Alex Otti and the change Abia craves for

Who wouldn’t crave for change having lost 16 years in photo-governance? Every tree on Abia highway bears the head of the governor and every junction, a galaxy of it. The 8 years of Orji Uzor Kalu saw Aba go down and Uyo go up under Victor Attah. The people saw in Orji Uzor the man who said one but did another, all geared towards self-interest. But then, he had his bright side: he spoke in strong terms on Igbo issues, whether it came from his inside is another. Fair or the reverse, Orji Uzor is a bold stuff.

Then his anointed, Theodore Orji, was even in prison, but the might of Orji Uzor singlehandedly planted him at the state house as governor without reorientation from prison to powerhouse. For the most part of his first tenure, he remained loyal to his master until they broke ranks. Meanwhile, Godswill Akpabio rode high with Akwa-Ibom, building smartly on what Attah began, to the extent that moving from Akwa-Ibom to Abia is like moving from Boston to Burundi. All the way, Abians remained docile hoping something would change but doing nothing for the change except grumble and sigh in their bedrooms.

Then the governor, smart on the other side, grabbed the chance to make governance a family affair. He is governor, and while his tenure was drawing to an end, he made the people line up to ‘beg’ him to go to the senate; his son is to come to state house of assembly if he wins, and the PDP governorship candidate is said to be a close cousin.

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In the end, Abia will have become a full-grown family-state in the throes of decadence, patronage and despondency. That’s where the state presently is. Meanwhile, Umuahians go to peep at Uyo to feel development and return to mourn.

Alex Otti, the man of sacrifice who left his pleasure to toil with his people, summed it up in one word: RESCUE. That’s what it is. Any mistake in the coming election to install the similitude of the Orjis will do 3 things: a revolt, mass exodus or irreversible acquiescence. The people say NO, Otti says, ‘You are right, I will lead you’. The beat in the state now is Otti and the People. The other side is responding with the tearing of billboards, disturbing of rallies, name-calling and blackmail. The people say, ‘You can’t tear the billboard in our heart and come Feb. 28th, we will tear yours forever’. That’s the fear. The import of all these is: it’s not the party, it’s the person. It’s not about APGA, it’s not about PDP, it’s about the man Alex Otti and the man Okezie Ikpeazu meaning, literally, ‘the last’. The APGA jingle says, ‘We are the first, we don’t want to be the last’.

The man Ikpeazu may be a good man but certain things stand against him: the hand behind him is the hand of a detested ruler, not of God. Choosing him is choosing abyss; he is the manager of the state environmental body, ASEPA. Their waste management style is to dump waste on the highway, incinerate it and leave it to smoke without end. The people are asking, ‘This smoke that never stops, is it a preamble to hell? If yes, why remind us now and why the government? Why not paradise?’ So it’s not about the campaign, it’s about this sitting impression. Ikpeazu is in a big party with soiled hands heading for the wrong result. The people seem to have spoken and that in clear terms. It’s Alex.

Next is the fear of what might happen if the people fail to protect their vote, much so when the opponent is a game-master. That’s where there’s going to be some problem. They are learning not to ‘eat’ their future now, they’re learning to keep their eyes open, they’re learning to question and, above all, they’re learning to say no. The combination of these leads to people-power. That’s what the game-masters will face in the days ahead. The best therefore is, don’t even start the rigging stuff because it’s a no good. The people will resist.

Where do all these lead? This tide is not for the PDP. Indeed, what is expected of them is a continuous apology, not campaign; retrospection, not pushing to come again. The anger, the vehemence, the stabbing of the people is so much that Ikpeazu may carry the cross he didn’t cut. Come to think about it too, APGA is the people’s political platform. Abandoning it over the years has done more hurt than healing. Voting APGA now is like a homecoming, voting Alex is a last-minute rescue. That’s their mindset. They’re set on it. CHANGE.

Onyebuchi Onyegbule