OPINION: GOLDEN GUINEA BREWERIES AND THE HYPOCRISY OF A NON-PERFORMING GOVERNMENT - By KAZIE UKO

Okeiyi dubiously chose the facility of the iconic Golden Guinea Breweries, Umuahia, to pull wool over the eyes of Abia people, by mischievously claiming that it was the Abia State government under Okezie Ikpeazu that has resuscitated the brewery, one of Abia's legacies bequeathed by the illustrious Michael Iheonunaka Okpara.

How desperate and devilish can a government get? I probably would not have bothered with making any comment on this, but for the fact that the state government has made a deliberate effort to deceive the people and by making political mileage out of a project that the government did not contribute anything to resuscitate, order than running it down and selling it as a carcass to a private investor.

But I understand that it is the manner of the government to go about claiming projects that it is not capable of either initiating, attracting or implementing. The same way the government has continued to lay claims to constructing tens of kilometres of roads attracted by purposeful and well-meaning opposition politicians in the state.

To drive home the depth of their wicked mischief the two people sent on this bogus errands could not as much as congratulate the company that has achieved this feat, it's chairman or the interventionist institution. They went about blabbing about how their wild goose chasing principal had silenced the opposition with the coming back to life of the brewery.

The truth about the revamping of the Golden Guinea Breweries is that it is a purely private sector project. The new Golden Guinea Breweries is owned by a private company, Pan Marine Investments Limited, whose chairman is Chief Okey Nzenwa.

It is of public knowledge that Pan Marine Investments Limited having won the bid to acquire the brewery had obtained a $10 million loan from Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM Bank) to revamp the long abandoned brewery.

For additional information see:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/04/nexim-bank-rescues-abandoned-breweries-10m-loan-umuahia/

One is glad that the Golden Guinea Breweries is on its way back to life. The implication is that thousands of direct and indirect jobs which have eluded Abia State will be created and this will impact positively on the economy of the state. But what Ndi Abia frown at is the hypocrisy of a non-performing governor and government trying to go through the back door to claim glory for what it did not do.

Okezie Ikpeazu should channel his energies positively now that the Election Petition Tribunal in Abia State is yet to start sitting, afterall he and his errands people have been going around trying to dissuade the opposition parties from seeking justice over the badly rigged gubernatorial election in Abia State. They claim that attempt by the opposition to go to the tribunal will amount to distraction for the governor to effectively concentrate in providing good governance, whatever that means.

He should focus on fully completing the "numerous" infrastructural projects that his government had embarked upon in his first term, including the abandoned Osisioma flyover, New Aba Road, Ubakala Road and a few others that have become death-traps and security risks to Abia people.

It will be nice also if he starts early to clear the backlog of salary and pension arrears of civil servants and retirees, respectively.