Power to Abia South The political climate in Abia State is becoming very clear. Before now, it was like a gathering storm with the ambiguity created by the generic term of Ukwa Ngwa. But, on July 1, 2014, while inaugurating the new Transition Chairmen of the 17 local councils of the state at the Michael Okpara Auditorium, Governor Theodore Orji, the equity keeping governor, hit the nail on the head and cleared a cloud of ambiguity that was transforming into another political logjam for the state. Hear him: ‘I am a product of rotation. If there was no rotation, I may not be governor today. I must continue with rotation because power moved from Abia North to Central and must go to the South.” This, indeed, was the deciding speech that Abians have anxiously anticipated Few days after this landmark speech, at the central arena of the people of Old Umuahia, just before he inspected the erosion control project along the road to the Divinity School, Governor Orji reiterated his avowed standpoint: it is fair before God and good conscience that power must rotate and move to Abia South. But, he added a caveat – the state and the party will work towards having a consensus candidate who would emerge from the people and would be a good bridge in sustaining the new climate of peace and progressive change that is our current heritage. This bold assertion of the Governor did not only clear the ambiguity of the generic term of Ukwa Ngwa but put to rest the seeming confusion that was about to be created by the homogeneity of the Ngwas who cut across the two divides of Abia Central and South. The deciding speech immediately engendered a new political movement with the people of Abia South milling out in great numbers to a solidarity visit to the governor. Indeed, the landmark speech was a pathway and a good direction for a state that was already at a crossroad, charged and tensed with the sensitive issue of the succession to the governorship seat come 2015. The diversity or spread across two senatorial divide was about to constitute a last-minute challenge in the long-drawn struggle by the Ngwa for political empowerment. This situation was aggravated by the constantly espoused theory of power coming to the Ukwa Ngwa. Under this generic term, all people of this identity canvassed a legitimate right to the throne. The scenario that emerged was a simmering confusion which would have sounded a death kneel to the time-honoured struggle of the people to produce a governor. This section of Abia comprises the Ngwas from the three Local Governments in Abia Central and the Ngwas of Abia South and their Ukwa brothers. Hiding under that cloudy ambiguity, the Ngwas of the Abia Central canvassed a right to the government house come 2015. To make bold their claim, Nkechi Nwaogu, two-term senator representing Abia Central went to the Abia PDP some couple of months ago and openly declared her intention to run for the gubernatorial seat with a non refundable fee of N5 million. She has been canvassing that her current seat must be exchanged for barter with the Governor who is being prevailed upon by all sections of Abia to go to the senate at the expiration of his tenure. She seems to approach her office as a personal property which must be traded off with a good bargain but the office, nay all political offices, are the collective will of the people. Indeed, Nwaogu was not alone in this line of thinking. Many politicians of the Ngwa stock from the Central were also re-theorizing the balance of power and equity to adduce that it must be any NGWA. The seeming ambiguity also created the room for very suicidal ambition which saw people of non-Ngwa stock, who, by dint of long residence in the Ngwa area suddenly realized that they could latch on that confusion to claim the Ngwa birthright. As a first step and to test the waters, they embarked on a largely sponsored and elaborately organized reception by the Ngwa traditional rulers. It is within the mandate of the monarchs to give such receptions and recognition to somebody who has been an integral part of the area by parental birth and upbringing but the underlying message did not escape the discerning minds of political pundits. The political undertone and the interpretations that followed suit largely added to the ambiguity that shrouded the Abia political space. Again, ambition could be a very terrible thing. From Isiukwuato came a later-day re-interpretation (let me not call it misinterpretation) of the letters of the name ABIA and a regretful deconstruction of the tenets of the Abia Charty of Equity. In that unfortunate after-thought, the ‘B’ is said to represent Bende and ‘I’ Isiukwuato before ‘A’, which is said to represent Aba. The later-day theorists continued that power in Abia was designed to follow the line and hierarchy of the alphabets in the name ABIA. Yet, while they could identify Bende in the name ABIA, they could not identify Umuneochie. They could not identify Arochukwu or Ukwa and many other clans that make the organic whole of Abia. Well, it was all part of the fun of democracy. The cardinal heritage of freedom in democracy creates room for a variety of comedy. Democracy is fun and vindication. Yet, the entire world has come to appreciate the fact that equity and balance of power are critical and crucial for global peace. It is all about inclusiveness. This is why power rotation is a mandate of the Peoples Democratic Party and a mandate of the civilized world. The upholding of this mandate is another giant step in the long anthropological journey of man and a higher step in the historical advancement that has seen man through wars, revolutions and the enthronement of the social contract and the Magna Carta. It is a necessary condition for peaceful co-existence. As an ambassador of Peace and a man of equity, Ochendo has keyed into the divine mandate to say that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. These days, when he talks about power shift in Abia, he looks up to heaven and pronounces that it is only fair before God and before good conscience. He would add further that there comes a time when a leader emerges; who would insist on what is right and fair. The Governor also added that while people cannot be stopped from nursing their ambition and going ahead to pursue those ambitions, he as the governor must stand on what is fair and good for the state. By the landmark speech, Ochendo is exercising a foresight into what would become of Abia after his exit. He wants to bequeath a home to Abians. He wants to lay the foundation of a patrimony of harmony. He wants to ensure an unmitigated continuation of the current tide of progress. He realizes that his revolution of liberation can only be complete when he nurtures and bequeaths the legacy in which all Abians are free and recognized. Above all, the speech has resolved the simmering ambiguity of term and provided a clear roadmap to where we are headed. Again, kudos to Ochendo!
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 09:16:52 +0000
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