By Foster Obi
For sometime now, one has been inundated with flashes of concocted criticisms from those that worked with former governor Okezie Ikpeazu and you wonder where they got such audacity having been thoroughly shamed by the courts.
Again remembering that their images and writings create that revulsion and reminiscences of dark days of Abia in the minds of the people (because of what they represented…i.e darkness and backwardness), further accentuates the statement that, ‘these PDP modern day pen pushers will stop at nothing in pursuing what the belly will eat journalism.’
In Lagos the other day at the market where Igbo people were gathered, the traders there were full of praises for Dr Alex Otti.
One of the men, obviously a leader in the market was heard telling the boys to get ready, that it was time to relocate to the Abia State because the messiah has come. “Prepare, we are leaving Lagos for good to Ebe oku nenwu nelu, 24 hours a day.” They were beating drums for Dr Otti and making noise in the market even as some other tribes came to join them to declare that Gov Alex Otti was one of the greatest thing that has happened to Nigeria recently as he has demystified governance.
What baffled one was that after all this they did not spare Dr Okezie Ikpeazu and his team. One of them said, when interpreted in English, “ I heard that Ikpeazu and those that worked with him are still talking nonsense after destroying the state and sharing all the money. I feel that all of us should gather, drag them out and give them that Rawlings treatment. “Those men are beasts. Look at how pitiable Abia was under PDP. Those men are wicked. They should not be seen among men, but should live in the bush.”
One of the things that would catch anybody’s fancy in all the display was that the traders repeatedly said they would not be happy if Governor Otti did not commit Dr Ikpeazu and some of his commissioners, especially the ones that still had the temerity to insult the people now to prison. But it is so amazing that far away in Lagos they are chorusing the minds of many in Abia. So the general understanding is that the people will not be assuaged if former governor Ikpeazu and his cohorts escapes jail terms despite their attempts at distracting the people from their wicked deeds. No state had had it so bad under a government. It was total massacre and plundering.
I remember the former governor’s dancing style of ‘oh I don suddenly make am.” One of the things that gave him such temerity to dance was the ‘Obingwa magic.’ They believed that as long as the Obingwa manipulation was in place, PDP will never lose any election. What a tragedy! That is man’s inhumanity to man. No single visible achievement by a government after eight years of solid waste. Again what a tragedy!
It is not out of place if a former commissioner of his is still in public space insulting everybody. That guy will end up in jail. Out of all, he is the one that is still crying. He had had his eye so much on the till but the feeding bottle was abruptly taken away and the man cannot stand it. He has been crying foul since. He is yet to recover from the Otti magic. “Yeye de smell’, like the Niger Delta people will say.
He will surely end up in jail with his boss as their matter is being discussed at the moment. I did not remember hearing about him until the last government unfortunately happened on the people. I remember putting a particular question to him as Commissioner about payment of pensioners which he could not answer.
As unconscionable as the last government was, all they understand about borrowing money is to borrow and share while mortgaging the future of the state. It is this same people that are coming to preach about Governor Otti borrowing so much.
Do we need to be lectured by failures, bootlickers and hangers on.
If a focussed government decided to borrow and invest in something that would create turn around for the state, how would failures in governance be the one to advise otherwise. Does it not show their lack of understanding. In eight years what governor Ikpeazu’s government could boast of was a centre table called fly over. I was never proud to claim Abia State under his regime. So why are these same failures disturbing our peace everyday. What do they know about borrowing except to gather share and drink and dance contrary to what we learnt in Economics.
Their argument brings to mind, a cripple but proud man who was discussing with a neighbour. While talking, his neighbour interfered and he shut him up telling him, “You said you have an idea, what idea? Poor man dey get idea? The question to the former governor and his men is, “You failed woefully in government and you are bringing ideas to the new government, failures dey get idea.?
Let us recall that before leaving office, the PDP government led by Dr Okezie Ikpeazu was already regarded as persona non grata by the civil servants for the hardship he put them through.
Remember that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, was owing 117 months of salaries arrears to workers in different agencies and institutions and 30 months of pension benefits to pensioners in the state.
The 117 months according to NLC was owed to Abia workers including salaries to Local Government employees, 23 months’ salary arrears to the staff of ABSUT, 13 months to Health Management Board, 11 months to secondary school teachers, 3 months to Primary School teachers, 30 months to Abia Polytechnic workers, 29 months to Abia College of Education workers, 5 months to Abia College of Health Sciences and 30 months pension benefits. That is putting it mildly.
No state in Nigeria has suffered like that in the hands of a wicked government. The best that the PDP modern day analysts need do is to spare us this daily insults and learn from governor Otti. You can never give what you don’t have. But if they refuse and continue in their inglorious journey of daily insults to a people’s government, the possible outcomes remain in the realm of conjecture. They should remember the dictum, “You can’t change a winning team.”
Picture: Former Abia Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu
