By GODWIN OKORIE

The sudden death of the former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abia State, Professor Uche Ikonne, a few weeks to the general elections, has obviously created more worries for a party that was already in tatters, like an old, worn out and dismembered umbrella.

The party’s crisis started when its leadership resolved to zone its governorship slot to Abia Central and Abia North against the popular demand for power shift to Abia North, since the incumbent Governor Okezie Ikpeazu from Abia South took over from Abia Central after Senator Theodore Orji’s eight years as governor. Unfortunately, those who canvassed the idea received the governor’s backing in sympathy for his Ngwa kith and kin domiciled in Abia Central. The decision was also in line with the resolution of the Ukwa-la-Ngwa elders that power could only rotate between Old Bende and Old Aba Division and not on the basis of senatorial districts.

They further resolved to equalise the 16 years that Old Bende had been in power, beginning with Senator Orji Kalu, from 1999 to 2007, and Senator Theodore Orji, from 2007 to 2015. But as the popular saying goes, man proposes but God disposes. No doubt, that singular resolve by the party denied Abia North what was considered their due and also created a huge crack in the party. It also set party members from Abia North at daggers- drawn with their counterparts from Abia Central, as each side dangerously plotted to outsmart the other by hook or crook.

The crack got wider with the defection of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Prof. Gregory Ibe and Nana Nwafor. While Enyinnaya Abaribe and Prof. Ibe anchored at the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA,  Nwafor settled with the Young Peoples Party. Beyond the foregoing, another founding member of the party and governorship aspirant, Dr Samson Orji, popularly called SCUORJI, dragged the party to court to challenge the outcome of the party’s controversial governorship primary that produced Ikonne.

Sadly, the post-primary election developments in the ruling party threw it in disarray with the aggrieved members working at cross purpose with the Chief Alwell Asiforo-led State Working Committee. This was the self-inflicted dilemma the party plunged itself into and was still grappling with the repercussion when the worst happened with Ikonne’s unexpected demise. In the build up to the election of Ikonne’s successor, the micro-zoning of the governorship ticket to Isiala-Ngwa North sparked off more skirmishes within the party. To demonstrate their dissension to the caucus decision on micro-zoning, three aspirants from Abia North, namely: Ude Oko-Chukwu, Sampson Orji and Emma Nwaka as well as Chief Lucky Igbokwe, popularly called Don Lulu, from Abia Central, returned to the trenches for the ticket. At the end of the exercise at the Umuahia Township Stadium, Ikpeazu’s former Chief of Staff, Chief Okey Ahiwe, emerged to become PDP’s most unprepared, emergency governorship candidate ever in Abia.

And if the choice of Ahiwe over and above those who had demonstrated the preparedness and capacity to take up the huge task of governance brought PDP to ridicule, the decision to dispense with the late Ikonne’s running mate, Chief Okey Igwe, appears to have triggered off more trouble than the party can easily handle going into the governorship poll. Also, the choice of a University of Nigeria, Nsukka lecturer, Dr Jasper Uche, another unprepared candidate, over Okey Igwe, who had criss-crossed the entire state canvassing for votes for the party, while Ikonne was in his sick bed, certainly portrayed PDP as an insensitive and callous political entity.

Nevertheless, Abia indigenes who believe in the power of prayers for divine intervention in the affairs of the state have reasoned that the unusual happenings in PDP were orchastrated by Act of Providence. And as good Christians would always say, the spiritual controls the physical. That being the case, it means that there is a divine manipulation of the entire episodes in PDP to pave the way for the eventual emancipation of Abia, God’s own state, and its people from the stranglehold of its oppressors. It is unfortunate to say at this juncture, that one political party that has monopolised power in the state since 1999 became corrupted with absolute power and transformed itself into a political vampire, sucking and living on the blood of Abia and its innocent citizens for the past 24 years.

Regrettably, during the same period, Abia’s socio-economic development had remained on a downward trajectory, even with its enormous human and material endowment that could spur sustainable growth in all spheres. This is why, today, the state remains a laughing stock in the comity of states of the federation, having been overtaken by its contemporaries and much younger sister-state, Ebonyi, which was carved out from Abia on October 1, 1996. It is for this reason that the upcoming governorship election should be seen as a golden opportunity for the Abia electorate to make a statement that enough is enough with the continued imposition of emergency governors one after another. 

Recall that Ikpeazu emerged out of the blue as the PDP’s flagbearer in 2014, after the powers-that-be had dispensed with more focused and prepared governorship aspirants, Dr Sampson Uche Ogah and Chief FN Nwosu, who had both spent fortunes in search of the elusive ticket. Indeed, Abia and its citizenry, who have been scammed by successive governments, cannot afford another gamble with a governor whose past remains shady and questionable and whose source of wealth cannot be verified. It is high time we thoroughly scrutinised the present and past records of all those who have jumped into the fray from different political platforms, yet sprouting from one root with a common agenda to continue to loot and plunder our common patrimony as their predecessor-godfathers did.

With few weeks to go to the poll to choose our next governor, it is imperative that we pause and examine the record of the frontline gladiators across the contending political parties, in terms of their character, capacity, competence, consistency, integrity, work history and general social background. On that score, the Labour Party governorship candidate, Dr Alex Otti, shines like a bright morning star and stands head and shoulders above the rest. It was in appreciation of his outstanding qualities, underlined by a private and public life without blemish, that the Abia electorate overwhelmingly handed victory to him in 2015, but the then Pharoah of Abia conspired with his other principalities and forces of evil and refused to let God’s own people go.

The 2023 governorship poll offers another opportunity to reenact the 2015 feat. With the signing of the Electoral Act and innovations introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, it is obvious that the traditional practice of manufacturing non-existent votes through the flagrant abuse of the incident forms no longer has any place in the current electoral process. This is why every eligible voter should rise and seize the opportunity to vote and vote wisely for the most qualified and trusted candidate, believing that God has clipped the wings of election riggers in the state.

It is imperative, therefore, to appeal to well-meaning Abia men, women and youths to troop out en mass to vote for the future of their children and the state on March 11. Indeed, any vote cast for Alex Otti guarantees a transparent, accountable, visionary, focused, development and people-oriented leadership for the next four or more years.