PDP Shameless Lies Against Alex Otti

Martin Luther King once said, Nothing in this world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”, to which I may add, ‘Mendacity’. What we have in Abia State today is an ignorant and dangerous group of liars who have turned the art of lying into a way of life. The Ikpeazu administration and the PDP is an administration of liars, sustained by lies and adored by the majority of the Ngwa people they constantly lie to.

Not too long ago I wrote an article titled “ Abia State Government And Their Lying Ways”. Little did I know that I will have to revisit that subject again, hence this article which is akin to a comment by Michel Corleone in the movie ,“ The Godfather” in which he said and I will paraphrase, “Just when I am trying to get out of this business (being the mafia) they drag me back in”. Just when I thought I was done with writing about the lying ways of this administration, they come out with more and more lies. This time it was not only about their accomplishments in their first 100 days in office but also against the person of Dr Alex Otti.

A few days ago the usual sycophants in the Ikpeazu administration released a progress report of their first 100 days in office . The report was filled with so many lies and factual misrepresentations that it does not warrant any comment or response to. The reason being that the Abia public are living witnesses to their false claims and can see for themselves if the claims of accomplishments are factual. If they claim they have been able to fix all the major roads in Aba, the Aba people can see it for themselves because they live there . In so doing when the government come up with these lies, they are making fools of themselves and thereby losing whatever little credibility they have.

My attention rather has been drawn to another vitriol attack, published on my facebook page on Dr Alex Otti by one Mr Martins Felix a former staff in the T A Orji administration who by virtue of his write up appears to be seeking recognition and possibly a job offer from Dr Ikpeazu. This sycophant with his fertility of conjecture figured he could slander his way into the good graces of the PDP, however what he has failed to realize is that white lies leave a mark on one’s reputation and that when you stretch a lie it has a way of snapping back at you like a rubber band. I have no doubt that when this administration leaves office in the next few weeks, they will be leaving behind an enduring legacy as the most mendacious administration in the history of the state. It is true that we have freedom of speech but making up such lies as Mr Felix just did against Dr Otti is pushing free speech beyond the limits of good taste.

Back to the content of his facebook posting in which Mr Felix claimed Dr Otti was so financially broke that he was attempting to raise money from banks in the Gambia and other West African countries belonging to Orji Uzor Kalu. He also alleged that Dr Otti as a consequence of his poor financial health was also not only trying unsuccessfully to sell his hotel in Lagos but approached a nameless Ohafia lady as well as a prominent hard working Ngwa man resident abroad whose name he conveniently refuse to reveal for money. Naturally they refused to oblige him. Well what can I say. These are the same people who not too long ago claimed Alex Otti owned not just one jet but a fleet of private jets. The truth is that these lies are so presumptuous that they do not deserve commenting on but as the saying goes ‘perception is reality”. If they are allowed to keep repeating these lies without any response after a while some gullible members of the public out of ignorance may begin to think there is some truth in them.

Now lets assume for argument sake that Dr Otti solicited for money not from those two mentioned by Mr Felix but from his many friends , supporters and well-wishers. who can tell me what’s wrong with that.? As a voter I will rather prefer a candidate who asks for my financial assistance than one who steals from the state treasury, like Ikpeazu is doing. As a matter of fact the prevailing practice in most developed democracies is that candidates for elective office spend a considerable amount of time and effort trying to raise money from their supporters. Here in the United States, the practice of fund raising has been so institutionalized that voters do not mind it at all. President Obama was a newly elected Senator still paying his student loans and mortgage for his house in Chicago when he first ran for the president. To be able to context the election, he had to raise over 1. 5 Billion dollars from his supporters . Even Mitt Romney , his Republican opponent and a self- made millionaire worth over 250 million dollars solicited for financial support from his supporters. Here in this country asking or begging for money to contest elections is encouraged because the practice makes it possible for people with average financial means to contest for elective office This to me is a better system than what obtains in Nigeria and especially in Abia state, where each successive governorship candidate had simply dipped his hands into the state coffers and stole money to finance his campaign. I hereby challenge My Felix and his fellow sycophants to make public Ikpeazu’s source of funds to contest the 2015 elections. We all know that as a poorly paid civil servant there is no way he could have afforded the billions of naira spent on his campaign.

It was Alexander The Great who once said and I quote, ‘There is something noble about hearing myself ill spoken of when I am doing well“. Dr Otti must be laughing himself silly reading about these PDP lies. Dr Otti is not a pauper and was not one before he contested for the Governorship election. If and when he deems it necessary to solicit for financial assistance from his friends and well- wishers , it is within his right to do so and it is nothing to be ashamed of. The fact that Mr Felix and his ilk have formulated these lies and turned them into crimes of the century shows how small minded they are.

Just when they think they are fooling an Abia gullible public, they are actually the ones acting stupid and making fools of themselves. A majority of the Abia people believe in Alex Otti and come Nov 11, their mandate will be restored . As for Mr Martins Felix, I hope he continues to remain jobless as his benefactors will soon be out of office before they can even think of offering him a job as compensation for this hatchet job he just did with the writing of this article on facebook.

Nnanna Ijomah Bsc, Ma, (International Relations is a resident of New York City.