At the Enugu State Correspondents’ Chapel Press Week held on November 10
2013, Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji of Abia State raised hope of
recalling the non-indigenes who were working in the state’s ministry that
his government blatantly sacked and beat its chest that it had done the
glorious thing. The governor sermonised that he was recalling the workers
because of his love for a united Nigeria. He pleaded that Ndigbo should
wave aside whatever that transpired before the sack.
But in ala-Igbo, it is an insult for a man to go to the house of a
bachelor to look for a woman to marry. The thing is that the governor
insulted the entire Igbo people by that single act, which he later fumed
that the idea was to replace Abia indigenes in the workforce of the state
with the sacked non-indigenes. This goes a long way to tell the world how
Gov. T. A Orji dines with vendetta. His thoughtless point was that if
others were killing non-indigenes in their respective states, he should
also join the shoddy bandwagon.
In that occasion in which he was represented by his Senior Special
Assistant on Youth Development, Gov. Orji did not tell us that he was bent
on developing Abia State, just as the states he said that he followed their
footsteps do in development. No wonder the Igbo would say that a child is
quick at learning the bad side of a language.
Whether the world would take Gov. Orji seriously in the future is left for
the world. But the fact remains that he has disappointed the trust the
people once had for him, no matter the magnitude of his assurance that he
would not be found engaging in such inglorious policy of sacking Ndigbo who
were in the civil service of Abia State, simple because they were not
originally aborigines of the state.
We could remember how the elections of 2011 was conducted in Abia State,
where perceived indigenous political foes were hounded and their supporters
intimidated at the polls with security agents, but here is Gov. Orji
telling the whole world that it is only in Abia State that non-indigenes
contest elections and win.
If indigenes of the state from opposition political parties could cry out
about their experiences at the polls in their own state, your guess is as
good as mine of what the fates of the non-indigenes are in Abia State.
Let’s not delve into other states like Lagos State, where non-indigenes
have been winning in elections without the governor making political
statements out of it.
As if the governor was just waking from sleep, he assured people that his
unkind policy would not happen again. He knew that he is reviled even to
the West end. He resolved to tell the non-indigenes in the state to see
themselves as indigenes, when he had already spilt the bean. The governor
knew that nothing in the world would make our people to support him, hence
he resolved to drag the federal into the ditch he dug for himself.
Sadly, Gov. Orji has found out that he needs our Igbo people but he
deserves rare possibility. An anonymous observer captured the decision of
Gov. Orji in the following lines: Claptrap! He was caught with his hands in
the cookie jar. This is what to expect from ineffective politician who do
things for parochial reason. Now that his tenure is almost over, he
suddenly found Jesus.
Much as our people of Abia State have resolved, they have vowed that the
governor should not think of coming to vie for any political seat again.
He would not stop to take such unpopular decision as sacking non-indigenes
in Abia State, but would come to show crocodile tears in the open.
It is time the governor stopped using sugarcoated stories such as recalling
non-indigenes he sacked from Abia State civil service when there is nothing
on ground to show that he has earnestly recalled them. It is a paper
recalling, where ignorance oozes out high level of irresponsibility.
Let Gov. Orji know that he is not fit to be a governor in our state,
because posterity has already been judging him for his incompetence. Gov.
Orji should stop hating and preaching hate gospel.
