Esike: The change that Abians want

ONLY the deaf in Abia State today will pretend he or she is not hearing the whistling sound of the wind of change blowing across the length and breadth of the state even in this election year. The agitation for this desirable change in governance has been expressed by the people of Abia at different fora. It is the same both in their various homes, villages and communities. In all these, the people are saying the same thing – change in the government of Abia State. They want a change from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under Chief T. A. Orji, APGA under Dr. Alex Ottito to bring development and progress to the state.

     The above feeling was re-echoed and reverberated in a comic form a few days ago in a public bus that I had boarded to get home from Umuahia. In the bus, was seated an elderly man who remained quiet until his unannounced interjection that drew the attention of other passengers to him. He pointed to the poster of the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State, Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu and queried no-one in particular on why a man with such name thinks he will rule the people of Abia State. The people laughed at that seemingly joke. But the man was not done with his interjections as he prayed that God in His infinite mercy should not allow Abia to be ruled by a man with a name that connotes backwardness. He prayed that Abia will always be the first and not the last and that Abia will be among the leading states in Nigeria. The chorus of amen from the people in the bus was deafening. Unsolicited for, another woman in the same bus bemoaned the fate of Abia State with regards to bad governance since its creation starting from Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu through to the Military Governors, to Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, and Chief T. A. Orji. She pleaded with God for the sake of the suffering masses of Abia State, to cause a change in the leadership of the state to happen even as we go to the polls on February 28, 2015.  

    The prayers of this commoners as it were, touched me and I came to the realisation that why most of our political leaders never do well while in office, is because of the disconnect between the political leaders and the electorate. And this happens once the elections are over and done with. This situation is made worse because of the absence of a feedback mechanism between the government and the populace. Government has erected a tall-huge-wall against the people that no amount of cries or complaints by the people are heard by government. Government seats in the comfort of their offices and formulate programmes that they feel the people want and not what the people need. Our leaders live in a separate world that is self-deceiving and that is why they do desperate things to remain in power including rigging elections.

    But some rare cases suffice, like the former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu who, piqued by the number of Ebonyi youths that were hawking handkerchiefs, belts, and sundry items on the streets and highways of Lagos decided to take action. The governor took it upon himself to get first hand information to the reason behind the problem. He came to Lagos and under disguise, went to the streets of Lagos and interviewed some of these youths. The feedback he got informed the popular free education policy of his government that removed large chunk of Ebonyi youths from the streets of Lagos. Such is lacking in our present day governance.

  As a journalist, I meet people at different places and times on daily basis and they open up on their bottled-up feeling of frustrations on state matters and governance of PDP in the state. 

    One thing that my Bible tells me is that the cry of the oppressed can never go unheard by God. God must surely answer to the cry of the down-trodden and He will raise a leader among them who will wipe away their tears and heal their land. God must surely give them a leader who will put food in their plates and educate their children. There is time for everything under the sun, the Holy Bible says and as it were, the end has come for mal-administration in Abia State occasioned by the PDP. 

   God has heard the anguish of pains of sufferings in the midst of plenty in the state and has raised up a man after his own heart in the person of Dr. Alex Otti. A man with a record of accountability, integrity and performance; a man who will wipe away the tears from the faces of Abians, a man who will pay the Abia workers and civil servants their wages and salaries as at when due because the worker is worth his pay; a man with an eye for the full industrialization of Abia and modernization of Umuahia to meet the status of a modern capital; a man who will bring growth and development to the local government area by conducting local government elections that will help drive grassroots development. A man who will bring the traditional institution a par with those in the west and northern parts of Nigeria, and not the beggarly posture that is the case with our traditional rulers in the state, a man who will empower our youth by giving them gainful employment and skill acquisition, and not the current legion of keke drivers that the governor has turned Abia manpower, a man who will strengthen the security of the state through community engagement and participation, a man who will constantly consult the Abia people through periodic Town Hall Meetings to give his score-sheet of performance and governance, a man who will not mortgage the future of Abians by engaging in excessive borrowing  that will be paid back by future Abians, a man who will attract foreign investors and speed up development as against the contractors that have besieged Abia and helped to milk the state dry, a man who will take care of the elderly and sickly in the society by building efficient health care centre and state of the art hospitals; a man who will respect our women by according them their pride of place in the development of Abia; a man who will genuinely execute agricultural programmes that will lead to Abia becoming self-sustaining in food production and export, a man who will provide electricity to the rural communities to drive the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises.

    The man of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). The people of Abia have a date with destiny on February 28, 2015, because that is the date God has appointed to liberate His State, Gods own state; Abia and they are saying change must come. 

• Emenike writes from Aba.