While the gloaters may gloat and the mockers rejoice over this woman’s supposed wrong use of word, the truth is that the message was clear. Therefore, in borrowing from this woman, whether the story is right or wrong, I would as well say that while Achebe may have died, his manhood lives on. Before you begin to have ideas, let us look at the meaning of manhood.

According to Thesaurus, manhood is the “qualities and attributes conventionally thought to be appropriate to a man, especially physical strength, courage, and determination.” Yes, as these relate to Achebe, his manhood lives on. Achebe was strong-willed, courageous and determined in his endeavours. He was fearless and resolute. That is the man in him. To be sure, Achebe may have died physically, but his literary works and what he stood for will continue to stare us in the face. With his books, Achebe lives.

With the cascading prose in his books, he lives. With his enduring legacy in the literary firmament and the academia, this illustrious son of Nigeria lives. Therefore, in death Achebe stands as a colossus, and, perhaps, even taller than he was in real life. Even without winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, Achebe has won bigger awards in the minds of many who have read his books. Things Fall Apart, his first novel, is what I will call a living literature. No matter how many times anybody may read it, each reading of this epic novel is as fresh as in the first time.

As a secondary school boy, many years ago, I did read many literature books. Even with my little knowledge then, especially in appreciating literary works, I must confess that no book has ever made an enduring impression in me more than Things Fall Apart. The arresting effect of the book makes me continue to read the book till the end. Indeed, there is always the longing, by any reader, to find out what happens in the next paragraph, page and chapter.

I would say that Things Fall Apart is the greatest of all Achebe’s books. Reading it taught me the act of writing. The descriptive power in the book, without exaggeration, is out of the world. Whenever I read the book, I usually visualise the setting of Umuofia, the community that Achebe presented. I usually visualise Okonkwo, the lead character in the book.

I usually visualise the conflict between the ancient, represented by Okonkwo’s Umuofia, before he went on exile, and the modern, represented by the culture of the white, which, according to Obierika, in the book, did cut a knife on the things that bound the village together and the people had fallen apart. I admire Achebe’s writing style. I admire his storytelling techniques. With Things Fall Apart, this departed writer taught the world a lesson in creativity. With this book, he held the world spellbound.

For a book to be translated into many languages is not a mean feat. It shows how accepted and recognised that piece of literary work is. Indeed, it’s not always that a writer’s book will be quoted by people and continues to be quoted. It’s not always that the fame of a writer’s work will go beyond the boundaries of his country and continent, even when he never won the Nobel Prize in Literature. What I admire most in Achebe is that fact that his writing did spark off some controversies.

For me, a writer who would not provoke controversy is not worth his pen and ink. A writer should write with conviction, without minding whose ox is gored. In writing, based on conviction, a writer may not appeal to the emotion of some readers. This is okay. I believe that writing is about conviction, not emotion. I suspect that Achebe knew that his end was near. That he released his last book, There was a Country, last year and died this year may not have been an accident. With the book, Achebe’s last outing was noticed.

With the controversy the book provoked, Achebe has bowed out when the ovation was loudest. A writer of his calibre shouldn’t get anything less. It is obvious that if he did not present the book at the time he did, it may have died with him or come unheralded any other time. Like a big masquerade, whose exit from the scene must be noticed, Achebe stirred the hornet’s nest and bowed out triumphantly. As we await his burial, lovers of Achebe should not grieve that he did not win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

It’s still possible that he could win posthumously. If he does, he would join Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish diplomat and second secretary general of the United Nations in 1961, who received the Nobel Prize after his death. For Nigeria, the greatest honour to Achebe is to avoid those things he hated and wrote against.

It’s not just about eulogising the icon by those in government. It’s about doing what Achebe hoped for, which he presented in his writings. It’s about fighting injustice, corruption and catering to the needs of the downtrodden. It’s about being human and living up to expectation.

It’s not everyday that a nation’s president and indeed, one who is going into a crucial election in the next two years, would look everybody straight in the eye and set his brother free. It puts a lie to the insinuation that Jonathan is weak.

I am sure that Jonathan knew what would happened before he chose to grant amnesty to former Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha; Alhaji Shettima Bulama; the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua; General Oladipo Diya; Alhaji Mohammed Lima Biu; General Abdulkareem Adisa; Major Segun Fadipe and Major Bello Magaji. Indeed, it would have been shocking if he did not know that some Nigerians would rise up against his action.

He would have known that the opposition would pounce on it and, therefore, take his government to the cleaners. He would have known that some countries would condemn the action. He would have known these and, perhaps, was prepared for the criticism, at best and the backlash, at most.

As expected, Nigerians are shouting. The United States of America has cried blue murder. And some members of the opposition political parties are having a field day, condemning the action. For me, I do not know why some people are bothering themselves about the clemency Jonathan granted those he chose to. Why should people crucify him for granting Alamieyeseigha, most especially, or anybody, for that matter, amnesty?

I say this because the President, in granting the affected people amnesty, was exercising his prerogative of mercy. It’s his constitutional right to so do.

By the constitutional provisions, Jonathan could grant clemency to anybody whatsoever, whether such person was convicted of murder, armed robbery, corruption, felony or whatever. If, therefore, he chose to grant Alamieyeseigha, his kinsman and former boss clemency, he’s acting within the law. It’s Alamieyeseigha’s luck that someone who sits at the apex of government at this point in time could extend such gesture to him. Nobody should begrudge him.

It’s interesting reading the sole point some of those criticising the granting of pardon to Alamieyeseigha have made. They have said that granting the former governor amnesty is a death knell on the anti-corruption war in the country. My question is: Does it follow that because Jonathan granted state pardon to a man, who was convicted of corruption, his government would not press forward with the anti-graft programme?

I do not think so. Even if Alamieyeseigha were not freed, if the anti-corruption war, as being supervised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), is bound to die, it would. This is because, apart from the support of the executive arm of government, the judiciary plays a key role in the matter. At present, many cases of alleged corruption are in court, but they cannot be concluded because it’s either the judicial process is slow or that the EFCC did not do a thorough job of investigating the cases.

These are some of the things that could slow down the anti-corruption war. If the executive gives everything needed in the anti-corruption war and the judiciary fumbles, would anybody blame Jonathan? In any case, what is wrong in granting Alamieyeseigha state pardon? He is not the first person to be so granted clemency.

The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was in jail, in the First Republic, but General Yakubu Gowon, as Head of State, not only freed him but also made him Minister of Finance. Awolowo was not just a minister, but also in the kitchen cabinet of Gowon, as it were, to the extent that his advice was relied upon for the successful prosecution of the civil war. General Abdulsalami Abubakar, as military Head of State, brought ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, who General Sani Abacha had convicted for treason, out of jail.

By so doing, he freed him of the wrong and prepared ground for him to pick the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Obasanjo went ahead to emerge as elected president in 1999, less than one year after he was freed. The late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, leader of the failed Republic of Biafra, went into exile during the war. He was considered to have levied war against Nigeria and therefore, was deemed to be guilty of an offence. President Shehu Shagari granted him amnesty and paved the way for him to return to Nigeria.

In Awolowo, Obasanjo and Ojukwu’s cases, the governments at the time they got into trouble saw them as guilty, but the governments that granted them clemency felt they should be freed. I do not see the difference between what happened to these Nigerians and what has happened to Alamieyeseigha.

The former governor, like others who got presidential pardon, only enjoyed the grace of God. Alamieyeseigha may have been convicted of corruption, but does it hold that he should be guilty of this crime for the rest of his life? Indeed, at what point would a man be said to have received enough punishment for his wrongdoing? Pardon is necessary for any living soul, no matter what he may have done.

If God, in His infinite mercy, made way for repentance and forgiveness, I don’t know why mortal should insist otherwise. My question for some of those pouring invectives on Jonathan for granting clemency to Alamieyeseigha is: Would they say, for sure, that they have not done one wrong or another at any point in their lives? If I were Jonathan, I would do what Jesus Christ did when a woman caught committing adultery was brought to Him for trial.

As recorded in John 8, when the Scribes and Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus Christ and declared that the law of Moses demanded that she should be stoned to death, the Saviour did something. In John 8: 7, the Bible said: “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

If this happens in the Alamieyseigha’s case, I am sure that those crying wolf today about his state pardon would do what the woman’s accusers did, for when they heard this, according to the Bible, and “being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the eldest, even unto the last and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst.”

Jesus Christ had asked the woman, after her accusers had left, “hath no man condemned thee,” in which the woman said they had gone.

The Saviour had declared: “Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.” What more would I say? If Jesus Christ, who had the power to judge, could not condemn a woman caught committing adultery, why won’t Jonathan pardon a man who has been humiliated, removed from office as governor, convicted and jailed for corruption?

The pretender saints should continue to shout, but any of them without sin should cast the first stone. It must be noted that by saying this, I am not supporting corruption. I cannot and will never.

That was a time when some politicians from the northern part of the country insisted that one of their own should rather be the standard bearer of the PDP, to complete the second term, as it were, of President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, who died barely three years in office. It was not that some of us doubted that such a deal could have been struck. It was simply because we felt that in politics, promise has never been promise.

Indeed, at that time, there was a major conflict. With Vice President Abubakar Atiku as the consensus candidate of the North, in the fight for the PDP ticket, the like of President Ibrahim Babangida, General Aliyu Gusau, Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma and some other northern politicians were opposed to Jonathan contesting the election.

Indeed, most northerners felt that somebody from that part of the country should be concluding what Yar’Adua started in 2007.

Jonathan, on his part, as a sitting president, was interested and, in fact, bent on contesting the election. As expected, the political scene was charged. The nation was polarised along North and South lines. It was in the midst of this political crisis that news filtered that governors from the North had agreed to support the Jonathan candidature if he would go for a single term.

Although none of the parties – the governors or Jonathan – openly stated what transpired in their political meetings, things appeared to have fallen in place for the President, when, at the National Convention of the PDP, delegates from the North voted for him, against Atiku, the supposed consensus candidate of the North. With PDP ticket delivered to Jonathan, governors from the North also delivered their states’ votes to the President, in the presidential election, against General Muhammadu Buhari.

I was not amused that Jonathan purportedly promised to do a single term. I was not enthusiastic because I did not believe that such an agreement would be kept. I saw it as a political promise made to get the PDP ticket. Indeed, I was surprised that northern governors could fall so cheaply for a promise by the same man, who signed the zoning agreement in the PDP and denied that such pact ever existed.

I saw it as a sell-out by northern governors, who, behaving as typical politicians, were gullible and selfish, as they appeared to be more interested in things that benefited them. To be sure, I never believed that Jonathan would do a single term.

I still don’t believe it now, despite the fact that Jonathan has not said he would contest 2015 presidential election. Everything has been primed for Jonathan to not only pick the presidential ticket of the PDP, without a contest, but also to take another shot at the Presidency. It is a project foretold. When the dummy that Jonathan promised a single term was sold, I knew that another deceit was being unveiled.

And I did say, in many articles, that Jonathan would bid for a second term. At that time, I did state that at the middle of Jonathan’s tenure, groups and people would start campaigning that he should go for a second term. Events have proved me right.

Now, members of the PDP, including the Women Leader of the party, Mrs. Kema Chikwe, have declared that there’s no vacancy in Aso Rock. Others have said that the “transformation agenda” of Jonathan is changing the face of the country, and therefore, the President should seek another mandate in 2015. Yet others have said that it’s Jonathan’s fundamental and constitutional right to seek a second term.

This the second terms campaign foretold. Perhaps, some Nigerians think that the court action, which sought to know whether Jonathan could contest the 2015 election, was an accident. Certainly, it was not.

It was a cheap way of campaigning for Jonathan to contest the 2015 election. It was part of the programme for Jonathan’s second term. With the verdict that Jonathan is qualified to contest, which, in any case, was not news, as everybody knows that he, by the provisions of the constitution, was eligible to seek a second term, the campaign is on.

My misgiving in the Jonathan-must-continue-in-office project is not that the President and his camp want a second term. It is because of the way the project is being pursued in the crudest manner, without the sponsors and the ultimate beneficiary minding the shame thereof.

I have looked for the difference between what President Olusegun Obasanjo did as president and emperor of PDP at that time and what Jonathan is doing now and I have not found any. To have his way in PDP, Obasanjo saw to it that some members of the party were deregistered. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was used to hound many governors into submission.

A sitting governor was forcefully impeached, arrested and sent to jail. Another governor was illegally impeached and his deputy installed and given the PDP ticket in 2007. Yet another governor was removed with the declaration of a state of emergency, to ensure that he was not in office to seek re-election. That was the Obasanjo magic. Now Jonathan is toeing the same desperate line, as Obasanjo and even doing more, just to get a second term. Those who are in doubt should find out why Rivers State governor is now a target. He is the target because he is seen to be opposed to Jonathan’s presidency beyond 2015.

Those in doubt should find out why the PDP has formed a separate Governors’ Forum, with Governor Godswill Akpabio as chairman. The political party did this to reduce the powers of the anti-Jonathan 2015 presidency in PDP as well as whittle down the influence of the opposition parties’ governors in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. Those in doubt should find out why Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Segun Oni lost their positions as secretary and national vice chairman (South West) of PDP, respectively.

They lost out because Jonathan wants to remove Obasanjo’s men from the decision-making organs of the political party. Those in doubt should find out why Chief Tony Anenih returned as the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees. Of course, he returned to fix the Jonathan 2015 presidency.

Those in doubt should find out why the PDP is proposing amending its constitution to state that a sitting president has the first right of rejection of a ticket. The Jonathan people want it, so that the president would get the second-term ticket without any contest in the PDP. In all these, Jonathan has proved to be a good student of Obasanjo. He understudied him and has reinvented his political engineering.

However, I have wondered why the Jonathan camp cannot be innovative in the second term project. I have wondered why they are using tactics that were foretold about two years ago. For me, this is too cheap. There should have been some element of finesse and an attempt to mask the intention. It is obvious that they don’t care. For them, the goal must be achieved and those who do not like the method used should go to hell. Well, I do not really bother how Jonathan gets his ticket to contest the presidential election.

I am not a member of the PDP. What I do care for is the conduct of credible elections, as Jonathan has been boasted of doing in Anambra, Edo, Ondo and Bayelsa. The question is: Will Jonathan deliver credible presidential election?

This is understandable. Some Nigerians, who are not only longing for a change but also against a drift to a one-party state, are looking forward to any arrangement that could displace the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from office at the centre. Those who want a change reckon that this would give Nigerians the opportunity to compare the PDP and another party, with a view to knowing which one is better.

As it is said, when a woman marries two husbands separately, she knows who’s better. From all indications, it will be hard for any political party, as an individual institution, to displace the PDP at the federal level. This is not to say that the PDP is invincible or that it always presents the best candidate that cannot be beaten.

No. It’s owing to the fact that the PDP has evolved a strong structure over the years and, therefore, could dwarf others. Indeed, a political party that has 24 governors and, therefore, controls two-thirds of the country and whose members constitute the majority in the National Assembly has enough muscle to keep winning elections. The reason for this is simple. Governors are the prime movers in the country’s polity. And PDP has 24 governors.

As long as these governors are capturing people’s hearts, in their respective states, using their performance or popularity or intimidation, they deliver the votes to their political party. Also, the governors are the ones whose agents could manipulate elections to suit their purpose, in a country like Nigeria, which is still struggling to organise transparent polls. To be sure, the governors are the Lords of the PDP. Since they call the shots, as leaders of the party in their states, they tend to work together, in their collective interests and therefore, dictate what happens, at best, or get a compromise, at worse.

This is what is happening in the PDP, where the governors have jolted the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, who is fighting for his political life. As is always the case, it’s either they have their way or they strike a deal aimed at self-preservation. Whichever way, the governors win. From the setting, therefore, it’s extremely difficult for the ACN, CPC or ANPP to go it alone, in the battle to displace the PDP. The outcomes of the four previous general elections are indications to this. Therefore, a merger or alliance among the opposition political parties would help in shaking up the PDP or displacing it from power.

I say this because all the opposition political parties combined, at present, are in control of 12 states, which is one-third of the 36 states. The ACN controls six states (Lagos, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Edo). The Labour Party (LP) is in control of one state (Ondo). The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has two states in its kitty (Imo and Anambra), while CPC controls one state (Nasarawa).

There is the possibility that a merger of these political parties or an arrangement, which makes it possible for them to work together, could cause more states falling to the opposition and therefore, the take-over of the Federal Government, in transparent elections. However, inasmuch as the merger and the prospect of one singular opposition party looks bright, I am afraid that the desired result would never be achieved. I say this because previous experiences have shown that selfishness has always been the bane of any merger plan or alliance.

Apart from the 1999 experiment, when the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All Nigeria Party (APP) presented Chief Olu Falae as a joint presidential candidate, no other merger/alliance has ever worked. This is so because leaders of the political parties that had attempted such arrangement never dropped their personal ambition, ego and interests. Of course, in such condition, merger/alliance is bound to fail. It must be noted that the AD/APP arrangement worked because of the selflessness of members of the APP, which made them to agree that their political party, which was obviously stronger than AD in 1999, presented the vice presidential candidate, to AD’s presidential candidate.

If the APP members behaved like today’s members of the ACN and CPC, most especially, it would not have worked. For the avoidance of doubt, it was the ego trip and the posture of self-importance by leaders of the ACN and the CPC that truncated the merger/alliance plan of the two parties in 2011. If the Muhammadu Buharis and Bola Tinubus had played down self, perhaps, the merger arrangement could have worked. Unfortunately, these people stuck to their guns, so to say, in their demands and therefore, the merger deal never came through. Of course, such merger failure made it easier for the PDP to win the presidential election in 2011.

This tragedy could happen again in 2015, despite the assurances by leaders of the ACN, CPC and ANPP that this time their personal interests would be secondary. I have my doubt that selfishness would not rear its head again. Now, Buhari has indicated interest to contest, yet again, the presidency in 2015. He said that he would present himself because of the numerous appeals by his supporters for him to bid for the number one position. This is against his earlier declaration, after the 2011 elections, that he would not seek elective office again.

With Buhari ready to contest in 2015, the pertinent question is: Would he ever step down for another person, in the event of a merger, if this becomes imperative? I doubt this. If Buhari is joining the 2015 presidential race because his supporters are putting pressure on him, it’s the same way he would resist appeal to step down, in any merger arrangement that would not present him as the candidate, because his supporters would also ask him not to. As it stands, Buhari is doing the bidding of his supporters and those appealing to him instead of acting on his conviction. This is not good for the merger plan.

It’s only when leaders of the political parties discussing merger begin to act selflessly, like the APP did in 1999, that merger would work. I must say that members of the APP, whose political party transformed to ANPP, have always made sacrifices. This is the unique thing about the political party. In 2007, now National Chairman of the ANPP, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who had earlier emerged as the presidential candidate of the party, also gave up his ticket for Buhari, who just joined the party then. That was the best opportunity for Buhari to win the presidential election, especially as he contested with the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo as vice presidential candidate.

However, this sacrifice of Onu yielded no result, as President Olusegun Obasanjo won the election. I must note that it’s not only the merger of the opposition political parties that would displace the PDP. The calibre of the candidate the merger would present would count. A merger with a dark horse as candidate would certainly not fly. Also, the merging political parties should not go into this project believing that if the PDP presents a southern candidate, perhaps, President Jonathan, they should present a northern candidate, to win. Past experience has proved this calculation wrong, as seen in 2007 when Buhari represented the ANPP and Obasanjo ran on the platform of the PDP.

It’s obvious that such strategy would divide the country into two, along South and North lines, and make it possible for the ruling PDP to win. Finally, I must add that a merger arrangement or alliance without the South East would fail. It appears that the proponents of merger/alliance think that only the ACN, ANPP and CPC are relevant in this. They are wrong.

What happens to APGA and the Progressive Peoples Party (PPA), which have strong root in the South East? These political parties should be carried along, for the ultimate goal, which is to displace PDP, to be achieved. If the South East is not, therefore, part of the plan, it would be easy for the zone to align with the PDP. When this happens, it’s nunc dimities to the merger goal.

He said, in his short text message (SMS), that worse things were happening in Abia than in some of the states I had commented on, but I refused to write on them. He thought that this was not fair on the people of Abia, insisting that if Abia becomes a failed state, those who refused to speak out would take the greater blame. I share these people’s sentiments.

However, I must say I have not, consciously or unconsciously, taken a trip to Afghanistan over matters concerning Abia State. I couldn’t have. Not long ago, I did write an article about the state government’s pastime of always blaming former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu for its obvious failures and inactions, for instance. In that article, which highlighted the “Kaluphobia” in Abia State, I stated that the mention of the former governor’s name was making some people, most especially the state governor, Chief Theodore Amaefula Orji, to catch cold. I stated that while the state government was dissipating energy on anti-Kalu smear campaign, the state was decaying, with bad roads everywhere and unpaid salaries.

It was an article borne out of disappointment that a governor, which shouted at the rooftops that it would perform wonders if it severed relationship with his political godfather, has not done much, in the true sense of it, four years thereafter. It’s pertinent to note that when the article was published, Governor Orji’s aides, in their character, did call me names. Funny enough, they could not say anything to convince discerning Nigerians that I was wrong in my position. Instead of proving that they had transformed Abia, they attacked Kalu and priding themselves as having done better than him in government.

I bet you that they would do the same after reading this article. They would start attacking Kalu instead of addressing the issues therein. This would not be surprising. When only sycophants and hired hands say that a government is doing well, in the midst of disappointment expressed by the majority, you can be sure that the glory of God and the goodwill of the people have left it. The truth is that in their praise-singing, they would not cover up the fact that Abia has degenerated from God’s Own State to a land of thorns and thistle, where the people expected bread and fish and the government gave them stones and snakes. I have looked at the TA Orji government and cannot but say that it’s irredeemable.

I have not seen any conscious effort by the government to leave an indelible mark in Abia State. What I see is an avalanche of excuses, for any thing not done. If people complain of bad roads, the government blames the rain. If lawyers stage a protest over bad roads, the government calls them sponsored group. If pensioners protest non-payment of their pension, government would call them disgruntled elements. If civil servants complain about non-payment of salaries, government would blame low federal allocation.

Of course, no amount of excuses would make up for the failures of government to fulfil its Social Contract with the people. A government, which is deaf to the cries of the people, in Aba, Umuahia, Ukwa, Ngwa and other places and which prefers to chase shadows cannot get anybody’s commendation. It’s sad that a government, whose people are daily crying over wanton neglect would rather embark on ego trip than use the instrumentality of power to better the lot of the majority.

The other day, Governor Orji and the so-called Abia stakeholders left state functions and other things for a self-serving mission at the national headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The group said they were in Abuja to persuade the leadership of the PDP not to readmit Kalu in the political party. It’s unbelievable that men, who call themselves men, including a governor, senators, former secretary to a national political party and others, traveled all the way from Abia to Abuja, spending state government’s funds in a trip aimed at stopping one man from exercising his fundamental rights.

Such bahaviour is tantamount to a man chasing rat while his house is on fire. In any case, isn’t it funny that people who said Kalu no longer has political relevance in Abia State are afraid of his shadows in the PDP? Now that they are having sleepless night that PDP, in its reconciliation programme, may readmit Kalu, I wonder what they would do if Kalu accepts to rejoin the political party. To say the least, it’s incredible that Governor Orji and his co-travellers are playing god in a democracy, when they had, at one time or another, changed political parties.

These are PDP co-joiners who are trying to determine those who would join the political party. To be sure, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor was in the All Peoples Party (APP) in 1999. He lost the governorship election to Kalu and later defected to PDP, from where he became a minister, as Kalu’s nominee. Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who was made deputy governor by Kalu in 1999, defected from PDP, in 2003, to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), on whose platform he contested for the position of governor. He lost and later returned to PDP, from where he became a senator in 2007.

Senator Ngozi Nwoga was a member of ANPP and later defected to PDP. Governor TA Orji had defected from the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), on whose platform he became governor, to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), first, and finally to the PDP. These are people who are now pretending to be better PDP members than others. Joiners, who may defect at the drop of the heart, if they think that their bread would be better buttered in another political party, are now determining who should join the PDP or not. For the sake of argument, let’s even assume that Kalu wants to return to PDP. It’s obvious that he would not have committed any offence if he so wishes.

The constitution guarantees freedom of association and therefore, anybody whatsoever could join any union, group or association of his or her choice. If Kalu wants to rejoin PDP, it’s his fundamental rights. As long as he meets the requirement of the PDP, he could join. It is not for TA Orji to determine his suitability or otherwise. In any case, what standing does Governor Orji and others have to determine who should join the PDP or not? Has anybody asked him and others where they were in 1998 when Kalu donated $1 million to facilitate the take off and smooth running of the PDP.

Where also were these people when Kalu established, built and won the governorship election in Abia, in 1999? Unlike them, Kalu never dumped PDP. He was rather chased out when then President Olusegun Obasanjo used the re-registration exercise of the political party to kick out people he did not like. TA Orji and his government should devote their time to cater to the needs of Abia people. Aba roads are in a state of disrepair, with craters, potholes and flood dotting them. Recently when The Sun published a report on Aba roads, the government publicists said the pictures used were taken when Kalu was governor. Last week, the government said it was going to rehabilitate more than 10 roads in Aba.

The truth has eventually come out. Civil servants in Abia are owed salaries for months. Pensioners are owed arrears of their pension. Instead of solving these socio-economic problems, TA Orji is devoting his time and resources to a self-serving campaign of stopping Kalu from rejoining the PDP. Time is running out on the Abia government. It’s almost two years gone, with two more years to go. By 2015 when TA Orji would have completed his two terms of eight years, some of us will not be surprise that the only thing he would have, as his major achievement, would be the smear campaign he mounted against Kalu.

I hope that by them he could walk the street of Aba, most especially, and not experience what happened last year, during the lying-in-state of the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, when angry Aba residents showed their displeasure with the government by pelting the governor with stones when he mounted the podium to speak.