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Wednesday, 29 January 2014

2015 Election: A Call To All Abians To Shine Their Eyes

Arise oh Abians!!! Read the full controversial piece "ORJI'S WAVE OF ENDORSEMENTS" after the cut...

THE HEAT MY ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN TODAY'S THISDAY NEWSPAPER HAS GENERATED ALREADY. SEE THE "CONTROVERSIAL" PIECE BELOW:

ORJI'S WAVE OF ENDORSEMENTS

Your Excellency Sir, I write in respect of the well scripted “wave of endorsements” you have received in recent times for the Abia Central senatorial seat ahead of 2015 general elections. From an income re-distribution point of view, the lavish media advert is a welcome development, as both the print and electronic have made brisk business off Abia’s commonwealth. This is how far the advantage can go. The media smile to the bank...Abia’s lean purse bleeds uncontrollably!

The deafening noise of sycophants around you notwithstanding, I would hasten to strip bare the veiled tragic story about being told. This is an obligation I owe Your Excellency, our people and posterity. While I might not know exactly what the people around you tell you, the general perception of Abians who do not eat the crumbs from your table is that you liberated the state from the vice grip of your predecessor and his mother only to take us into worse captivity of your good self, your wife and son! The rumour mill also has it that the constant leadership tussle amongst you, Mother of the State and your ubiquitous son (popularly called Ikuku), has left governance in Abia tottering. So much for a preamble!

The reason for this letter is not the insincere intent of those allegedly wooing you into the 2015 senatorial race, but your response to their (using your own words) clarion call. For according to media reports, you interpreted the clarion call to be a “reward” for the good work you are doing in Abia. Perhaps unknown to Your Excellency, not few Abians with good heads on their shoulder believe rightly or wrongly that you are behind the plot to draft you into the senatorial race. This belief is shared by both the Abia intelligentsia and pedestrians. They are also in agreement that you are not only keen on the race but desperate about it, because you would need some legislative shelter in the National Assembly to evade the waiting arms of EFCC officials when your tenure terminates on May 29, 2015. Because you are on judicial bail, the reasonable expectation is that to EFCC custody you would return upon the termination of the 8-year immunity granted you by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as altered) and accordingly have your day in court over allegations of theft of public funds. There is yet another school of thought that reckons that your all-powerful son’s excesses in the state, especially as it pertains to alleged unrestricted access and dispensing of public funds are another factor that would predispose you to desperately seek a senatorial seat come 2015.

It is therefore against this background that the Abia Central Legislators’ ambush can be understood. For them, asking you to join the senatorial race is a win-win game. First, the issues raised above are well known to them and in the run-up to the 2015 general elections; you would become even more vulnerable to them. Second, at the moment, they would make money off you for the promotion of this phoney project. Third, in the days ahead, they stand a good chance of blackmailing and extorting huge sums from you to ostensibly deliver the Governor Orji-for-Senate pipe-dream. Sadly, they seem to have a greater bargaining power that you do which explains why they are reported to have told you point blank that for them to see you through your current fantasy, you must ensure that they are all returned as PDP candidates to re-contest their legislative seats.

Your Excellency, the last point, you will agree with me, presents a major challenge. With the changing political climate in Nigeria, the last thing PDP will do is to field electoral liabilities as candidates. Time for such luxury is gone. Legislators that have not represented their constituencies well will be rejected at the polls. Moreover, President Jonathan’s aversion for any form of electoral manipulation is well known. In other words, as the PDP leader in Abia State, the least that is expected of you is to echo Mr. President’s Election Transparency song by supporting only quality, credible, popular and saleable candidates. Again this is where the undesirability of your senatorial ambition can be located: the opposition is patiently waiting for you to publicly join the senatorial race to enable them do great damage to the fortunes of Abia PDP. All they need do is to sustain a propaganda machine that would make PDP appear to be fielding a criminal whereas you are just a suspect. Images of your eventual return to EFCC custody and appearance in court will also give them an avoidable edge. And this Abia PDP can ill-afford.

In my opinion, you totally missed the point when you told the Orji-for-Senate choir that you imagined that their call was to reward you for the good work you are doing as governor. Your Excellency, please think again. If you were doing a good job in Abia and they thought so, those admirers of yours would have sought your elevation to a higher office. Going to the senate is demotion. If no mischief is intended, why would they ask you to represent one third (1/3) of the people you governed “so well” as reward. If you ask me, joining the senatorial race will not do you any good. The subdued anguish in Abia is capable of erupting like a volcano should you continue on this path. You need to hear what the beneficiaries of your “Youth Empowerment Scheme” say at your back. Some say you use their (state) money to buy tokunbo cars for them and make it look like a favour. Others say you ensure your photographs are on the vehicles because you know that you do not live in their hearts. While virtually all of them see those cars as perishable fish that will go bad sooner than later and return them to you for another fish meal which you would be glad to grant as part of your 2015 gimmick. Do Your Excellency necessarily have to court the disaster that befell your predecessor? I’m afraid, NO; and you have an opportunity to rise above these petty speculations by avoiding the pitfalls of the past.

I have said it to you privately, Your Excellency, that our people are tired of fish; what they desire and deserve is fishing hook, so they can fend for themselves without the suffocating presence of an overlord. And this they cannot get by voting in somebody who considers his going to the senate as “reward” (retirement benefit). At this point in time, the people of Abia Central need a credible, competent, cerebral and resourceful senator-in-waiting; someone with consistent track-record of demonstrable commitment to community well-being who will go NASS to prove his mettle and not someone who desires “reward” and sees Abia Central senatorial seat as that fitting reward (retirement benefit). Incidentally, all these PDP Abia Central perfectly understands.

Your Excellency, beware! The current beat has the sound of Shakespeare’s Macbeth!! Please dance not to it, Sir!!!



Chuks Akamadu LL.B, BL, PGD, FNIPM, MNIPR
(NKO ABIA)
Greater Abia Central Movement (GACEM)

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