A case of serial deceit in Abia?
Posted by John Okiyi Kalu | 9 years ago | 3,473 times
Honest observers of Abia political space must have noticed that the APGA candidate, Dr Alex Otti, is no longer campaigning for President Goodluck Jonathan but rather his core supporters are now mostly emphasizing "change". We all know which party has "change" as slogan. Don't we?
Let's review a few facts.
The APGA faction led by Victor Umeh publicly and without prompting declared President Goodluck Jonathan as their presidential candidate and true to the declaration Umeh and Governor Willie Obiano have been campaigning for President Jonathan vigorously. Initially, after accepting the flag of APGA at Aba, the Abia APGA Guber candidate campaigned for the President and all his billboards and campaign materials included the picture of the President. Some Abians must have rationalized then that it was still "we we" and made choices on that basis.
Poppppppy....yes.
After the reported fund raising in Lagos where massive amounts of money were given to the APGA candidate by mostly non Abians and characters associated with APC and secret funders of violent Islamism, the APGA candidate returned home and quietly changed all campaign materials with "vote for President Jonathan" in exactly the same manner he changed all data showing his place of origin as Arochukwu.
Please go round Abia and see if there is still any APGA Governorship billboard with President Jonathan's picture and assure yourself that I know what I am writing about.
It is no longer news that prior to the 2011 public declaration of Governor T.A. Orji that the 2015 governor of Abia state will be an Ngwa man, Dr Alex Otti was known by all of us as an Arochukwu man. We knew he has a beautiful edifice at Arochukwu, registered to vote and with PDP at Arochukwu with his University records and even documents from his secondary school days indicating "Arochukwu/Ohafia" as his place of origin. Yet immediately after the public declaration by Ochendo Dr Alex started building a new "home" at Ngwaland where his dad was interred as a priest working there. Those who read one of his recent interviews published in the Vanguard Newspaper of 14th December 2014 will confirm the following statement he made in response to questions on his Arochukwu origin:
"When he (Alex' father) died it was my duty to bury him. God revealed to him, three weeks before he died, that it was time for him to go. He called me and told me that his time was up. I asked him: “if you die now, where do I bury you?” He asked me what kind of question was that. I told him that some have been saying that our ancestral home is Arochukwu. He replied, saying, since he did not live in Arochukwu in life is it in death he would he buried there?"
Suffice it to note that even after his father's death and the reported exchange between them he still went ahead to build and live at Arochukwu as against where his father was buried. That he even asked his father that question, as reported by him, shows he always knew his roots and Arochukwu people never denied him as their son. He received every right due to him as a man whose father was from Arochukwu. Just like I receive from Abiriba even though my mother gave birth to me in another Abia town because in Igbo land origin is derived via fathers place of origin. Not location of birth. Ask all his siblings privately where they are from and they will confirm Arochukwu. If any of them denies Arochukwu please ask them to produce the international passport they were using as at 2012. That should end it.
Why exactly will anyone suddenly change origin when in actual fact he is qualified to contest for Abia governorship as an Arochukwu man? Udensi of PPA is running as an authentic Arochukwu man. Uche Sampson Ogah ran a good campaign in PDP as an Isuikwuato man and an APGA candidate is surely not bound to respect PDP zoning arrangement that favors Abia South without necessarily excluding others. The answer lies with "trust", "deceitfulness" and "desperation". Initially he didn't reckon with the PDP zoning arrangement being narrowed down to Abia South (as against Ngwaland) and when it dawned on him that no amount of begging or cash will change the position of the incumbent governor and PDP stake holders he decided to continue the deceit with the hope that he will be able to lap into the strong governorship sentiment in Ngwaland with the expectation that Arochukwu people will "understand" why he had to deny them for "a pot of political porridge".
The consequence is simply that today APGA is running a North-North ticket with Otti's deputy, Mrs Eme Uche, coming from Ohafia LGA carved out of the old Arochukwu/Ohafia LGA. What about the other LGAs and zones in Abia? Victims of political deceit, I guess.
In politics we say that you are either for us or against us. Now that Dr Alex Otti is obviously not for President Jonathan will it be wrong to say he is against President Jonathan and already maintains one leg in APC? What will be the consequence of a governor Otti decamping to APC after election (God forbid) like another south east APGA elected governor did? What did he agree with the "donors" who have been looking for gaps to penetrate Abia through? Could this be one of the reasons APC chieftains actually muted the idea of a demonstration at Aba over the postponement of elections? Do they now have a point man who is a wolf in a sheep's clothing? We are waiting for them at Aba sha. Come and demonstrate against Jonathan or INEC if you have the balls.
More than the danger of hoisting a flip flopper and serial deceiver on Abians is the role monetary inducement is playing in Abia 2015 election. Students, INEC Ad Hoc staff and sundry individuals are being compromised to manipulate Abia Governorship election against the wishes of the equity seeking majority of Abians with loads of cash. Have we sat to consider the likely effect of denying Abia South (by extension Ngwaland) the governorship position that they now feel is within sight after a life time of not being able to produce a Governor? Are we ready to live with the consequences of this serial deceit at state and national level? Do we know what will be the fate of Ndigbo if the man who engineered the 2011 post election massacre of Ndigbo in the North is elected President of Nigeria?
Fellow Abians, what do you think will happen if Aba State, as proposed during the last national conference, is created next year? Will Dr Alex Otti go with the old Abia or new Aba State assuming he is elected Abia Governor in April? Ponder on that and share your views with your family and friends..
Political desperation leads to political deceit.
Political desperation is destructive wherever it manifests and the consequences are usually written in blood, confusion and stagnation. You have no right to condemn political desperation at the Federal level (as epitomized by Buhari) and support it at the state level unless you have changed name to HYPOCRITE and place of origin to DAURA. In that case all I can say is may your candidate continue to fail serially.
JOK 12/2/15
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