OPINION

Orji in the festival of praise singers

 By Odimegwu Onwumere

Listening to attention seekers does not worth it, because they are just desperate. They are distracted people seeking for substantiation. They are the example of a skinny woman telling her neighbour to notice how full-of-fat she has become. It is annoying when people do things basically for attention; and this is what the government of Governor T.A Orji of Abia State has become – attention seeker.

Every week, Governor Orji’s window-dresser media aides furnish the unsuspecting public of how one or two groups lauded the relatively under-the-weather governor. The other time, they sold tomfoolery to the public of how members of the opposition political parties in the state gave the governor a vote of confidence. Today, it is “Abia clerics laud Gov Orji’s leadership.” It is all about attention and attention with the governor who knows too well that he has botched the democratic arousal of the good people of Abia State. The garrulous media aides have told us of how the somewhat rented church leaders in Abia State commended Orji. And one is poised to ask why they are distracting Nigerians with such information. Do clerics commending someone make the person a good man? They are just doing all these for attention; and very sad to them, they are not getting the attention.

Anybody with an open mind knows the true state of Abia State. Instead of the Governor Orji would do everything humanly possible in order to help the humanity and the environment in the state, he resorted to going about hiring praise singers who, even after praising him for the paltry they would get from, know that the governor is not performing, at all. But the hired, hirelings and the paymaster forgot that they are not helping to groom those who have taken them as role models better.

How could anybody praise a governor whose only speech is bent on raising hope of what he would do and what not, but there is no action? You hear such comment from Governor Orji: “My administration would ensure that good healthcare, quality education and adequate food security are provided for the Abia children.” Does Governor Orji know that this is six years of his administration and he is still ‘ensuring’? What we need to see are on-the-ground works in our Abia State and not, those he works only on the pages of the newspapers with the statement of “I will ensure.”

Was Governor Orji the one talking at the Children’s Day Celebration (when he was addressing children at the Umuahia Township Stadium) that he would provide potential environmental for every child to accomplish his/her God given talent in Abia State, not the same governor who has been giving youths tricycles (Keke) to drive and he calls it empowerment? This is what we have been talking about! Was there any favourably environment in place in Abia State and the empowerment that a whole governor of a state could render to the people was to invariably make them agberos? Some of these potential agberos are well-schooled people with better results.

In the same vein, how could Governor Orji be urging Nigerians “to build the culture of peace, love and enduring security” when he has not shown in any forms that he is a man of peace? Does he know what brings peace to a given community? Peace is achieved when the people are gainfully employed, promoted, respected, protected, accounted for, inter alia. Regrettably, there is no functional industry in Abia State that the government could be boastful of; accountability and transparency are zero in Orji’s government. What we have gained are the attentions and boastfulness of the government we always see and read his make-belief stories in the media with huge chagrins and winks on our faces.

No people survive when their leader is false-hearted, promoting works (they are yet to see) in the media and spending the scarce resources they had, to buy the media over. Thankful, not every sections of the media could be bought; there are notably principled media outfits out there. Abia people want Governor Orji to give priority to good governance and should stop speechmaking. His government is getting out of hand with this and it does not want to redress its ways, but only engages in frivolities that betray the rights of the people, like excessive travelling to abroad. That was even minute. Can the governor tell Nigerians why he is always spotted at Aso Rock than he is spotted in the Government House, Umuahia? Does Governor Orji know that governance is not about sponsoring assemblage of persons who use pseudonyms as just as they are dim-witted, except in the art of fabricating stories of rape, blackmailer, extortionist, kidnapper, gigolo and every twaddle they circulate around whenever this writer makes a critique of the government?

It is sad when people misuse privileges as this governor’s seat of Abia State. How could Governor Orji be talking about protecting the children in Abia State, when he has not given their parents jobs and they are not protected socially, politically and economically to take care of their own children? Upon that, the government is billing the residents with tax that their accruements go down the drain and do not meet the eyes as soon as they are forcefully collected? This is a governor who always mouth and wants to make news where none was supposed to exist, talking:

“Already, Abia has signed and ratified the United Nations conventions on the rights of the child, and has also ratified the AU charter on the rights and welfare of the child. We will continue to domesticate all these conventions and treaties to ensure the rights of children are fully realized, especially the right to education”. How does this statement make the Abia child not to pay heavy school fees? Upon the grammatically expression of the governor; which state has recorded the highest in child trafficking and pregnancy industries in the recent times if not Abia State? But here are rented-everyone praising the governor for ‘job well-done’. Drivel!   

The worst any generation can do is to deceive its children. Please, ask the governor what the outcome of the inaugurated seven-member panel to investigate the activities of the Abia State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB) was. This is the governor talking about caring for the children, whereas since the ASUBEB commencement in December, 2012, all the money that had been pumped into the board cannot be ascertained. Please, ask the “people’s governor” where the love for the children is when a kid in Abia State is expected to pay about N9, 000 as common entrance examination fees.

No one can say that he has seen a thing like this government of Governor Orji before. This is the type of person that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was supposed to suspend and directly hand him over to the anti-financial crimes institutions. Is it not about time Governor Orji and his government stop playing with human beings in that state? How can a living governor be making a progress but no difference to show for in Abia State? It is no surprise that he is jittery and fighting in the media to cover his lack-of-ability with his many praise singers who do not know that they will soon meet their waterloos.

Abia people can never be intimidated by Governor Orji’s arsenal of aides. The more those voluble aides of Orji try to discredit the critics of the government with such a-waste-of-time stories as rape, extortion, blackmailer etc. they label critics with and circulate against such personalities who vent their voices on the non-performing governor, the more they energise our people to speak-up louder than the aides have heard. Abia people are not fools, except those praising the-pits governor Nigeria has ever had to their doom. Abia people are not in slumber, even when Governor Orji wants them to remain silent with security agents that are better called intimidators in Abia State. Abia people are not saboteurs except those sabotaging good governance and are doing everything within and outside their coffers to draw attention.

Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, contributed this piece from Rivers State (CONIRIV)