By Obilor Gracecliffs
Abia State under the leadership of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu have become one of the worst State in the South East with dilapidated infrastructures, poor health care, poor security outfit, unpaid salaries, poor health infrastructure and poor education standard.
A lot of things have gone wrong in Abia State and it have kept the citizens worried and scared. A lot of people in Abia State are leaving in penury.
In the month of May 2022, the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) lost its National University Commission (NUC) accreditation following protracted strike by doctors in the hospital due to 25 months of salary arrears. The Aba General Hospital is in a sorry State, such that in a case of emergency, the residents of Aba will not be able to get access to quality health care.
On Tuesday, the 19th of July 2022, new cries of woe rented the air about Abia State Polytechnic (Abia Poly) losing its accreditation.
The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) announced, through her spokesperson, that the board has withdrawn it’s accreditation for the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba due to the failure of the institution to pay it’s staff for 30 months.
The Spokesperson, Ms Fatima Abubakar stated, “it is, therefore, with utmost sense of responsibility that the board has decided to withdraw the accreditation status of the Polytechnic to safeguard the quality assurance mechanism of the board.”
She explained the importance of regular salary payment as a key component of the board’s normative instruments for quality assurance in polytechnic, technical, vocational education and training (TVET) institutions.
Ms Abubakar further said, “The board went the extra mile of writing to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, informing him of the dire situation of the Polytechnic, but all to no avail.”
“We wrote to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) not to mobilize any of the polytechnic’s graduates to camp,” She added.
She concluded by saying that the board sent a similar notice of withdrawal of the accreditation to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund and Industrial Training from any transaction with the Polytechnic
This is just another feather in the crown of failure that dorns the head of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu, the Kinetic governor.
This administration has kinetically killed everything good left in Abia before they took power in 2015.
A brief look at the scorecard of this administration since they came into power, especially with regards to the destruction of education and healthcare in the state.
College of Medicine Abia State University lost her accreditation.
Abia State College of Technical Education Arochukwu staff are owed 29 months salary.
Doctors under Abia State University Teaching Hospital are owed over 25 months salary. Their prolonged strike has made ABSUTH lose their NUC accreditation.
Teachers of Secondary schools in Abia State are owed several months salary. According to some sources, they were on for months until two weeks ago.
Abia State Pensioners are owed over 30 months pension. These includes retired teachers.
Teachers of primary schools in the state are owed several months salary. They were on strike for several months. Few who received their salary reportedly got half payment.
As mentioned earlier, Abia State Polytechnic has just lost her accreditation from NBTE because their lecturers are owed over 30 months salary.
School of Health Technology staff are owed several months salary
To top off the education disaster, Private schools in Abia state are frequently harassed by the Abia state government with several illegal levies of Emblem fees, Abiapluc fees, etc. Their cases are currently in court.
This government which is led by Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu is out to hack the education sector to death.
Other areas of chronic failure include:
Blackout in many parts of Abia State since August 2021. Nothing has been done to restore electricity in those areas.
Deathtraps all over Abia State roads, especially in commercial hotspots such as Faulks road, Osusu axis, Port-Harcourt road, Ohanku, Obohia etc.
Proliferation of touts employed by government to harass citizens, truck drivers, commercial drivers, and business owners. This is one of the most visible achievement of this administration.
Insecurity in different parts of Abia State, there are cases of robbery which has been going on for sometime now in the State, the Government has done little or nothing about this situation.
Perhaps, the only infrastructure that this administration can boast of is the cross-over bridge at Osisioma Junction, Aba. Many Aba residents believe that the bridge, however, is not serving it’s purpose apart from making the entrance of look beautiful. They believe that several cross over bridges are needed in other areas of the city, especially Bata and Ogbor hill areas.
Recently, the government has rushed to apply a coat of tar on the Osisioma part of Aba-Owerri road just like they usually do. It’s believed to be low quality and expected to wear off by next year just like other roads like Faulks road did.
I urge the people of Abia State to demand for accountability from Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu. The damage his administration has done is too much.