Kalu, Ohakim, Orji and Carnival of Misery
In the present circumstances, it looks like the humiliated former Governor of Imo State, Mr. Ikedi Ohakim is dying a natural political death since he created the falsified impression that the ebullient former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu was caging him from working when he was governor, which as a result warranted his exit from the Progressive People's Alliance (PPA), a party that the influence of Kalu propelled the people of Imo State to vote for Ohakim in the embattled 2007 gubernatorial election in the state.
The February 2nd2012 Supreme Court judgment that threw a dirty mud on the face Ohakim and asked him to leave Governor Rochas Okorocha alone, is a sign that Ikedi will gasp for the breath for political relevance in Nigeria for so long, if not forever. One thing is that Ohakim was merely a political neophyte that was brought to limelight by Kalu's political wizardry. But sadly that Ohakim jumped ship on July 25th, 2009 from the party that made him to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), thinking that he was safe there.
The regrettable thing among many political analysts since the goofing parade of the persona dramatis laced with unprecedented misery is the mumbo-jumbo political propaganda that was carried out and created against an innocent man like Kalu by the nonconformist. The insinuation or verbatim talk that emanated from the fangs of Ohakim was that Kalu never wanted him to use the money that was meant for work in Imo State judiciously. This was the same with Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State who first ran to the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) before finally berthing in the PDP. Like Ohakim, Orji also betrayed PPA by his insensate defection to the PDP.
But as the facts of non-performance of governance are unfolding between Ohakim and Orji, it has been understood that they said the untruths against Kalu. If they insist that Kalu was their problem, Nigerians have seen that they are failures after leaving the PPA in their respective states.
Ohakim did not do any better during his reign in Imo State. This was not caused by Kalu, but by his gluttonous and ill-fated perceived approach to politics and governance. For sure, Ohakim will be regretting by now, with deep thoughts of why he left the PPA in the first place, seeing the parade of political misery that surround him today.
Consequently, Orji has engaged in media abracadabra of how his government is developing Abia State. But from east to south to north and west poles of the state people are praying for a foreseeable chance of divorcement from the grip of the inefficient government of Orji. For example, see Aba and cry!
The misery that followed Ohakim when he was governor and after was never told anywhere before in the political history of any country. Inter alia, can any sane government, a democratic one at that, incessantly bully its citizens to the extent that a Reverend Father was recklessly maltreated by the Ohakim goons in government? This is what we are talking about of a man who ran the Imo State government like his dukedom. Though, he has shamefacedly pleaded. But it is surprising that his media followers are still exonerating him from the crime he had owned up, saying that the Reverend Father saga was fiction created by his political rivals to discredit him. This logic is not fair anywhere, let alone in Imo State that has crème de la crème intellectuals and political bigots.
While Ohakim and Orji, through their undisciplined practice of politics thought that Kalu would be brought to close to tears, Kalu is rather burgeoning stronger. It can be seen that no amount of mobilization against Kalu can bring him down again since the duos have not succeeded in bringing him down since they carried out that act of political prostitution against him. They have alleged that Kalu was greedy, but Nigerians know better today that Ohakim and Orji are the greediest people who only develop(d) their states on the pages of the newspapers.
Like Imo people were not happy when Ohakim was Ikiri in government, the same unhappiness is applicable to the Abia people. Hardly do the majority of the people want to hear the name “Governor Theodore Orji” because he is not greedy with the development of the state. Therefore, the people are living like rodents and some of us writers who out of what the government fed us about Kalu and we wrote against him are regretting the objectionable act today.
Nigerians of good have come to understand that it was not Kalu and his mother who were consumed by greed as was the speculation, but Ohakim and Orji and they are paying dearly for it. The duo thought that development of their states would come when they joined the PDP, not knowing that they were going to meet their waterloo. The non-acceptability of the PDP in Abia State and Imo State till date effectively worked against Ohakim and Orji, even though that the later was declared winner in the 2011 gubernatorial elections in Abia State and Ohakim was fully mortified out of office.
It was evident that the personality of Ohakim and Orji and their self-conceited promises could not influence governance in their respective states of Imo and Abia. To the average citizens of these states they see the betrayal against Kalu as the doom that is following them, because if Ohakim could not be reliable in the PPA, he has also showed that he could not be reliable in governance, likewise Orji.
Odimegwu Onwumerewrites from Rivers State. Mobile: +2348032552855. Email: [email protected]