An observer who commented on one of my essays not long ago was of the opinion
that when a man in saddle is surrounded by human mosquitoes in the name of
aides, they must give his government malaria-infested advise. And you know
what happens when malaria gets into the head. You already know the
follow-on. This statement is a demonstration that malaria has really gotten
into the head of the government in Abia State. And it will only take a
serious diagnosis by a psychiatrist specialised in government affairs to
cure the malady.
While many Abia people have kept away from Governor Theodore Orji with the
view that the state must move on someday, he is still speaking from the
parts of his mouth, as if there is anybody (apart from his
‘mosquitoes-aides’) that has fetched him to serve Abia people with
artificial hardship and backwardness, as we can see. It’s preposterous when
the news of September 5, 2012 paid tribute to Orji, through Ben Onyechere,
who is Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Communication, as saying
that Abia was a forsaken venture. And you hear Orji, saying: “My
determination to rebuild Aba derives not only in the fact that it is the
commercial nerve centre of the South East, but also to realise the dream of
Mr. Sam Mbakwe, a former governor of the old Imo State, who shed tears at
the state of the dilapidation of infrastructure in Aba at the inception of
his tenure, which was the only real last effort to upgrade Aba before I
came to power. The reconstruction of Aba which is presently hindered by the
rainy season is the centre of my administration’s policy thrust and as such
cannot be toyed with not only because it is the commercial nerve centre of
the South East but as well as a unifying factor among the Igbo, particular
when we remember the Aba women’s riot of 1929 which was a protestation
against the taxation of women. The insinuation that government is not
meeting its target in the city can only be made by people without the
requisite experience both in public and private endeavours.”
It is observable that somebody in Abia State Government House, Umuahia, is
taking prescription for leprosy in the place for malaria. While Mbakwe
cried for the building of the city and was/is loved by the people, the
people have nowadays been pelting Orji with tears on their eyes that he
should have a human heart and bring dividends of democracy close to them.
What is deceitfulness if not the governor’s statement urging the residents
of Aba to bracket their minds on the deteriorated environment and wait for
the ‘Utopian construction’ after the rains? Then, you ask yourself, how
many rainy and dry seasons have we seen since 2007 this government came
into power, yet the whole cities in Abia State is just empty with
infrastructural bonuses just as the sunken government and media aides are
empty.
This is a government that has not been up to duty, and any attempt by
contrasting view is robotically ticketed by the aides as anti-government.
The unintelligent portion of their misery is that instead they would
contest critics with intellectual competency they rather went about
spreading fabrication: calling critics rapists, extortionists,
blackmailers, ex-convicts and sundry junks they circulate on their blogs
they devised as portals used in discrediting critics of Orji-led
government. They did to this writer. But it is significant that people now
know who the real rapists of good governance are, extortionists of the
people’s hope are, blackmailers of critics are and ex-convicts are. Has the
quantifying compass not navigated to the Government House, Umuahia, Abia
State, as where these can be found? Is this place not a beehive of
miscellaneous junks? As an alternative the governor was supposed to be
listening to the voice of people which is the voice of reason, but he
rather allows his media managers to be misleading him against the same
people he swore an oath to defend and protect.
There is no government in the world that will go about spreading mendacity
against the electorates but the Orji-led government of Abia State is doing
through its brash media aides who have hurriedly turned to human mosquitoes
to the cooperative susceptibility of *ndi*-Abia. These impetuous aides do
not want the people to speak as it affects them; the aides want the people
to speak as it will conciliate the government, whereas the people have not
seen any true leadership they can touch and praise. Who said that somebody
is not sick of chronic malaria in the head at the Government House,
Umuahia? The people have not seen true policies that will affect their
lives optimistically. The solution to the problems of bad roads in the
state is no go area. Why does Orji like playing politics with everything in
Abia State, even with the people’s lives? If you think that it was a lie,
read this from a pensive Abia person who will not want his name in print:
“The road to my village (Ariam/Usaka Circular Road) had been constructed
and reconstructed so many times, and all the reconstruction and
deconstruction were all on newspapers. The fact there is that the people
will never forget fake promises of this government.”
This is not only in Ariam/Usaka that ‘fake promises’ have been made to. The
Chief Press Secretary to Orji, Ugochukwu Emezue, also substantiated this in
the newspapers of Sunday, 02 September 2012. He said that the governor’s
first tenure did not witness much achievement (but Emezue veered away to
protect his job), and added that it was because of his many legal
challenges. Did you hear that? Yesterday, it was ‘many legal challenges’
that misled Orji to underperform. And today, Ben Onyechere, Special Adviser
to the Governor on Public Communication, is telling us that we should hold
the rains accountable for the underperformance of Orji. Tommorrow, we will
also hear that the ground is too hard to construct or deconstruct the roads
due to dry season. Fake promises everywhere in Abia State!
The deluding supremacy of Orji is explicit, and we can also see the
manifest through Emezue, saying: “Well, let me say that governor T. A. Orji
has made a lot of achievements; especially within the first year of his
second term. A lot of people know what happened in his first tenure, when
he had a lot of legal challenges we could describe as distractions from
right, left and centre and from their family estate. Governor Orji being a
man that has the interest of the state at heart did what we call the
liberation of Abia towards the end of his first term, by taking Abia away
from the shackles of darkness. He brought Abia State to a state of light
and that light has continued to shine as can be witnessed in most of the
projects he has done. Prominent or chief of which is the secretariat, which
is almost completed. Abia State civil servants have not had it so good in
terms of secretariat scattered here and there, but today we are pointing to
edifices that will house them in a matter of months. We can also talk about
International Conference Centre, which is about to be completed. You can
also talk of the Government House, which is also going on. Then the High
Court in BCA, where you have a good corporate headquarters complex that is
almost getting ready. Because the governor places emphasis on cleanliness
in the state, ASEPA building is also going on. We also have the Diagnostic
Centre, which is the first of its kind in Nigeria. We have one in Aba, and
another one in Umuahia. It is already there and I can tell you from the
last time I went there, the kind of patronage we are witnessing is second
to none. Then, we have the dialysis centre. This is happening because the
governor places much emphasis on health. The dialysis centre is almost
ready for commission. We also have the health centre which as at last count
is 210, though the governor says that he wants more health centres in Abia
State. He probably wants additional 200 health centres.”
On the other hand, in all, how many of the mentioned phantasm projects have
been completed? None. And how many years has the governor been in power?
Five years going to six years. Please, don’t say that this government is
not fake! Is this not a death-defying government the people have come to
endure in the name of democracy? Why must any human being have eyes but
can’t see, have ears but can’t hear, and have hands but only just to steal?
Can we all see how Orji has ‘librated Abia away from the shackles of
darkness’? A government is as its leadership. Human mosquitoes and their
malaria seem incurable.
