Mediocrity At A Huge Cost: The Abia Example – Dave Agwalla

Reflections On The Ugly Situation in Abia.

By Dave Agwalla, a social writer.

That Abia state is described today as the least developed state in Nigeria, by all develoment indices, could not have come as a surprise to any son or daughter of Abia, at least those who were already 18 years & above in 1999. That it also came at a huge cost to the people of the state, is not contestable to close followers of the politcal trend which has been on ground ever since our current nascent democracy.

Those elites, elderly citizens, statesmen, ex or former poblic/private/political office holders & some significant otherse who were/are receiving one form of gratification or the other from the state to, keep their mouths shut, their eyes closed & subsequently their conscience, perception, direction, discretion, dedication, commitment, conception & interests were all lost or compromised, must be held or are simply responsible for the woes of Abia. They midwifed the birth of sustained mediocrtic leaderships & a political family dynasty in Abia. The reality appear to be dawning on them that they had eroded the respect that was accorded them as well as sacrificed the future opportunities of their own children & communities
Those Abians, some of who had distinguished themselves both at the national & international levels either by virtues of positions they held or contributions made to the soceity, but could not contribute or criticise bad & corrupt leadership in their own home state, Abia for fear of losing the patronage from government, should hide their faces in shame.

They will go down in history as the haters of the people & failures in securing the future for their children, grand children & future generations. The people being described here know themselves & how much they have hurt their own people, contributed to the ruins & the under development of Abia due to their senseless greed, selfish persuit of material wealth & corrupt enrichment which have, in no small meassure, led to a destroyed economy, devastated environment, total lack of infrastructure, hunger untold hardship for the masses & deaths. They may still be praying for forgiveness, but to who, the people or God?
The monthly gratification that go to them in forms of cash gifts, diesel, choice wines, sponsored medical/pleassure vacation/trips, appointments for their their children & wards, free cars & houses etc, have all resulted in the non payment of salaries to workers, pensions to the weak & suffering pensioneers who had spent all their lives serving the state, collapsed schools, hospitals, roads & all other civic/essential services the state owe to its citizens. Also some community & church “leader” who partake in the loot, but stand on the pulpits to preach & occupy the front rows, knowing they have dirty minds & bloody hands because of the people who suffered & died or dying from hardship everyday. The people who are denied, deprived & denigraded by the state to provide for those described here are evil.
What these bad few may not or pretend not to know is that the masses know them & they will soon be required to account.
The punishment for their evil ways including looking the other way & by being part of the conspiracy to continue to hold the people down for their own & family gains, will soon come.
There must be consequences & price to pay for denying the people the oppotunity to choose their own leaders & collaborating with criminals of note to steal their votes in elections.

Whether there are still good men & women of integrity & the fear of God left in Abia, sure there are, but the loudness & evil machinations of the dirty ones will not allow their voices of descent, condemnation & reason to be heard. There are few good men & women out there. Those who refuse to be rubbished or compromised by the free spending public looters. No better time to come out & fight for the people than now.
This situation will not last any longer because the people are now pushed to the wall & cannot aford being pushed any further.
Abia may not have been given any chance or opportunity to survive given the way it started the journey of the current democracy about 2 decades ago, but subsequent & sustained bad leaderships & the tacit collaboration of the evil men & women described in this piece, are responsible for the extent it has failed as a state.
The fight to rescue Abia from the shacles or strangle hold of the evil men, will henceforth not be about any individual or, group or political platform, but about Abians & the willingness of those who seek leadership to have the fear of God, demonstrate love for the people by agreeing to make necessary concessions, commitments & sacrifices to achieve the common goal. That did not happen in the last election when those who led in the opposition could not agree to put the people first by coming together to rescue the people.
This is a call on every Abian who is not happy with what Abia has become today, those who now feel so ashamed & very embarrassed to be described or introduced as Abians because of the usual reaction of scorn & laughter on peoples’ faces, those who believe that we must leave a space for our children & future generations, to rise to this challenge to take our state back. Indifference to the afairs of Abia or dwelling on the facts of having or establishing comfort zones outside Abia, can never be the answer.
This continued lack of interest, commitment, wilful collection of bribes & settlements from unpopular leaders or administrations, brought about the very ugly situation in Abia.
The people themselves must be amenably disposed to change, including showing determined, unhidden desire & a clear demonstration of the willingness to have change before it can come.
Temporarilly forgeting your woes & voting for known evil & corrupt politicians in elections on the bases of how much they gave to buy your votes before will never push anyone out of suffering or poverty. Also voting along ethnic or lines can only worsen the already bad situation, perpetuate corruption & sustain mediocrity in power in Abia state.

The creation of a politcal dynasty, undignified reprepresentations & mediocre leadership all came at a huge cost to the people of Abia.