Abia: Protecting our common heritage

Source: pointblanknews.com

Politicians are expected to exhibit the spirit of sportsmen.

Sportsmen after losing games embrace their opponents. Their

consolation is anchored on the fact that games come and go and

that if they do not win today, another sporting event provides a

window for them to win tomorrow.
Unfortunately, politics in the Nigerian context is viewed from

the perspective of “do or die”. It is characterised by

mudslinging, backbiting, manipulations and maneuverings,

character assassination, even at extreme cases attempt to

assassinate political opponents.
No place has the negative characteristics of politics come to

play recently than Abia. Since the present administration of

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu was installed last year, there have been

desperate attempts to truncate the mandate which the Abia people

vested on him in the April 2015 governorship elections.

The attempts have culminated into several litigations which

witnessed its height on June 27th when Justice Okong Abang of

the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered a judgment that will go

in the annals of Nigerian legal history as “the most

controversial judgment”. The said judgment removed Ikpeazu from

office as the governor of Abia State despite some glaring flaws.

Thank God for the same judiciary which lived up to its bidding as

“the hope of the common man”. The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja

last week upturned the judgment, describing it as not only ” a

rape of our democracy” but ” a miscarriage of justice”.

Unarguably, the protracted governorship crisis in Abia State has

taken a huge toll on the social, economic,and political activities

in the state. The crisis has constituted a serious clog in the

wheel of progress in the state. Now that the storm is over, it is

high time major actors in this crisis had a rethink and

demonstrate that Abia is our common heritage which we should

collectively protect. It is high time they think Abia first.” Abia

First” which formed some of their campaign slogans and has

graduated to a mantra illustrates that the interest of Abia should

ride above personal interest- no matter how highly placed the

interest is.
Like sports, political seasons would not cease if Christ tarries to

come for the second time. If one fails to win today, the forthcoming

political dispensation provides a window for him to win tomorrow.

Globally, a particular political office can only be occupied by one

leader at a time and not more than one.
Here is a passionate appeal to the major actors in the crisis that

Abia is already lying on the fringe, stretching this crisis further

would not only be antithetical but would deepen the wounds up to a

point that they may refuse to heal .Appeals even to the apex court,

Supreme Court, is your right which cannot be denied, but it is

indisputable that the collective interest of Abians should override

individual interest.
There is also a passionate appeal to the fifth columnists in the

crisis to stop prodding their principals to take further actions

that would jeopardise the unity of Abia and plunge the state into

anarchy. Like the bible admonishes us thus:” For what shall it

profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own

soul?- Mark 8:36- What shall it profit you to line your pockets at

the detriment of your dear state, Abia.
Indeed, Abia is our common heritage. It does not belong to Governor

Okezie Ikpeazu alone. It belongs to all of us. All hands must be on

deck to achieve its greatness.
Ukegbu, a public policy analyst and communication strategist,

writes from Umuahia, Abia State.
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