The chairman of the Abia state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Uchenna Obigwe says after 26 years of its creation, “the state is still crawling like a baby” in terms of development, TheCable reports.

Obigwe said this while speaking on the 26th anniversary of the state and the level of progress so far recorded.

Key excerpts:

• The decay of infrastructure is enormous.
• It had not been easy for civil servants, due to delays in salary payments.
• “At 26, Abia is still crawling like a baby because previous administrations failed to develop the state.”
• “…I can safely say that this administration (Okezie Ikpeazu) is doing well to better the lot of the civil servants in the state.”
• “If the government can take care of the salaries of this category of workers like those in the MDAs then our problem is over.”

From the pioneer chairman of the state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ogbonnaya Iheaka:

• No development in the state until the new administration.
• The state had not experienced the required federal presence.
• “Since the return of democratic rule in 1999, political leaders have concentrated development in their own areas and paid little or no attention to other sections of the state.”
• “Governors always reserved strategic political and civil service appointments for people from their area.”

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram