A fortnight, a lecturer with the Abia State Polytechnic called and was
weeping. I thought that he had lost somebody. Although, I had not met with
the caller in person, but on enquiring why he was crying, he told me that
could I imagine that lecturers in the school have not been paid their
salaries for seven months.
I had thought that he was in for something, till my confirmation from
another source proved him right. I also found out that it’s not only the
workers of the Abia State Polytechnic that were sharing in the ugly banquet
that Governor Theodore Ahamuefule Orji of the state has made them to be
gulping, those in other areas were not saying the contrary.
The definition of the word democracy in the Gov. Orji-led government of
Abia State is not different from the theory and practice of nepotism,
capitalism and despotism. Only the few, who are favoured in the state
through these means, see Gov. Orji as a performing governor, to the perils
of the majority impoverished populace of Abia State.
These few people see themselves as being empowered and are bent on fighting
the majority, when they cry out loud that the present government has
brushed their lips on the bare ground. If this is the way that the late Dr.
M.I Okpara operated, whom Gov. Orji, according to an account, said that he
is emulating, no one would be remembering the great man from Igbo in the
polity, with showiness and spectacle.
History says that the late Okpara was a humble and focused man, who was
accentuated by the love of humanity in carrying out his duties, unlike what
Abia State has got in Gov. Orji: Defocused, bickering, tinkering, bigotry,
egocentrism and a host of queer attitudes to governance.
History holds Okpara as selfless man, unlike the selfish person that Abia
people have in their governor. Dr. Okpara lived a life what emulating and
many people are emulating him today. But Gov. Orji, without doubt, will
have the contrary history by posterity, to the Okpara’s.
Many people in the state, who are diplomatically opposed to negativism
called governance in Abia State, are relocating with their loved ones, due
to incessant threats to their lives. Their safety in Abia State, is no
longer guaranteed, this writer is one of the people, threatened and
scandalised by the government agents in many appalling ways, but the people
of Abia State know the truth, from the heap of lies that the government and
its agents have been peddling around.
The editor of The City Reporters, in a forum, said that there was pressure
by his beloved ones recently to be very careful and watchful anywhere he
went, because they allegedly got information of an impending plan to kidnap
the editor. The editor said that the government of Gov. T.A Orji was
apparently against him because he published, amongst others, that Abia
State debt under the stewardship of Gov. Orji rightly stood at $34.5m, but
the government in 2010, collected bond of $250m, aside having monthly
revenue and allocations which stood at N19bn.
Abia State is in shambles for 7yrs of Gov. Orji’s perfidiousness and
aberration, yet he is gearing up to the senate in 2015, when workers in the
state, instead of celebrate thankfully, are celebrating 7months of
dishonesty and ridiculousness of the government, upholding their salaries.
Unlike what George Orwell said that people sleep peaceably in their beds at
night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf,
Abia people are gnashing their teeth day and night with their eyes opened
at night under Gov. Orji-led government of Abia State, because the governor
has refused to perform or allow the people to rest, without prejudiced
imposition of levies and taxes on them.
Except the few Abia people in the Abia State Government, who are ‘enjoying’
the lucre of governance, many outside the government will not like their
God to bless them with the hand that the governor is governing the state
with. Majority of the people see telling the truth as a “revolutionary act”
than a “rewarding act” especially in this season of mis-governance in the
state and Everest deceit.
Ask any meaningful Abia person to define the government of Gov. Orji and
the person will say without fear or favour that the government surrounds
itself with neophytes and speaks from all sides of their mouths.
Imagine that it is said that each of the state House of Assembly members
collects N5m every month and none is being owed. It will be expedient that
Gov. T.A Orji saves Abia State the shame of holding workers salaries for 7
good months, still counting, without an iota of addressing this issue in
the near future.
Gov. Orji should listen to what George Orwell said: If you want a vision of
the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever… and
politics itself a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
