Is Orji Hallucinating?

Former Abia State Governor and Senator representing Abia Central, recently slumped into the abyss, when he tried, although resentfully, to rewrite history. He said his predecessor did not make him governor. Really? It is good to disagree in politics.

Indeed, politics is about conflicts and resolution. But the kind of disagreement that stands truth on its head is both dishonourable and not dignifying.

What happened? A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Chief Uche Akwukwuegbu, otherwise known as Bawas, had hosted a political gathering, where Kalu was surprisingly the star guest. Bawas seized the occasion to apologise to the former governor for how their people treated him having made their son, Orji a governor.

Kalu, on his part, said he had since forgiven his successor and had moved on but promised never to have anything to do with him again.

Of course, Orji felt the urge to respond and in a statement by his media adviser, Mr. Don Norman Obinna, said pointedly that Kalu was not the person who made him governor but God.
Except for a few instances where the Bible recorded that God personally showed up albeit in different forms, to people or spoke to them, He had never physically come down to execute anything on earth. It had always been through people. So, in identifying with his story, yes, God made him Governor but who did God use?

Except otherwise hallucinating, Orji just exhibited sheer dishonesty and the spirit of ingratitude. Such a spirit is not of good leadership and perhaps, Orji has never come across as one. He should learn to be grateful and no matter how hard he tries to stand truth on its head, Kalu made him governor, against all odds and in a most difficult and unpredictable circumstance. He’d better get off that high chair and be true to type.

A Defective Campaign against Ize-Iyamu
Edo State’s most talked about governorship election is today and all things being equal, a winner will emerge latest tomorrow evening or by Friday morning after all the counting and collation must have been concluded. Suffice it to admit that it is one election, whose campaigns come across as one of the dirtiest in recent time, in the bid to outdo one another.

But one thing has been mischievously untoward in the rhetoric so far. The attempt to tie the PDP candidate, Mr. Osagie Ise-Iyamu to the party’s inglorious past is too cheap and evidently defeatist. It is true that Ize-Iyamu was at different times, Chief of Staff and Secretary to the State Government, where he discharged the responsibilities of those offices as demanded of him. But how was he directly responsible for the misdemeanor of the executive?

The same Ize-Iyamu was good enough to co-facilitate Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s emergence as governor and even led his re-election campaign. Then, no one remembered he worked with former Governor Lucky Igbinedion. But now that he wants to be his own governor, everyone in the ruling party realises he was of the PDP stock and directly connected to the Igbinedions. It is nothing but defeatist. It shows he is the man to beat and that the election is probably his to lose.

When Igbinedion was governor, one of the closest persons to him was Oshiomhole and not just that, he was said to have benefitted immensely from that friendship. But that didn’t matter when he wanted to be governor and no one remembered this for a fact.

Besides, if in spite of working with Igbinedion, Ize-Iyamu still found Oshiomhole worthy to govern the state and on a different platform, it means he is a man, who has the capacity to distinguish between good and evil and between right and wrong. The floor is open and the prayer is that the best candidate emerges. After all, the two leading candidates are both sound. But the slant of campaign should not have been reduced to personal engagement as did the APC camp.

Related Articles