Gov. Orji Poised To Make Abia More Economically Vibrant ____Dr Phillips Dr Phillip Nto, World Bank consultant and Abia state finance commissioner in this chat with journalists among whom is Uzo Chikere in Lagos talks passionately about the journey so far to re-position the state by the governor, Chief Theodore Orji, among other issues Governor Theodore Orji seems to be soldiering on in terms of his legacy projects. How has the state been coping in terms of the economy? Ordinarily there is a serious economic problem which is leading to what I may describe as financial meltdown. It is not peculiar to Abia State, it’s not also peculiar to Nigeria, it’s a global problem. You can recall that it happened sometime in 2009 when there was low growth rate and I think there is a repeat of that in recent time which is leading to decline in price of oil. You know Nigeria is a mono economy heavily dependent on accrual from oil and the oil is dependent on international market forces. You know there is a problem in German economy, that of America and I don’t think that China which is our major trade partner is out of it. So based on that, Nigeria I may say seem to be having little economic challenges. But Abia state being a State whose public expenditure profile is based on prudency is managing to survive and doing its best to survive the situation. You know that our governor, Chief Theodore Orji is a man that is gifted in financial management; no doubt, he has been carefully managing the state’s meagre resources. Like I always say the governor is not a greedy person, neither is he a business man, he is not what you may call a politician as they are in the country, he is not somebody given to flamboyant life, so his driving force is just service to the people. Had it been he is a core politician, it would have been difficult for the state to do what he has been able to achieve. When you look at what he has been able to achieve, given the insufficient resources at his disposal you will know that only a genius in financial management can achieve such feat. If he is like some that has a bogus ambition of how to become the President, who will be moving from one zone to the other even when they know they are incapable and that such ambition is not realizable, there will be nothing for you to point at in the state but because his focus is on the people, he does everything at his disposal to provide genuine development, developments that you can see, feel and appreciate. What he is putting in place are developments that will outlive him and remain for years to come.  He is not one that makes noise but one that will want his performance to speak for him, the reason he is fixing legacy projects. He is a humble leader and you can see that despite all the pressure on him by all stakeholders and Abians to run for the senatorial seat, he said he would not want to be distracted. You can see that he is still working like a person seeking for a second term. There is no state now that you can see a second term governor working the way he is doing, still commissioning projects on weekly, if not on daily basis. Despite economic challenges the man is soldiering on, refusing to be distracted by those that have lost their last reserve of shame and with no integrity. The governor if you ask me is prudency personified, the reason the state has achieved so much with meagre allocation and an IGR that has increased since he took over the saddle. Before now we don’t have befitting government house, not even a state secretariat, we never had befitting House of Assembly complex, there was no well-equipped medical facilities, there was really no enduring human empowerment programme as we are witnessing now, etc. all those things have now been put in place by the Ochendo administration within a short period of time. In fact Abians will tell you that they have never had it so good as to what they are witnessing today in government. They can now know that government can be transparent and accountable. It is the reason there is no opposition in the state, the reason there is political peace among all the known gladiators. Look at what Ochendo is doing on youth empowerment. It’s great. Many states have taken bond but it appears Abia State is reluctant on it. Why? Ordinarily when you collect bond, you are mortgaging your future because you pay over a long period of time but our governor is one that feels that it is not proper to mortgage the future of the state. You know Abia State is trying to come out from the mess, the monumental difficulty which it was pushed into in early 2000, so for the state to be mortgaged again means that the state will definitely be declared insolvent. It is the reason the governor is not enthusiastic about going to the bond market. But what some other states are achieving with their bond money, Gov T.A. Orji is also achieving with the amount he gets from the federation account and the IGR. So as I always say, it’s not how much you get that matters but how prudent you are with what you have. And it is that prudency by the governor that is guiding development in the state. Even if you get the money from the bond market the money can be embezzled by a greedy governor or it may not be properly managed. The major thing is how prudent you are with the little that you have in the management of resources. And if you ask me, Ochendo has no rival or to put it mildly an expert in financial management. It is one of the reasons Abia people are grateful in the gift of Ochendo from God. The truth is that Abians are happy and I do not think Abians will have it so good again except with their prayers. It is the reason we have been calling on well-spirited people to pray that we have somebody like Ochendo, come 2015. If you know how the situation was before now, you will know that this governor was carefully sent by God on purpose. Looking at the pulse of the government, what do you think Abians should expect? Well, I think this is a question the Governor himself could answer but as one that has been part of the series of meetings held, I think Ochendo will be concerned about, and committed to finishing the projects he started and kicking off new ones like the Airport, seaport etc. which he expects his successor to finish. Of course, you know that government is a continuum. I know the governor would want to live up to his responsibility of delivering goods and services expected from him. The general objective of the government is to ensure the welfare of her citizenry, so all the projects of this government are geared towards the people’s well-being and happiness. Most of Ochendo projects have direct bearing on the citizenry and I know he will want to continue on them. Ochendo projects are not targeted on the rich, the reason why you go to all local governments and communities you find hospitals and health centres, here and there, you can see large number of roads that this government has done, you can see the revolution in the housing or agricultural sectors. You can see that no sector is neglected. All that Ochendo is doing is to put proper foundation for a good take-off for the next administration. He wants to hand over a clean government institution. The budget we are preparing for 2015 is also targeted on the people. The budget is to make Abia more economically vibrant state.                           Your ministry has made great efforts at tax harmonization to generate revenue to the state but recently you set up a committee. Why the new committee? You may recall that when I came on board as the Commissioner for Finance the first thing I did was to look at the situation on ground in terms of multiplicity of taxes and levies, so we found out that the state before now was entrenched in a serious multiple taxation  which is a serious problem to investment. So what we did was to now look at the ways and means of harmonizing the fees and levies that we concluded through the state revenue summit that held in July. The whole essence was to put a platform that will ensure that multiple taxation is eliminated in the state and when you eliminate multiple taxation what next? There must be a mechanism on ground that will ensure that the people are well empowered. You know that Abia is a home of entrepreneurs and we found out that those entrepreneurs don’t have access to external finance. What do I mean by external finance? It means they cannot access loans from formal financial institutions where the interest rate may be a bit reasonable. They were prone to accessing loans from informal sources where they pay almost 100 per cent interest rate. So what Abia State now did through my office was to initiate an Exco memo and in that Exco Memo what we requested the Exco to approve is the setting up of state agency for small and medium scale enterprises. The whole essence of the Agency for small and medium scale enterprises is to assist the small and medium scale enterprises to access loans from Bank of Industries, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Commercial Banks etc. because these SMEs cannot do it on their own but with the agency like the one we are setting up, it will be easy for them to now collect loan from SMEs and distribute to SME beneficiaries. That is the entire essence of the package, the Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises. Right now the House of Assembly is trying to put up a law to back it up and once the law is operationalized then the Agency will go into full force to ensure that there is a sustained economic development and empowerment in the state.                  For us the objective of the state revenue summit is to provide an interface between the tax payers and the government, it’s not like before where the government will formulate tax policies and throw it down on the people but this time the tax payers are also part of the tax policy formulation so nobody will now say that government is imposing taxes and levies on them because they are part of the decision making process.  That is Ochendo style of leadership, involving the people. After that the next thing will now be; how do we empower this entrepreneurs because, it is only when you empower them that they will now be able to pay their taxes, so what this administration has also done is to now set up an agency that will ensure that these entrepreneurs will be able to access loans from formal financial institutions where interest rate is very minimal, so that when they are empowered they will be able to pay their taxes and levies freely. How do you react to critics of the government? Well for me criticism if you have nothing to hide brings out the best from you. There is a particular newspaper that has made it its pastime in every edition to put up falsehood against the administration of Ochendo but I will be surprised if that paper is writing something different, something opposite to what they are doing given where they are coming from. The most important thing is that all that Ochendo is doing is verifiable and the people are enjoying them. Ochendo has the massive support of Abians because they know he keeps promises. The governor is the least to be distracted by a write-up everybody knows is false. The most important thing is that the governor is delivering to the people of Abia? Where do you go after this administration? I can’t wait to go back to the University as a teacher. Both the lecturers and my students are waiting for me.    Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form     Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form

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