EBERE WABARA
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WITH a postgraduate degree in contemporary history and international relations, among other certifications in multifarious disciplines, it is apposite to trace the bedrock of the needless currency of chaos in Abia State, the most backward state in Nigeria. The retrogression in this God’s Own State that appears cursed is incontrovertible.
The rot in Abia started in 2007 with the unilateral enthronement of Mr. Theodore Ahamefule Orji by the former governor of the state and business icon extraordinaire, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. If he had not imposed his successor (Ochendo global!) on Abians—against all oppositional and visionary forces—the state would not have been the worst in the country in terms of infrastructural transformation, good governance and human capital development.
What we are reaping in the state now is retributive justice as enunciated by Karmic Law. It is not the state as an entity that is cursed, but the tribe of rulers (not leaders) that has traversed the territiory in the post-military dispensation. For Kalu who took over immediately the military vacated after years of despoilation, the challenges were daunting and insurmountable. Therefore, the little impact he made paled into insignificance, most especially in the eyes of his hypercritics who could and cannot contextualize regimes and their peculiarities. I will not explicate the nuances of this controversial position because my standpoint may be misconstrued for circumstantial reasons.
If Kalu had not, singlehanded, inaugurated his ultimate nemesis, T. A. Orji, right in the confines of a Lagos prison, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would have ensured that the ingrate spent the intervening period in its custody pending the installation of the rightful candidate, who, most likely, would have been Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, a consummate economist and editor par excellence. How I wish my editor had held sway between 2007 and 2015 as the governor of my state! Frankly, we would not have been in this mess as he would have built on the foundation laid by Kalu. It will be uncharitable for anyone to declare that Kalu did not create any take-off structures and an enabling environment for his successor in office. In the same breath, nobody should say that Ochendo international did not accomplish anything as the immediate-past governor of the state. It is just that his ugly side, cruelty, power drunkenness, amnesic ingratitude and other uncanny negativities indisputably overshadowed the marginal things he did.
In apparent sustenance of the Orji Kalu legacy, Ochendo also ensured that he planted a surrogate in the person of embattled Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as his successor despite the obvious drawbacks that had become institutionalized. We shall return to this presently.
When the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held its primaries in Abia State last year, I screamed on these pages that the exercise was a ruse as it was hijacked by the state government which deployed all known and unknown methodologies to manipulate the outcome of the process preceding the governorship election. Millions of dollars and other enticements were splashed on most of the delegates. Predictably, Ochendo’s relatively unknown candidate, Ikpeazu, controversially emerged the winner.
It reminded me of the state governorship rerun election in 2011 which was superfluously militarized in favour of Ochendo. It was very then to everyone that if not for the militarization of the polls with the clear help of (guess who!) Ochendo gburugburu would never have consolidated his second-term misrule that plunged Abia to the nadir of hellishness.
Then came the 2015 governorship election in Abia State. In the haste to supplant the rightful candidate of the PDP for the poll, Dr. Uche Ogah, an inimitable and celebrated philanthropist, irredeemable mistakes were made here and there. The summary of it is that Ogah’s divine mandate has been duly revalidated by an Abuja high court. Space constraint will not allow me to go into all the issues arising from the laudable decision of Justice Okon Abang.
What is most important to me is that that governorship election was clinically won by the APGA candidate, Dr. Alex Otti. This was reaffirmed by the appellate court sitting in Owerri. As usual, Ikpeazu appealed to the apex court. In a curious, confounding and an inexplicable decision, the Supreme Court upturned the ruling of the Court of Appeal. Even the so-called “winners” of that case knew that it was a stolen mandate handed over to them on a platter!
Last week, Dr. Ogah was issued a Certificate of Return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in express compliance with the high court ruling. At the weekend I heard and read people saying that the INEC was hasty in implementing the directive. If the INEC had delayed, for instance, and something went wrong in the polity, this same clan of bootlickers and political investors would have blamed the INEC for tardiness in the execution of its functions.
There are three departments creating most of the problems in this country: journalists, the civil service and the worst of all lawyers. Virtually all our national drawbacks are attributable to these professionals who are the engine room of all manner of corruption. The remaining departments of our national life are opportunistic elements who feast on the failings of the tripod. Anytime a judgment or ruling is given, lawyers of various shades and experiences take conflicting, jaundiced and investment positions in anticipation of possible recompense should their “prospective” clients eventually win! Professionalism is sacrificed because of ravaging poverty (even among SANs) which result in boyishly divergent views and submissions—not based on precedents, scholastic research or logic—but stomach infrastructural engineering and outlandish positioning for governorship lucre!
It is this preposterous and survivalist template that has given rise to stereotypically biased opinions by hungry lawyers on the Ogah case despite the Rotimi Amaechi-Celestine Omehia Supreme Court precedent on this substantive matter. Even the Kogi State recent legalistic curiosities also lend credence to the ultimate triumph of Ogah.