“like the proverbial Housefly that ends up with the corpse in the grave, virtually every character that gave Abia and its resident’s nightmares only to wake up upon miseries of dirt and abandoned infrastructures across the state have woken up to attack a government that virtually came for the rescue”
By Njoku SaintJerry A.
South east center of commerce and industry and home to a functional Nigeria’s regional government, Abia State, under the astute leadership of Gov Alex Otti has remained on spotlight for the past two years and ongoing for every indices that defines a working government.
From a disciplined workforce, to organized working environment, fiscal prudence and a leadership committed to the primary cause of governance that is far from social media hype, you only need to visit the New Abia and prove.
How would one challenge a reality that squares at you in the face and how do you measure development in a region that was once infamous for everything wrong with Nigerian politics, from leaders who were infatuated with political power and ‘titles’ both academic and religious, despite exhibiting questionable characters without shame nor scruples, to government aides, confused and completely enmeshed in their own misery of not having the gut to speak the truth not even in hiding.
There was a time in Abia state when virtually both residents and visitors were not comfortable to identify with their own residence, investors stayed away, businesses stalled while ‘Abia Stinks’ and was the butt of every beer parlour jokes. That was an era of the reign of a certain Eze Chikamnayo, John Okiyi Kalu, Obinna Oriaku etc, and the leader of the pack, ex-Gov Okezie Ikpeazu Phd.
These men and their rank ran hostile with the state and its resources, they enjoyed over two decades of political heist and mismanagement so much that it appears they lost the senses of time. The Bible did say that there is time for everything under heaven.
Their time did come, we call it ’40 days’ the numerical strength of prophecy, even Moses of the Pharaohs had it. Once it catches up with you, just keep running and never look back. “Remember Lots wife” (Please enroll in a Sunday school if you do not understand what happened to Lots wife)
Now the problem is; these characters have the audacity to look back without morals and dares to stage a comeback whereas their past is so real that the mention of these characters in Abia State today will only evoke a feeling of anger and shame, and a reminder of Abia’s past that nobody in his sane mind would want to associate with, never again in Abia State.
Unfortunately, like the proverbial Housefly that ends up with the corpse in the grave, virtually every character that gave Abia and its resident’s nightmares only to wake up upon miseries of dirt and abandoned infrastructures across the state have woken up to attack a government that virtually came for the rescue and to clean up the perennial dirt brought upon ‘God’s own’ State by devil incarnates parading as political leaders.
I came across a video on a social media platform; it was a certain former recycled commissioner of Abia State under virtually all the past government of the locust years, quoting figures and singing the song of ‘transparency’ and calling the Gov. Alex Otti led government to ‘accountability’, there is another commissioner, and another commissioner amidst handpicked online trumpeters in the pack, singing concerns of ‘transparency and accountability’ of the Alex Otti’s government, and the most recent, the ‘APCised’ Deputy Speaker whom the only federal road leading to his homeland is in such a shameful situation and a sign of his woeful presence in government as a Federal law maker and ‘Number 6’ in the hierarchy of power brokers in Nigeria – so he claimed.
Ohafia-Bende Road coming from Umuahia is in such a terrible situation that any political office holder of Rt Hon. Benjamin Kalu status who resides here or has his homeland nested in the snaky very narrow and dangerous federal road that runs across rural communities that dots across the 40 kilometer road from Abia State capital to Ohafia should simply be ashamed of himself or keep his mouth shut.
NJOKU Jerry A is the State Publicity Secretary of Labour Party Abia
