Propaganda Unlimited (2)
Despite the creation of the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA), headed by Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, the governorship stooge of Orji who has taken over from his benefactor, Abia State is today, unequivocally, the dirtiest state in the country. It is so bad that the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) coaches cannot move due to refuse blockages of tracks. The issue became so bad that Engr. Sijuwade of the NRC had to cry out for intervention from higher authorities. Yet, the compensation for this inefficiency is the reward of governorship ticket to Okezie by Orji in perpetuation of his fiefdom and perpetration of mediocrity.
From the foregoing and other issues coming up it is easy to understand why Orji is always pelted with sachet water anytime he visits Aba. This explains why during the last prsidential campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the South East, Orji did not want the President to go to Aba but for the insistence of the like of Mr. Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State who ensured that the ex-First Citizen stepped into Aba. If there were still time for Orji to constrainedly visit Aba, he would be stoned—no more kid-glove treatment with sachets of packaged water.
One of the agencies that deceived Orji is the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia (BCA). This is probably one of the worst, if not the worst, public information outfit in the country. All that the BCA does from morning to night is to sing the praises of the former governor and his wife. If any of them is constipated from gastronomical indulgence, the station announces it like a paid advertisement for as many times as the unprofessionals in the organsiation get to the point of imbecilic satiation with such idiocies. There can be no other newsy development other than Orji and his spouse, 24/7. I have never seen this kind of journalistic tragedy in my life. I am sure they will move over to the new governor and the life of stupidity goes on to the detriment of their tax-paying audiences. The same asininity plays out in the stateowned newspaper, The Ambassador. In the same breath, most of his commissioners, SAs and the entire media team were simply incompetent, ignorant and selfish officials who dug their employer’s grave ahead of handover!
My take in the T. A. Orji disastrous years (2007-2015) is that there was a visible lack of accountability, transparency and equity in the awful administration of the state. Orji carried on as if it was a family business and rode roughshod above anyone resident in the state. And those outside the state like me were either abducted (I shall return to this presently) or cowed to silence, if not wasted!
In 2012, there was a budget of N12.06 billion and the next year N134.14 billion. Still, as you read this there is nothing to behold in the entire state—forget the photoshop pictures and documentaries splashed across multimedia platforms in ochestration of propagandistic governance. I have deliberately left out the 2014 budget as I learned that most of it was deployed in the emergence and potential enthronement of Orji’s puppet. Okezie, at all costs by fire, by power, by pound sterling, by dollar, by naira, by any means, as the next governor of Abia State. I just hope the tribunal aborts this malarial dream! Otherwise, my state is doomed forever!
The establishment of the Abia State Oil Producing Areas Commission by an act of parliament to ameliorate the privations of communities in the state that produce oil has turned out to be another drainpipe as such communities remain neglected while the funds for their rehabilitation are siphoned in cahoot with the regime of misappropriation, graft and thievishness. Unfortunately, the House of Assembly that should have checked some of these excesses has become a collusive partner in the wilful and bestial progress of the Executive. I have always insisted that what we have in Nigeria are rubber-stamp legislatures at all levels who cannot interrogate another arm of government because the so-called legislators have been mortally compromised.
I can never forget the observation of Prince Arthur Eze not too long ago that Abia State was in a state of rot and needed a messianic intervention from the Presidency or any other liberator who can halt the drift. The Jonathan presidency that Prince Eze looked up to in the redemp-