From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Chief Jerry Okechukwu Kalu, immediate past president of Aba Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA), has urged the Southeast governors to continue to work together for regional unity through sustenable economic and industrial development.
Kalu, who last year, accused the Federal Government of abandoning roads and other capital infrastructure in the zone to decay, lauded the President BolaTinubu administration for its focused attention on rebuilding the Aba end of the Enugu/Port Harcourt Expressway, among others.
Southeast governors led by Chief Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, at a recent meeting in Enugu, took decisions to work together to develop the region. Does it tally with your call for them to work as a team for the region to grow economically?
You will remember that last year, after the Owerri summit, I said that their coming together was in the best interest of our region towards development. I’m happy they are heeding the call, not just mine, but that of many who feel the same way. For them to have met again in Enugu and came out with a development template, is good news. Though nothing is on ground yet, they’ve discussed, came out with a communique which will be followed up. I want to encourage them to sustain their coming together. I want them, more especially, to embark on linking major towns in the zone by rail, from Aba to Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra -Awka/Onitsha/Nnewi, Imo – Owerri/Orlu/Okigwe, back to Abia – Umuahia/Aba. This will help to boost the economic movement of goods and services, especially food items, from one part of the region to the other. Our entrepreneurs will find it easy in moving their commodities from one end of the region for sale in other parts, even to the rural community markets. People will be exposed to cheaper transportation of their wares and this will bring prices down for the society. With a good rail transport in place, people can travel to remote locations to sell their products and return back to their base in a day without much stress. In the past, traders from Enugu used to board trains with their goods to markets in Port Harcourt and return the same day after sales. This can be reintroduced if the railroad is built and will enhance development.
What would you say about the rehabilitation work going on along the Enugu/Port Harcourt Expressway, which you accused the government of abandoning, saying it had caused deaths and loss of billions of naira worth of goods and property due to its former poor state?
When I said that the Federal Government was sabotaging the economy of the Southeast by not reconstructing the road, the authorities read it and went up to find that what we were saying was true. I am happy that it is being done now, including others like the Enugu/Onitsha highway, Enugu (9th Mile)/Obollo Afor road. I’m happy that at least, palliatives have been done on parts of the roads to at least, make them motorable, while serious reconstruction are going on. In its bad state, it took upward of four hours using the expressway to reach Port Harcourt from Aba, a journey of 60 kilometers. It has now been reduced to an hour and we are happy the Federal Government heeded our calls to rehabilitate the roads. It is for the good of the government to put its infrastructure in good position to attract payment of tax without hassle. Our worry now, is on energy, power supply which is yet to be fixed. I try to harp on it at every opportunity to speak out. We will continue to talk about the energy sector until something positive is done to fix it. Governnent is not doing well in that area. One wonders that our leaders, including the president, travel out to other countries where they enjoy uninterrupted power supply. The question is, why don’t they replicate what the leadership of those other places do to maintain and sustain their own power supply systems? Our society is complaining of poor electricity management. Professional and business bodies are uncomfortable with the present situation. During an outing in Aba, organized by the Nigerian Shippers Council, the director general of the Imo/Abia zone of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said the organization had lost over 800 members from it’s original 1,000, due to economic hardships that led to the closure of their businesses. He said only 200 active members were attending its activities from both states at the moment. The companies that have stopped functioning, went under with sacking of their workers who are now living without jobs. I tell you, it is this situations that create environments for engaging in acts leading to insecurity in the land. We need effective power supply, to put our manufacturing plants to use. Artisans, technicians, welders and other small and medium scale producers of goods across the country, need electric power supply to operate and it is government’s responsibility to provide that. Here in Aba, we were happy when Geometric power promised to provide us with all-day long power supply. We believe they will do it, though that has not come. We are praying that problems holding up the commencement of the programme be resolved to enable them start work. I recall that when the promise was made public, many operators whose businesses went under, began returning to work towards restarting production. We need power supply and it is government’s responsibility to give us that as it is a national infrastructure and capital intensive. Another area of concern is the continued carrying away of Nigeria’s crude oil for refining abroad and returning the products for sale here at home at exorbitant prices to consumers. We have refineries across the country and each year money is budgeted for their refurbishment and upkeep. If any of them gets bad, why can’t the government get it repaired? We have always heard about turn around maintenance, and all that. Governnent ought to encourage individuals and groups that are capable, to build refineries in the country. Presently, we have four refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, plus the private one being built by Dangote Group. Something has to be done to make them begin production. If they are working, prices of energy supply will come down and will affect other essential goods and services and common Nigerians will benefit. The petrol we are buying at a costly price of N750 to N800 per litre ought to be sold for N150, if our refineries are working and the balance spent in other areas of living. AGO (Diesel oil), is currently selling for N1,400 per litre. We won’t be clapping our hands for Dangote Group, which said sometime that it will sell its own products for N900, the reason being that diesel oil (gas) ought to be sold for between N200 and N250 and not N950 or N1,000. If our refineries are working, the pricing will drop. We are pleading with the authorities to hasten the repair of the refineries to enable them restart production. It will stabilize the economy and cost of living will become bearable.
You were the ACCIMA president for two years (2022/2024). What legacy did you leave on the growth of the chamber and the business community?
You know that the chamber movement is the mouthpiece of the Organized Private Sector (OPS) in every society. All I can say is that during my tenure in office, we did very well to move ACCIMA forward. I thank God that we started well and ended well after two years in office.
Can you pinpoint the areas of success enhancement achieved by your administration during the period?
During our tenure, we embarked on visits to some industrial establishments owned by our members, to ascertain their operational activities and identifying the problems they were encountering. These helped us to make a documentary that was handed over to the state government. In that documentary, we highlighted problems faced by the manufacturing plants and their owners, their huge running cost due to government’s lack of incentives, accessibility problems, among others. The government under Dr Alex Otti’s administration, on receiving the report, promptly began working on some of our recommendations like rehabilitation of roads and other infrastructure, making policies conducive for business growth and development and fighting insecurity across the state. It also restarted focusing attention on developing industrial areas/zones. You see, he (Otti) began doing that when I was there as ACCIMA president. We were, for the first time invited by the government, to make presentation on imputs that will be included in the state budget planning exercises. That was the first time the government invited the private sector organs to participate in the budgeting exercise, since Abia got created in 1991, and we are happy for it. We also worked on the issue of multiple taxation. In fact, we were taken into confidence by the Abia governnent on issues relating to trade and industrial growth and development of the state. The only thing that we didn’t get from the Otti administration during my tenure, was cash grant. We didn’t request for any either as a group or individually, because we know it is not the place of states to grant funds directly to individuals to run their private businesses. Grants are made by the Federal Government or international bodies for specific purposes, we understand. We recommended the stoppage of using touts and private agents for governnent revenue collection, which had then become notorious among state and local government agencies in Abia, especially in the commercial city of Aba. Before our recommendation, touts fought vehicle owners, haulage trucks and even private individuals visiting the city for business and other engagements, using non-payment of this or that revenue, thereby dragging the state and its good name to the mud. Governnent accepted our recommendations and touting was banned across the state. Before then and acting from experience in the hands of touts during previous encounters, many traders, business partners and associates of the Aba residents from other parts of the country and beyond had stopped coming into the state to do business with us and we felt it must stop and made the decision to approach the government, a move that yielded positive results. Presently, no visitor is molested by anyone either in a vehicle or the streets of Aba by touts.
Despite all that you have said, people are still complaining that the government is not doing enough to alleviate their sufferings. What words of advise do you have for them?
We have to be hopeful. Better days are returning in the state. The government is hearing our cries and coming to the rescue. It is currently doing it’s best towards alleviating our problems. It wasn’t like this before. Port Harcourt Road was abandoned for so many years, now it is being reconstructed. I want to thank The Sun Newspapers management and you, Ndukwe, the person that interviewed me, last year, on the problems of the Southeast region and the dilapidated state of infrastructure, especially roads like the Aba end of the Enugu/Port Harcourt Expressway. It helped a lot to bring the government towards rehabilitating the road and other infrastructural establishments in the zone. That’s how it should be because, when one is not saying how it is with us here, the government will think all is well. I wish The Sun Newspapers, which is propagating these problems to reach those in power well for a job well done. It is our business to tell the government the truth. We are not against any administration, political party, rather we are in position to remind them what the masses need, so that the economy will strive to grow for the overall good of us all, the whole country. We should come together in seeking ways to improve our society. We have a responsibility to work for the good of our land and its people.
