Gov. T.A Orji Has No Love For The Grassroots

Democracy which was supposed to be the government of the people, for the people and by the people has a different definition in Abia State. To Governor Theodore Orji, it is a government of my friends, family members and cronies.

If not, I am not sure why he has refused to conduct local government election in Abia State, as it is constitutional, except to use caretaker committees to man the affairs of the grassroots, therefore impeding development at the local level.

How democratic Gov. T.A Orji is, lies on the fact that he is one governor who does not have love for the local people. I say this because if the people are not given the chance to elect who they deem wise to lead them, then the nearly 8years the governor has been in power is best described as autocratic.

He continues to impose his will against the will of the people, as we can see in the manner he handles the local government affairs.

Somebody might say that this is not fraud, but what is actually fraud if the people are not given the room to know how much is due to them in the local level and map out measures on how to handle such funds.

Gov. T.A Orji continues to dictate how the local government funds are managed, by imposing his cronies as caretakers on the local government areas across the state. Gov. T.A Orji continues to achieve his personal goals, while the people continue to wreath in pains of bad-governance and the effects of the governor's lucre on them.

Even in his community of Umuahia, his people are crying of no pliable road till now. And you wonder a man who could behave this way to his own people, how he has been handling other people from the different towns and villages in the state.

Gov. T.A Orji is gearing up for the senatorial campaign when his constituency, at least, has no federal and state presence. While anybody would say that it is his right to contest, I beseech those in this line of thought not to see all Abians and residents in the state as buffoons.

While that can be said is his right, then I wonder why the governor and his agents do not want people to talk. They would go as far as circulating fictitious stories against you if you talk. They would label you a kidnapper, killer, fraudster or even circulate stories of where you were arrested in their fictitious world that never existed.

This is the level that the government in Abia State has dragged democracy to: a government of Theodore, Chinedu and Odochi. There is no single goodwill to the people by the governor except his personal gains and the circulation of Kekes and taxis to the people close to him christened Abia Youth Empowerment programme.

Today, he is sharing money to his cronies as largesse for his senatorial ambition in 2015. No wonder the people have conferred on him the title, 'the most celebrated failed politician and governor since the country's independence.'

While the grassroots are suffering, the governor's yesmen, who are everywhere like Boko Haram in the northeast of the country, would continue to drum support for him and his failed government. They would nail dissenters on their inglorious stakes by calling the person names; all in a bid to misdirect the unsuspecting public: the humiliated masses of Abia State.

It would not be imperative to say that the governor acts like a drug man, but it would be imperative to say that if he does not take drugs, why act like a drug addict. Everywhere in Abia State is his alias, 'Ochendo Global'.

This can only happen in a state where the governor has secretly changed the name of the state to his. Some of the mirage-projects that ought to bear the inscription - Abia State Government Projects - now bear 'Ochendo Global'. This is the height of insincerity going on in the Orji's Abia State.

When one thinks that new thing would be experienced in the state, you continue to see 'Ochendo Global' everywhere, even on Kekes and the unnecessary billboards that dot the nooks and crannies of the state.

I cover myself and my face in shame whenever I behold such insensitive sights. He continues to answer 'Ochendo Global' whereas the second name of the state he brags to be governing is 'dilapidation and decay'.

That reminds me of how his son, Chinedum was fingered in the killing of his PA, one John Ndubuka in a controversial circumstance. It goes a long way to show the level of rot that the people have come to endure in the state under the emperornic government of Theodore Ahamefule Orji, their 'Ochendo Global.'

Until the governor braves up and do the right thing, the state will continue to be the shame it has become under him. His touts called aides are in this habit of promoting him where nothing exists. They celebrate their salaries to my dismay and write conks on the media that all are well in the state, when the people and their environments are but ghosts of their old selves.

I'm not writing this to malign him or anybody, but want them in that Abia State Government to do the needful that would correspond with the aspirations of the people; unlike what he does in the local government areas: settling his supporters with the positions of caretaker.

Odimegwu Onwumere, a Poet/Writer, writes from Rivers State.

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