Abians ’ll resist imposition in 2015 –Ufomba

Ochiagha Regan Ufomba is a governorship aspirant in Abia State on the plat­form of the All Progres­sives Grand Alliance (APGA). In this interview with BROWN CHIMEZIE, he speaks on his vision for the state come 2015. Excerpts:

You are giving the Abia governor­ship position another shot after the 2011 experience, what’s the motiva­tion?

The motivation remains the same; our people still need good governance and the basic amenities of life. Aba has gotten worse, now you spend close to four hours to get into Aba from Osisioma junction. So, in view of all these, I have decided to do something to help rescue the situation and help the people of Abia State.

When you say to rescue the people of the state, there are many who believe that the incumbent governor has liberated the state. What is your view on this?

What are the indices? Is it on agriculture, education or roads? Who has he liberated? I don’t want to go into that. That is so petty for me to go into. What we are saying is that our children still go to school paying high fees, no science laboratories, no clear cut direction on agriculture and nobody is asking how we can store what we are producing. After storing what do we do with them? Are there process­ing plants cropping up in Abia? Do we have a marketing board? Are we exporting? In commerce, can anybody freely access Ariaria Market, Ngwa Road Market, Obohia Market or is it Ogbo Hill Market, all in Aba? Can anyone come in through Ikot Ekpene into Aba or go into Umuahia through Ikwuano? So, what has changed in Abia? The only thing that has changed is the bumps and the gullies which are now deeper. If they were one metre before now, they are five metres deep now.

We need to place Abia on a pedestal of growth. What has been going on in the state, if there is anything at all, is what you call playing to the gallery and misapplication of funds. The government has failed to prioritise and as far as I’m concerned it is a failure . Nothing has really changed, I don’t want to go into the issue of whether the incumbent has liberated us or not because, it is clear to all who visit Abia that there is nothing to talk about. Different stakeholders from Abia now want me to come and save them. I was passing through Osisioma the other day and commuters where telling me, “Ochiagha you have seen it, please come and save us”.

What are you bringing to the table if you emerge the governor of the state come 2015?

There has to be transparency, accountabil­ity and prioritisation in government. That’s key. There must be human capital invest­ment. Is it difficult to train our children? My government will give free education from primary to tertiary levels; we are going to mechanise and in fact, revolutionalise agricul­ture. We are going to separate industrialists and traders from Aba and clean up the town because it is the economic life centre of not just Igbo land but Nigeria. If you get Aba right, you get Abia right. You have heard of the stealing that is going on in the name of se­curity vote, where one man takes N1 billion. That is enough to empower our youths. If I win, that stealing is not going to happen.

Some people will argue that Abia doesn’t have the resources to run free education. How would your govern­ment fund that?

Is there money in Imo? During my 2011 campaign, I told the people of Abia that I will introduce free education and said the incuba­tion step is the secondary school. Once you get it right at that level, you will get it right all through. We have what it takes to offer free education at secondary and tertiary levels. We are also going to return boarding schools. People have been saying there is moral decadence and that the standard of educa­tion has also failed, but my opinion on that is that people should ask why the standard has failed. I’m a product of boarding school, and I was thought how to use the cutlery, make my bed and even how to wash my clothes in the boarding school because we had layers of authority then. In your dormitory, you have dormitory prefects; you have class prefect, house captain and class teacher. They all train you in one way or the other. Even the prin­cipal is also offering his own services. Then, when you return home, your parents do the same. So, we are going to go back to that era where people set out to school and they get to the school. Go to the villages now, you have people who leave their parents’ houses to go to school, but they don’t get to the schools. So, there is need for us to pay more attention to human capital development.

Many Abians are worried over the state of Aba, which used the centre of commerce in West Africa. What are your plans to make the town come alive again if you become the gover­nor of Abia State?

I have a 12-Point Agenda for Aba. First, I am going to relocate government liaison office in Aba after May 29 to ensure that we bring Aba back to what it should be. There was a time when most things people use in Nigeria; bag, shirt, shoes, belt among others, were produced in Aba. In my manifesto in 2011, I said I will declare Aba a disaster town. Most of the people who have cars inA ba no longer use them. People from all parts of Ni­geria are in Aba, so there is the need to elect a governor who understands the economic and political importance of Aba.

There is the issue of the governor anointing his successor. Do you think it would be easy to win the party and candidate of an incumbent governor?

This anointment we all talk about depends whether it is the anointment of the Holy Spirit or the devil. We are talking about a govern­ment that has failed anointing a successor, Abia people will reject that. Also, we should know that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) never won an election in Abia in 2011. I defeated a sitting governor, but the election was rigged, and because people like us are social crusaders, we are not like selfish politi­cians who wouldn’t mind dying pursuing a selfish agenda. At the point the election was rigged, if I had said no, Abia will still be burn­ing till today. However, I can tell you that in 2015, they can never rig election again in Abia State.

You said you won in 2011 and was rigged out, what practical steps are you taking now to avoid a repeat of that?

Then I contested against a sitting governor and we know that the power of incumbency is always there. Of course, we learnt that there was order from above and certain persons came to Abia and said that whether the people like it or not, the governor must return. Then it was do-or-die, but there should be morality and integrity in politics. When people come and say whether the people like it or not, it is not the democracy that we are yearning for.