. . . Offers strategies on how to transform them into world-class cities

Dr. Chidi Esike, the inventor of the world renowned Esike’s Technique and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, has appealed to Abia State Governor-elect, Dr Alex Otti, to give special attention to Umuahia when he assumes office late next month.

The Abia-born academic, in an open letter in which he congratulated Dr. Otti on his “well deserved victory”, said: “The trust and love are actually not misplaced because you knew that Abia was in trouble and you came to salvage her. Thank God He has prepared you well for this job. Your doggedness, persistence and single-minded determination not to be distracted from your goal through all these years of trials speak volumes of your determination to salvage Abia.”

Advising the Governor-elect to see Umuahia as a top priority, Esike said in the letter dated April 3, 2023: “Umuahia, the state capital, is still the gigantic village it was when Sam Mbakwe many years ago tarred the roads. It is shockingly shabby, choking, unsightly, claustrophobic with no apparent development since then. You should, to my mind, as a matter of urgency assemble a first class team that will develop a masterplan for Abia state, the capital city Umuahia and Aba. There must be a new Umuahia Capital City that will be developed de novo beside but away from the present old city. If this had been done earlier, may be using the vast land towards the Umuahia-Aba axis, the development in the capital city would have been dizzying.

“So many Abia sons and daughters want to come and build in their state capital. But there are no areas or housing estates mapped out by their government. All the government has to do to encourage them is acquire land put in the infrastructures, road electricity, etc, and have individuals pay for the costs, acquire land, build and develop the state capital while government does her own bit. The roads, structures in this new state capital city must compare with the best international standards.”

Dr. Esike similarly advised the Governor-elect to do everything within his power to rescue and make Aba, the economic hub of Abia, a world-class and economically-attractive city. He also suggested how this can be done.

His words: “The gridlock around the Abia tower especially during festivities is perennial and terrible. It is only a fly over that can solve it and it should be considered.

“Aba, the goose that lays the golden eggs is in dare straights. If not for the share resilience, the Aba and can-do spirit of the dwellers, this city, which is one of the best planned cities in Nigeria, would have gone under. Aba requires a master plan, urgent deliberate resuscitation, rehabilitation and total rebuilding. At the beginning of this democratic dispensation some authorities opined that constructing the road from Osisioma through Port Harcourt road to the Aba-Port Harcourt express road, the road from Brass junction through Ariaria to the express then another in the Ohanku axis with drainage is a minimum in the first instance in addressing the infrastructural challenges of the old city. I totally agree except that with increase in human and vehicular traffic in the city since then, there must now be flyovers in some places like around the brass junction, the park, Ngwa road junction, over Ariaria market, etc, for easier traffic flow and to encourage commerce for which the town is known. Something very urgent must be done about refuse disposal and the environment of Aba

There must be deliberate efforts to look into the manufacturing and commerce sectors in the city. Ariara in its present state is chocking, very congested and almost inaccessible except to the highly pressed with no alternatives. Big parcels of land should be acquired for better more spacious modern specialty malls to be established to decongest the market with training of the manufacturers and acquisition of the needed machines and equipment in preparation for the expansion and traffic that will follow the export of the made-in-Aba and made-in-Nigeria goods to all nooks and crannies of the world. If people can enter a shop and pick made-in-Aba shoes, bags, shirts etc as Italian, British or Spanish made, there is no better testimony that made-in-Aba and indeed made-in-Nigeria are better.”

Dr. Esike told Dr. Otti that though “the task ahead is hard, arduous and onerous . . . with our almighty God and the Abia people on your side, you will triumph to the glory of God. As history beckons, to him will be all the glory.”