CHIEF Theodore Ahamuefule Orji assumed office as governor of Abia State in May 2007, just 17 years after the creation of the state from old Imo State, a period military administrators were in-charge of governance for eight-years, while their civilian counterpart held sway for nine years.

Within this period also, the state received monthly federation allocations and generated Internally Generated Revenues, IGRs, that ran into billions of naira, but unfortunately there were little or nothing to show for it terms of infrastructural, economic and social development.

Those who presided over the affairs of the state for the 17 years of the locust and their allies were never brought to book till date. Maybe it was because of the docility of the people or the compromise syndrome that characterised the era at the expense of the good citizens.

During this era, the state hemorrhaged and decayed in all ramifications, while the looters smiled to the banks, and even ploughed the loots into the state politics in 1999 to hijack the democratic process. They took charge and decided who got what. By the time they were leaving in 2007, there was no concrete or solid foundation, as the state was laid comatose.

That was the sorry state of affairs in Abia State in 2007 which one Mr. Uche Igwe in his article in the Punch Newspaper of May 21 titled “The Struggle to succeed failure in Abia State” refused to acknowledge.

What is evident is the ulterior motive behind the write-up, which is running down the Abia State governor, his government, family and the First Lady of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mrs Dame Patience Jonathan ahead of 2015 general elections. It is often said that a man who was not around when a corpse is buried would definitely exhume it from the head. I do not know when last Mr. Uche Igwe came to Abia State before engaging in his fictious article.

For instance, he claimed that it took him three hours to move from Port Harcourt to Aba. Many Nigerians must be familiar with the Enugu/ Aba/ Port-Harcourt Expressway, a major federal road that has suffered severe neglect by successive governments in the country, but has been receiving adequate attention since President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office. Several portions of the road have been removed completely and asphalted afresh, thereby making it accessible.

The Aba axis of the road such as Osisioma junction which was an eye sore for several years before now is wearing a new look today with a well-flowered garden and streetlights courtesy of the present government in the state.

The same effort has been extended to major intercity roads and federal roads in the commercial city of Aba and environs, a city that was once made a pariah city by rampaging kidnappers for months.

The present government expended billions of state resources in tackling the kidnapping menace which brought about the restoration of peace and security in the state. If such funds were channelled into developmental projects, it would have gone far, but there will be no development in an unsecured environment.

For Igwe to pontificate in his article that nothing is happening in Abia State in terms of infrastructural, economic and social-cultural development is the height of hypocrisy and cynicism as there are so many verifiable ongoing and completed legacy projects across the state today.

Examples include the Ubani Ibeku Modern market, Amuba Housing Estate, Isieke Housing Estate, Abia Diagnostic Hospital, Abia Eye Centre, Amachara General Hospital, Ohiya Power supply, International Conference, New Government House, 250 health centres in rural areas, 350 kilometres roads constructed and rehabilitated, radical reformation of the state civil service, intervention in the education sector with the building and rebuilding of state-owned public schools and tertiary institutions and other achievements.

These legacy projects were non-existent in the state before 2007. So the question should be, what happened to the state funds for 17 years before the present government came into office in 2007. It is in the public domain that some individuals who are still walking freely today had during their time in office impoverished the state.

The reality is that despite being initially hamstrung by undue godfather interference during his first three years plus in office, the Orji government has continued to turn the state around with massive infrastructural development to the admiration and acknowledgement of the people, and the disappointment and envy of the cabal who had always wanted status quo to remain.

The likes of Igwe and other armchair critics of the present state government have failed to realise that the government has since 2007 been using state fund to address the ineptitude and failure of successive governments in the state.

Igwe’s allegation in the article that Governor Orji’s son is one of the major contractors in the state is part of the ‘Pull-Him-Down’ syndrome orchestrated by known enemies of the state.

It could be recalled that a rumour was once peddled in the newspaper owned by the former governor of the state that Governor Orji nominated one of his sons to be appointed Minister. Till date no such thing happened. It is quite unfortunate that in these days when Freedom of Information, FoI, Act has been signed into law, people still peddle fiction on the pages of newspapers.

Clearly and expectedly, all these sponsored allegations against Governor Orji and his family is not unconnected with the 2015 elections and who succeeds him in office. To douse unnecessary tension and political acrimony among the party stakeholders in the state, Governor Orji who also doubles as the state leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, after due consultation announced that his party will be zoning the governorship seat in 2015 to Abia South senatorial zone. A good student of the state political history since 1999 will agree that the PDP’s decision in that direction is equitable and justifiable, considering that Abia South is the only zone that has not produced governor of the state since 1999.

Orji and his party’s position on the governorship seat in 2015 is not far from what was obtainable in the last Anambra governorship election, and the position of Enugu State governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime and the state PDP ahead of 2015 guber election in the state.

This is fast becoming a political trend in our polity, especially in the states that are not dominated by one particular major ethnic group like Benue State that are predominantly Tiv people against the minority Idoma. Besides, what is even the nexus between the choice of candidates by the political party and performance of an incumbent governor as raised by Igwe in his article?

Even if there is, Gov. Orji’s likely successor will have no problem because Gov. Orji has performed and can boldly beat his chest and point at several projects done by his government in the state since 2007.

Again the State PDP and Gov. Orji have not endorsed or anointed anybody as Orji’s likely successor, having known that such will amount to distraction and illegality at this point.

Meanwhile the senator representing Abia Central zone, Mrs. Nkechi Nworgu has not said anywhere that she has been anointed by the wife of the President, Dame Patience Jonathan to succeed Gov. Orji in office come 2015. Governor Orji has not publicly or privately declared that he will be running for the senatorial seat in 2015, talk less of swopping seat with Senator Nworgu. Is it not clear to Igwe and his cohorts that if Gov. Orji swops seats with Nworgu as alleged, such will defeat the earlier position of Gov. Orji and his party that power should move to Abia South in 2015.

On the issue of non-conduct of council area election by the state government, such exercise requires huge fund. Besides, the state government is still offsetting the huge debts the last council chairmen the government inherited from the immediate past government in the state incurred, having been accountable to Mother Excellency while in office.

For the hired and armchair critics of the present government in the state, the parameter for measuring performance in public office like that of a state governor in Abia requires assessing the performance of successive governments in the state before 2007, where were on ground in the area of infrastructural developments, the challenges and the human indices and then compare them with what are on ground now.

GODDY CHUKWU, a cleric wrote Bende, Abia State