WHEN ARITHMETIC CATCHES FEVER, PROPAGANDA CALLS IT ACCOUNTABILITY
Some people now wake up, invent their own road-cost formula, divide public expenditure by fantasy kilometres, and call the result “facts.”
Wonderful.
So because someone wrote ₦250 billion, he has suddenly become the World Bank, Julius Berger, Ministry of Works, quantity surveyor, civil engineer and asphalt prophet in one Facebook post.
He says ₦250 billion “should have delivered 250km of virgin roads.”
According to who?
According to TikTok engineering?
According to beer-parlour procurement mathematics?
According to the same people who watched Abia roads collapse for years and suddenly discovered “international standard” after Alex Otti entered office?
Let us deal with facts.
Governor Alex Otti has publicly reported 414 completed road projects covering 864.12 kilometres, with 82 additional roads of about 212 kilometres still under construction. That is not 20km. That is not “road painting.” That is not pothole patching. That is a state-wide infrastructure programme.
But because the critic does not like the evidence, he has created his own private dictionary:
When Otti builds, it is “cosmetic.”
When Otti rehabilitates, it is “patching.”
When Otti installs drainage, it is “road painting.”
When Otti opens up communities, it is “photo-op.”
When Otti touches roads abandoned for decades, it is “mediocrity.”
At this rate, even if Otti constructs a bridge from Aba to London, they will ask whether the handrail was manufactured in Umuahia.
The truth is simple: road construction is not priced by kilometre alone. Serious road work includes drainage, culverts, bridges, erosion control, compensation, streetlights, rigid pavement, relocation of utilities, quality asphalt, earthworks, labour, equipment, supervision and maintenance planning.
A 1km urban road with deep drainage in Aba is not the same as 1km of laterite track in the bush. A road with erosion control is not the same as a road without it. A road with bridges and culverts is not the same as drawing chalk lines on sand.
So when someone says “₦1 billion must equal 1km,” just know the calculator has joined opposition politics.
They say they cannot see 20km of genuine new roads.
Really?
They did not see Port Harcourt Road in Aba?
They did not see Ohanku Road?
They did not see Aguiyi Ironsi Boulevard?
They did not see Omenuko Bridge and the Abam–Arochukwu Road?
They did not see the Umuahia–Uzuakoli–Abiriba–Ohafia corridor?
They did not see the rural access roads being opened for farmers, traders and communities?
Or is the problem that they saw them but their politics refused to recognize them?
Nobody says citizens should not ask questions. Ask questions. Demand records. Demand procurement details. Demand value-for-money. That is democracy.
But do not reduce governance to angry mathematics and selective blindness.
The same Abia where roads were once death traps is now recording visible road renewal across Aba, Umuahia, Ohafia, Arochukwu, Isiala Ngwa and other areas. The same Abia where communities were cut off is now seeing road access restored. The same Abia where contractors collected money and disappeared is now seeing projects delivered, inspected and commissioned.
That is why the argument is collapsing.
If 414 roads and over 864km of completed road projects are “mediocrity,” then what exactly should we call the years of abandoned roads, unpaid salaries, unpaid pensions, broken drainage, flooded streets and infrastructure decay?
Excellence?
No, my brother.
What Abians are celebrating is not road marking.
They are celebrating movement.
They are celebrating access.
They are celebrating drainage.
They are celebrating safer transport.
They are celebrating communities reconnecting.
They are celebrating a governor who is turning public funds into visible public assets.
So yes, keep asking questions.
But ask intelligent questions.
Ask with evidence.
Ask with comparative figures.
Ask with engineering sense.
Ask with procurement understanding.
Do not throw numbers into the air and expect Abians to kneel before propaganda.
Because time will not prove falsehood right.
Time will only make completed roads more visible, ongoing roads more completed, and empty criticism more embarrassing.
Facts do not lie.
But propaganda often forgets that Abians can now drive on the evidence.
