ABIA State has subsisted in stagnation since the emergence of embattled Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as governor because of two critical cases involving his election pending in the Supreme Court. Obviously because of this nothing whatsoever is happening in the state. Let me declare from the outset that amnesic Theodore Ahamefule Orji was the worst governor the country has ever produced and will never experience again for multitudinous reasons that border on incompetency, incapacity, surrogacy and power drunkenness. A vainglorious bloke that calls himself “Ochendo” who allowed his boyish son to run the state for him while he watched sleepily and sheepishly in holistic submission and haplessness!
And to compound issues, former President Goodluck Jonathan protected this disastrous governor through pedestrian policies and patronages that misled the public into thinking that this man was doing creditably when in reality and from all indications he was unarguably the worst governor this country has ever had. There can never be another T. A. Orji in human history of public governance. Why on earth would ex-President Jonathan embark on foreign trips with a non-performer like this fellow? The worst aspect of the presidential shield was the conferment of a national award on T. A. Orji. Why would he not be emboldened to go for the senate? Nigeria is indeed a circus show if the like of T. A. Orji will end up in the upper legislative chamber. This is the summit of mediocrity.
Since the inglorious exit of this man from power, different categories of workers are being owed between nine and 18 months’ salaries. All through his worthless tenure the judiciary was on intermittent strikes due to non-payment of emoluments. Right now, they have just embarked on another round of industrial action. Staff of tertiary institutions of learning have adjusted to a life of irregular salary payment or non-payment at all. This civil service irresponsibility never happened before in the history of the state before Ocheonwu.
T. A. Orji’s government was founded and rooted in mass deception, lies and unparalleled propaganda. When former Governor Wamakko of Sokoto State visited Abia State, his host took him to Bende road within the precincts of the Abia Tower, off Aba road and, typically, lied to him that his fatalistic administration transformed the major road from single to double carriageway up to Arochukwu, whereas the dual carriage access stopped at Isieke Ibeku Primary School— and not Arochukwu as Orji parroted—approximately a 10-kilometre distance from the tower. Another deceit is the interminable and viral placement of Secretariat road in multimedia channels as if that was the only road in the state.
Just as most of the roads in the state are impassable at any speed, public schools are decrepit, appalling and hallmarks of Orji’s systemic ruination of God’s Own State. Scholastic pursuit here has taken a back seat, almost irredeemably with backlogs of unpaid salaries (including leave allowances) to various faculties and infrastructural decomposition! Anyone who thinks these are brainwaves from an oppositional press should visit Abia State today and see the state of rot. Such fact-finding trips should start from Aba which signposts the worst dilapidation in human history.  Whoever cares should visit Government College, Umuahia, Girls’ High School, Aba, and Ndume Otuka Secondary School, Umuahia, as benchmarks for any investigation.
Ever heard of the hoax called “Legacy Projects”? These are fraudulent manipulations and re-engineering of existing facilities that are whitewashed, rebranded and launched as novel structures in shambolic measures. The dubiousness covers all sectors of the state. Hardly can you see entirely new infrastructures. Most people have been hoodwinked overtime that they have come to believe the tissues of lies well packaged by Orji and his charlatanistic boys who held the state by the jugular for eight uneventful, locust years. Wherever you see any trace of “Legacy Project”, be cautious before the wool is pulled over your eyes. Lest I forget, what has become of “Ochendo Vanguard”? Yet another brainless, unproductive and combative creation of this man targeted at “oppositional renegades”.
T. A. Orji’s despotism was unequalled in his vanishing dispensation. Arbitrariness characterized his wasted eight years as the governor of this unfortunate, nay cursed, state. All manner of oppositions were roundly subdued in the past inglorious years in the state amid allegations of killer-gangs who go after recalcitrant antagonists of the Orji government. The gross insensitivity was such that those who should have spoken up had either been cowed or compromised that they turned a blind eye to Orji’s unprecedented misrule. A group of famished and nondescript Abians tagged “elders” went about endorsing the illegalities, ruination and desecration of Abia by Orji because of the handouts he gave them monthly. It will never be well with poverty which has mortgaged the conscience of this category of my people. When persons who are supposed to challenge the governor are on his miserly pay-roll, the man can get away with murder! Official rascality and intimidation were celebrated here in government circles. Dissenters and opponents were routinely threatened and in some cases subjected to gruesome doses of inhumanities, as exemplified by my abduction sponsored by Ocheonwu.
Just before Orji vamoosed, it should have been instructive to know the identities of the owners of buildings on Aguiyi Ironsi Layout, owners of Benac Hotels (formerly Empire Hotels), luxury structures at Ochendo Estate, among other copious acquisitions here and choice homes abroad. Yet, the state was left to decompose on account of graft by its out-gone manager. Can all those who were forced to sell/forfeit their houses and land to Orji come up now and let the public know why our comatose state could not advance beyond its paralysis? How can a man with acquisitive tendencies that smack of kleptomania have resources and the time to run the state creditably and enthrone good governance?
There is every indication that roads in the state will remain the way they had been in the past nine years plus. This is no airport fiction. Just visit Ikot Ekpene, Omuma, School, Clifford, Eziukwu, Kaduna, Saint Michael’s (close to the Central Police Station), Osusu, Urata, Obohia, Force, Nkwo Ngwa Market, Port Harcourt, Asa by Pound, Ngwa by Ohanku roads are mostly impassable as they have all been taken over by weeds and other eyesores.
If there is superfluous money to buy posh and elitist houses in parts of the state, Abuja, Lagos and overseas, there should also be funds to fix these roads just as former Governors Godswill Akpabio, Ibrahim Sehu Shema, Sule Lamido and Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan of Akwa Ibom, Katsina, Jigawa and Delta states, respectively, had done for their environments. Good governance is essentially the provision of basic amenities.

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