Abia govt. to resolve military / public abattoir crisis

June 26, 2018 

By Ijendu Iheaka

Chief Uzo Azubuike, Abia State Agriculture Commissioner has promised to resolve the problem leading to alleged confiscation of a public abattoir in Ohafia by Nigerian army’s 14 Brigade in Ohafia.

Azubuike made this promise while speaking with our reporter in Aba, Abia State on Wednesday.

Azubuike said he had no prior knowledge of the problem but promised to act urgently now that he had learnt of it when informed through due process by the Permanent Secretary.

This blog learnt that a public abattoir at Ohafia which existed before the establishment of the 14 Brigade military cantonment in the area had been taken over by the Nigerian army in the area.

 A reliable source at the Ohafia abattoir said that recently, the 14 Brigade administrators fenced the place and enfolded the abattoir into its compound, using perimeter fence to claim the facility and control its business.

“Before the army captured the abattoir, it was serving the people of Ohafia and then it was under the Ministry of Agriculture, Abia State.

“It was the ministry that assigned Veterinary Doctors to the abattoir to inspect the animals, prepare them for slaughtering and the meat from the animals.

“The abattoir was also a source of revenue to the state but when the 14 Brigade of the Nigerian Army fenced it inside its compound, they refused to allow the ministry of Agriculture manage it.

“The Army from the time of fencing it some years back refused to allow Public Veterinary Doctors assigned to oversee the place by the state government to enter the abattoir claiming it is inside their compound.

 “They also claimed that they have personnel, who we learnt are not Veterinary Doctors, who examined the animals before they are slaughtered.

“The butchers using the abattoir who now refuse to pay their service fees alleged that the army demands the abattoir revenue from them hence they (the butchers) cannot pay the state government thereafter in other to avoid double taxation.

“This has become a problem to the people of Ohafia because it had resulted in incessant complaints that dead animals are shared there and sold out to the public because the abattoir is not monitored properly by Abia state Veterinary Doctors”.

“We, the people in this area want the army to allow the state government take over control of the abattoir to ensure its operations follow legal operational rules in Abia state to ensure the health of Ohafia meat consumers”, Mike Okeke, a resident of Ohafia told our reporter.

A source who pleaded anonymity at the Ministry of Agriculture, Umuahia said that many letters had been written to the 14 Brigade Commanders and Administrators since 2016.

He said that the letters were asking the army to effect release of the abattoir to the state but regretted that since these years, there had been no response from them to the ministry of Agriculture.

When contacted, the Army PRO, 14 Brigade, Ohafia, Major Oyegoke Badamasi through text messages and calls said that he traveled out of the state and could not say anything on a matter he had no knowledge of.

Learn to read to be successful, ANA Chairman tells youths

June 23, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka


The Abia State Chapter, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), has called on Nigerian youths to cultivate the habit of reading as a means of laying a solid foundation for their sucessful future.

The state chairman of the association, Elder Nwokeoma Nwigwe, made the call in Aba on Friday during the third edition of the Enyimba Reading Festival.

The festival was organised by Artrise Book Club and Rural Readers Club of Aba.

Nwigwe said that this year’s reading festival, with the theme, “Reading to rebuild”, reflects the ability of books to influence readers’ lives for good.

Such positive changes, he said, were expected of Nigerian youths who read.

He noted that if the Nigerian youth would revive the reading culture, lives of the nation’s citizens would improve through the knowledge and wisdom acquired from books.

Noting that the Enyimba reading festival had come a long way and had gotten better by the year, he urged governments and all residents to support the event.

He lauded the project for creating reading awareness in youth around the city and building young people capable of representing Abia state in any literary event worldwide.

Meanwhile, Mr Obioma Okezie, Coordinator, Artrise Book Club, said the club organised the programme to revive reading culture in Aba and to improve the city’s status.

“The club targets young people to encourage them to read because what you learn at a tender age will be hard to forget in adulthood,” he said.

Okezie said this year’s theme was chosen after considering the ability of books to inculcate good manners and success habits in readers.

“At a time when Nigeria is seeking progress in every sphere of its existence, reading will help the youth to create a better culture that will help rebuild the country.

“The club hopes to improve the festival and its reading project until Aba is placed on the world’s reading map like Port Harcourt,” he said.

Over 500 copies of books, including, “Now I know”, by Vincent Okoro; “Weep Not Child”, by Ngugi wa’Thiongo  and  “Girls at War”, by Chuna Achebe were donated to participants.

Nigeria can lead in phyto-medicine - Biologist

June 4, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

Mr Longinus Chima, a biologist on Monday said Nigeria could lead the world in phyto-medicine and non-synthetic drug production if concrete effort was made at analysing its rich plant resources.

Phyto-medicine is the scientific investigation of the medicinal properties of plants or specific plant extracts; the evaluation, herbal preparation and use of herbal medicines on pharmacological principles.

Chima, a U.S. trained biologist, made the disclosure in Aba in interview with our reporter.

He said that if the nation could invest in assessing, analysing and profiling its rich plant resources, it could be a health destination and a leader in natural drug production.

“Nigeria is blessed with plants that have better medicinal properties than those found abroad, hence the need for assessment, analysis and profiling of the plants to improve the nation’s fortunes.

“Phyto-medicine is the future of medicine. We need additional analysis to get to know more about the functions or the constituents of the various plants.

“And if Nigeria wants to lead the world in phyto-medicine, because it has the capacity to, there is the need to study the plants around us and know their constituents and functions.

“That Nigeria is in this tropical region of the world is an advantage. We in Nigeria experience C4 photosynthesis whereas the rest of the temperate regions of the world experience C3 type.

“As a result, our own photosynthesis and plants are richer and higher than their own and that is why plants here are much more effective in doing anything medicinal than those in the temperate regions.

“As Nigeria is tinkering with revenue diversification, this is the opportunity to study the plants and understand their constituents because somebody said `no plant grows in vain’, God put them there for a reason.

“So every plant has something special given to it that makes it unique. And studying and understanding them will be of great benefit to our health system because all of them function as antigens when we take them in. They are all beneficial,” said he.

He therefore charged the government to set up a mechanism for the special study of all available plants in Nigeria to reap the benefits of their richness in drug manufacturing and other uses.

Chima, who is a table yeast manufacturer in Aba, said that he holds 18 patents from his discoveries of how to produce table yeast from different plants.

He also urged the government to provide equipped laboratories to assist interested citizens investing in science to conduct researches at little or no cost to boost the nation’s scientific development.

“Plant yeasts have the possibility of solving some health problems because of the properties of the plants, they are isolated but lack of scientific help to verify some of the claims is a major challenge,’’ he said.

Abia govt blames core investor for delay in Aba leather / garment cluster take-off

June 3, 2018

By Ijendu Iheaka

The Abia Government has blamed the core investor for the delay in realisation of the Umukalika Leather/Garment Cluster facility project in Aba.

The state Commissioner for Industry, Chief Henry Ikoh, told our reporter on Sunday in Aba that the investor, Reticulated Construction Nigeria Ltd. was not doing what the government had demanded of them.

He said the state government would soon decide on the way forward and what to do with the investor.
“If you call me in two weeks’ time, I shall be able to tell you if we are going on with him (the core investor) or not.

“What we planned is not what the government is seeing on ground at the site now,’’ he said.

According to him, though work is ongoing at the site, as the government has acquired a 500 KVA generator for its operations.

On alleged extortion of the project’s stakeholders by officials of his ministry, which they noted was also hindering take-off of the facility; Ikoh said he was yet to receive any complaint.

He, however, said that the N7, 000 the off-takers were to pay was a “small amount of money’’ for forms to enable the government know the type of shop each applicant would need.

The commissioner said the state government was committed to clustering major businesses in Aba, adding “Umukalika is for real and it is going to happen’’.

Ikoh said that the government had also created and was working on what he called “the mechanic cluster’’ at Ovom Community in Obingwa Local Government Area for motor parts dealers and mechanics.

However, Mr Emem Coffie, the Managing Director, Reticulated Construction Nigeria Ltd, the contractor handling the project, said the company was waiting for guarantee from Abia state government to commence work.

He said that since they took over the job in 2015, they had spent so much money but when asked what the money was spent on, as there was virtually nothing at the site, he got angry.

Coffie said that his company had only collected N200, 000 from the sale of forms to off-takers, and so could not do much until the end-users make enough commitment to the project.

According to him, the Umukalika cluster project is a Public-Private Partnership project as contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) his company signed with Abia government and the off-takers.

According to him, the off-takers are to buy application forms for N7, 000, fill and return it with initial deposit of N50, 000 to show commitment before his company can begin work.

He said that these were some of the terms of agreement between both parties upon which his company could get the assistance of a bank to commit to building the project.

Coffie, however, said “things are on course” regarding the project.

Our reporter who visited the site discovered that it was virtually empty, except for a block of building, which was just at the foundation level.

He also observed that weeds had also covered the rest of the openings dug for the foundation of some of the facility’s buildings.

It would be recalled that the state governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu had promised to develop industrial clusters in Aba when he assumed office in 2015, beginning with Umukalika Leather/Garment cluster.

But three years down the line, the plan to establish clusters for these creative, artisanal sectors had been mired in perpetual delays.

The President, Leather Products Manufacturers Association of Aba, (LEPMAS), Mr Okechukwu Williams said that there was the need to cluster the leather and garment sectors in Abia.

He said that this was because a cluster assembles small and medium scale manufacturers under one roof, providing them with common facilities like power, water, access roads and equipment.

According to him, clustering the sectors together will ensure increased productivity, creation of jobs in the affected sectors and fostering competitiveness of their products against imported ones.

Williams said that the Leather Workers would prefer to be given another site with land documents to enable them get banks that could build the facility for them in record time.

The President, Association of Tailors and Fashion Designers (AFTAD), Abia state Mr Onyebuchi Nwaigwe said there were many problems facing the realisation of the Umukalika cluster facility project.

He said that the realisation of a leather and garment cluster facility in Aba, would require government knowing what the end users would need in the facility and what they were willing to do to have such facility.

He said that the personnel government sent to supervise the projects were not sincere, hence the delay and non-commitment shown over the years in the project resulting in its non-realisation.

Nwaigwe, therefore, urged the state governor to hand over the Umukalika Cluster project to sincere and upright people who would not seek to “make millions” from it to ensure its realisation.

Both Nwaigwe and Williams agreed that the size of the Umukalika project would serve only one of the sectors.

They said that merging leather and garment workers at the place would result in some workers remaining at their old shops at Ariaria after others had moved to Umukalika.

They advised the state government to take a census of the leather and garment sector workers in Aba to know their numerical strength before deciding where to relocate any of them.

According to them, the census will save the government the stress of doing a haphazard job that will result in government’s inability to solving the targeted problem.