“One of the greatest tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying”Martin Luther King Jr. , Strength to Love

By Ekekwe Egu

*Gov Theodore Orji

I am a great admirer of Reverend Martin Luther King, the late leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement  who is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights  using nonviolent civil disobedience.
King, it was in his masterpiece, STRENGTH TO LOVE, and via the above quoted statement pointed out the many paradox of our modern day professed Christians and leaders.

Reverend King’s statement is still apt in our modern day nation state, where vindictiveness is elevated to statecraft, by those privileged to sit in deciding authority over the Nigeria masses.

In modern America, a young black African American, who was barely seven years when the Late Reverend King died, debuted and seized the American political space by storm. Barack Obama, the 44th and current President of the United States of America, who like Rev. King is of African descent, in clear submission to King’s assertion, displayed uncommon reconciliatory efforts, when he appointed Hilary Clinton, the former American First Lady as American Secretary of State.

Hilary, the wife of Williams Clinton (Bill), ran against Obama in a very bitter campaign for the Democratic Party presidential ticket in 2008.

In Abia State, the present Governor towed the path of reconciliation after over a cumulative eleven years (1999-2010) of battle with opposition elements in the State.

It is on record that the Governor and his opponents (including the author who was at the vanguard of the opposition, before he quit when it became obvious that they had lost focus/direction), fought bitter wars and battles of acrimony, starting from the days of the governor’s predecessor in Office.

The cumulative effect of the battle led to the incarceration of the then Chief of Staff by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), between February and May 2007. It was while in incarceration that he contested and later won the election as Governor of Abia in 2007.

Even after being sworn in, he was between 2007 and early 2010, subjected to tortuous and rigorous litigations at the tribunal, and exhausted all levels of litigations and even beyond, back to back. By July 2010, after the Court of Appeal, Owerri, had re- confirmed him as the Governor for the second time, that the opponents gave up and reluctantly too. By then, both sides had become war weary and thoroughly depleted in human, material and time resources.

The vintage Nigerian politician will take the WINNER TAKES ALL stance, and run away with the spoils of war for themselves and their lackeys only. But not Governor Orji.

Total
reconciliation

He not only sought for a truce, but went further to reach out for total reconciliation with the Leadership of the oppositions in an act of exceptional magnanimity even to the chagrin of his lieutenants, and to the shock of both the leadership and the hawks that cunning sneaked in, invaded and derailed the opposition group from its original noble cause(s).

And of course Governor Orji acted, not by returning hate for hate, but by loving, accommodating and rehabilitating his enemies. Today, and at every cabinet reshuffle, since 2010, the hitherto opposition members and/or their nominees are being given at least 50% slot in the cabinet and other positions of power and authority in Abia State Government.

In spite of most of them (majority of whom still harbor unmitigated hate towards the original members and proponents of the hitherto focused and selfless Abia opposition group), they are on daily basis being allotted several juicy Cabinet and Board positions both in Abia and at the Federal levels, by a Governor who surprisingly decided to go in opposite direction with the above apt representation of Dr Martin Luther King. In so doing, he drew strength and raised the bar to operate devoid of rancor free administration, devoid of hate.

The paradox however of this great and commendable move is that the beneficiaries of his largesse and accommodation are daily finding it increasingly difficult to tolerate accommodate and ‘forgive’ those of their former colleagues in the trenches, who bluntly refused to and rightly so, join them in their various disingenuous divisiveness of extending the war of attrition against the person, personality and Government of Theodore Orji to unacceptable limits, prior to this reconciliation.

They shrink and are united even in their disunited state, at the thought of ever accommodating such people anywhere and anyhow in the scheme of things in the Government and Party in the State and at the Federal Level, whilst employing several devious unused and unusable to blackmail, blacklist and exclude those erstwhile colleagues or even benefactors of theirs in the hey days of the jungle.

They block all space that could have been effectively utilized to accommodate young, vibrant, best and brightest brains, who long to contribute their quota to the socio-political and economic development of the State.

When they are not appropriating to themselves key positions in Government, they are recommending one of their own, even if obviously unqualified for such position(s).

The tragedy of the whole thing is that these set of people have been in the public service,  for well over four decades and have nothing new to offer, except for their rabid hatred of the best brains, powered by their self-centeredness and their deft ability to flaunt phony titles, questionable qualifications and made up pedigrees.