Is Aba/Abia really "in love" with Alex Otti?

Posted by admin | 9 years ago | 3,802 times



No matter how busy the ant is, the lion is always the king of the forest.-Igbo wise saying.

I read an article titled "why Abia has fallen in love with Alex Otti" written by one Ifeanyi Amanze and had a good laugh. Does this Ifeanyi actually know Aba people that his note was all about? Does he understand Abia's politics of numbers? Is he a PVC carrying Abian or another paid writer supporting our son?

Let me share a little about Aba people and how they vote. Just like Dr Alex, I schooled at Aba and attended Uniport (for my MSC) and my parents are from old Arochukwu/Ohafia LGA like Alex'. The only difference is that I am proud enough of my father's homeland to insist that I am an Abiriba man. No political porridge can make me claim otherwise because politics come and go but my origin is my heritage. I love Abiriba too much to deny them biko. Yet I grew up at Aba and love Enyimba city like every other Aba boy would. I wonder if I can comfortably spend 2 weeks without visiting Aba.

Naturally, I know Aba and how we think at Aba.

If a new product or person is introduced to Aba our people will naturally flock to the person or product to "taste". After "tasting" we make up our mind whether to stay or leave. Ask those who opened new hotels, eateries etc at Aba how Aba people responded to them. We usually flock to new joints and persons. The challenge is to keep our attention after the initial "tasting" because after some time we have to leave and taste new places or return to the places we know and trust. The same principles are applied to our politics. We are naturally excited about stories of "new kids" on the political block, especially if they have cash to spend. Aba will see them as another "business" enterprise and go and make "profit" from them. After that we will discuss over chilled beer at Terminus or Elca Crest and decide if the "mugu" is worth our attention. If he is running against one of us, naturally Aba ma ndi Aba and will never leave nwa Aba.

Secondly, if you bring Lagos musicians, nollywood stars, football stars etc to Aba, we will come and watch. We love shows and that's why they call us "Aba n'anya" people. Who does not want to see Charlie boy, Kaanayo Kaanayo, Phyno, Kanu Nwankwo etc? We sure will go and see them because we hardly get to see them everyday as they are all "foreign" stars to us. They don't belong here so for us their coming is an opportunity to watch "onyonyo".  We are not there because we want to listen to a politician who will make promises of how he will dredge waterside and ships will berth there within 100 days of his swearing in. Who told a "foreign" politician that we want Ariaria relocated? After we spent millions building stalls ourselves without government help? Na wa o. If you don't know that all we want is for the roads into and within the market to be reconstructed then you are not one of us. If you don't know that we want the Federal Government to fix the Ikot Ekpene-Aba highway and even Ikot-Ekpene-Calabar highway then you don't know us. Na mugu you wan chop us and ala Aba will do you "poppy-yes" on election day.

The worst thing you can do to Aba psyche is to fly helicopters into Aba when we are battling to survive without you ever helping us. Ask the late "hunger is a legitimate weapon" man what we did to him in 1979. Incidentally it happened to him at same Etche road where "dogs and baboons" without WAEC certificate held his campaign recently-etche field. Umu Aba already know that one is a non issue and no need bothering with him. If the APC candidate gets 1% of our votes he should thank his maker.

What people call "falling in love" is our penchant to "go and see". Non Abians and even Abians with no Aba roots misunderstand that for "love". Wait till election day to know who we love. And for those who make noise about rigging, Aba will never allow you to rig an election at Aba if they don't know and like you. We practically saved Chief Sam Mbakwe's governorship in 1983 because we knew him and like him. All the attempts made by NPN to rig that election failed woefully. If you rig successfully at Aba it simply means we like you well enough to look the other way. But don't even think about rigging 2015 elections because nwa Aba Okezie Ikpeazu is running.

For the records, no authentic Aba boy loses election at Aba. Rigging or no rigging. And if you try to use money to intimidate an Aba boy you have simply called the enyimba spirit to action. We will contribute kobo-kobo and our energy to ensure nwa Aba triumphs. Anaghi agwa ya father.

At the state level, the reality of numbers are stacked highly against Dr Otti whose parents are from Arochukwu but is now claiming Ngwa origin. That the people of Ukwa-Ngwa led by Elder Adaelu and Senator Adolphus Wabara stormed Umuahia last year in a million man march to present Dr Okezie Ikpeazu as their son and consensus candidate should ordinarily settle the issue of origin. Onye muru nwa ma nwa ya. Furthermore, of the 17 LGAs in Abia, Ngwa and Ukwa people occupy 9 LGAs while Old Bende people occupy the remaining 8. It is expected by political pundits that Ukwa/Ngwa people who have never produced a Nigerian Governor (apart from CBN Governor Ogwuma) and have been agitating for one for decades will naturally deliver block votes to Dr Okezie whose Obingwa origin is not in doubt. Likewise the 3 Umuahia LGAs will follow the lead of the incumbent, Ochendo T. A. Orji, and vote massively for the PDP equity candidate. Even without the remaining 5 LGAs, Okezie would have won the election by landslide margins.

It is only "foreign based" writers who will measure Otti's popularity with Aba and online social media noise. The reality is that the location called Aba has 5 LGAs (Aba north and South, Obingwa, Ugwunagbo and Osisioma) with the much trumpeted but overrated non indigene votes being mainly at Aba South. It is a known fact that the majority of the otherwise vocal non indigene voters are registered in their home states. On election day they will all be in their states to vote while the majority of votes will come from Ngwa residents of the LGA. The same is largely true of Abians from old Bende who are resident at Aba, like myself, who will go to their villages to vote. Wherein lies the Amanze permutation of "love" and "imminent victory"?

Does Abia hate Alex Otti? Not at all. We see him as one of our good exports. We have many like him that did well in the banking industry including former CBN Governor Paul Ogwuma, former Manny Bank MD Dr Jona Ezikpe, Elder Eke Urum, Prof Herbert Orji and many more. We are proud of all of them. But we know who to elect as governor in order to solve our internal issues like equity and unity. It is even funny to us that someone can change his place of origin just to hoodwink us: anyi abughi mugu and anyi enweghi mugu.

Jukwa ese!!!

Please Mazi Ifeanyi Amanze, before you interpret for us who we love or like ask yourself how many Abia born musicians, nollywood stars and comedians you saw at Dr Alex rallies. Did you see Nigga Raw, Ruffcoin, Exnel, Aki and Paw Paw, Uche Jombo, Rita Dominic, 2CanTalk, Kenneth Emeruo, Okechukwu Uche or Nkiru Sylvanus? Those are Abia's flagbearers in the entertainment industry and they naturally know who to follow, if they must. Those you saw with Dr Alex are those who benefited from our son's "oka nma na ama" tendencies. If he had sponsored our local artistes like he did others they would have followed him to Abia. Even his major campaign hands are non Abians because he failed to establish a good footing at home. While he built schools in other states he didn't build a single classroom block at his alma mater, Ngwa High School Aba. Yet you want students of Ngwa High School to "fall in love" with him?

O dikwa egwu o.

Bulie anyi elu, kuo anyi na ala, Nwa Aba Okezie Ikpeazu k'anyi choro. PDP k'anyi ga aturu vote. Onye enyere ego bank ya rie. Anaghi eri Aba mugu.


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