Abia: Who cast a spell on us? (Part 24)

For the opposition figures and their idealist supporters, the hoodoo continued with the shellacking by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the recently concluded Aba North/South Federal House by-election.

If their mission in Abia State was wholly altruistic, the Saturday’s embarrassing setback should stir disquietude among them because it laid bare, the distrust, alienation and dichotomy between them and the electorate.

Aside from this, it also gave respiration to the hackneyed aphorism, “success is not achieved by mere wish”, It is the upshot of devotion, camaraderie, strategic planning and honesty.

Beyond the Panglossian sanguinity, rodomontade, fanfaronade and empty promises, the brutal truth is that the opposition in Abia State needs a reality check.

Reminiscent of the build-up to the 2019 general election, the omnishambles was conspicuous the moment the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced March 27, 2021, as the date for the by-election. It was apparent that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr Mascot Orji-Kalu was not the party hierarchy’s choice much less the electorate. His elder brother, Dr Orji Kalu, highhandedly imposed him on everyone disregarding the disenchantments, scowls on the people’s faces and the looming disaster.

A political party should not be an exclusive chattel of a single individual. Its success depends on consensus, clear-cut ideology – that will ensure public acceptance – and a collective selection of a candidate through transparent primaries.

The APC never observed these golden rules but opted for a charade (that produced an unprecedented 47,000 votes) rubbished by the measly 3,500 votes remitted by the electorate on the election day proper.

It must have been a bitter pill to swallow for the APC bigwigs in Abia State. Do not be swayed by their presence in Aba and their fake solidarity for Mascot, they worked for his defeat. Chosen hypocrisy over reprimanding or resisting OUK’s overbearingness should be a concern to all Abians. People who lack the balls to speak against injustice in their party cannot guarantee us justice when voted into power.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) – a party destroyed by the avarice of its national leaders – isn’t an exception as well. If we judged by Saturday’s result, its candidate, Mr Destiny Nwagwu wasn’t the people’s choice as his Facebook warriors made impressionable Abians believed on social media.

The “Ahamefula” slogan was a slight on his personality. Convincing the electorate with his aptitude and requisite would have been better considering that the late Hon. Ossy Prestige had a wife and children — males and females.

As long as Mr Destiny isn’t going to change his name to Mr Prestige, marry his widow or adopt his children, the slogan was Neanderthal. His was a clear case of low self-esteem and identity crisis. The voters weren’t going to bulge. Therefore, it would be safe to say that his aspiration died even before it started.

The opposition figures in Abia State are not cohesive and are suspicious of one another. With such disunion, upstaging a united PDP will remain a phantasm. The most sickening is that the majority of them masquerading as opposition act as syzygies to the PDP.

We cannot get rid of the PDP, political godfathers and their dynasties by copycatting their strategies and welcoming their deadwood with no electoral values whatsoever. Doing so is tantamount to cul-de-sac. Nobody achieves a positive result by doing the same thing all over, the reason I don’t see the present constellation of opposition figures leading us to our long-anticipated Shangri-La.

One solves a problem with a solution, not another problem. 80 per cent of opposition figures in Abia State are part of the old generation problem plaguing the state. They laid the defective foundation and invented the shenanigans and the unproductive ideologies that have circumscribed development, impoverished and enslaved us since 1999.

There’s a consensus that the PDP is leprosy on our skin but it’s still preferable to cancer. The Igbo adage, “onye rere Nkita zuru enwe, ihe ntukwu ka no na be ya (who sold a dog and got a monkey still has a squatting animal at home) lend credence to this.

Lest I forget, for all the youth who still believe that we will achieve the Abia State of our dream with these men, you are under a spell. I recommend Proverbs 4:6-7 to you. Please read it with prayer and fasting.

To be continued…