Death for a Mess of Porridge
By Mecha Udo
The tragedy of our nation's democratic experiment is that the true meaning and tenets of this time tested, often preferred mode of governance have been extremely corrupted in our country. If the truth must be told, our nation is at best practicing some form of pseudo- democracy.
In a democracy, the people elect their leaders. In a democracy leaders are not imposed, there is equality of voting rights, often trumpeted as “one man one vote”. The people also have the inalienable right of removing non-performing, inactive and out rightly inept elected office holders through a process of recall or impeachment. The chosen leaders serve the people based on the laws of the land and the contract of service usually couched in a manifesto entered into during the electioneering contest. The focus of leadership is the people and the society at large. But unfortunately, this is not the case today.
Once our leaders scheme their way to power, the pack into fortresses away from people they are supposed to serve and from the reality of their immediate environment. When they venture out to town, they people suffer as they are chased and bullied out of the roads and sometime into fatal accidents. Their immediate family members instantly become first this and first that, even their dogs become first animals. The case of Animal farm, where some animals are more equal than others become even truer. They people (the electorate) are cast aside and forgotten, even as promises and commitments made are kept in breach. The collective patrimony becomes the exclusive preserve of a few to be used, pillaged and dispensed in any way or manner that pleases the new powers that be, without any iota of regard for the laws of the land, and without any consideration for the needs of the society. Public property and institutions are either fraudulently converted or renamed after them. They become imperial Excellencies. The political, social and economic structures they met in place when they assumed office are so desecrated and abused that they become not only dysfunctional but also so deformed, to the extent that they become completely ineffective and unable to deliver the needs they were created to meet. And when they are done with their carnage, they work to foist one of their own to continue from where they stopped and to protect their interests. They strive to create a dynasty even when we are not in a monarchical dispensation.
There is no other state in the country where this trend is more manifest than in the state of Abia. Since 1999 when democratic practices were supposed to have returned to the country, the state has had an unfairly huge share of political chicanery, high level insincerity, callous political maneuvers, and deviously devilish schemes. No other state has been so raped and abused than my state of Abia . Abia now lies prostrate, comatose and in the throes of death, desperately needing deliverance which can only come by divine intervention.
The latest nauseating and extremely revolting development is the current attempt at maintaining the status quo in the process of selecting new leaders in the state come 2015. Besides the attempt of the PDP (the ruling political party) to unwittingly impose a hitherto non-existent zoning pattern on the people, the media has also been awash with the press, psychological and emotional war, nearing open fisticuffs between the former Governor and the present one who incidentally was the protégé of the former Governor but who now is his sworn worst antagonist. Nothing is being spared in this mutually politically destructive war. We have been regaled with all sorts of stories, ranging from the comical, to the obnoxious even to the extremely bizarre and absurd. In all of their paroxysms, one revelation (though not new) really interests me.
It is believed by men and women of faith that whatever happens in the physical is a manifestation of the spiritual. It does not matter who took who to a shrine in Okija, what we have come to know now is that the soul, destiny and spirit of Abia was deposited or at best has been mortgaged or consigned to an evil god in an evil forest at Okija, where dead and decomposing corpses litter. Today our state is dying and rapid decomposition has commenced. The Good book, the Holy Bible states in Mathew 13: 25 “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way”. So while we sat relaxed, believing and hoping for the manifestation of the goodness of God upon our state, a few men who obviously do not know God sneaked away in the dead of night with the spirit, soul and destiny of our state and handed it over to the devil. And because the Almighty Father's “eyes are too pure they cannot behold iniquity” his spirit departed from our state that had proclaimed itself his abode.
The devil has since enthroned a reign of anarchy, ineptitude, treachery, duplicity, deceit and perfidy in our land. The father of lies that he is who come only to steal, kill and destroy, he has manipulated the governance of Abia with lies, killings, kidnapping and other violent crimes. These vices have taken root and the state is being destroyed. Governance has since been thrown to the dogs, even as they people now present forlorn figures in their hopelessness, almost surrendering to the evil fate that has befallen them. They are now tasked with identifying the source of this malevolent rain that is so mercilessly drenching them.
Things are so bad in Abia that even the state chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) once decided to embark on a protest march in Aba. Trust the powers that be; they had already made sure that the roads were so impassable that even with rain boots the lawyers could not make any meaningful progress with their march.
I believe that the divine battle between the former and present Governors has provided an insight to the riddle of the source of our problems in Abia. But in the book of Chronicles 7:14 the Bible says “ if my people who are called by name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins and will heal their land”. So there is a way out of this nightmare. We must also realize that we “ wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Abia's challenge is more spiritual than carnal, little wonder that despite the fact that the government has been unable to come up with any initiative of its own, it was even unable to copy from other states or at least seek assistance from others including the Federal government, who they are said to be so very close to.
I therefore write to the clergy: the Bishops, Reverends, Pastors, Prophets, Evangelists, Teachers, Apostles, and all children of God of Abia stock, wherever they may be, those residing in Abia or friends of Abia to rise, pick up the gauntlet and pray. The salvation of the state has to start from the spiritual realm, then it will ultimately be translated to the physical. I urge the larger Abia populace to be vigilant, to rise and retake their land. Let us be reminded by the words of Prophet Joel in Joel 2:25-26 “And I will restore to you the years, that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer worm. My great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, That hath dealt wondrously with you: And my people shall never be ashamed.” Very reassuring words, so we need to do the needful by returning to righteousness for the Bible says that “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 13:34). Remember that in Abia “ that which the Palmer worm hath left, hath the locust eaten. (Joel 1:4) We must not wait for the cankerworm to come in and eat up that which the locust will leave, we must act now.
This we can achieve by turning away from the hideous sin that has been committed against Abia by Abians and return to God. The message should be taken to all nooks, crannies and crevices of our land. Our people must understand that Abia belongs to us all and no to just a few demagogues. Once more I urge our clergy to utilize the instrumentality of our spiritual houses to recover our state from those who are so short sighted that they fail to see the larger picture of a prosperous Abia, but rather wallow in the ignorance of self centeredness. That should be our charge in this season. It is commonly said that a people get the kind of government that they deserve. Let us be determined to get the responsible, people oriented God fearing government that our state deserves.
Those who are profiting from this charade are preparing to unleash another team of inept leaders who will continue with their ineptocracy, which is defined as “government of the inept by the inept to the detriment of all”. A commissioner in the state in an interview recently boasted that people were free to contest elections but that they possessed the “machinery” to win the elections. Read in between the lines, and insist that elections must be won in Abia by our votes. It is clear that there will be attempts to compromise voters at the party primaries and the general elections, but let us remind ourselves that it profits nothing to earn a few Naira notes and lose your state. Do not kill Abia for a mess of porridge.
I recall that it was told that when the late Dee Sam Mbakwe was approached to participate in the IBB interim government contraption, he declined because he was troubled as to what answer he would give to his grand children if they were to ask him his role in the destruction of Nigeria. Where are Abia Elders? Why have they slipped into this ominous silence even in the face of the worst kind of brigandage that the state has ever witnessed. What is the price of their integrity and where do they want us to place them? There is the 'Hall of Fame” there is also the “Hall of Infamy”. The choice is theirs and we shall accordingly place them, cognizance of the choices that they make today.
When you take money, rice, car, oversea trip, Abuja trip or even a new woman or man you would also be guilty of the rot in the state, you would be guilty of the inaccessibility of our towns and villages, you will be guilty of the decay in our educational institutions, you would be guilty of high level of insecurity in the state and you would be responsible for the decrepit state of our infrastructure. The blood of those who have died in the cycle of violence in the state will also be on your head, and you will be required to also account for the collapse of the economy of the state. The money you will be given is only a very minuscule part of what you would ordinarily earn in a free and working Abia, so while I urge you to take it because it is ours, we expect you to vote according to your conscience and deliver Abia from satanic bondage. It is true that “conscience is an open wound only truth can heal it”. (Uthman Dan Fodio).
Please note that while they do not give you enough to educate your children properly, they send their own overseas since their actions/ inactions have destroyed educational and other institutions in the state, that way your undereducated children would end up serving theirs when their own time comes. Save your children and future generations from the bondage of slavery, so that your family lineage will not be in perpetual servitude to theirs.
The right to vote is yours, do not use your legal privilege and God given right to enslave yourself, endanger the future of your children and end up a second class citizen of another state. We must not allow the situation where our children fill out forms stating that they are from Abia state, but there will be no state to go home to. Our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, yearn to visit and show off the fatherland to their young ones, but they cannot, because the land lies waste. We must stand up and vote our conscience and we must insist that our votes must count. This is the time to create the environment that will attract the spirit of the Lord to return to our state, we must not miss this opportunity. Do not sit on the fence, be hot for Abia.
Take a look around.
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