I have challenged him on a number of occasions to tell the world what really I did to him to warrant such detestable behaviour and enmity towards me. And if in the end I am guilty, I will apologise. I repeat the challenge through this column. Let him go to any national television and tell the whole world what I did to him to make him hate me with such venom. I have wondered why he has suddenly realised that I am such a bad person. Why did he not resign as my Chief of Staff if he knew I was a bad person as he would want Nigerians to believe?

What many people might not have known about the relationship between Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji of Abia State and me until now was how I came to know him. The meeting between us was per chance. Truly, I met him just once at Chief Mark Uka Ogwo’s house. For clarity sake, Chief Ogwo was my kinsman and a former Head of Service of Abia State. He is now late. It was Chief Ogwo who recommended him to me after all entreaties for him (Chief Ogwo) to be my Chief of Staff failed. He turned down the offer because, according to him, he was getting old. He suggested, instead, that I appoint Theodore Orji in his place. True to my promise, I appointed Chief Orji Chief of Staff.

I remember all the promises he made in the presence of Chief Ogwo: how faithful he would be and how ready he was to stand by me, no matter the circumstances. What has happened at last? He has jettisoned everything good he stood for and now wears the garb of wickedness and hatred. How I wish Chief Ogwo were still alive to testify to all this. I know wherever he is he would be full of regrets for recommending such a chameleonic and deceitful person to me.

Did I do anything wrong by telling him to buckle up and deliver the dividends of democracy to our people? This is the grouse he holds about him. But I do not have any regrets whatsoever for telling him the truth. Any meticulous follower of events in Abia State would agree with me that the man has not performed. To show how mischievous he can be, he has gone ahead to label some of the projects executed by our administration between 1999 and 2007 as having been done by his own administration. Abians know who did what. He cannot pull the wool over their eyes.

All the evil machinations he has designed against me have continued to fall through. When I told him not to go for a second term, having not performed in his first, he went to town with the story that I held him hostage. He claimed that I was the person responsible for his inability to perform. Between May 2010 and now (since he claimed to have been liberated) what has he done to prove that I was the one that held him hostage? It is still the same story of non-performance. Let us face the facts: let him tell Abians what he has done for them to justify the huge amount he has collected from the federation account. What he runs in Abia is a government of deceit, using intimidation and vendetta to cow people into submission. That was why I drew the attention of the law enforcement agencies to the seething anger of our people who have condoned his excesses for too long.

There is no question that the people’s anger would have boiled over if we had not persuaded them to remain calm. But there is a limit to how much a people can bear. For me, I have nothing to lose by his constant insults on my person. But our people have everything to lose if we all kept silent and allowed the governor to do as he likes. We are honourable people, which was why we had kept quiet all these years believing that one day soon he would change. However, from all indications, there is no sign that he is ready to come down from his high horse. Instead he has continued to acquire new tricks as day breaks.

Right now there is total confusion and frustration in our state. People walk about hopelessly, not knowing what the future holds for them. As if to add insult to injury the governor has polarised the state by ganging up with some PDP members to zone the governorship of our party to Abia South. That negates the principle of equity. What has always been the sentiment of recent is that the governorship position should go to the old Aba Zone (which they now call Ukwa-Ngwa) in 2015. Ukwa-Ngwa comprises nine local government areas: Isiala-Ngwa North and South, Aba North and South, Osisioma, Obingwa, Ugwunagbo, Ukwa East and West. In real sense, there has never been zoning of the governorship slot in Abia State.

By zoning the governorship to Abia South he has succeeded in weeding out the heartland of Ukwa-Ngwaland. How could any reasonable person talk of a governor of Ukwa-Ngwa extraction in Abia State without Isiala-Ngwa North and South and Osisioma? This again shows how myopic and selfish the man can be.

– Source: The SUN