Thebridgenewsonline No 1 News portal
IKECHI EMENIKE: ANSWER to MISGOVERNANCE in ABIA STATE.
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”. Plato.
After the annulment of the June 12, 1992 general election adjudged the fairest and freest election ever held in Nigeria and return of military rule many people lost interest in the democratic system.
This was how many good Nigerians felt
when in 1998 the then military President General Abdulsalam Abubakar announced his intention to return power to the civilians. The fear of losing their hard earned money and probably their lives like Chief MKO Abiola, made them stay away from the process, hence alleged gamblers and those whose sources of income are questionable ventured into politics and it favoured them.
Abia state, has not been so lucky in terms of quality leadership. Yes it could be said that His Excellency, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, popularly called ‘Action governor’ for the numerous roads he constructed and his welfarist policies, ended his good deeds by imposing a marionette on the people.
The era of OUK’S imposed governor was the darkest period in the history of Abia state. His Excellency, Senator TA Orji, came with a mind set of self aggrandizement by impoverishment of the people. He believed in enriching himself beyond imagination and also taking a perceived revenge on his predecessor. All the roads built by OUK were not maintained, and new ones were either poorly constructed or not done at all. That era will remain as the dark period in Abia state history.
To cap the bad governance, Senator TA Orji insisted and imposed a successor on the people, Okezie Victor Ikpeazu (PhD), against the wish of the people. Abians displayed their displeasure by voting massively against him, but no thanks to the flawed electoral system that saw to the emergence of the unpopular candidate as winner.
Again considering the level of infrastructural decay in the state as at 2015, one can rightly say that Ikpeazu inherited a failed state. However, considering the amount of funds that has entered into the state coffers between 2015 and now both statutory allocations, grants and loans, many had thought that the governor would have lived above board. Seven years down the line Abia rather than improve has continued to retrogress with the appellation as the worst state in Nigeria.
According to George Orwell, “A people who elect corrupt politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors are not victims……. but accomplices”.
Can we say that those who helped in manipulating the system to bring in the wrong persons contributed to the pains of the people? Today workers are owed months of salaries, same with retirees.
Apart from the fact that Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, plunging Abia state into an unprecedented debt, he failed to utilize the monies that accrued to the state for her development blaming his godfathers for his woes.
Therefore, as 2023 draws near, what Abians need is a man with good track record, a progressive, a man strong enough both in character and action to break the chain of godfatherism that has continued to plague and plunge the state into misery.
“The wise who refuses to rule should prepare to suffer the rule of idiots”. Socrates.
This is why High Chief Ikechi Emenike, who has shown that he did not join politics for selfish, self-centered reason has continued to deploy a disruptive approach to his politics. It is a system that is alien to most entrenched corrupt politicians in Abia. High Chief have refused to allow liars and idiots lord it over him and continue to punish the people. This is why many see him as being arrogant, which in reality is not true.
High Chief Ikechi Emenike, is a first class graduate of the great University of Jos and a product of prestigious Methodist College Uzuakoli who believes that until leaders begin to leave a selfless life devoid of unnecessary affluence things may not go well in the society. He detests sharing of the state resources to individuals in the name of stakeholders, nonpayment of workers salaries, pensions and gratuities, unemployment and lack of enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
Of a truth, Abians want a positive change, a man of courage, a man that can stop the alleged paying of whopping 580 million naira monthly to stakeholders. High Chief, as he is popularly called is the man for the job. As a trained economist he understands how to transform the urgly downward trajectory the state has been plunged into.
As the 2023 election draws near, Abia delegates of the All Progressive Congress, APC are charged for the first time to think of the well being of the state rather than self. A wrong decission at this time will translate to either 4 or 8 years of self inflicted suffering.
A vote for Ikechi Emenike is a vote for prosperity, peace of mind and future of the children yet unborn.
