THERE comes a time in the history of a people when no matter how much God shows His blessing of benevolence on  them, there must be a cog on the wheels of progress.

Call it a plague if you like. Sometimes it comes in the form of human beings wreaking havoc, and some other times, it could be in the form of a natural disaster. Which ever way, the truth is that such situations intend to spoil the broth.

In Abia State today, despite the evident change in the tide of development visible in almost all facets, there is, and always will be, a sore spot which is the natural habitation of those who can aptly be described as unrepentant detractors. Sadly, enough, this ugly trend has built a cocoon in the mould of one Chidi Amuta.

For quite some time and for equally inexplicable reasons, Amuta, a one-time university teacher and one of the co-ordinators of General Ibrahim Babangida’s Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure, before his engagement as a columnist with ThisDay Newspapers, has taken delight in attempting to rubbish all the efforts of his home government towards the provision of basic necessities of life. He has never missed any opportunity to vent his frustration on the government of Theodore Orji.

The latest was his comment of Monday May 28, 20102 on page 44 of BusinessDay Newspapers. Responding to questions during an interview, Amuta could not resist the devil in pouring invectives at the administration of Chief T.A. Orji, even when it was obvious he had nothing to say.

In his summation in the interview, he said that as far as he was concerned, nothing was going on in terms of democracy dividend in Abia State. According to him, there is a difference between newspaper campaign and actual dividends of democracy. And after concluding that a lot of things going on in the state constitute self-deceit, Amuta also declared that the state is poor, hence he could not expect miracles from the Governor.

Nigerians and Abia indigenes in particular have not forgotten how the same Amuta of Ngwa extraction sometime abused the privileged column he has at ThisDay by raising a false alarm about his perceived state of insecurity in Abia. Then, Amuta, who was practically living on exile had claimed that he always hired a lorry-load of soldiers to enable him visit home. We will come back to that.

I am not known for speaking with sentiments when high-profile issues are involved, and I will not learn this left-handed practice. Any one who wants to be objective with comments on the issue of democracy dividends to the people of Abia State under T. A. Orji’s second term tenure will decipher a very faulty faculty on the part of an acclaimed scholar like Amuta who says that what is going on in Abia is self-deceit.

Abia was created in August 1991 during Gen. Babangida’s military regime. That was also when  Amuta was appointed into a very sensitive agency that was charged with the task of putting in place conducive local infrastructure to improve food production, as well as open up the rural communities via the construction of rural roads to aid the movement of produce from the rural to the urban areas. What is Amuta’s scorecard like? What is the justification of his standing the truth on the head at this time his negative alliance has placed him in pitiable solitude?

Posterity will judge how Amuta, a latter-day saint, discharged this function. Posterity will look at the role of the likes of Amuta at the creation of Abia which was without a befitting workers secretariat for 22 years before the present administration chose to etch its name in gold by putting up a state-of- the-art secretariat. If what Orji has done for the people of Mbom, Isiadu and Ameke who had never seen a tarred road in their communities is self-deceit, then to God be the Glory.

If the over 5000 youth-beneficiaries of the empowerment scheme of the T.A. Orji government are victims of self-deceit, then the entire nation needs more of such deceits. If achieving a near-stable electricity supply by building feeders to evacuate energy which has seen the state among the areas with regular power supply is self-deceit, then our daily prayer is that God should give us more leaders like Ochendo.

Where a governor will have the political will to put resources and commit time to achieve prevailing state of security in Abia and it is styled self-deceit, then that governor deserves an Oscar, for he will remain evergreen in the hearts of his people. And talking about why Amuta cannot come home without armed men,  the summary response is, those who sow the wind, definitely reap the whirlwind.

Now that the coast is clear and there are no kidnappers to celebrate in his domain, why has Amuta remained in exile like his fellow passers-by indigenes who chose to bury their parents at Ikoyi and Yaba cemeteries and still claim to be Abia indigenes? Can he dare go to Acha and all neighbouring communities around Nunya in Isuikwuato Local Government and make such unguarded and unsubstantiated claims?

Just recently, the management of MTN, during a visit to the State Governor commended him for his giant strides in providing healthcare to the rural communities through the equipped health centres scattered all over the state. In appreciation, the telecommunication giants announced that it was going to complement the efforts of the State Government by  building 18 modern health centres in the three senatorial zones of the state.

Not done, the delegation also made a donation of a mobile ambulance to the state for its lead-in health care delivery. That is self-deceit and newspaper propaganda within the ambit of Chidi Amuta’s intellectual grasp.

It is a pity and big shame that a man who has been provided with an undeserved leverage, courtesy of being a guest columnist in ThisDay, cannot be trusted to make objective observations on developments in his state of origin.

still not find his feet in the Public Relations business arena. What is the impact of his self-acclaimed Public Relations Outfit- Wilson Weizmann Associate Ltd on his immediate kinsmen not to talk of community? Who has heard that name before in the Public Relations field? It is preposterous that Chidi Amuta at this auspicious time in the history of Abia will have the temerity to walk against the tide for reasons best known to him.

At a time the entire state and beyond continue to doff their hats for the governor who has raised the state from its bended knees, Amuta chose to be a loafer. What a Pity. Whether he likes it or not, whether he will admit it or not, what he has done is simply a gaffe from a frustrated prodigal, which has only contributed to further diminish his person.

Mr.  KINGSLEY EMEREUWA, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Umuahia, Abia State