For the eight years he worked as my Chief of Staff, I never used a foul language on him or berated him. Rather I treated him with utmost respect and love, even where he had visibly wronged me. I left virtually everything pertaining to the administration of the Government House under his care and direction. He was in charge of almost everything in Government House – from security vote to routine administration. I, working with one of my closest aides then, Victor Oye, and the commissioners, concentrated on policy formulation, key decision-making and supervision of the ministries. There were no-go areas for him. In fact, he had uninhibited access to my bedroom, my office and every place. Each time he travelled abroad he stayed at my private residences.

I recall with deep pain (because he stabbed me in the back) the day he came to the Governor’s Lodge to see me. I was in the bathroom. Time was 6.30 in the morning.

He had come with a letter for my signature. The letter was urgent as the Attorney-General was to travel to Abuja with it first thing in the morning of that fateful day. When my personal aide drew my attention to his presence, I asked him to bring him up into my bedroom. When he knocked, I asked him to come straight on to the bathroom, because of the urgency of the letter, not minding that I was naked. I used a dry towel to hold the pen he brought for me to sign the said letter. Before I signed the letter I told him that now that he had seen my nakedness there was nothing else I could keep away from him. I also told him that if he chose in future to betray me there would be nothing else to talk about. He was jolted by my comment and stood fixated for some minutes, barely controlling his shock. I am sure he recalls that statement each moment he goes out of his way to malign me. That is if his conscience pricks him.

There was nothing good I did not do for this man. I gave him his first executive car in life and money to build a befitting house, encouraged him to send his children to good schools, entrusted him with the administration of Government House, including the management of financial resources due to the governor and the Government House. He also rose to the enviable position of director, and later permanent secretary within the same period. I cannot list everything here, because the list is long.

I capped my goodness to him by making him governor (by the grace of God and the unflinching support of our people), while he was in detention at the Kirikiri Minimum Prison, Lagos. As I indicated earlier in this article, many people openly opposed his candidature for the position of governor for many reasons. Somebody – a very close confidant of the governor now – approached me then and warned against making him governor. He gave a very grave reason I should never make him governor. Even the then President Olusegun Obasanjo told me pointblank not to make him governor. He struck a deal with my mother to instead choose one of my younger brothers to succeed me as governor in place of Theodore Orji.

To all the advice, I said no. I told whoever cared to listen then that Chief Theodore Orji would succeed me. The reason I settled for him was simple: I thought I had groomed him sufficiently enough to step into my shoes and continue the good works we had started. If I had wanted somebody that would do my biddings blindly, definitely it would not have been Chief Orji. I would have settled for one of the more docile aspirants. I saw in Chief Orji humaneness, humility, simplicity, resilience and hard work, not the haughty, stiff-necked, abusive and cruel personality he currently showcases.

For those who did not know: we went through hell (figuratively speaking) to make him governor. Imagine somebody in detention, without spending a dime or casting his own vote for himself, becoming governor in a hotly-contested governorship election in a state like Abia! Recall we had to contend with the enormous might of the Federal Government, which had earlier thrown its support behind another candidate. Again, the Progressive Peoples’ Alliance, PPA – the political platform that was used to deliver him as governor – was formed barely four months to the governorship election. So, you can see, he got power on a platter; probably that accounts for the levity with which he holds the office today.

Certainly, if he had spent his personal resources and energy to become governor, he would have appreciated the sacrifices we made to make him governor. Today the same party (PPA) and the people who delivered him as governor are his arch-enemies. He has done many atrocious things to destroy all of us, but God has been merciful to us.