WRITING recently in The Guardian newspaper, some critic, going by the name of Nnana Ezeocha, futilely struggled to besmirch the character, person, vision, reputation, capacity and public service pedigree of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, Governor of Abia State.

Not only was the piece a parody of enlightened commentary, but a jejune and wishy-washy hoopla, reeking of street language, intellectual thuggery and barefaced misrepresentation.

In a stunt to impress his paymasters, Ezeocha booby-trapped himself into a veritable swirl of contradictions formatted in the said piece. His analogy between military coupists and felons would have been appropriate if his client, Dr. Alex Otti, had not been roundly trounced at the polls.

The sophisticated people of Ndi Abia saw through the hocus pocus of the untested and grapevine peddled self-serving achievements of Otti and rightly dumped him in preference for Ikpeazu.

In Nigeria, every politics is local. Juxtaposing the Abia 2015 dynamics with the shenanigan of Anambra 2003, which are mutually exclusive, is patent chicanery and cannot fly.

What constitutes the core essence of a credible politician is the sum total of his functional public service track records. Unfortunately for Otti of the APGA, his quest was bereft of credibility, as the critical mass of the electorate, who massively voted the PDP, were not swayed by the advertised ‘financial engineering’ in some bank, which did not impact on the economic fortunes of the average ‘Aria Aria’ market trader.

People never ceased to ask, what quantum of loans, overdrafts, and working capital, if any, did Diamond Bank under his watch make available to Igbo nay Abia customers? What money market instruments did his bank package to facilitate enterprises in the state during the period under review?

Just like the pre-election campaign hustings, when Otti, through his spin doctors, made heavy weather about his so-called World Bank/IMF assisted development template for Aba, Nnana Ezeocha regurgitated the same line of ‘a man with a burning desire to reinvent their state.’

But those lies collapsed like a pack of cards when the same World Bank publicly denied it had granted Otti a $100 billion loan to develop Aba. That lie presaged his loss at the polls, because Abians were not about to trust him with their mandate. His debacle had nothing to do with the then governor, now Senator Theodore Orji, nor with the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Now, we leave that matter, as it’s being adjudicated at the tribunal. However, we quicken to add that Otti’s pages with the Abia people had always been blank. Therefore, the issue of nostalgia does not exist even in the realm of imagination.

Some people are miffed at the dazzling speed Governor Ikpeazu deployed men, materials and resources to commence fixing Aba. What economic rookies bandy about as knee jerk and hasty initiatives are a product of clear-sighted thinking and perspective long-term planning by Ikpeazu, who hit the ground running.

They easily forgot that long before the April 2015 elections, he had been in the trenches, on the drawing board, solely driven by the Abia agenda. His antecedents can be tracked. His background check is in the public domain.

For upward of two decades, he had been a key player in the corridors of politics as a home-baked politician, who understood the nuances of the average Abian. During this period, his activism and services had been domiciled in the trenches with our people, fighting and battling with the various administrations for the elevation of Abia State.

A spin-off of this hands-on experience is his blueprint for development – a clear-headed, well-defined manifesto that derived its motive force from a bottom-up, all inclusive community-based approach with Aba as the centrepiece and hub of enterprise and production.

For a proactive and process-driven “Aba boy” imbued with a clinical mind, designing and working roads in the middle of the rainy season, and sourcing for funds is a franchise and endowment that belongs to the eclectic few like Ikpeazu.

Fundamental to this is the enactment of policies for planning and housing to facilitate access to land, service, and investment codes that are realistic, flexible and compatible with local conditions.

In the informal sector, Ikpeazu, long before the mandate was delivered to him, articulated these clearly in his OKEZUO 2015 website. Professional grumblers and cash-and-carry analysts could  do themselves a favour by gleaning through the intellectual rigour, intelligence, strategies and competencies that were imputed into the IKPEAZU DOCTRINE.

It smacks of mischief and pettiness when low lifers make a mountain out of a prefix or appellation of ‘His Excellency’, which Governor Ikpeazu dropped. It is even to his credit that he has countermanded all the practices and processes of his predecessor. How do you characterise such a person to be a stooge?

The first essential element of a blogger, critic, columnist, writer or commentator is an obligation to truth, and showing ultimate allegiance to the citizens. They must strive to put the public interest and the truth above their self-interest or assumptions. Deploying such uncouth utterances like “419”, pirate, stolen, on a sitting governor, without evidence, is mere gossip and evidence of bad breeding.

In the immortal words of Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, of The American Press Institute: This journalistic truth is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts. Then journalists try to convey a fair and reliable account of their meaning, subject to further investigation.

Journalists nay bloggers should be as transparent as possible about sources and methods, so audiences can make their own assessment of the information.

Even in a world of expanding voices, “getting it right” is the foundation upon which everything else is built – context, interpretation, comment, criticism, analysis and debate. The larger truth, over time, emerges from this forum. Journalists have an obligation to protect this watchdog freedom by not demeaning it in frivolous use or exploiting it for commercial gain.

At the risk of repetition, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu had affirmed at several public fora that there is no governor in Nigeria that is anybody’s stooge. Even if you played a role in canvassing for votes or helped an aspirant to mount the saddle, you do not expect him to be your puppet. Yes, you can articulate ideas that are brilliant on the drawing board and dovetail into the main frame of a focused administration.

The critical mass of Abia people is perceptive that Ikpeazu is the only person that is self-effacing to entertain all shades of opinion, gumption and suggestions. He espouses the view that if your reasoning is superior, we will go and test it but if the reverse is the case, you go with me.

To be sure, Ikpeazu is not embarking on a voyage laden with excess baggage of arrogance but is humble enough to realise that the support of the citizenry is a sine qua non.

• Torti is a public policy analyst and management consultant.