Abia PDP stalwarts’ latest fiasco,By Ebere Wabara

LAST Thursday, January 30, 2014, Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State led a disgruntled delegation of some Abia jesters in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the party’s Wadata Plaza national secretariat, Abuja, for a meeting with the new chairman of the party, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu. The agendum: the former governor of the state and an icon of the PDP, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, should not be formally readmitted into the party, a development already foretold by the PDP national leadership.
The T. A. Orji wilful gang comprised Vincent Ogbulafor, the three senators from Abia and eight House of Representatives members, Labour Minister Emeka Worgu (nominated by T.A. Orji) and a few other accomplices. The spokesman of the Kalu-must-go bunch, Gen. Ike Nwachukwu (retd), said Kalu “did not understand the value of democracy and was irresponsible.” Can Nwachukwu and his backers hear one another in their rancorous deviancy that reeks of sheer rascality and reflect on that blatant illogic? Do these disenchanted fellows mean that after eight years in the saddle as executive governor and mistakenly installing, singlehanded, their principal, T. A. Orji, among other political engagements, Kalu still does not understand the value of democracy? Then, there is need for psychoanalytic tests for the protesters. If by any stretch of inebriate imagination Kalu is irresponsible, then his accusers are irredeemably more irresponsible for clinical and justificatory reasons!
This is not the first time that this bohemian group will futilely attempt to frustrate Kalu out of the party he contributed immensely in founding at a time when the Umuahia-Abuja jokers were still learning the ropes of grassroots politics. It is an irony indeed that a few of them were shown the light by this same Kalu that must be stopped in his tracks at all costs lest his national popularity and dominance of South East politics diminish their fledgling steps in the unfolding dispensation.
What are the compelling reasons that make T. A. Orji and his misguided supporters in the national legislature not want Kalu fully back to the PDP? For the shepherd of these marchers, T. A. Orji, it is understandable because of his estrangement from the hand that fed and propped him up to warped relevance, just like Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and Rep. Eziuche Ubani—both of whom have eternal grouses about Kalu because of his suffocative imperialistic attitude to them at one point or another in their political progression. How has Kalu offended the other demonstrators? I had thought that political disagreements should be based on tangible issues—not extrapolated personal tiffs. Why are members of this band afraid of Kalu? I cannot fathom this kind of uncanny timidity and morbid fear for OUK.
The renewed war cry and collaborative efforts of the Abia governor-led squad against Kalu is all geared towards 2015 elections and beyond. They cannot withstand Kalu’s clout and so the best strategy is to mislead the leadership of the PDP to nip his challenge and influence over them in the bud before it becomes the kind of “mistake” the military made with the late Alhaji M.K.O. Abiola by allowing him to contest the June 12, 1993, presidential poll where he unexpectedly trounced all his opponents. Nobody wants to take that kind of potentially costly chance with Kalu and those he will anoint!
Who made this cabal decision makers for Abia State indigenes? From where do they derive their vaulting authority to dictate to Abians who should lead them either in political associations or national politics? What are the antecedents of some of these faddish democrats? Where were they when Kalu was generously making himself and his resources available for use not just by the party in its nascent days but also by its presidential candidate and ultimately the country’s former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, among other beneficiaries of his invaluable generosity?
Are these political kindergartners under the deleterious tutelage and beneficence of the Abia State governor aware of the inalienable guarantees for citizens’ freedom of association as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution (as amended)? Let me give them this free legal education and counsel by referring them to Section 36.
It is appalling, but unsurprising, that Gen. Nwachukwu (retd) should be the latest megaphone of this Orji Vanguard against Kalu. What are his democratic credentials for this sordid job? Are Generals not supposed to comport themselves, in and out of service, with some level of professional dignity, integrity and dispassionate candour like statesmen even while playing rehabilitative sub-national politics? This kind of untoward behaviour shows lack of character.
The recurring question is: why should a group of men be mortally afraid of just one unarmed man? The fright is so deep that even when they went to deceive the new PDP chairman they could not have the boldness to mention Kalu’s name specifically other than making all manner of veiled references to his personage and dubbing him “a virus which T. A. Orji developed an anti-virus and had deleted from their system!” If Kalu in all his political, economic, sporting and leadership pedigrees could virulently, callously and ignorantly be described as “a virus” by a band of savage rascals, then they are opportunistic and festering infections found only in bohemians with cancerous mutations!
According to Winston Churchill, you will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks. Perhaps, Kalu needs to be advised to ignore the upstarts whose unconscionable quest for power dispenses with morality, ethics and norms. To paraphrase a saying, let all eagles perch. Any eagle that says another should not perch must have its wings scorched.
T. A. Orji goes about claiming all the infrastructural monuments of his predecessor by white-washing them and inscribing his identity on them! An example is the commissioners’ housing estate built by Kalu and inaugurated by former governor of Niger State, Mohammed Kure, who is alive and can testify to this facetious falsehood by the present governor of Abia State. The claims and ascriptions go on ad infinitum! So, Kalu and his modest achievements as governor must be deleted, too—not just his bona fide membership of the PDP!
The media in Abia State and the opposition have been so cowed that nobody can criticise whatever Orji does or does not do. He is the Lord of Manor in that part of the country. And if any person challenges his magistracy, the person should be ready for fatalistic consequences. The people live in fear for the sake of their lives. And to pull the wool over his victims’ eyes, T. A. Orji’s propaganda machinery is so sophisticated and limitless both in Abia and Lagos-Ibadan axis that it will take rapture for any negative reportage about him or his son, Chinedu (Ikuku), the alternate governor, who has calmed down after a top military officer publicly humiliated him not long ago. I heard from an unimpeachable source that even President Goodluck Jonathan is aware of T. A. Orji’s dysfunctional communication via a superfluity of media patronage and evidential governorship hoax!
T. A. Orji and his co-travellers who precipitated the downfall of the immediate past chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamangar Tukur, for profoundly welcoming Kalu back to the PDP fold amid profuse laudatory remarks should not take their divisive antics and parochialism to Mu’azu lest he goes the way of his predecessors in that plum office. God forbid! These Abia PDP stalwarts are mercenaries looking endlessly for where to congenitally prey.
There is unmitigated charlatanism among the political elite from Abia State as represented by T. A. Orji and his praise-singers. They conduct themselves in a spineless and inarticulate manner that you wonder if they know anything about political philosophy, ideology and strategy. For them, anything goes especially when there is lolly. My people in politics do not stand for anything—wherever the wind blows them they go sheepishly. This explains why other ethnic nationalities play games with them, endlessly!
The charlatanism and opportunism cascade from the National Assembly to political appointments, state governorship, aspiration for political offices, local government administration, and contributions to national political discourses and re-engineering. Apart from one of the 2015 gubernatorial aspirants, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, whose only function in the Senate is to justify their jumbo pay and allowances, the highest in the world, you hardly hear or read any critical intervention from the Igbo caucus as individuals or as a collective. The same horrendously disappointing scenario plays out in the lower chamber even with some of them as former editors that should have been very vocal in the parliament. Their counterparts from other parts of the country make vibrant contributions in the hallowed chambers. Membership of committees which someone tried to impress on me is so rudimentary as to constitute a key performance threshold. As far as I am concerned, there is so much parliamentary docility informed by naivety on the part of Abia State representatives at the National Assembly, just like their principal at the state level. It should not even be a surprise if consideration is given to the antecedents of most of these lawmakers! Parliamentarians from the other parts of the country obviously are doing far better than their Abia colleagues in terms of legislative activism and constituency impact!
You take ministers and other appointees from this state. Most times, the best are not considered for such offices because the power brokers, particularly T. A. Orji, nominate their acolytes and lackeys for such national assignments. So, at the end of the day, performance is below expectation and at the slightest opportunity, they are dropped ignominiously, usually. This is despite the fact that we have a superfluity of professionals with profound competencies and robust experiences.
T. A. Orji has spent seven uneventful years fighting his former eight-year boss and predecessor, Kalu, who, single-handed, enthroned him! If traitorous T. A. Orji is not busy abusing Kalu, he is clownishly clamouring for non-formalization of Kalu’s strategic comeback to the PDP out of sheer trepidation! Meanwhile, nothing is happening in Abia State except “Ochendu Vanguard” whose only official duty is all-day propaganda using a surfeit of buses like gangsters! If this is not taking place, the governor’s son and alternate-governor will be busy terrorising Abians with police vehicular entourage longer than those of three governors put together! Of course, journalists in the state have been brainwashed, too, like the self-styled PDP stalwarts, while the state media operatives perpetually indulge in round-the-clock hero-worshipping! Professionalism is crap to them! The roads in Abia State remind one of post-Samuel Doe worn-torn Liberia. As you read this, T. A. Orji is nonsensically preparing to be a senator after his disastrous tenure as Abia State governor for eight leprous years! This further confirms the despicable quality of parliamentary representation from our state. A man mocks around tragically for two terms as governor and proceeds to the senate thereafter in anticipatory retirement from active politics! T. A. Orji has so trivialized governance that you wonder whether politics is a charade. For him, any slight opportunity nurtures his proclivity for Kalu’s demonization!
T. A. Orji is so drab and tepid that most times you forget who he is! The only time you hear about him is when he decides to denigrate Kalu, which is regular! It is only in his Abia that 17 aspirants—mostly nincompoops and frauds in his anti-Kalu team—will jostle for a governorship position. At the presidential level, too, zone the office to the state and risk multitudinous aspirations. Everyone in his vicious fold wants to be the president even when there is ample evidence of emptiness of almost all the contestants, who cannot even qualify for councillorship polls!
The periodic fiascos by the T. A. Orji-led charlatans must stop. Similarly, the lack of credible governance in Abia arising from benumbing and inexplicable hatred for Kalu must be halted. If the fixated Kalu loathness preoccupation continues, it will lead to the dismemberment of the Igbo nationality, especially those of us from God’s own state who are the most endangered. Let us be a part of the renaissance in Nigerian politics. The Kalu-not-wanted fiascos by certified bunkums catalyse quintessential, unparalleled and unimaginable heroism for the PDP whiz-kid. Let OUK’s flourishing political profile be systematic and organic—not induced and fuelled by needless systemic yarns concocted by sadistic political morons who parrot mendacious and fictive craps about OUK. Now is the time for Abians and indeed Nigerians to stand up against imbecilic and idiotic posturing by some of our queer political elite and public office holders!
Wabara is media advisor to Kalu (08055001948; ewabara@yahoo.com).