For the past three weeks, I have made conscious effort to rebut some of the devilish and malicious allegations Governor Theodore Orji has made against my person since 2010 when he fell out of grace due to his insatiable desire for power and authority. I have done this in the hope that those who have read the publications would be able to read between the lines and pin-point the truth. Despite the uncouth and unpolished language deployed by the governor’s propagandist (though not unexpected) in response to some of the issues raised in the past three weeks in this column, I have tried to maintain some degree of decency in the choice of language. I have also resisted the temptation of showing any traces of bitterness in my handling of the issues the governor had raised. Nevertheless, I have since realized, not minding the precautionary measures I had ta1ken, that the man is remorseless, unforgiving and obdurate, prompting me to liken him to the leopard gecko, which sheds its skin every four weeks.
The irony of the whole thing is that the man Theodore Orji, instead of making amends and retracing his steps, has thrown caution to the winds and embraced bellicosity instead. Where he hopes his obduracy will take him ultimately is best known to him. But I take exception to his continued wicked lies against my person, which he does with malice and bravado. Why should he never cease lying against me and measure up to the stature of the office he occupies?
It is very surprising that some of the governor’s ‘firefighters’ (which is how I have chosen to call his attack dogs) are ignorant of who really Gov. Orji is. For this reason many of them have rather shot off the mark and engaged in junk journalism. Even some of those defending the governor have no character themselves to undertake such a sanctimonious adventure. Some of them have even raised strange issues – far beyond the scope of our contestation – all in an effort to launder the man’s battered image. In the process they have done more harm than good to his personality and office.
I find it worrisome that a man holding such an important office of governor would engage in blatant lie-telling. I was shocked again when I was told the governor tells whoever cares to listen that the reason he fell out of favour with me was that he refused to sell the Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba and the Umunnato General Hospital to me. For the benefit of those not familiar with the two projects, I will give a short profile. Umunnato is located in Bende Local Government Council of Abia State. It comprises three autonomous communities, namely Igbere, Alayi and Item, with their people sanguineous. Umunnato general Hospital was in a sorry state when we assumed office in 1999. Our administration, in line with its healthcare delivery initiative, embarked on massive reconstruction to restore it to its past glory and make it a centre of excellence. We built new and modern structures, equipped the relevant sections and made it fully ready for operation. For whatever reason, my predecessor, Theodore Orji, has allowed the place to lie fallow and desolate in spite of the fact that it had been ready for use since 2006.
Unexplainably, he refused all entreaties from well-meaning Abians to put the hospital into proper use. I got it on good authority that the governor deliberately allowed the hospital to lay waste as a result of his hatred for me and, by extension, the Umunnato people that own the land on which the hospital was built. Is that not the height of meanness? The governor does not have any moral right to deny any section of Abia State its rightful dues. While in office as governor we ensured that our people, including the so-called non-indigenes, got what was due them. We made governance a thing of mutual benefit to every law-abiding person living in the state.
What do we have today: polarization of the state along ethnic, parochial, and political lines! The issue of where one came from did not arise throughout our tenure, because we believed that every Nigerian has the right to live and eke out a living wherever one resides in Nigeria.
A visit to Umunnato General Hospital would make one shed tears – how multi-million naira edifices, fully equipped, have been allowed to waste. The intervention by some prominent Abians has not changed anything. And so, in 2008, our proposed University (Arts, Science and Technology as it was known then) located in Igbere approached the Abia State Government to lease the hospital to it for use as the University’s Teaching Hospital, since it had no interest (immediate or future) in running the place. The whole idea was to have a joint-equity holding with the state government as a way of furthering the development of our state. We never at any time envisaged that the government would sell the hospital outright to us.
On the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), Aba, our administration knew right from inception about the need to design and develop a standard teaching hospital for the state-owned university. With determination and commitment we embarked on the ABSUTH project, which was completed in 2006 and put to immediate use. Because of the kind of equipment and structures at the Teaching Hospital it has today become a centre of excellence in medical research, churning out qualified doctors and other medical personnel annually. I am proud to state here that the teaching hospital ranks among the best in the country.
How could any right-thinking person ask for the sale of such property to him? To me, it makes no sense. I wish to state categorically that I never, at any time, asked anybody to sell ABSUTH (or any other Abia State Government-owned property) to me or my proxy. It beats my imagination how far the governor can go to get at me for no justifiable cause.
As I stated in the preceding editions to this one, I do not know what Theodore Orji really wants from me and why he has chosen to harden his heart in his war of attrition against me. As far as my conscience can carry me, I am yet to come to terms with what really I had done against him.
Perhaps it is the same hatred that makes him change his storyline whenever it suits him? I thought he claimed before the latest lies that he dumped me because I did not allow him to work freely. It is now four good years since he embarked on this journey of infamy, yet he has not been able to achieve anything tangible, thereby putting a lie to his claim. The fact remains that since 2010, when he claimed to have liberated Abia people from bondage, our people have gone through worse experience – from government neglect to intimidation. What is happening in Abia State today is a total ruse. Contrary to the claim by the governor that he has liberated Abians the people have continued to live in fear and be at siege.
As if the liberation gimmick was not working the governor concocted another story. This time he claimed that I took him (alongside some commissioners) to a shrine in Okija to swear to an oath of allegiance. I had already debunked that claim. But let me restate for the purpose of clarity that throughout my tenure as governor I never took anybody to any shrine. I have visited Okija only once all my life. And when I did it was to honour an invitation by a Catholic Church in the community, after which I had dinner with my friend and Chairman of Nestoil. My itinerary as governor from 1999 to 2007 was an open secret and is there for anybody to see.
As I did say last week, I challenge the governor to name the commissioners he went with to Okija, the name of the chief priest or custodian of the shrine in question, how the ceremony was performed and why he did not object to going to the shrine in the first place. He should also tell the world why it took him four good years before going public with the story (assuming it was correct) and why he has not resigned in view of the moral burden placed on him by his improper ‘action’.
It is only Governor Orji that knows who took him to Okija and for what purpose. Definitely not me! If he went to Okija in his own accord and the whole thing has boomeranged, he knows where to find solution to his problem. I am a Christian and do not believe in the fetish. The God I serve is sufficient for me: He has always provided all my needs in riches in Christ Jesus. So, what else do I want?
Those familiar with how Theodore Orji became governor would be shocked at the turn our relationship has taken in recent times. What is happening now was never envisaged at any time. It is like a thunderbolt from the blue. All I had hoped for in making the choice of him as governor was somebody who would give Abia people a new direction and elevate their standard of living. I never planned for what has happened. I know how grievously pained our people have been over his choice.
A trip round Abia State shows the decay and rot that have gone on under this administration. And anybody who dares to speak out is brutally dealt with. Is this how governance is done in a civilized society? For the eight years I was governor I did everything humanly possible, despite the poor revenue inflow from the federation account, to develop our state.
Our achievements as a government cannot be matched by the present administration if we took a critical look at how much had accrued to both. In all honesty, I do not see any reason Chief Orji should be insulting and castigating me when he worked closely with me for eight whole years and did not at any time within that period point at anything we had done wrongly. He was privy to almost all the key decisions taken by our government. I co-opted him into the State Executive Council to enable him to be conversant with the decision-making process at the highest cadre.
It is, therefore, painful to see the same man saying all kinds of atrocious things about the same government and persons he had worked closely with. As I stated in this column two weeks ago Governor Orji might be underestimating the gravity of his utterances and actions against me on him and those close to him. He should learn some lesson from the experience of power-drunken desperadoes and authoritarian rulers, like him, that had fallen from grace to grass. Their experience, if he had not already known, was disgracefully bitter. In any case, I do not wish him the same fate, which is why I have taken pain to exhort him to change from his evil ways. He has a date with destiny and fate in less than 9 months from now, when his tenure will have come to a formal end.
How would he want to be remembered? Definitely, I know he would like to be remembered as an achiever. That is not a bad wish. But common sense demands he should first make personal sacrifices for history to recognize him as an achiever. How can history remember him when he is busy making enemies for himself and continually distancing himself from his people?
Abians have been severely impoverished by the present administration in the state. The people are poor, hungry and sick, yet the government makes billions every month from different sources of revenue. What they are told daily is that the governor is a liberator and transformer, hyping his so-called performance to high heavens. I wonder what kind of liberator and transformer would harass and intimidate his people, watch and do nothing as his people are peppered by hunger and penury. All the so-called legacy projects of the governor are nothing but drain-pipes. They do not have any direct bearing on the life of the people.
It is on record that Abia State ranks among the states with the most draconian tax regimes in Nigeria. Everything in the state is taxed. The only thing that is not taxed is the air the people breathe. Worst still, the same people who are overtaxed do not benefit anything from the government. Why ask them then to pay taxes?
One is left crestfallen when one listens to the terrible things happening in our beloved state. I am a grassroots man and know when my people are groaning and reeling in pain. The hopelessness of the people is visible, more so their anger. Everywhere you go in the state it is the same story of despondency. My people are indeed dying in silence.
What Abians need now are quality roads, functional medical facilities, food on their tables, adequate security, quality education and peace. These things are currently lacking in God’s own State. The question on everybody’s lips is: who will bell the cat? Who will salvage the state from the stranglehold of the governor and his family?
I cannot fold my hands and watch an insensitive government take all of us for a ride. We have to do something within the ambit of the law to ensure that things work fine again. The misrule of this government and the mistreatment of our people will stop very soon. After all, evil has an expiry date. It does not matter what price one is made to pay for the liberation of our people from the clutches of neo-imperialists masquerading as the people’s Messiahs. Nobody needs a soothsayer to tell him that Abia is on tenterhooks. It is just a matter of time before the wind blows that will expose the anus of the hen.
Let me advise the governor the umpteenth time: Leave Orji Kalu alone and focus attention on providing the dividends of democracy, which our people desperately need.
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