By Peter Agba Kalu
Are you like me, ever straddled with the task of counting a millipedes’ limbs One per a century? Such is my ordeal now as I try to articulate the many daring deeds Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah which is tantamount to counting the volume of water in an ocean. But, I’m not going to give up the task because of It’s high demand. So let me try by describing Ogah as the person that I have worked with that honesty flows in his blood while having generosity as breadth. I must admit that as a human being, he’s not perfect. Therefore, he’s guilty of kindness and a man who want to murder poverty and suffering wherever he finds one. That man who is behind the Master Energy Empire, whose goodwill is blind to tribe. Having known him for a while, I must admit he was from the womb a painted quintessence of goodwill, dressed in elegance by God who saw the future and gifted Abians such a rare gem cum prodigy.
He is an iconoclastic imbibed with sublime and indomitable spirit who was sent by God to liberate his people from corrupt and bad politicians who have held Abia State in bondage for years. All you need is to visit Aba, a city rated by United Nation as among the three direst cities in the world. No road, no infrastructural development yet the agents of government are sent out every day to harass the already truamatised citizens over multiple taxes. Aba that used to be counted as among three of the biggest commercial cities in Nigeria, the heartbeat and pride of the East is now a ghost of itself.
The glory of the city departed because of bad leadership. Yet, in the face of all these, you see same politicians who put Abia in this sorry state moving around with their siren. For long, they have hijacked the political system in Abia State and always boast openly of how they are going to bribe their way through any system in order to hold tight to power. For years, the people were hopeless as tears to God and agony became their closest companion. That’s why the politicians who are afraid of losing out of living big on the people’s suffering are kicking against the emergency of Ogah while Abians who trooped out in the street on the news of his High Court victory are rejoicing. That’s why when they talk about protest in Abia if Ogah wins at Supreme Court, we laugh over it as one of those blackmail that isn’t working.
Is it the common man in the street of Abia that sees Ogah as a messiah, a revolutionary who represents an answered prayer from God as they never stop cursing the family and generations of any one that want to thwart what they see as solution to their many years of suffering that is afraid of Ogah.
Is it the Master Degree and Phd. holders in the various institutions in Abia State owned schools that have not received their salaries for nine months running who have been forced into okada riding to feed their families that are afraid of Ogah?
Is it the teachers that have not received their salaries for nine months and are being forced into the streets to beg and do all sorts of demeaning jobs to survive that are afraid of Ogah to the extent of rushing to the streets to protest?
Is it the Civil Servants in the various 17 local government councils that have not been paid for nine months that are afraid of Ogah?
Is it the traders at the famous Ariaria International Market that has been categorised as the direst in the world that in spite of that, they are being harassed daily for one tax or the order that are afraid of Ogah?
Or is it the citizens or visitors to Aba that have no access roads in and out of the city that are afraid of Ogah to the extent of trooping out to protest?
The only people that are afraid of Ogah are the politicians who have been feeding fat on the peoples suffering. And, perhaps, a small insignificant minority on the social media who has been hired and being paid peanuts to lie with photoshops in the face of reality to the world about what has been going on in Abia.
Even at that, you owe them nothing but pity. Because they are serious evidence and confirmation of the level of poverty in the system that they are ready to go to such extend to lie, while dying inside of the truth and reality. Most of them whose conscience is still alive are equally secretly praying and hoping for Ogah to liberate Abia. Beyond propaganda, all one need to know on who is saying the truth is to pick up your phone or laptop and Google Abia, Aba or Ariaria Market.
These are the reason why Abians see Ogah as revolutionary extra-ordinary who God has sent to prove to them that their prayers have been answered.
The people love Ogah because of his unequal courage which he has exhibited to a state where over the years anyone that dares speak out was bribed, threatened, killed or blackmailed. The people are happy that instead of giving in to the pressure to bribe him and pay twice all his campaign expenditures Ogah rather, out of his love for Abians and desire to rebuild the state marched on. Is it the same Abians that are fully aware about all these sacrifices that are afraid of Ogah to the extent of marching out in protest against him if he wins?
The truth is that Abians See Uche Ogah as the emerging spirit of the new generation of leaders with focused, visionary and innovative leadership for good governance which they have been praying for.
Imagine a state that has not been able to pay salaries of workers rushing to relocate the faculties of law, business and Engineering, to the Umuahia and Aba campuses of the Abia State University, ABSU, simple because they felt that in doing that they are hurting the pride of Ogah because the state university is in his local government. This is nothing short of investing low level thinking into governance.
Abian are happy with the progress being made so far in the court by this dynamic young man who they believe was born the very day God created benevolence.
To Abians Uche Ogah is the revolutionary Michael Bakunim described as “The revolutionary is a lost man. He has no interest of his own. Everything in him absorbed by a single exclusive interest, one thought, one passion, the revolution’’
In Abia, the poor are scavenging with hunger in the mist of billions that coming from federal allocation, Civil Servants are yawning in the faces of political foes whose salaries have long been paid and used to live big as reality bites doom that looms -the stagnant murky water for the poor who are exposed to crime as they are ravaged by hunger, straddled by penury with basic needs enthroned far beyond their reach. That’s why Abians are deeply worried about their boast to buy justice by all means, impose injustice, enthrone corruption with exploitation kiss to these men of honour!
You see why Abians hopefully look up to this young man who has been a successful business man whose discipline and commitment to service exudes emulation. The sprinkles of his humble fragrance, his creative business sensitivity are fully registered across the nation to come and lead.
