse Aba commercial city, from one location to another when there’s need for that. It wasn’t easy to reach out from where one was to another area, to either pick up what one needs or keep an appointment, as a result of bad roads. Many access roads and streets had their surfaces and drainage channels blocked by flood water, while others that were tarred during Chief Sam Mbakwe’s regime in old Imo state, got worn out by old age  and were not mended or rehabilitated. 

Today, that is becoming a fairy story. Most roads in Aba metropolis, have started wearing a new look and sometimes, we feel there’s a kind of magic we cannot describe in doing this, changing the scenery. One can pass through a street in Aba today, and before returning to the area the following week or two, he sees a new beautiful scene, smooth road, clean environment. Coming to the case of Port Harcourt Road, a much touted road, which Abia political activists used to play politics for over 30 years, the government was bold enough to give it out to a prominent contracting firm that his predecessors and their cohorts argued, could not be hired for work in Abia, due to the huge sums of money they will want to be paid. Giving it out to the firm, in itself, had scored the new administration very high in the ratings of the people. 

One can go on and on, mentioning what good, the Alex Otti administration has been doing since it took office eight months ago, in Abia. When he came on board, the approved taxes and levies paid by traders in all markets in Aba, was N22,000, but in arguing that it was on the high side, in view of the hardships faced by the people, the governor promptly reduced it to N18,000, removing N4,000. That’s why we said, he has a human face and human heart that feels the pain of the people.

The issue of Port Harcourt Road, which you mentioned, had been in the news for long, dragging politicians across party lines at daggers drawn. When Otti announced the award of the contract to Julius Berger, the current firm handling it, his opponents of the former ruling party, PDP, criticised paying a whooping N30 billion, as contract fee, claiming it to be too high. 

 

Also, people said the firm was merely used as an ego booster by the ruling Labour Party (LP). What is your take on this argument?

 

In life, criticisms will always come at every stage, no matter what societal good the person wants to achieve. It will be absurd for any sane man to expect being lauded by his critic or enemy. They will always call you your mother’s name, instead of describing you with titles bestowed on you for bravery. That’s what the governor’s critics are currently doing with the Port Harcourt Road reconstruction issue. One needs to go there, to see the massive construction work going on at the moment. 

In trying to get the road fixed, the last Okezie Ikpeazu administration, pulled down houses, destroyed people’s properties on the pretence that it was building a six lane super access way, to link Aba/Asa road with the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, in Asa Nnentu/Alaoji, Ugwunagbo area. Many landlords, property owners that relied on rents from those belongings to feed themselves and their families got disappointed. 

They were not compensated for their destroyed belongings, nor the road built to enable inflow of traffic, people bringing in business that may help them to return to earn a living. The government said it was building a six lane road, it didn’t even build one lane. The road became a ruin with debris of destroyed structures and turned into killer objects, created deep gullies and ponds that got many drowned. Many of the landlords, our members in Aba landlords and property owners association (ALPADA), died in frustration, some had heart attacks and trillions of Naira, invested by industrialists, technicians, fabricators, artisan, among other tradesmen and professionals, got wasted. 

The government then, kept telling us that there was no fund to continue the project, despite saying earlier that money was available from an international agency, to handle it up to Ngwa Road, and others. We had then, approached the authorities to discard the six lane programme and reconstruct the road in it’s original form, to which they refused, only to later abandon it after destroying properties and their helpless owners, many of who could not stand their losses. 

Today, go and see what the new contractors are doing, returning to the original design, with surface drainage channels. They are working day and night, in order to deliver and ease the sufferings of the people that use the road. A lot of businesses will reopen, with new ones coming in and remember, this is the major access road from the South South states into Aba, through Obehie, Obigbo, Port Harcourt (Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Edo states), and it was used to play politics by people purporting to love Aba and it’s inhabitants. 

When Dr Alex Otti, was campaigning for the office of governor, he said he had managed money, managed people (human beings), noting that Abia was being run under because it’s managers at the time, were bereft of knowledge of handling critical areas like human and financial materials. That may have been the reason we were always told that Abia lacked funds to develop like other states. States like Ebonyi, are not oil producing. They have limited allocation from the federal government, yet its managers were able to manage what they have to move it to the level it is presently, in development.

 

Chief, despite all that you have said, it is still believed that doing well in developing or rehabilitating infrastructures, depends on availability of funds . Aba market traders, are said to be anti government, when it comes to payment of taxes and other approved levies. They prefer bribing touts on revenue drivers instead. How are you ensuring that your members pay and as at when due, to make funds available for the good services, you said Dr Alex Otti, administration is rendering, to continue uninterrupted?

     

Yes, revenue generation from markets in Aba, to the state funds, has not been encouraging. Before we came into office, there was a system used by our predecessors, in which we discovered lapses. It did not cover the entire market traders, doing business in particular markets. Many leaders did not know the actual number of stalls in their markets and their occupants and this brought chaos in projecting and collecting government revenue. Again, use of politicians with no knowledge of trading or owning shops in the markets, was another major problem that hindered revenue collection. 

What was in vogue, was appointing politicians as market caretaker committee chairmen, who then connived with council caretaker authorities, to contract out revenue generation, a situation that led into hiring of touts that return agreed sums either monthly or annually, as the case may be.  In such situations, rooms were created in which many traders used the lapses to ‘grease the palms’ of the touts and are issued with forged receipts purporting them to have paid, while they do not. For us now, we work directly with staff of the state revenue board in identifying traders in our markets and advising them to pay appropriately. 

 

The government, has been good to us. It has started sanitising our markets and it environment, built major access roads that cross our trading area and has now promised to restructure our buildings, reposition the aesthetic and remove structures that have been illegally built in areas reserved for other uses. It is our resolve therefore, to create awareness, that will henceforth lure traders into conducting themselves appropriately, do the needful in carrying out their civic responsibilities. 

We don’t support government borrowing money to build our roads, as it will lead to another borrowing to repay the first one. It will have a negative effect on our children. It is our responsibility, to build our state today, for our children and future generations to benefit from.

 

 The closure of Eziukwu market and arrests of persons engaging in counterfeit products manufacturing by NAFDAC in December, brought it into international limelight, negatively. Some people have accused you of being part of the cartel, others said you invited the agency officials and ran out of the country. In all sincerity, what was your role in this, were you aware of the ‘business’ going on in the market you lead as chairman?

 

Every living being, be it human or otherwise, has its conscience and ego to protect. God’s word in the Scriptures, the Holy Bible says: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; … (Isaiah 5.20). Whoever, engages in adulteration of products, is a killer, a murderer. There are different ways of killing. Some fire guns to kill. Others use poison, while there are those engaging in witchcraft. All of them aim to achieve a point, to kill, destroy from being alive. Whosoever, engages in adulteration or counterfeiting of any product, is a killer, because he or she knows that what he is bringing to the table is fake, unoriginal. What the person is offering to the people is poison, with a mindset of poisoning, killing and destroying the consumer. I am not part of it. I must not be part of it, in any way or form, because I belong to the few that will always say the truth, no matter what happens. I had known that something sinister, was going on in the market, but didn’t envisage it at the very high level it was, when the bubble bursts. No! Not to my knowledge. When I was approached to come in as leader of the traders, I had declined for two reasons, one being that I was getting advanced in age and losing youthful grip on issues. Another was that it would tie me down into being lured to see things from the people’s angle, even if they were wrong, not having a personal opinion on issues, as was the case with my private life. 

I also didn’t like a situation of being an ah hoc leader of a caretaker committee, with no power of its own. It has no power of decision making and carrying them out without interference from those that appointed you. However, having been assured that the present administration, has promised to act differently, we had to take up the gauntlet. Indeed, the governor, has started doing it and has quickly ordered the markets’ restructuring, in line with best international standards.

On my actions as the current leader, some traders including members of my committee, are uncomfortable with our style of management. Some of them are engaged in various types of cheating, counterfeiting of products in the market. I made it clear in our meetings that I cannot give myself to be used to commit evil against any being, rather I would back out. To tell you the truth, some people are working against our success and we know it. Those involved in the fake and adulterated products manufacturing business here, are doing it to spite me, to tarnish my image. My joy is that at the end of life, every individual will give account of what he did, how good or bad he has lived on earth.

 

Having been aware of what was going on, did you interface with, or alert NAFDAC officials, to act while travelling out, to far away United States of America (USA)? How come the coincidence in their coming, just a day after you left Nigeria, to seal the market, especially in the peak of the Christmas season when sales surge?

 

I was not the one that invited them and if I had had prior knowledge of their coming, I would have postponed my travelling, for a day or two. They may have been seeing what was going on in the market, monitoring those involved and planning when and how to nab them. You know the agency’s officials are not uniform wearing, so they can enter where you are without anyone identifying who they are. 

A python does not strike as soon as it sees a prey. It waits a while, perfects its position and strategy so as not to miss, before striking at its target. When she was in charge, erstwhile NAFDAC director general, late Prof Dora Akunyili, observed what was happening in Onitsha headbridge drug market severally, before confronting the operators. In our markets, due to the way the shops have been compacted, one cannot see some of the activities going on clearly in some of them. Many shops, in the markets, have no direct access leading into them. One therefore, finds it difficult to know the activities of their occupants. One thing that I know, is that officials of NAFDAC, always visit the market. I am aware that those producing the adulterated goods make certain monetary returns to them. 

This is an open secret which emboldens those involved, to continue uninterrupted in their evil activities. It may not be all of them (NAFDAC) officials. If I knew that they were coming to Eziukwu Road market, I would have postponed my travelling at the time it took place. I would have shifted the travel date and stayed to meet them before moving out, though the trip was planned and scheduled for, more than a year ago, before I became chairman. 

I thank God, though for exposing what was going on in Eziukwu Road market. The whole world has seen it and it is a dent on us all, the traders, Aba residents. It has given us, traders in the market, a bad image. It was my daughter in Canada, who drew my attention to the closure, when she saw the news in the internet. Presently, none of us will raise his hands to say, “I’m from Eziukwu Road market in Aba. People, will laugh at the person. They will say, “Arrh! Fake products producers, have you come?” It will be like the past, when people from the town got tagged as kidnappers, due to the then activities of kidnappers in the area. I am not happy that it is happening during my tenure as chairman.

 

What are you going to do, to remove the tag, reposition and sanitise the market and from there, reassure your customers of sale and distribution of quality products?

 

I will say that we have already started work in sanitising the market. You’ll remember that we have conducted four prayer programmes since we came in as the management team, barely six months ago. We started with prayers, for God to help us recover the market from the evil forces that held it captive, for over 30 years. We also prayed that traders using charms, amulets, spells to do business here, should change their ways and return to sanity or be exposed by God’s spirit. We believe that what is currently happening is God, at work. He has begun to bring into the open, the dirty dealings in the market. On our part and against all odds, we have been monitoring the activities of our members, and using avenues open to us, to tell our customers not to fear, that goods sold and bought in our markets, are as genuine and of good quality as those obtained elsewhere.

 

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There has been acute power supply problem in Aba and as leader of ALPADA, your association, sometime entered into an MoU with Aba Power company, to provide uninterrupted electricity to the city, while guaranteeing prompt settling of electricity bills, do you have any knowledge of the situation?

I was at a meeting recently with the management of the power company and they explained to me the problems they are currently facing. You were right to say that we entered into an MoU with them. It was in that spirit that I had to approach them to find out reasons for the current situation in which the people are living without public supply of electricity. I was shown the facilities that were ready for the 24 hour round the clock supply. However, the company complained that after completing the erection of the plant, they had approached and finalised gas supply arrangements, with Shell Petroleum company, but the action was stalled by the company’s (Shell) planned winding up of it’s activities in Nigeria, after the federal government refused to renew it’s operational licence in the country. 

This, they said, had stalled an earlier scheduled commencement date of total power supply to Aba residents. They said a letter for the official commissioning of the Aba power project has been sent to the federal government and was awaiting approval. I believe they are working on alternative means of acquiring gas because the station will run on a hundred percent gas supply from the plant in Owaza station in Ukwa West Council Area. So we are upbeat that very soon, the Aba power problem will be solved.