ABIA 2011: ABARIBE'S PIPE DREAM
Former Abia State Deputy Governor, Eyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe, is on the mental-march again. He says he wants to be governor of Abia. Good. That is his right as a citizen, afterall we all can dream. What one finds despicable however in this obviously futile ambition, is his approach, which tends to re-ignite the acrimonious dichotomy of the past which the Abia polity cannot accommodate.
Like his comrade in this reigning political fantasy, Henry Ikoh, he has shown lack of reason. Rather he has found space in dismissing the works of the incumbent governor on the pages of newspapers. Yet he has not been able to hold any concrete thing against the efforts of Governor Orji despite all that he and his ilk at the National Assembly and Abuja have been doing to undermine the efforts of the present administration.
We are glad that Abaribe's foul mouth with its attendant foul breath has nothing to say against Ochendo for what he has done on the environmental situation in Abia, more especially Aba where he, Abaribe is supposed to be representing. Thank God that a combination of political glaucoma and cataract have veiled him from seeing that motorists no more go through anguish to pass through Aba- Owerri-Road, especially Binez Junction and Port -Harcourt road. If he is not alienated from the people, he would have saluted Ochendo for channelling resources and efforts to see that Faulks Road and Ukwu-Mango overcome the perennial flooding that had made the roads nightmare to commuters.
Before now it was easy take for the likes of Abaribe and House of Representatives seat warmer, Eziuche Ubani, to cast aspersions based on the environmental situation in Abia. But now, there is a positive change as heaps of refuse can only be remembered as a thing in the past , and people have gone dumb and blind. So shall they remain.
In a recent chat with newsmen, Abaribe spoke about insecurity and how he was attacked. So sorry. But you don't plant cassava and expect to reap the highly nutritious iyoo yam specie or another thing else, other than that which you planted. Gov. Orji, anytime any day, will beat his chest on the war against crime and other related ones which he waged and succeeded in Abia. It is simple for Abaribe to say that gunmen attacked him in his village.
Yes. He can chorus that for political expediency. Yet, in his subconscious, he knows the truth. You don't eat your cake and have it. When in 2002, Abaribe personally led armed youths to attack the then Speaker of the State House of Assembly at a border community known as Ntigha Uzor, what did he imagine will be the after-effect of the Rambo grooming? When in the wake of his political misunderstanding with Orji Uzor Kalu, he was apprehended with a pistol during weekly Executive Council meeting, what message was he passing to his boys scouts scattered in Abia?
The time he boasted that his area has the capacity to produce arms that will ground the entire state, who was the target of his call to arms? Is it not simple Karma that what goes round comes round, and those who bring ant-infested firewood are not supposed to grumble when they start hosting lizards? As an Abuja-based political adventurer with enormous war-chest to run for governor against an incumbent, how much has he ploughed back to his community to create jobs and help disarm his militants?
Even at that, the government in Umuahia has recorded tremendous progress in fighting the cankerworm created by Enyinnaya Abaribe, because there are still decent men from his area who deserve their peace. Honestly one should pity Abaribe, because whether knowingly or unknowingly, he has boxed himself into a corner that he appears less bothered on where history will place him.
The other day at the high-brow Aba Sports Club, he was boasting of being the architect of violent politics in Abia which he said he introduced to scare opponents, but unfortunately he has met strong-livered opponents than he imagined. The result? Each family in his locality now use violence, nay kidnapping, to settle scores and engage in supremacy battle.
I also pity those who may be deceived into following him again. He knows that what he aspires to do is a very tall and elusive dream not just for him but any other who may be nursing such from that locality for now. For clarity sake, Abia has a political arrangement instituted to ensure fairness and equity among the senatorial zones of the state. That arrangement since 1999 is on course and will run its full course hence. Any political investment by way of adventure made contrary to agreed convention will certainly see the adventurer losing all deposits.
That explains why most political parties queued behind that arrangement. Let us see how one politically deficient man will thwart the collective agreement of a united people. As for his bragging on electoral fortunes, we don't lose sleep over that, since that has been his stock-in-trade. We can only respond by reminding of what they should know by now, and that is simply saying that we are not given to making unnecessary noise about elections. To us, the battle is climaxed on the election day where the measure you give is the measure you receive. After the roforofo in the trenches, we will march and leave them to lick wounds till another election. Call it the Abia tradition if you like, we are ever ready.
Emereuwa is the Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State Governor.