ABIA RESIDENT CARD – WHY NOT FOCUS ON THE SIMPLE THINGS? – EKS STEPHEN

According to Premium Times newspaper (27/05/2015), the Nigerian Government headed by Goodluck Jonathan wasted over N121bn in the 2006 National ID Card programme, which although many of us have the card, became a failure. N121bn went down the drain.

The UK government in 2002 introduced the National ID card project to combat identity fraud and international terrorism. The project eventually failed after gulping the sum of £257m (N145bn). There was public outcry over the lack of clarity on how the project goals would be achieved at a reasonable cost to the public and how individuals’ privacy would be maintained. The government scrapped the scheme after the citizens cried out.

Despite the OBVIOUS FAILURE of the Abia Telehealth Scheme, Abia Social Security Number project and Enyimba Shoe Factory, Dr Ikpeazu has decided again to engage in another wasteful macabre dance in the creation of the Security Support & Resident Card. Why engage in something that has a history of failure in both Nigeria and the advanced world?

Billions of Naira obviously will be wasted as usual on this ambitious ID card project with no consequences for such waste and I ask Dr Ikpeazu:

1. Why don’t you focus on simple things in governance like putting more security men along the hot spots where kidnapping & armed robbery are happening?
2. Why don’t you focus on paying salaries of teachers, lecturers, pensioners, etc. to improve the cashflow within Abia and the state’s attractiveness to investors?
3. Why don’t you focus on using the N14bn you borrowed between 2018 and 2020 for improving Abia’s Health sector to give Abians 3 world class hospitals?
4. What of the Medical Village you promised Abians on radio recently?
5. What of Port-Harcourt Road Aba where you have spent over N5bn and still borrowed $56m to complete it and yet it is not passable?
6. What of the Osisioma flyover where you have spent close to N5bn or more and still uncompleted?
7. What of Aba-Owerri Road Aba for which you have spent over N1bn and yet not completed?
8. What of the Ogbor-Hill flyover for which you have paid several billions of Naira?
9. Why don’t you focus on completing the Abia Seaport, Ukwa for which you have spent hundreds of millions?
10. What of the Abia Dry port at Ntigha that has gulped the state several millions?

As I have always advised, do the simple things and see where you can finish.

After May 2023 may be a lonely place!