2015 Governorship; A Golden Opportunity Abia Southners Should Not Trivialize

The human mind, at times, suffers from either induced or false amnesia. This is pronounced when man tries to write or narrate his past and deliberately obliterates critical ingredients or elements of his past. Any time this happens, man ends up presenting a truncated history.

Since processes that will end up in establishment of next round of democratic leadership in Abia State started about a year ago, many advocates of power shift to Abia South have, in their various arguments, reminded their audiences that since the creation of Abia as a state in 1991, none of the nine local government areas of Ukwa and Ngwa geo-political zone of the state has been able to produce a governor for the state.

This inability has been real despite the fact that a good number of indigenes of the zone, which is administratively known as Old Aba Division, had severally attempted being governor at one time or another.

In the first democratic election that took place in the state in 1992, the duo of Dr. Gerson Amuta and Chief Lambert Nmecha of blessed memory strongly aspired to become governor of the state on the platform of the defunct National Republican convention, N.R.C. At the Party’s primary election, both Dr. Amuta and Chief Nmecha lost to Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who would end up becoming the first democratically elected governor of the state.

In 1998, which marked the commencement of Nigeria’s third Republic, political personalities of the Old Aba Division were also in the race for the governorship of the state.

The likes of Architect Dan Nwankwo, Dr. Max Nduaguibe and Chief Chukwu Wachukwu came out with Vigour gunning for the governorship of Abia. Again, they lost to Chief Orji Kalu who emerged as the state’s number one man.

2003 did not present any dull moment for the highly populated people of Old Aba Division. In that year, Chief Enyinnaya Abaribe, immediate past Deputy Governor of the state, relying chiefly on his gregarious ‘Otu Onu’ political outfit, strongly contested the governorship of the state on the platform of defunct All Nigeria People’s Party; A.N.P.P. Again, the result was not different from those of 1992 and 1998. Chief Enyinnaya Abaribe lost to the incumbent Governor; Kalu.

Still determined to break the jinx of not producing the State Governor despite being the more populated zone of the state, the trio of Chief Okezie Orji, Hon Tony Enwereuzor and Radical Hon. Chinonyerem Macebuh were at the scenario of governship contest in 2007. As if the geo-political zone had some issues to resolve with destiny, the three lost as Chief Theodore Ahamefule Orji eventually emerged victorious.

Then came 2011. Chief Theodore Orji was constitutionally qualified to re-contest as an incumbent governor and he did. For the umpteenth time, another politician from Old Aba Zone, by the name of Chief Regan Ufomba, showed interest and contested on the platform of All Progressive Grand Alliance; APGA. Expectedly, Chief Regan Ufomba kissed the dust.

The combined experiences of the people of Old Aba Division in their previous quests to clinch the governorship of the state from 1992 to 2011 are a clear indication that a people who do not put their art together would only be like wanderers in a labyrinth. It is also a pointer to the indisputable fact that power, apart from being divinely determined, is negotiated.

In analyzing the challenges of the people of Old Aba Division to emerge as the Executive Head of their second tier of government, the histrionics of the development should not be limited only to the twenty three years of the existence of Abia State. Before the first Republic, the people of Onitsha had produced the Premier of Eastern Region in the person of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, from 1954 to 1959. When Dr. Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigerian citizens, N.C.N.C., went into alliance with Sir Ahmadu Bello’s Northern People’s Congress; N.P.C., Zik, as Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, was fondly called, became the Governor–General of Nigeria while Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of N.P.C. became Prime-Minister. As nature abhors vacumm, Dr. Michael Iheonukara Okpara, a prominent son of Old Bende became Premier of Eastern Region. Between 1960 and 1966, Dr. Francis Akanu Ibiam; a world class statesman of Afikpo extraction, was Governor of Eastern Region.

Both during colonial and first Nigerian Republic, no indigene of Old Aba Division attained the height of either a Premier or even a Governor.

As it is chronologically clear, military interregnum separately lasted for twenty-nine years in this country. During that very dark era of Nigeria’s nationhood, many military officers of Igbo origin were appointed military Governors of different states.

To begin with, Colonel Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu was appointed the military Governor of Eastern Region by the Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Nigeria; Major–General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi. Ojukwu hailed from Nnewi. Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Major–General Ike Omar Sandara Nwachukwu and Navy Captain Christopher Osondu, three of them from Isuikwuato, had been Military Governors during the period. Commodore Amadi Guy Ikwechegh, an indigene of Igbere in Bende was also a Military Administrator during the period under review. Air Commodore Samson Emeka Omeruah, who hailed from Ikwuano, was a military governor.

Should any body forget the very charistimatic Military Administrator of Lagos State and later Niger State; Commodore Ebitu Oko Ukiwe of the ancient Abiriba entrepreneurial origin?

The list of military officers of Igbo extraction that served as Military Governors or Administrators may not easily be exhausted here. By the time one remembers the likes of Commodore Alison Madueke, Colonel Chinyere Ike Nwosu and Lt. Colonel Anthony Obi, who all were military governors at one time or another, the question that glares one at the face becomes, where were the people of Ukwa and Ngwa all through that longperiod? It was obvious that no Ukwa or Ngwa man had enough contact to influence being a military Governor. The highest position an officer from the whole of Old Aba division could attain during that era was merely an Acting Military Governor of Anambra State which was achieved by Group captain Monday Ikpeazu when the Governor was on leave.

A frank deduction here is that the people of Old Aba Division have not, so far, only failed to harness their natural numerical strength in order to galvanize their political fortune and growth in a democratic setting but equally proved incapable of establishing any network of meaningful contact that could have enabled, at least, one of their own to have emerged a military governor during the days of military dictatorship when what mattered was merely who one knew.

The above scenario, which slightly tilted towards hopelessness and frustration, should not currently be forgotten by the people of Old Aba Division as the leadership of People’s Democratic Party; P.D.P, in the state, under the philosophical guidance of Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji, has, purely out of democratic philanthropy and magnanimity; expressly resolved to have the next Governor of the state come from Abia–South senatorial zone of the Old Aba Division.

This posture by the People’s Democratic Party is an exemplary manifestation of uncommon commitment to equity, fairness and natural justice. Who ever that raises an eye brow against this justifiable popular resolution of the Party must surely be an enemy of democracy and natural justice. It is, however, very strategic and of utmost importance that the people of Old Aba Division should naturally realize that what Governor T.A. Orji and the People’s Democratic Party are irrevocably set to do for them is equivalent to handing power over to a people purely on a platter of gold. They should not mismanage it. At this stage in their political history, common sense demands that they should encourage the leadership of P.D.P. assist them achieve what they brazenly proved incapable of realizing since ages. They should eschew internal bitterness amongst themselves; a characteristic trait that had been their bane since time immemorial.

No matter their individual frame of mind and urge for power, Abia 2015 Governorship should be perceived by all and sundry in Old Aba Division as a golden opportunity that should not be trivialized and allowed to slip due to inclination to unpatriotic individualism and its attendant inordinate ambition. A stitch in time, can always save nine.

Chief (Sir) Don Ubani; ksc, JP
(Okwubunka of Asa)
Umuiku-Isi-Asa, Ukwa-West

VICISSITUDES OF ORJI UZOR KALU AND HIS ENDLESS LAMENTATION

In the course of my interaction with persons from different walks of life, I have come to conclude that one of the major flaws of man is his failure to realize that there is God and that it is only God that knows not only tomorrow but the future, which includes even the next second, in man’s existence. The man that knows not God inwardly is a fool and, therefore, lives in a fool’s paradise.

It is purely by the grace of God that a child from a very wretched family background could attain the envious status of the ‘rich’, including educational, social, political and economic attainments. The Almighty God is always benevolent and merciful, especially to those that believe He exists, have faith in Him, respect Him and love their fellow human-beings.

Any man that appreciates that omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence are incontrovertible qualities of God would, in the first instance, accept that life, in itself, is transient and that no condition can ever be permanent. Equipped with this fundamental religious background, any one that attains whatever position in life would be guided by the knowledge that such a position in life is bound to be ephemeral and that the only way he could be honoured by time is by using the position to impact positively on humanity.

But contrary to the above expectation, man on attainment of certain positions of influence in the society especially in control and management of political power, exudes arbitrariness, wickedness, discrimination, segregation, inequity, greed, kleptomania and every other trait of inhumanity. Man becomes excessively possessed by the extra-ordinary urge to become extremely materialistic and possessive. He then forgets that life is just transient and that any attainment or possession is equally temporary. In fact, the wealthier and more influential man becomes, as long as he does not know God, the more ungodly and ruthless does he become. In extreme cases, man starts to play god, having jettisoned the fact that God picked him from grass and mercifully catapulted him to grace. When the extremity of man that knows not God gets to the level as mentioned above, God manifests Himself as the jealous God and what follows is vicissitude.

For any body that knows the pedigree of the immediate past governor of Abia State; Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, his growth to power was an example of ‘grass to grace and...? For a young man whose paternity was shrouded in controversy and whose mother had to depend, in the main, on meagre income from her on-the-table wares of local gin; popularly known as Kaikai, Ogogoro, Ekpeteshi or Akpuruachia, kola-nuts, bitter kola and snuff at the bank of Aba waterside to have grown to become the governor of his state, shows that there is nothing God can not do for His creature.

Orji Uzor Kalu went through very excruciating experience in his adolescence, passing through the hills and valleys of abject poverty. Despite his very poor upbringing, Orji Kalu ended up becoming the governor of Abia State in 1999. As was captured in my preamble, some persons like playing god not quite long after fortune has smiled on them.

Quickly on assumption as governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu unveiled his agenda, which, notably but regrettably, was woven around vindictiveness and vendetta. He had deep animosity for the traditional institution and in order to announce his arrival he had to rubbish the institution by splitting the autonomous communities in the state in such a way that each kitchen could become autonomous.

As a school dropout, Orji Uzor Kalu, whose real surname is Nsiegbe but in order to deceive the unsuspecting public to believe that he is a child of the wealthy Nnanna Kalu of Abiriba, may his soul rest in peace, changed his family name to Kalu, hates the elites. Therefore, as governor, one of his principal pre-occupations was to torment and ridicule the elites of the state. In this way, he appointed his Commissioners and Special Advisers and fired them disgracefully not more than six months after their appointment. The most disheartening was not that they served only six months but that they had their appointments terminated either at Sam Mbakwe Air-Port, Owerre or the Port Harcourt International Air-Port as he was traveling out of the state. Some political appointees that served under Orji Uzor Kalu ended up developing high blood pressure as a good number of them did not know if they would be allowed to stay upto such a time when they would be able to clear the loan they obtained to pay to Orji Uzor Kalu through his mother; Eunice Nmecha Nsiegbe, for their appointment.

Orji Uzor Kalu has pathological hatred for the hard working people of Abiriba. His only grouse against the people of Abiriba; a people that stand tall among not only the Igbo but Nigeria as a whole for their extra-ordinary ingenuity and enterprise, is because Abiriba people had declared him a persona-non-gratta as he was busy dropping the name of Chief Nnanna Kalu as his father and using same to defraud unsuspecting members of the public. When he became governor, he concluded it was an opportunity to take his pound of fresh from the Abiriba community. Abiriba people are homogeneous. They have a common ancestry and had been ruled via a time-honoured dynasty; The Enachoke. In his bid to cause confusion where there should be none, Orji Uzor split the Abiriba community just to truncate the unity the people had enjoyed for centuries. This unwarranted confusion led to the loss of many lives. Thank God, with his exit as governor and eventual liberation of Abia State from his evil rule, the good people of Abiriba are once again unified and united. They may not stop expressing their gratitude to the government of Sir T.A. Orji.

I have said it severally that Orji Uzor Kalu; Nsiegbe in truth, was and remains a huge bundle of deceit. As governor, he would stop at nothing to deceive the people of Abia state. The roads he constantly claimed or claims to have built were the first set of roads to be described as Dubai or Taiwan roads in the lexicon of civil engineering in Nigeria. Orji Nsiegbe was the only governor in Nigeria who brought three different personalities to commission a particular road at three different times. The Obohia Dubai road which he claimed to have reconstructed was at different times commissioned by the then President Obasanjo, Vice-President Atiku and President of the Senate; Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. That road that gulped huge amount of money did not last more than six months before it was washed away.

Orji Uzor Nsiegbe was born and bred in Aba. He, however, has irreconcilable hatred and antagonism for the people of the Old Aba Division. As governor, he had boasted that the people of Aba zone would remain marginalized in the state for at least, twenty-four years. He arrogated to himself the powers of God. He had no programme for Aba just like he added no value to the state capital of Umuahia.

Even after leaving office after eight years as governor, Orji Uzor asserted his greed on the state for more than three years, collecting more than one hundred million naira every month. Yet in his deceitful kleptomaniac’s style, he would swear, without anybody asking him, that he was not collecting any money from Governor T.A. Orji. While Orji Uzor Nsiegbe was busy playing god, he did not know he was only living in fool’s paradise. Today, God has shown him that He is a jealous God. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe is now treated like an incurable leper. The Presidential Palace he built at Igbere, using Abia State money while the state government was squatting in a rented apartment, hardly witnesses the presence of any dignified indigene of Abia State. So the aim of diverting state fund to building a personal Presidential Palace in his village has been defeated. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe does not come into the state in the day time any more as he avoids being booed at by Abians. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe has been deserted by his former supporters whom he relentlessly deceived and exploited and he is now left alone in his moribund political party; Progressive People’s Alliance. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe’s fortune has nose-dived. He has abysmally failed elections twice in the recent past; (1) Presidential Election in 2007 under his P.P.A. and (2) Senatorial Election in 2011 on the same P.P.A. His brother; Nnanna, whom he had imposed on the people of Aba–North/Aba–South Federal Constituency for eight years in the House of Representatives and who never raised his hand on the floor of the House, not to talk of opening his month to make any contribution, equally failed election in 2011. As a leper, no Abian wants to interact with Orji Uzor Nsiegbe hence the leadership of People’s Democratic Party even in his Igbere ward has rejected his overtures to return to the Party. Orji Uzor Nsiegbe has made himself an abandoned property as another senatorial electoral mishap awaits him in 2015. These are only some of the vicissitudes of Orji Uzor Kalu nay Nsiegbe. Orji Uzor has had his cake and can not eat it. He should stop lamenting.

Chief (Sir) Don Ubani; ksc, JP
(Okwubunka of Asa)
Umuiku-Isi-Asa
Ukwa –West L.G.A