Theodore Ahamefule Orji was born in his hometown Amaokwe Ugba, Umuahia – Ibeku in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State in 1950.

Academic History
He attended St. Michaels Catholic Primary School, Umuahia, Santa Crux Secondary School, Olokoro, Holy Ghost College, Owerri and capped his educational pursuit with a Bachelor of Art Degree in English from the prestigious University of Ibadan in 1977.

As a patriotic young Nigerian, he gladly enlisted for the National Youths Corps Scheme on graduation and was deployed to Sokoto State where he was posted to teach at Government Secondary School, Shinkafi, Isa Local Government Area of the State.

Work History
On the successful completion of the National Youth Service Corps Scheme in 1978, the Young Theodore Ahamefule Orji offered himself for public service and was promptly employed as an Administrative Officer in the old Imo State civil service on 18th December, 1979.

Subsequently, he served in various capacities in The Cabinet Office, Ministry of Lands and Survey, Ministry of Agriculture and Imo State Government House.

At the creation of Abia State in 1991, it was a relatively experienced T.A Orji that returned to Umuahia to champion the course of laying a strong foundation for the new state. He therefore served in Government House, Umuahia, Bureau of Budget and Planning and Ministry of Agriculture.

To sharpen his administrative skills, T.A Orji attended many courses including:

1. Principles of Management
2. Strategy for promotion (1992)
3. Management Finance and Financial Instructions (1993)
4. Performance evaluation (1995)
5. The civil service in a democratic setting (1997)
6. Conditions of free Election (1978)
7. Delineation of Wards/constituencies (1999)

The Executive Governor was reelected in 2011 and currently serving his second term in office.

The Executive Governor of Abia State is happily married to Chief Mrs. Mercy Odochi Orji and their marriage is blessed with Five Children.

For everyday Governor Orji spends in office, it’s either a project is being flagged off, inspected or commissioned.

At the rate at which the T. A. Orji administration is moving, there is no doubt that the glory days of Abia State are around the corner.

He has shown an uncommon zeal to better the lot of Abians and the people are extremely happy with their Governor.

Office of the Executive Governor
The Office of the Executive Governor is charged with the following responsibilities:

(i) Administration of Abia State of Nigeria;
(ii)  State Security;
(iii) Inter-State Governmental Co-operation;
(iv) Appointing authority for Membership of Boards of companiesin which the State has interests;
(v)  Implementation of National Policy Guidelines on Local Government Administration;
(vi) Protocol matters;
(vii) Conference Visitor Unit;
(viii) Allocation of Vehicles;
(ix)  Relations with the following bodies:
(a)  The Legislature;
(b)  The Judiciary;
(c)  State Civil Service Commission;
(d)  Judicial Service Commission;
(e)  Local Government Service Commission;
(f)  Office of the State Auditor-General;
(g)  Office of the Local Government Auditor-General;
(h)  State Independent Electoral Commission;
(i)  Abia State Planning Commission.
(j)  Bureau of Budget
(k)  Abia State Environmental Protection Agency
(l)  State Liaison Offices

The Office of the Executive Governor comprises of the Government House and Office of the Secretary to the State Government.

The Executive Governor’s office and his residence, the Lodge, the Chief of Staff in-charge of Government House, reports directly to the EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR.

Governor T.A. Orji was sworn-in for a second term in office with his running mate Chief Emeka Ananaba by the Acting Chief of Judge of the State Justine Nnenna Oti.

In his inaugural speech at Umuahia Township Stadium, Governor T.A. Orji said he is aware of his enormous responsibility conferred on him by the people of the State that culminated in his re-election.

The Governor advised Abians to see his re-election as a period to restore the lost glory of the State in-terms of industrialization, infrastructural development, youth empowerment and creation of job opportunities for the people of the State.

Chief T.A. Orji gave the assurance that the State will witness economic growth adding that he will also embark on rural and urban development as well as focus more on Agriculture, health and education sectors.

According to the Governor the appointment of political office holders will be on merit and specialization to help fashion a new Abia State and promised to lead the people of the State with fairness honesty and dedication to duty.

Chief T.A. Orji called on his opponents during the election to come and join him as well as bring ideas that will help in development of the State as his doors are widely open to receive them.

The Governor thanked all Abians for opportunity given to him to serve them assuring them of greater achievement ahead.

Governor T.A. Orji had earlier on his arrival inspected a guard of honour mounted by the security agencies including the Police, Road Safety Corps and Civil Defense followed by match past and brief inauguration service.

Contact the Governor: governortaorji@abiastate.gov.ng

 

THE NEW ABIA AGENDA

(Returning Abia to GOD and Her People)

I am humbled by your support through thick and thin as was unequivocally manifested when, unwilling to betray your mandate; GOD used me with your support, to liberate our State from its unfortunate past. This new political and economic freedom has led to the re-engagement of Abians from all works of life in the development of our State. We thank them and all friends of Abia State who have been part of this engagement and extend our hands of brotherhood to all to join us to re-dedicate ourselves to the task of building a New Abia State for the good of all our people.

CHALLENGES

We are not unmindful of the numerous challenges confronting the State, those we have been grappling with include:

• The breakdown in the machinery of governance;
• The collapse of our traditional values – hard work, integrity, honesty, communal and self-help spirit, discipline, transparency, accountability etc;
• Limited opportunity for productive activity leading to poverty, unemployment and their negative consequences like crime, insecurity and youth restiveness;
• Weak infrastructure;
• Decline in the quality of education;
• Legacy of impunity;
• Inherited and crippling debt burden; and
• Poor revenue generation and leakages.

In continuation of our effort to tackle these challenges, we reached out to Abia professionals from diverse disciplines to dialogue on the way forward. Their enthusiastic response led to the first ever Abia Economic Summit on 6th-7th December, 2010, where these scholars and technocrats joined us to envision a New Abia – “A modern, prosperous and secure State built on the energy, drive and enterprise of its people”.

This vision underpins our agenda for creating shared prosperity through the development of infrastructure, industry, agriculture and mutually beneficial linkages to our neighbours, Nigeria and the World. We will realize this vision and sustain the successes so far achieved, when you, the people, graciously renew my mandate for a second term in office as your Governor.

ACHIEVEMENTS

We have made appreciable progress in the realisation of our programmes and we are poised to do more although the paucity of resources has been a major challenge.

We believe that security of lives and property and the pursuit of legitimate livelihoods without fear is our people’s inalienable right. Indeed securing its people is the raison d’e’tre of Government.

We therefore pursued the restoration of security in our State with vigour and to the glory of God, normalcy has been restored. We are grateful for the cooperation we have received from the Federal Government and its security agencies especially the Nigerian Armed Forces, the Police etc in combating the security challenges that plagued our State leading to divestment. We have reactivated the Army barracks at Ohafia, created military presence at the gateways into the State and provided logistics for security personnel. We adopted the Tricycle (Keke) as an intra-city transportation mode to reduce accidents and violent crimes in our major cities. Our Disarmament / Amnesty programme is active and we have restructured the Abia Vigilante Service.

Partnering with private investors we successfully revitalised a 5-ton/hour industrial oil palm mill at Mbawsi. That partnership also reactivated the 2,600 hectare (1,500 ha with improved seedlings) oil palm estate at Ohambele, and is reactivating 2000 hectares of oil palm at Ulonna North/South and Ozuitem/Amamba. We ordered 1million improved seedlings to replant the fallow areas of these plantations. We are developing a pilot “Songhai Integrated Farm” on 55 hectares at okwoi, Ibeku for plantain, banana and pineapples and 200 hectares in ndiebe, Abam/Bende for rice and fish farming. We will soon send 20 more workers to Songhai in Porto Novo, Benin Republic for training/manpower development.

Over 400 youths have been employed in these plantations with a projection to employ 1,000 more. We just recruited 1000 young people into the Abia State civil service.

We have undertaken the rehabilitation of major economic access roads in the State. We have almost completed the Housing Estates at Adelabu street, Umuahia, amauba, Ubakala I and Garden City, Osisioma Ngwa and are providing “site and services” at Amauba Ubakala II and Isieke Ibeku Housing Estates for private development.

The government regards the health of Abians as a priority and has established 2 world class specialist and diagnostic hospitals with state-of-the-art equipment, 1 each in Umuahia and Aba. We hope this will discourage spending scarce foreign exchange to travel abroad for medical attention and redirect the traffic of medical tourism to Abia.We have in partnership with MDGs built and equipped 207 Primary Health Centres and sank 130 boreholes in various communities in the State to increase access to potable water.

THE NEW ABIA

The new Abia agenda is designed to:

1. REFORM AND RE-ENGINEER GOVERNANCE;
2. REDEVELOP ABA AS AN INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HUB;
3. DEVELOP OUR HUMAN CAPITAL AND EMPOWER OUR WOMEN AND YOUTH;
4. ESTABLISH A NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO CREATE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES;
5. MODERNIZE OUR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES TO ENSURE FOOD SECURITY.

1. REFORM AND RE-ENGINEER GOVERNANCE

We recognize that the essence of governance is to ensure the welfare and security of its citizens and facilitate their access to economic opportunities. We have begun the process of re-engineering governance to be more responsible and responsive to the electorate at whose pleasure we all serve. As part of this effort we have sent the “Due Process” and “Fiscal Responsibilities” Bills to the House of Assembly for enactment into law.

To achieve effective and efficient service delivery we are redesigning the incentive structure to reward leadership, initiative and honesty, promote capacity to acquire new and relevant knowledge and conscientiousness.

We pledge to:

• Make governance open and transparent; hire the best hands and apply best practices in doing government business and improve synergy amongst MDAs.
• Introduce Town Hall meetings to increase stakeholders’ participation in governance; emphasize Budget discipline and activate Joint State/Local Government planning and budgeting;
• Ensure that the laws on “Due Process” and “Fiscal Responsibility” are fully implemented;
• Improve staff and pension records with Information Technology and introduce “e-payroll” to eliminate delay in payment of salaries and pensions;
• Re-engineer the financial management of the State to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency in the management of our finances;
• Create incentives to encourage greater productivity and good labour relations;
• Increase the participation of Youth and Women in governance; and
• Create institutions for Public / Private Collaboration in development projects.

2. REDEVELOP ABA AS AN INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HUB

The Government will redevelop Aba as a hub for industrial and commercial activities. Aba has had a special place in commerce in West Africa, due to decaying infrastructure and new trade patterns its place is being eroded and undermined.

We will leverage on her endowment with self awareness, political sagacity, industry and entrepreneurial skills to develop bold initiatives to facilitate and fast track the growth of Aba into a modern city. The role of international development agencies will be particularly welcome

We have substantially addressed the security and waste management challenges and have commenced the reconstruction of major access roads and new drainages to address the flooding of the city. We will:

• Partner with International Development Agencies and investors to improve the productivity and competitiveness of our enterprises, enhance market information and showcase “Made in Aba” products;
• Strengthen our environmental management agencies, encourage the “greening” and beautification of Aba and fast-track waste recycling and the “Waste to Bio-energy” project;
• Develop satellite towns, industrial clusters and layouts to decongest the city.

3. ESTABLISH NEW PARTNERSHIPS TO CREATE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

The New Abia Agenda will deepen economic opportunities in the State by attracting investment to Abia. An important platform of this transformative initiative is to strengthen our partnerships with the Federal Government, Multilateral Agencies, International Institutions and the Private sector.

Abia is now in the hands of its enterprising people and the return on our investment on security will be the reengagement of investors to create value and employment opportunities. Our new relationship with the Federal Government will also attract development assistance and Federal presence in the State. To foster these partnerships we will continue to invest in:

A. SECURITY

• Consolidate on the successes achieved and build on them;
• Continue to collaborate with the military and other security agencies in the state to address security challenges;
• Continue to assist the security agencies with logistics;
• Explore the use of technology e.g. Cctv to enhance the security and policing of the state
• Encourage citizens to assist the police with information for crime prevention and detection.

B. INFRASTRUCTURE

Electricity

In partnership with the Federal Government and the Private Sector we would ensure the completion of the 133KVA sub-station. We facilitated the ferrying of the gas turbines across the Imo River to encourage the early completion of the NIPP project at Alaoji and expect the Geometric plant to also come on stream soon. Abia and other Southeast States are bidding to buy the Enugu Distribution Company of the PHCN, managed by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), to improve electricity distribution. We will continue to assist needy communities gain access to electricity transformers.

Roads

We will re-double efforts to improve access to our major economic centres by continuing to build and rehabilitate roads/drainages across the State and generate employment by recreating the Public Works Maintenance Teams. We will partner with the Federal Government to rehabilitate Federal roads in our State.

Water

Access to potable water is critical for the sustenance of life. We will facilitate private participation in rehabilitating and reticulating the regional water schemes in Umuahia, Aba, Ohafia, Bende etc. We will also encourage International Agencies, UNICEF (WES), World Bank etc to participate in the provision of potable water for our people.

Housing

We are aware that housing is a major need of Abians especially urban dwellers. There is serious housing deficit, worsened by the enormous financial outlay required, which the government alone cannot handle. We will create the infrastructure (Site and Services) required to actualize the private sector and international agencies’ commitment to develop 5,000 Housing units (3,000 units of 2Bedroom 1,500 units of 3 Bedroom and 500 units of 4 Bedrooms) at reasonable prices and tenor. We will also encourage the development of mortgage financing of home ownership.

C. TOURISM

Plans have advanced with investors interested in constructing and managing a 5-Star Hotel in Umuahia. This will also create enormous employment opportunities.

We will explore all opportunities to exploit our tourism potentials e.g. Azumini Blue River, Ojukwu Bunker, War Museum etc.

D. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND SANITATION

Government will pursue a policy that ensures sound environmental management/cleanliness to enhance the health of its citizens and encourage investment. To this end, we will:

• Encourage the “greening” of our cities through tree planting and beautification;
• Strengthen the agencies responsible for waste management;
• Improve access to the ecological fund to address erosion ravaging parts of the state through our good relations with the federal government;
• Partner with international agencies to attract environment and “climate change” related funds to the state.

E. INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY

We recently installed a new Analogue transmitter, returning BCA TV to life. A state-of-the-art Digital Transmitter has also been procured and waits for NBC licensing. We have also procured one (1) Outside Broadcasting (OB) Van for live coverage of events within and outside the State. We will further:

• Establish a “Data bank” to assist the states’ economic planning/management and facilitate the engagement of international intervention funds and investors.
• Commission an Aerial Geographical Survey of the State.

F. OTHER INCENTIVES

• Liberalise and fast-track land acquisition and the issuance of property titles;
• Re-vitalise vocational and technical education to provide a pool of skilled labour;
• Create a “One Stop” shop for investors;
• Introduce fiscal incentives;
• Encourage the Federal Government to revisit the “Dry Port” project at Isiala Ngwa;
• Strengthen the industrial parks/estates in the 3 senatorial districts to encourage the growth of MSMEs and develop local resources;

4. DEVELOP OUR HUMAN CAPITAL AND EMPOWER OUR WOMEN AND YOUTH

Appropriate human capital is the cornerstone of any programme of economic transformation and empowerment. Our people are the single most important resource of our state and we will spare no effort in ensuring that they acquire the knowledge, skills and health that will enable them compete in the global market place. Our efforts will be directed towards:

a) Education

There is a crisis in the educational sector, beginning with the primary on to secondary levels; we need to rebuild the foundations. Government will initiate consultation with all stakeholders’, Missionaries, Town Unions, Teachers’ Unions etc to x-ray the problems and work out solutions. We will also re-align the educational system to emphasize Vocation/Technical training to develop the skills required and seize the opportunities created by the New Abia Agenda.

b) Health

We will sustain our Primary Health Care system by properly equipping and staffing them with appropriate medical personnel. To achieve this we shall encourage the massive training of nurses and other health workers. We will attract Abians with medical expertise in the Diaspora to partner with State in ensuring a viable and efficient health care delivery system for its people.

c) Sports

The government will continue to sponsor the Abia Warriors and Enyimba Football Clubs and encourage the development of other sporting activities to bring laurels to the State. Already we are partnering with a European Football Club to establish a Soccer Academy in the State.

d) Employment And Labour Relations

Creation of employment opportunities is critical to the New Abia Agenda. All our focal areas are employment-generation centered, and will enable Government create opportunities for 10,000 new jobs for Abians.

Since there is limit to government direct employment, we shall empower the youth and women to explore self employment i.e. through mentoring, micro-finance, access to credit/loans to cooperatives, skills acquisition, entrepreneurship and vocational training. We shall ensure cordial labour relations. The Abia State Public Service will benefit from the new National Minimum Wage.

5. MODERNIZE OUR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES TO ENSURE FOOD SECURITY.

Our agriculture policy is targeted at ensuring food security, employment generation and rural development. Rural communities face numerous challenges but also many opportunities. Government has identified key agricultural commodities in which Abia has competitive and comparative advantage, such as Cassava, Rice and Oil Palm.

The policy of Government will be to develop their full value chains for wealth creation. Government will partner with farmers’ co-operatives to procure and distribute farm inputs and continue to subsidize the price of fertilizers to increase yield. We will provide subsistence farmers and rural agro- businesses access to micro credit/financial services, market information, subsidized fertilizer and farm inputs. We will also:

• Encourage agro-business clusters to create economies of scale for farm enterprises
• Encourage young people to become farmers and establish new programs to identify and train the next generation of farmers
• Upgrade rural infrastructure by investing in feeder roads, bridges, etc that rural communities need to evacuate their produce.