THIS piece is a genuine and well-intended effort at acknowledging the truth of the political position in Abia State, since Governor T.A. Orji wisely and intelligently cashed in on the applauded wisdom of embracing the centripetal government.

Before accommodating other issues of critical importance, it will be appropriate to emphatically posit that Abia under former Governor Orji Kalu had no reason playing the irrelevant war of attrition which the state waged against the Federal Government-led forces of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as some may have erroneously glorified. If any thing, it was for him a means of ego-tripping.

This line of thought exhaustively and succinctly captures the position of Ben Onyechere, Special Adviser to Abia State Governor in “Igbo’s cannot fare well in opposition having been abandoned many decades after the civil war”.

We cannot agree less with this submission given that you can only oppose from a position of strength. A test case of the glorious and celebrated administration of Chief Sam Mbakwe of blessed memory will equally suffice.

Those who dubbed him the weeping Governor cannot wish away the concrete evidence of his monumental legacies still standing the test of time. The fact that what he did is still very green in the minds of the people drives home the point that he did not weep in vain. I am of the contention therefore that former Governor Orji Kalu would have chosen to be insulted if need be, so long as Abians will be better off for it.

But on the contrary, we suffered the confiscation of our oil farms and the accruing royalties, before the sagacious dexterity of Governor T. A. Orji saved the situation, just like it played out in the abandonment of the approved dry dock in Isialangwa North.

In the light of these, the honest and honourable thing as I attempt to re-visit the subject of this endeavour is to acknowledge the political reality in the state, which is that the swell in the teeming support accruable to Governor T. A. Orji has been unprecedented.

Genuine proponents of truth and sticklers for democratic ethos, whose intelligent opinion weighs greatly and influentially, like the highly respected Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, Professor Anya O. Anya and numerous others are fearlessly identifying with the new political environment in Abia State. Each time I see these great sons and daughters of Abia, I try to imagine how much they may have endeavoured to give back to their State in the past, but were greeted with cold shoulders.

Abia State has evidently groped in the dark and in one of my historical analysis commemorating the anniversary of the state, I did acknowledge the leap growth former Governor Orji Kalu injected into the state, which saved the State what would have resulted in a stunted growth, before he lost vision and derailed.
His derailment became the misnomer which created a vicious and deadly fraternity of political rogues who advantageously hijacked and sucked the young and helpless state.

Left with the option of divine intervention, the people prophetically wailed and groaned, resulting in the breath of fresh air being celebrated today. It became the much needed stimulant, necessary for the Governor to carry on without the irritating distractions of the past

Our rapprochement with the centre became the joker which saw to the routing of security menace in the state, enabling contractors to mobilize back to site, and the result of which is that we are celebrating the rehabilitation and construction of several roads in Aba and other parts of the state.

Scarcely had the Governor finished advocating the strategic importance of hosting the first economic summit in Abia State, than our retinue of great and very important personalities in varied fields of endeavour emptied into Michael Okpara Auditorium to chart a new economic agenda for the state.

Politicians bonded by one family tie or the other but who avoided each other like leprosy patients due to unnecessary bickering and party inclinations, are today sitting and chatting in brotherly love and affection. A friend once argued that we must not be at the centre to achieve development mile stones.

My response is on the affirmative but the case of Abia is in this wise cogently and rationally peculiar in the sense that it was a confrontational opposition leaving us with the inability to boast of any federal project while it lasted.

Those who are in doubt are at liberty to enquire if Governor Fashola of Lagos State and Peter Obi of Anambra have ever challenged Government of the centre to a fight. After all, it was even as an opposition Governor that T.A. Orji deployed tact and diplomacy to secure the release of Abia oil farms erroneously ceded to neighboring Rivers State. Again, our civil war experience and relative young age demands that we go the whole hug in attracting all the allowed Federal presence necessary for strong identification.

Mr. IYKE OGBONNAYA, a public affairs  analyst, writes from Umuahia, Abia State.