(Part 2) Ndi Ori Na Crisis: Abia State A Case Study – Ifeanyi Okali

To say that what happens in our dear state, Abia is not only embarrassing but provocative and shameful is, to say the least. Our people have taken politics to a point where one will begin to raise doubt about their humanity and indeed the vision they have for the entire state.

Like I stated in the first part of this intervention, the line of divisiveness that has been drawn among our people has brought unnecessary hate, suspicion, and bad blood. The popular assumption that Ndigbo does not love themselves is manifestly coming to fore with the politics of bitterness that has beclouded our state. Most people because of their personal gains do not care if the corporate development of Abia is mortgaged in the altar of oblivion.

Again, people who feast where there is crisis, people whose stock in trade is to scavenge for crumbs in an area ravaged by resentment and animosity will stop at nothing to ensure the love that exists among our people permanently takes a flight. They go about stoking the embers of malice, acrimony, and ill will. They want Ndi Ngwa to hate Ndi Ohuhu. They want to pitch Ndi Ukwa against Ndi Abiriba, all these targeted at filling their pocket to the detriment of our unity, love, and oneness.

They want to feed their principals with carefully concocted lies to further bring about separation among our people. They tell their principals who love or hate them. They tell their principals who want to end their political career and who wishes them good. They tell their principals who is loyal to them or not, all fabricated from the figment of their imaginations in a desperate effort to prove to their masters that they are working hard. How can a state like ours develop under such an atmosphere of abhorrence and loathing?

Again, politically exposed individuals must begin to pay due attention to the caliber of persons they entrust with the running of their activities as aides and special advisers. Some so-called advisers and assistants are brewed from the altar of Lucifer. They have nothing to offer to their principals that will add value to the development of our people. They dominate the media spaces, throwing jibes and spiting perceived political enemies, bringing about lack of love among our people. One would ordinarily imagine that our uniformity in culture, language and many other indices that show we are one would have been an advantage that will form the bastion of our unity and peaceful co-existence. Alas, this is not the case. We have seen states with multiplicity of language, culture, and sometimes religion but their unity and love for one another is iron cast. Why has Abia become a good example of many things negative?

Sycophancy of aides and sometimes wannabes is doing a great deal of disservice to our state. They engage in unhealthy and baseless comparisons between the administration on board and the ones that have gone for over a decade. They want to discredit and undermine efforts others have put in place in serving the state. They deploy the energy they ought to commit to leaving their footprints on the sands of time to fighting imaginary enemies. They want to be noticed even to the detriment of those they have taken an oath to serve.

The recent furor being generated by the visit of Abia Speaker, Rt. Hon. Chinedum Orji to a former governor and the Senate Chief Whip, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu is just one among the many unhealthy debates that put spanner of the wheel of our development. Some never-do-goods and political lackeys who want their voices heard cashed into that to overheat the polity just to smile to the bank. They are in frantic search for a proof of loyalty to their paymasters even if such proofs impede on common sense. These further contribute to why their principals cannot concentrate and perform their official assignments. Like vultures, where there is filth, there is ‘food for the boys’. Where there is no filth, they create one just to build a wall of defence around their stomach infrastructure. They are oblivious of how inimical their activities are to the state and country.

Our dear state is dotted with many indicators of backwardness and underdevelopment. The unemployment level has further been complicated by the outbreak of COVID-19. There are families who cannot conveniently afford decent meals on the account of heavy blow from economic hardship. All these are areas attention should be paid and not engage in contestation to prove they are loyal servants. Ndi Ori Na Crisis must begin to give thoughts on how to meaningfully contribute to the growth of the state.

We must all bear in mind that posterity will judge us by the impact we make when we had/have the opportunity of serving the people and not how many people we attacked and tore apart with hurtful words. For a people that are being held by the jugular by underdevelopment to dissipate time and energy to fight political enemies both real and imaginary only tell the world what their preferences are. Who will engage in chasing rats while the building is on fire?

Ndi Ori Na Crisis should begin to retrace their footsteps and give thoughts on how our state can get better and join the league of states on rapid move. Carelessly thought and unreasonable utterances is not what we need now. We need an Abia where unity, peace, and love reign. We need an Abia where no one is considered superior or more important than the other, an Abia where everyone is an integral part of its developmental agenda and an Abia where palpable suspicion against one another will be permanently banished to abyss.

To be continued….

Ifeanyi Okali writes from Ebem Ohafia