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| first left: Alex Otti; centre: Chibike Amaechi and his wife |
It is only in Nigeria and a few African countries
that politicians finance their elections with their personal funds. Hence, if
you don’t have some millions (funds) in your bank account, nobody will consider
you electable.
Moreover, the politicians will claim that
they are spending their money to win elections in order to save the poor from bad governance. And in most cases, when the elections are won they leave the electorate worse off than the previous
administration.
In Abia state for instance, when the former governor, Chief
TA Orji (Ochendo) sever ties with his predecessor,
Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, Ochendo told Abia residents that he has liberated
them from the forces of darkness and that things would get better.
Unfortunately, the people didn’t know that Ochendo meant
that he liberated himself and thus, things became better for him and his
family. And for the citizens of Abia state, things became worse than what
obtained in the previous administration.
Anyway, during the last gubernatorial election, Ochendo was
able to install his man, the present governor of Abia state, Okezie Ikpeazu
(PhD).
Mr Ikpeazu of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) contested that election with Mr Alex Otti of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and
Mr Nyerere of All Progressives Congress (APC) - the 3 leading contestants.
However, the Appeal Tribunal has decided
that it wasn’t Mr Ikpeazu that won that election but Mr Otti. And so they have instructed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to swear in Mr Otti as the governor.
Well, Mr Otti has to wait for another couple of months
because Mr Ikpeazu has gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the ruling. But
going by trend, there is 80% chance that the Supreme Court will uphold the decision
of the Appeal Tribunal.
Meanwhile, Mr Otti has released a statement thanking Abia
state citizens as follows – “we have finally recovered the mandate
of the people, which was brazenly and shamelessly stolen from you a few months
ago.”
On behalf of Abia state citizens, I want to thank Mr Otti
for recognising that the mandate belongs to all of us. And that the mandate
should not, at any time, cease to be ours. And most especially, Mr Otti should
note that this mandate was given through APGA.
In fact, it is very important to reiterate that the mandate
came through APGA because politicians have used and dumped APGA in the past.
Such as Mr Rochas Okorocha who dumped APGA for APC after becoming the governor
of Imo state on the sentiment of Ndigbo which APGA exudes as a political party.
Based on the above experience, it became worrying that Otti
was pictured, prior to the Appeal Tribunal judgement, with Mr Chibike Amaechi
and other APC members.
They were praying and rejoicing over the cancellation of the
Rivers state gubernatorial election, which Mr Wike of PDP was declared a
winner. Obviously, Otti was rejoicing with an enemy against another enemy.
Mr Otti should’ve considered APC as a political enemy since
APC fielded a candidate in the same election that he contested. But if Mr Otti didn’t see APC in that light,
then he has some explanation to make.
Thus, Otti should clarify whether he has any intention of defecting to the APC as alleged by the Abia state PDP. Abia people ought
to know because if the Supreme Court finally upholds the Appeal Tribunal
verdict, Mr Otti will become the governor of Abia state.
Nevertheless, if he is nursing such an ambition; he should
remember his statement – “from inception, our guiding philosophy in leading
this liberation struggle has been, ‘Abia First’! I sincerely believe that it is
Abia first, before any sectional, narrow or personal interest.”
And since he sincerely believes that it is Abia first;
having acknowledged that the mandate belongs to Abia, which came through APGA,
he must not take Abia’s mandate to APC. We will surely resist him.
As it stands, it is apparent that Ochendo financed the
election of Mr Ikpeazu from Abia state treasury. As for Alex Otti, we may not
know who financed his election. But we pray that the liberation Mr Otti
promised us in his statement will be different from Ochendo’s.
Finally, as Mr Otti has already prayed with the enemy; he
should not contemplate inviting Abia citizens to dine with the enemy. If Abia
residents have considered dining with the enemy they would have had their long
spoons by now.