It was Franklin Benjamin who once said that those who are always disputing, contradicting and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs.

They get victory, sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them. And this takes me to Obi Nwakanma’s postulations in his article in the Sunday Vanguard of July 29, 2012 titled “Aba or the face of degeneracy”.

In the article, he complained about the deplorable state of Aba as was posted on internet which he described as embarrassing. But the question is, when was such pictures taken and posted on the internet and when last did Nwakanma visit Aba to be sure that the pictures that were posted were truly that of the present Aba or Aba before now?

With current strides in information technology that had brought about social media where all sort of things are possibly placed or posted on the internet, people have learnt how not to accept all that they see or read on the internet as true, especially when the sources are not genuine and credible.

But to Nwakanma, the pictures on Aba as was posted on the internet were real and true and from there judgement was quickly passed on the present government in the state.

Though it was acknowledged in the article that successive governments in the state since Independence, especially the during the years of military oligarchy, did not help matters in the development of Aba.

So, it is obvious to all and sundry that the development challenges in Aba is not a thing of today or yesterday, but a protracted problem that has been there and has continued to occur since the discovery and beginning of the commercial city. It is just like the accumulated leadership challenges facing Nigeria today, with root in  leadership failure since independence.

So, in the same way that is it is uncharitable and unfair for anyone to attribute Nigeria’s problems to President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, so it is unjust for Nwakanma to blame Governor Theodore Orji for the challenges in the Aba, even when it is obvious that his administration has tackled and still tackling the various challenges in the city more than the previous governments in the state since its creation.

Every Nigerian knows that no government in the history of the state has ever faced the kind of challenges the present administration is confronted with in Aba since 2007.

Before now, we had always known that the major challenge in Aba was more of environmental, but between 2009 and 2011, the menace of orchestrated kidnapping crept into the city.  A plot was hatched by some political enemies of government to destabilise the state and label Governor Orji a failure. Residents of the city fled, businesses were crippled and indigenes lived in perpetual fear, while armchair critics had a field day berating government for its alleged failure to protect its citizenry.

But with the state government’s decisive and pragmatic approach in tackling the ugly trend which gulped billions of Naira that would have been used for development purposes, the menace has become a thing of the past, with normalcy and peace being restored in the city and commercial activities booming once again.

Nwakanma in his article said: “But to be fair, T.A. Orji alone cannot be asked to take responsibility for the state of Aba. True, he has shown a terrible lack of imagination and leadership in transforming Aba, which once stood on the same pedestal as Lagos because what was built in Lagos was built in Aba”. If truly Nwakanma meant to be fair, superior and objective in his criticism, why should he turn back to ask Governor Orji to stop being defensive about his lack of abilities to tackle the challenges in Aba? It is an irony shrouded in clear hypocrisy and malice, devoid of fair comment as expected in critical writing.

How will any person with a good knowledge of Aba place the city on the same pedestal with Lagos? The question is, on what basis or parameter did Nwakanma arrived at such conclusion? Is it in terms of size, development, economic viability, location or Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, colonial history or what? It is a known fact that the two or three most populated council areas in Lagos are bigger than the entire population of Abia State.

It is known that the monthly IGR of Lagos is almost the annual monthly allocation of Abia State from the Federation Account. What were the things that were built in Lagos that were also built in Aba as Nwakanma claimed? Why didn’t he mention them to substantiate his claim?

There is need for Nwakanma to visit Aba now and see things for himself and compare them with what were on ground before now to enable him make an unbiased judgement and not to rely on pictures posted on internet to arrive at conclusion.

Since assuming office in 2007 as governor of the state, Chief  Orji has never claimed as having the magic wand to solve the multi-faceted problems or challenges in Aba in one day. And at the same time, he has not failed to confront them frontally with the little resources available to him despite other challenges his administration is facing in the state.

Mr. Erasmus Akanwanne, a medical practitioner, wrote from Faulks Road Aba, Abia State.