The problems Abia state is facing today honestly started from the time of its first Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. He was said to be a Governor who introduced what I would call “mamatocracy” in which his government was indirectly controlled by his ambitious mother.

The double tenure of Dr. Orji Uzor was characterized with many criticisms one of them being his inability to implement substantial projects in the state leaving the state to a point of pity.

As if that wasn’t enough, he went ahead under the aegis of PPA (Progressive Peoples Alliance) to help usher in a new governor to the state in 2007, who was said to be the worst governor the state has ever had since the time of Sam Mbakwe (Former governor of Imo state from where abia was created). He, governor T.A Orji ruled for a wasteful eight years in office, four years in which he blamed his successor for witch-hunting him and then later carpet crossed to PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) to save himself from his perceived “enemies” and the other four years he spent on legacy projects which was just a cover up to play politics.

But that’s in the past now, and moving to the current predicament that we are faced in, which is the do or die affair between Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and Alex Otti.

Okezie Ikpeazu was introduced by the former governor, T.A Orji because he is an Ngwa man and they are the next in line to bring forth a governor. Let me clearly state that I honestly do not have any problem with Okezie Ikpeazu as a person, I have never heard of him before his governorship race neither do I know his character and I know many Abians share my thoughts on that but the reason why its looking like some do not want to have anything to do with him is simply because of one reason, which is his affiliation with former governor T.A Orji. This has made him a person of ridicule even before being given the opportunity to prove himself.

Alex Otti on the other hand, ran against Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu during the 2015 governorship elections under the aegis of APGA (All Progressive Grand Alliance). He is a well known personality in the banking sector and was the managing director of Diamond bank and during his days the bank reportly witnessed significant growth.

That apart, the 2015 elections in Nigeria was truly commendable in most states where it was free and fair and even opponents congratulated the winners, but unfortunately Abia was a different case. All hell was let loose when INEC declared Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as governor and Alex Otti went to the Abia state election tribunal court on the case that INEC allowed the results of three local governments with cases of mass alleged rigging.

The tribunal after months of court hearing declared Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as the governor of the state and declared that Alex Otti had no real case. Otti unsatisfied with the election tribunal reading appealed to the appeal court in Owerri and to the surprise of everyone, he was outrightly declared the rightful winner of the elections and ordered to be sworn in immediately.

Now Abians for 16 years have suffered because of the political play between popular personalities in the state which has made the state move backwards in development. The 2015 elections gave most of us hope that finally, we might get it right but that hope could be smashed to the rocks seeing the current situation in the state. Is it possible for Abia to be free from bloody politics and greed? Will a time come when we would see a leader who would change our state?

We as Abians have been put through a lot hardship because of our unfortunate choice of leaders who in their own way have deprived the state of its needed development and have ruled with lack of vision and steadiness, only playing politics with the lives of innocent citizens. No matter what the Supreme Court ruling would be, I sincerely hope the next governor of this state would understand our grievance, lift the state from its shame and set it on the right course.

If you don’t understand where you are, you can’t plan ahead.

Abians need to accept they are being treated poorly and need to stand up for a better tomorrow.

( the views of this article are strictly that of the writer and not on account of any political affiliations)
http://marvisblog.com/blog/2016/01/11/abia-state-the-political-curse-that-wont-break/