I flew into Abakaliki last night after so many years that I haven’t visited the state and the first thing that welcomed me was the multi-colour paints on the city walls and roadsides, the fancy street lights and numerous flyovers both completed and uncompleted inside the city centre.
Paradoxically, I can count how many private vehicles drove past us within the city; but everywhere is filled with tricycles (Keke Napep) and I was forced to ask myself the reasons for building multiple flyovers in a city with zero traffic like Abakaliki.
Common sense should have told those in charge that flyovers are needed and of high importance in only highly congested cities so as to decongest traffic gridlock. There has never been traffic gridlock on any road in Abakaliki so I will ask the state government what is and will be the use of the flyovers they built. I guess for aesthetics and beauty purposes. A project as capital intensive as such should not be engaged just for aesthetics and decorations. All the flyovers built are just a waste of money; a gigantic sum of money that should rather be invested in other ventures that would have created long-term sustainable jobs for the Ebonyi residents.
No serious businessman or investor will relocate to invest in a city just because of the city’s aesthetics; paints or street lights.
Again, the airport that was just built in the state is another waste of scarce resources. Enugu airport is just about 45 mins away from Abakaliki city; the Enugu airport has been serving Ebonyi residents and visitors and could still serve. Every state, especially a state like Ebonyi, must not own an airport, it is not a “show off” project. Millions of dollars were spent on that project and I can predict that the airport will go bankrupt and will be abandoned soon just like the Benue’s due to low patronage.
The state government should have asked themselves before embarking on such a project about how many business persons or visitors visit the state daily to warrant an airport to be built.
I expected the Ebonyi state government to know that for every project undertaken by a government, there is an opportunity cost for it which was abandoned and that’s why before embarking and wasting money on a project, the government should ask the hard question; “is the project really necessary at this point”?
For any flyover built, there are schools which ought to be built or renovated which were sacrificed as an opportunity cost to erect a flyover. For every airport built, there is money which ought to be pumped into an educational subsidy to subsidize the cost of university education in the state; Ebonyi state university is one of the most expensive state-owned universities in Nigeria and for a state like Ebonyi which is the state in southern Nigeria that tops the rank of educational less developed states, the state should have prioritized instead on subsidizing the cost of tertiary education to encourage education amongst the indigenes and also investing in projects that will attract industries that will create more jobs.
What the state government like Ebonyi should consider now is the creation of long term and sustainable jobs, inviting and attracting investors through different incentives like stable and low-cost electricity, tax abatement/ reduction and building of more schools and subsidizing the cost of education in state-owned institutions to encourage education.
Building flyovers, and airports and spending millions of dollars painting the city walls just for decoration and aesthetics are just so unnecessary (at this point) and will never attract investors or create long-term jobs.
