ABIA @ 25: There is Silver In this Jubilee -By Comr. Ahamefula Israel

Count twenty five is reserved the most important figure in number counts. No wonder it is largely referred as silver.

Turning twenty five is equivalent of saying bye bye to childhood, strengthening in youth and mounting for age. For this, I humbly congratulate my fellow Abians as Abia State attend this silver age of twenty five years since its creation.

For Abia State, just like “A noble’s birth,” they say “is by accident, but a noble’s action characterizes his greatness.” This has manifested in the person of Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu Ph.D as he pilots the affairs of Abia State.

Down memory lane, Abia, fondly called God’s Own State was created in August 27, 1991 by the Ibrahim Babangida military regime was a result of hard work, diligence and synergy of the founding fathers led by Dr. Michael I. Okpara, Mr B A Wachukwu, who functioned as the deputy while Hon Dr MAO Agbara was the secretary. Other notable members are Dr. Anagha Ezeikpe, Senator S M Ojukwu, J OJ Okezie, Hon S U Nwangaga and Prof. J C Ogbonnaya, former pro-chancellor of ABSU and consultant surgeon at Madonna University Elele.

These men and other officers of the Abia State Movement, too numerous to mention living and dead, marched gallantly to the National Assembly in Lagos, on July 3, 1980 and made a formal presentation for the creation of Abia State. It took eleven years, after most of the activists have died for their prayers to be answered.

The first Military Administrator, Group Captain Frank Ajobena, did the pioneering work and took off with the existing structures, converting tiny education department offices of the then Ikwuano/Umuahia local Government Area and classrooms into some parts of the existent Government House.

A succession of military officers continued till the era of democratically elected government of Dr. Ogbonna Onu, who himself, had to go due to another military intervention. The benevolent interregnum of Gen Abdulsalam Abubarka ushered in Dr. Orji Uzo Kalu and Chief Dr. Theodore Ahamefule Orji who exhausted their two terms respectively before handing over to the incumbent Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu PhD.

The founding fathers were aware of some awful experiences that emanate from political movements and struggles. Most of the time, cases abound of deprivations, neglects and slavish domination; consequently they laid a solid foundation in form of legal framework to check such ugly situations.

These foolproof checks were well stated, signed, sealed and delivered. According to professor S N Nwabara, in his book, God’s own State, an account of the creation of Abia State page 43, ‘Abia will be a happy STATE, a model STATE in the Federation of Nigeria. It is to this end that the people of the proposed ABIA STATE have drawn, signed and sealed for themselves what we call THE CHARTER OF EQUITY. This is to reassure friends and opponents alike that everyone matter; that every community matter; that no part will be neglected; that there will be no domination of any group in the STATE by the other; that there will be even development of the STATE. This is what is reflected in the motto of the state.

The Holy Bible states it clearly in Proverbs chapter 29 verse 2, ‘when the righteous are on the throne the people rejoice. The journey so far since the inception of the incumbent administration of Governor Ikpezu has yielded much fruits in all sectors despite the high level of distractions by some group of anti-abians.

As the occasion of our silver jubilee undoubtedly calls for celebration, it is also a moment to pause and reflect on our journey of the past twenty five years, to take stock of our past and consider the best way forward for our state. Even as we celebrate our silver-jubilee, we must realise that in the context of history, our state is still in its infancy. We are a state of the future, not of the past and while we may have travelled for decades, we are not yet at our destination of greatness.

In challenging times, it is easy to become pessimistic and cynical. But hope, when grounded in realism, enables and inspires progress. Therefore, as we celebrate our first silver-jubilee of statehood, we must not lose sight of all that we have achieved since 1991 in terms of state-building, development and progress.

We must be inspired by our past to overcome the obstacles we face in the present and honour our forebears by realizing the promise of Abia that is not only born but also truly unified, prosperous and admired the world over. The history of Abia since it was created is the story of a struggle to fulfill our great promise. The discovery of oil in our state offered new hope of prosperity but we have not always been able to reap the benefits in a fair and equitable way

As we celebrate our silver-jubilee, I believe that it is vital that we focus our thoughts on the vast potentials of a unified and progressive Abia State; and build on the relative stability of the state to achieve accelerated national socio-economic development.

I also believe that the future greatness of our State is assured by the favourable tail winds of a resilient population, rich technical/technological strength and a national consciousness that rises above our differences. We are a unique state. We have been brought together in a union like no other by providence.

I hope and pray that twenty five years from now, Abia will look back on golden jubilee of achievements during which our union was strengthened, our unity was enhanced, our democracy was entrenched and our example was followed by leaders of other states whose ambition is to emulate the success of Abia State; a state that met its difficulties head-on and fulfilled its promise.

Finally, Dear Compatriots, as we enter the silver-jubilee in the life of our state, let us rededicate ourselves to doing more to empower the youth of our state. Our common heritage and future prosperity are best protected and guaranteed by the youth. We must commit our full energies and resources to empowering our youths to achieve our collective vision of greatness in this silver-jubilee of our statehood.
That is the task before our state; that is the cause we should all chose to champion and believe in triumph.
I wish all Abians happy silver-jubilee celebrations.

Ahamefula Israel, a former Students’ Union President, Abia State University,Uturu writes from Enugu. e-mail:anyameleisrael@gmail.com.