You know the popular line about lies repeated too often beginning to sound like truth? That's the affliction currently plaguing the sitting Abia state governor, Theodore Ahamefula Orji and his deluge of courtiers.
Late last year, I saw first hand why the governor mistakes himself for modern day Jesus, thumping his chest all over the place, struggling to force the world to accept willy-nilly that he has delivered good governance. It was when myself and about 60 other Online media practitioners were invited to Abia state to assess the governor's performance in office. I watched as aide after aide lavished him with adulation. "You are the father of modern day Abia state, the global governor!" a former Commissioner for Information – now seeking to get elected as a state lawmaker -intoned.
Another reminded him of his 'ultramodern' touch to governance. Yet another raved about the governor's 'legacy' projects and how he has bested his predecessor, a man who imposed him on the good people of Abia while he, Theodore Orji, cooled off, chain in hands, behind the iron gates of Kirikiri maximum prison. There and then, right in the governor's banquet hall, I concluded that the man will never realize how badly he ran the state until he leaves office. From day one, he had erected a rigged feedback mechanism, drinking from the pool of lies he is daily served by those around him and wondering why the rest of the world doesn't cower before him in worship, for giving them 'ultramodern' governance.
Recently, I've been reading loads of nonsense published by the many hack writers hired by the governor's men concerning the coming governorship elections in the state, the processes that led to the emergence of their party's candidate and how they will trounce Dr Alex Otti, the APGA candidate. Apart from a lack of admirable grasp of the English Language – a common denominator in all of their washy articles – one striking quality of these people is their utter disregard for facts and truth.
Without bothering to name the writers, many of whom veil their true identities with pseudonyms, I will be summarizing just two of the falsehoods they've been pushing into the media space lately. And, with a sense of justice to Abia, the state they ran aground unchallenged in the last eight years, I will comment on each of their falsehoods and allow the reader to arrive at his conclusion.
First, they spin the narrative that Governor Theodore Orji had no hands in the emergence of Okezie Ikpeazu, the PDP governorship candidate in Abia, a lackey of the first son of the governor who nicknamed himself Ikuku (Ordinarily, in Igbo morphology, Ikuku means 'Breeze', but it could also mean Whirlwind, or Dust Devil, depending on its strength and intent). They boldly push this into public space, their faces straight, without batting an eyelid, consciously assuming every PDP member in the state may have suddenly fallen dead between when they rigged the party congress and today.
It is troubling, this onslaught on the truth, because it offers a window into how they have governed the state so far – without a jot of regard for decency. May I challenge the Ochendo revisionists to tell us when PDP congresses held in Abia? Can they show us, with any evidence they can muster, when Abia PDP held congresses and how the 'delegates' to the attendant party primaries emerged? Let them show us a video clip, or even still images, of any ward in Abia where PDP held congresses. There are hundreds, or even thousands, of PDP members in Abia; can the revisionists get us anyone who will tell us where he voted and whom he voted on the day of the party congresses?
For those who may not know; the emergence of candidates for general elections BEGINS with the conduct of party congresses. Party congress is an exercise that involves party members at the ward levels (the real grassroots) converging to elect from among them those who will proceed to choose the party's flag-bearers at the primaries. It is for this reason that those who seek to contest at the general elections in any party first start by consulting widely with members at the grassroots. In so doing, they broaden their chances by convincing party members at the ward level on their suitability and qualification for the office they seek to occupy. That way, whoever amongst these party members who is able to make it to the primaries then votes for the candidate they consider better than others.
But in Ochendo's Abia state, no congresses held.
The Tony Ceaser Okeke national congress team sent from Abuja to conduct the primaries were huddled up in Royal Damgrete Hotel, Umuahia, by the governor, his son and their hatchet men. Even registers containing names of party members in the 184 wards were missing, contrary to the party guidelines. It was so brazen that PDP elders in the state – people like Senator Uche Chukwumerije, former Minister Emeka Wogu, former Deputy Governor Acho Nwakanma and so many others – had to write a petition to the party headquarters, published in national newspapers, complaining of how Governor Orji hijacked the congress team sent from Abuja. PDP members in Abia waited from morning till 6 pm when, convinced that the congresses were no longer going to hold, they dispersed. But from this absurdity, Theodore Orji and his son produced a list of strange names which they claimed were delegates from the congresses. It was these strange names – procured on illegality – who were railroaded on the day of primaries to vote for the governor's puppet, Okezie Ikpeazu. Let anyone of the state government's hack writers controvert this. It then forces one to wonder how folks boldly write and publish to readers how Ochendo was never the one who imposed Ikpeazu, how the party democratically chose him for his sterling qualities, how Abians have accepted him. This last line of mendacity, that Abians have accepted the puppet from Theodore Orji, leads me to the next point.
In all the essays they write, the same people insist that Okezie Ikpeazu will be the next governor of Abia state. My response? How is that even possible?! Except if humans won't be the ones to vote in that election. Abians have rejected Theodore Orji and whatever proceeds from him. I got a sense of this when, on December 27 last year, a day after I travelled for Christmas, I went to Aba to have a personal feel of how bad things had gotten in the commercial city. I went to Ohanku Road, Obohia Road, Ngwa Road, Ariaria, Milverton. In the heat of the dry season, these major places had a semblance of a swampy rice farm, the type you see in mid-rainy season. At Ngwa Road, the sight was sickening, the marriage between refuse and humans was scary.
I conducted a random vox pop, and saw that at least 75% of the people I spoke with were sad with the complete neglect of the commercial city. They told me in clear terms of their decision to punish the governor by ensuring that whoever he supports in this election loses. The only exception to that, many of my respondents said, was President Goodluck Jonathan who has enormous following in the city and the other parts of the state. Recent opinion polls by NOI Polls affirmed this. By a wide margin of 27 points, Alex Otti of APGA leads his closest rival in the governorship contest. That gap is likely to widen within the next two months when the elections will hold proper.
Are they still beating their chest about winning in Abia state? That boast will be put to test on April 11. Who are the Abians that will vote the scion of this failed governor, anyway? The people in Aba who pelted them with pebbles and sachets of pure water? The people of Arochukwu who hurled stones at their campaign trail? The people of Uturu who ordered them out of their community? Or the people of Itunbauzo who stopped them from addressing the residents of the community? We wait! From every credible information I have gathered, Abians have rejected PDP in the state.
From the grapevine, we hear the governor and his son have vowed to 'win' without the people's votes. One wonders how they intend to achieve that miracle. Rigging? Well, the people I interacted with in Abia when I travelled for Christmas will not let anybody steal their votes. They vowed to resist whoever dares to challenge their collective will.
Whatever Governor Orji and his son are banking on, they deserve our pity. Any man who makes light of the people's power should be pitied.
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Chinedu writes from Lagos. Follow him on twitter as @Nedunaija
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