Zenco came calling in Abia Yesterday…
Yes, of course, it is the Zenco you know. His name is Chief Cletus Oragwa, the Chief Executive Officer of Zenco Group.
However, many people call him Zenco, which comes from the name of his company. Zenco is a well-known businessman from Anambra State.
His company, Zenco Group, is widely known to be a major partner of Tecno in West Africa, and the group is involved in diverse businesses including telecommunications, real estate, consumer products, and beverages.
Yesterday, he was in Aba to visit the ever-performing Governor Alex Otti. He came with his full team, and merely looking at them, you could already see they were in the investment mood.
When Zenco was called up to speak, it felt as if he had been waiting for the opportunity to appraise Governor Otti. He openly thanked the Governor for the good work he is doing in the state.
Zenco looked genuinely surprised, yes, very surprised because according to him, he used to be familiar with Abia many years ago when he used to come around.
He said everything he meets now is totally different from what he knew before. These were his words:
“I just want to thank the Governor for the good work he is doing in the state.”
“I’m familiar with this place from years back…17 years back when I was coming around, but today everything has changed.”
“So I wish this area were like this when I was still around, maybe I wouldn’t be in Lagos today, I would have been in Abia today.”
When Zenco mentioned it 17 years ago, I felt a deep sense of nostalgia. For someone like me who was born and raised here and has lived through the thick and thin of this state, that period was not just difficult, it was a dark era.
Seventeen years ago in Abia was hell for residents, and for businessmen, it was worse than hell. That was the period when big men here ran for their dear lives.
Their escape was not only because of bad roads, collapsed infrastructure, or non-functional government systems, people were already used to those, what I am talking about is the period of Osisikankwu.
In case some people don’t remember, around that time, captains of industry, businessmen, and billionaires took to their heels.
Osisikankwu’s style was so bold that he could even send you a letter telling you the exact date he was coming for you.
Yet the Chief Security Officer of the state at that time could not do anything, because it was widely believed that the said man was his political thug.
Instead of being hunted down immediately when his activities started, what we saw was negotiation after negotiation.
From around 2007 until he was finally killed by the Nigerian Army around December 2010, that period brought carnage upon Abia.
Aba was the main focal point of his operations, and at one point, Aba practically ran aground. Businesses shut down, investors fled, and the city suffered two major ailments at the same time, government neglect and insecurity.
That was the period that made Abia lose its spark.
That is why I am happy that people like Zenco still remember. When someone of his level says he left Abia back then, it should give you an idea of the caliber of people who left this state during that period.
But today, Governor Otti has restored the spark of Aba. Beyond infrastructure, health, education, and other sectors, he has rebuilt confidence in the area of security. Investors now believe that Abia is safe again.
Security has improved so much that when the state government conducted the Security Trust Fund, residents of Aba insisted that their own edition must also be held, and it was businessmen who donated heavily into the coffers, something they did purely out of appreciation.
You may choose to doubt me when I talk about the progress we have made, but will you doubt Zenco?
He concluded his statement with these words:
“From what we have seen on the ground, it won’t be a bad thing if we invest in our own zone, and that is actually the main aim of this visit.”
From that statement alone, you can see hope renewed in the Otti administration. What Zenco expressed is exactly what many businessmen across Abia and those gradually returning to the state are saying.
His words represent the general feeling of investors and captains of industry who are beginning to troop back into Abia.
That is what good governance can do. Governor Otti has governed in such a way that you cannot pretend not to see the drastic change in Abia from what it used to be.
Otti has turned Abia around.
He touched Abia, and Abia turned gold.
