Have you
forgotten Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu’s story? It was the story of a street man
of Aba. Have you forgotten that he was the street sweeper of Aba – the
story of a man tied to an inextricable destiny that saw an egghead
academic romancing with the waste and filth of the streets of Aba?
Have you
forgotten the unthinkable fate and triumph of the man of the ivory tower
who found himself scavenging in the wasteland of a city dunghill and
yet
acted well his part and played his roles with
consummate passion? You will never forget the thriller; the story of
dunghill to power – the Ikpeazu story.
Ikpeazu is still on the streets of Aba and will remain there for a while
until the paradise is regained. Call him the Streetman of Aba, not as a
jibe but as a kind compliment to his passion for the sprawling city. He
will return a smile of acceptance. By the way he acted in
re-engineering the environmental management of the city as the Head of
the Aba unit of the State Environmental Protection Agency, Ikpeazu
gained the endorsement of the Aba people and brought honour to himself.
But, today, it is no more about the refuse and the waste. The battle has
moved on to illegal street trading. In all dimensions, it is about the
streets of Aba. Aba suffers from the menace of street trading and
hawking and all manners of environmental pollution. Thus, the next
battle is to sanitise the city and restore decorum to streets. This is
why the governor has embarked on relocating illegal street traders to
new market locations. In the last couple of days, illegal street traders
around the adjoining streets near the central stadium have been
encouraged to move to the newly built Good morning Market, on the East
side of Ngwa Road.
After the Good morning Market, the train will move down to the Abattoir
Market at Ogbor hill Waterside and from there to other locations where
street trading constitutes environmental nuisance to the city. The
Abattor Market traders will have to be relocated to another side because
of the dredging and expansion of the Aba River, which will recommence
very soon.
But,
regrettably, there has been some couple of resistance by the traders
against the effort of government to relocate them to new sites even when
proper arrangement has been put in place to cushion the effect of the
transition. Reason being that people are naturally scared of change.
People do not readjust to change easily, yet change remains the only
thing that is permanent in life.
Indeed, the on-going exercise of relocating illegal street traders is
part of the large scale programme of infrastructural renewal and
environmental restoration of the city of Aba for which the government
created the Aba Urban Renewal Office and which is aimed at sanitising
the city and restoring its original map. This broad-based programme of
restructuring Aba is a cardinal policy thrust of the Ikpeazu
administration and one it is pursuing with passion, dedication and every
sense of duty
This restructuring programme involves a general review of the state of
the open markets and a general overhauling of the leadership of the
markets, including the associations and the different caretaker
committees appointed by government to oversee issues concerning the
markets.
And
it is for this reason that the government has had to dissolve many of
the committees and leadership of the many market associations in Aba,
and also had to appoint a market review committee headed by Mr. Solomon
Nwaigwe. The committee has the brief to conduct a general review of the
state of the markets and proffer solutions for charting a new course for
the markets. The Nwaigwe-led committee has completed its work and
submitted its recommendations.
Indeed, Ikpeazu is bent on winning the war against street trading
because it causes a lot of menace both to traffic flow and environmental
decency and poses a great risk to the life of the traders. Nowhere in
the world is the culture of street trading tolerated anymore and,
therefore, Aba traders and residents must cooperate with government
agents in the efforts to sanitise Aba and bring decorum to the city and
its markets and desist from actions that could lead to confrontation
with constituted authority.
Government is making this appeal sequel to the incidents that have been
occurring in Aba in the last couple of days, where miscreants and
illegal street traders have tried to resist the instructions and
directives of the officials of the Aba Urban Renewal Office, leading to
some misunderstanding between the illegal street traders and the
government officials. Government will not tolerate any form of deviant
acts that would seem to hinder the progress of this laudable vision of
Ikpeazu.
The Abia government is also disabusing the minds of Abians against the
propaganda peddled by some disgruntled elements that the exercise is
targeted against non-indigenes. Aba is a melting pot for all ethnic
nationalities in the country. Aba does not only belong to Abians, it
belongs to Nigerians and the world. Ikpeazu is rebuilding a new city for
the world.
Therefore, political jobbers and enemies of the state who are cashing in
on this sanitation exercise to generate crisis and foment trouble are
well advised to rethink their mischief. They must desist from acts and
statements capable of inciting Aba residents against one another and
causing the breach of the prevailing peace in the land.
Ikpeazu recognises that the mandate to rebuild Aba and other major Abia
cities would certainly come with sacrifice. This requires the
cooperation of all Abians for the overall interest of us all. Indeed,
the street sweeper is still sweeping.
––The Writer Adindu is the Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State Governor
SDK
Blog sympathises with Gov Ikpeazu of Abia state on the Demise of his
beloved Mum after a brief Illness.May God give the Ikpeazu family the
GRACE to carry on without Mama.
