Abia State: A story foretold

By Joseph Edgar . . .

Abia is my adopted state. If I was to choose another state apart from my beloved Akwa Ibom, I will choose Abia without thinking simply because my best friend, the Late Uche Kalu was from Abia State. I grew up with Ohafia people all around me. They showed me what it meant to be a proud people, their strong love for their land was very commendable especially the joy and glee with which they looked forward to going back home every year end, and the expected stories they came back with after each odyssey. This made me want to be an Ohafia man and I remember asking my mum in my childish innocence why I could not be an Ohafia Man.

Ohafia is a local Government in Abia State housing the third largest military formation in the country. It is a massive state with one of the worst infrastructural disaster in the country. It has been stifled by a series of poor leadership from the tragic and comedic misrule of Orji Kalu and his mother to the present governor who is today battling to retain himself in power despite his obvious lack of understanding of the issues that confront his state and his apparent lack of capacity to tackle these issues effectively. That is the bane of power for itself and not for what it can do to the people that we suffer nationwide, especially at the gubernatorial levels.

Let me tell a small story. I had once gone for a meeting in Enugu and after the meeting I had asked my hosts how long it would take me to get to Uyo from there seeing that it was already getting late. They gleefully told me that the journey was about one hour, that the only bad portions of the road was the Abia end and that once I could scale through I would be home and dry in time for dinner with my beloved mother. That, my people would go down in record as one of the most dreadful journeys in my young life.

I entered Uyo at exactly midnight after enduring the most grueling journey of my life which involved swimming in rivers of mud, digging the car out of huge craters on the road, taking a shower in a village deep in the jungles of Abia and engaging in fervent prayers led by a hapless motorcyclist who had volunteered to lead us with much regrets through very thick forest since the roads had been rendered unmotorable following a slight shower of rain.

As we meandered through the forests, I kept asking how much longer to Akwa Ibom and the driver kept saying with disgust, ‘Oga when we get there you go know’. The import of that statement struck me with an alarming realization to the extent of neglect and criminal devastation of Abians, when I suddenly emerged out of the deep forest into the widely paved and well lit express road that eagerly welcomed me into Akwa Ibom.

People, the issue today is not politics for the Abia person. The issue is linking them back into civilization. Abia state has suffered one of the most neglect suffered by a state not in a war situation. The level of infrastructural decay and poverty is unimaginable. If you enter Abia from the Port Harcourt end, all you see is poverty and a once proud people desolate with despair and sadness. A state that has produced the very proud Ohafia warriors, a state that has produced some of the most gifted Nigerians, some of our best people in commerce and intelligentsia could be so hobbled by the tyranny of leadership remains very sad.

So when I heard of the candidacy of Dr. Alex Otti, the ex-banker who resigned his very lucrative job at Diamond Bank to contest the elections I sat up. I was interested in this race. Remember, I am Ohafia by association and my first love was Ezinne, that demure Ohafia damsel who rejected my teenage advances with the sweetness of a virginal damsel who was keeping herself for that Ohafia Prince Ikpo, who had gone to the great markets in Cotonou.  I immediately threw my moral support on Dr. Otti banking on his precedence as a very successful banker and deep thinker.

Read also: Dasukigate: Who is who in Nigeria?

The basis of my support was simple. His leadership would bring a systematic evaluation of the issues falling on his deep trainings and experience in the private sector which has seen him succeed in leading reforms in two major financial powerhouses in the country. My simple estimation was that if allowed, he would bring to bear this deep understanding of the forces of demand and supply, his understanding of the role of private enterprise in political economy and also the need to free the state from the continuous perfidy that is the patronage system deeply entrenched in the political milieu that is Abia today.

I followed his campaigns very closely, listened to his speeches and read his manifesto. I could not believe any less, and from what has been reported, Abia people gave him their full support. Tired from the servitude and enslavement that has been their lot, they cast their votes in favour of this Joseph who had come to save them from the pharaoh that had traumatized and impoverished them.

He was said to have lost the election but confidently contested the results and has today been vindicated by the Court of Appeal. The journey is headed to the final bus top which is the Supreme Court and I have no doubt in my mind that he would emerge victorious here too.

My optimism rests on the fact that the technical points with which the appeal court gave him his victory would stand the rigorous assaults of the Supreme Court and much more importantly, the will of the people cannot really be upturned. For the average man on the street cast his vote for real change, this time and his voice will be heard.

I will hold my breath until he returns from the Supreme Court, even though I remain resolute as to the integrity of his battle. What Abia really needs especially in this rough climate is a leadership with deep rooted understanding of the issues and a clarity that can only be forged on policy formulation and execution by the best brains they can throw up. A look at the two candidates and their individual pedigree gives the cautious observer a position that cannot be contested if truth is going to be the basis for a decision.

The Abia story is a story foretold and I believe very strongly that the time has come when a resurgence of my people under the leadership of Otti would crystalise on us even as we confidently wait upon the Supreme Court.

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now