The New Face of Aba ~2~

I was trying to narrate the bad look of things in Aba in my previous write-up. In that article,i concentrated in the popular 'Faulks Road'. To digress a bit,i was flabbergasted that even in the heart of Owerri, some roads are very bad. Just few day ago,i left Aba for a meeting in the SU House located along Chukwuma Nwoha Road in Owerri. At about 7.00pm in the evening along the aforementioned road(just close to the Egbu road),i saw another 'artificial lake' that completely divided the road. I was already seeing where i was going to from there. To cut the story short, i had to pay a sum of 50naira so as to cross over to the other side of the road on a boy's back. I was really astonished by that sight because i thought it was only obtainable here in Aba. Owerri-Aba express way will be a story for another day. Back to Aba,the Enyimba city. I suffered pains in my whole body due to the 'long jumps' i performed while trying to go through the 'apian ways' to Ariaria that day. My shoe was messed up. The strange thing about that 'lake' part of Faulks road is that it was worked on just some 2-3 months ago. What i cannot explain is why it came back to its present situation. The poor construction work done by the contractors?,constructing roads without gutters?,using sub-standard materials for its construction?,lack of integrity as in the reduction of the required standard? You may be in a better position to give the better justifiable reason. Roads like Port-Harcourt,Umule and many others are in this bad shape too. Cars now get spoilt easily thus making their owners regular customers to mechanical workshops. Irrespective of the normal price of fuel,there is now high cost of transportation in Aba. Many persons now sit in groups to discuss this ugly trend in the city. Some business men and women have stopped coming to Aba to buy commodities which has left the traders in Aba markets in the mercies of God. All these are because of bad roads. The painful part of the story is that our 'leaders' in government have suddenly become 'blind,deaf and dumb'. May God come to our rescue. Another aspect i would like to look at is that of insecurity. If you walk through the roads in Aba,you will clearly notice that mobile police men are present in almost all our roads. This is obviously because of the level of insecurity. The action of kidnappers and armed robbers is no longer news in the city. Recently, i heard what happened in one of the fast-growing penticostal churches in Aba. How their president escaped kidnap and one of his pastors becoming the victim of the attack. The actions of kidnappers have suddenly shifted from foreigners and highly placed nigerians to church of God. Pastors are now at risk. These hardened criminals dont even want to know.They engage in car-snatching,banks robbery,abduction of people and so on. Infact,you that is reading this is no longer safe. Kidnapping has become a very lucrative business for the unemployed youths that anybody can be kidnapped either for rituals or some negotiable amount of money. We recently heard how the SSS foiled the plans of the four people that wanted to kidnap two ministers in this country.The President may not even be safe in this matter. With the presence of mobile phone guns known as Camorra recently discovered,the fear of the unknown is much on us. The insecurity may be moving to another level. Many 'big men' per se residing in Aba have started relocating to Abuja and Lagos. Shall we all run away from this city? What shall the poor which accounts for the greater part of the population do? This is a pathetic situation. The level of insensitivity of our so-called leaders has made them close their eyes to these. With their families residing abroad or in Abuja,they dont care about any other thing. I must have to state at this juncture that the time has come for us to arise and passionately pray to God for rescue. You never can tell who is next on the list of those to be kidnapped. This is just for Aba. What of other corners of this blessed nation. Interestingly,the son of the popular Eze whose palace is located in front of the lake along Faulks road was the commissioner for works in the state before the dissolution of the cabinet by the governor recently. Even at that,there was no 'show'. We need God to arise and make our leaders uncomfortable until they respond to our plight. Who knows what will happen next.The situation in our country is like a very large boil on a man's swollen scrotum with nobody having an idea of what it will become. My dear,arise and pray so that our God will arise and meet us at the point of our needs.