By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
The major objective of any political party across the globe is to control the government. This objective informs other ancillary functions of the party such as voter education, electioneering, grass roots mobilisation, among others.
Unfortunately, in Abia, the major opposition party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, through the instrumentality of a defeated governorship candidate in the 2015 general elections, Dr. Alex Otti, has decided to toe an unpopular path to seek relevance or re-launch its already squandered goodwill- through constant disparaging of the performing Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu-throwing to the winds the admonition that” you cannot eat your cake and have it back”. Otti’s pasttime since he lost the election and failed to re- integrate APGA in Abia State- which his over ambition contributed to its demise- has been trying to disparage the government of Okezie Ikpeazu (PhD). Fortunately, the more he engages in this wild goose chase, the more his underbelly is exposed and Abians appreciate more of his diversionary antics.
APGA in Abia State was waxing stronger until the twilight of the 2015 general elections when the over ambition of Dr. Alex Otti sounded the nunc dimitis of the party, and the party went in shambles. Instead of Alex Otti to piece the party together, he has been engaging in one jamboree or the other to run down the administration of Gov. Ikpeazu.
Few days to the 2015 governorship election in Abia State, the crisis that engulfed APGA in Abia State, which was fueled by who was the authentic governorship candidate came to a climax when a faction of the party that paraded the crème de la crème adopted the PDP governorship candidate, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as their candidate.The resolution by the group reads” the decision was taken after a careful perusal of Dr. Ikpeazu’s programmes”. The group added that it realized that Ikpeazu’s agenda opposes” loans and borrow” agenda of some of his (Ikpeazu’s) opponents.
“We had equally extracted a firm commitment from Dr. Ikpeazu that he is going to be his own man contrary to erroneous views in the discharge of the duties attached to the office of the governor and would not succumb to undue influence from any quarters”.
The group further enjoined its teeming supporters to vote massively for Ikpeazu, adding” the Arochukwu/ Ohafia ticket done in the name of our great party is reminiscence of the Gideon Orkar coup where attempt was made to shut off certain parts of the country. The single local government area governorship/deputy ticket is both naive and irresponsible and designed to provoke an integral part of the state to a breach peace”.
It will be recalled that PDP in its bid to assuage the clamour by Ngwa people to produce the governor of Abia State ceded its ticket to Abia South dominated almost exclusively by Ngwa people. This spurred on the people. In a bid to benefit from this exclusive consideration, Otti was said to have swiftly gone to court to swear affidavit changing his place of birth from Arochukwu in Abia North to Ngwa. Ngwa people kicked against this vehemently denying such claims. And in a bid to solidly hold firm to being an Ngwa man, Otti nominated his running mate from Ohafia, a neighbouring town where it is alleged Otti comes from. That was “the way”, apologies to James Hardley Chase”the cookie crumbled”.
Otti, like the protagonist in one of Aesop’s Fables”The Boy Who Cried Wolf” repeatedly tricks Abians into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock by serially leveling one form of unfounded, frivolous, and baseless allegation on Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu.
During the 24th anniversary of Abia State two years ago,a non- Governmental Organisation, NGO, Independent Democrats, gave Otti a serious knock over his “antics of desperation and relevance-seeking message on the anniversary.President of the group, Jonathan Ebere urged Otti to wait for his time as governor before embarking on such activity.
Ebere was of the opinion that since Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu has made a broadcast on the anniversary, there was no need for anybody, including politicians, to embark on such activity, except sending goodwill messages to the government.
“I have never seen such a thing happen since 1999 and I have never seen such a thing anywhere in Nigeria. How can he do such a thing? From what he has done, it has clearly shown that he is desperate in his quest to become governor of Abia State. I think such desperation ought not to the case at this point.
Even though I recognize and accept the fact that his fundamental rights are enshrined in the constitution, but such rights have limits and did not make room for desperate individuals who must bring the entire in embarrassment,” Ebere said.
Otti’s campaign of calumny came to a head when during the governorship tussle at the tribunal, he and his APGA cohorts called for the jailing and possible execution of the judges of the tribunal, alleging “huge sums of money in form of gratification have exchanged hands between the PDP leadership in the state and cronies of the justices, adding “consequently, some of the judges have been responding in line with the dictate of the lucre as evidenced in the current dismissing of all petitions filed by our party against the PDP candidates. The bribe funds, we understood, were delivered to the judges outside the country and through proxies in order to leave no traces”.
APGA’s action to malign and denigrate the integrity and character of the members of the tribunal was understood to be a meditated and intentional act to ridicule the hallowed institution of the Nigerian judiciary. It smacked of desperation and over ambition because the law provided a window for them at the Appellate Court if they feel that their petitions were not judiciously addressed.Their sole aim was to tarnish the hard-earned reputation of the honourable jurists, and in extension, the Nigerian judiciary.
This indicates, to a greater extent, that over ambition is the mother of all vices and breeds inconsistency. A man of honour is a man of his words, and Otti is a perfect opposite. Otti, who said that “he was emboldened and resolute to explore all legal means possible to reclaim his alleged mandate, and that his stand was that justice and fair play must prevail”, no longer had confidence in the court of law, which they say is the last hope of the common man.
Also, Dr. Alex Otti had during the period of the Governorship Elections Tribunal in Abia State claimed that some emissaries approached him on behalf of the Governor to withdraw his suit at the Abia State Election Petitions Tribunal, but when he was asked to make public the emissaries that approached him, the issue disappeared into the thin air.
Indeed, the most ignoble thing a man considered to be noble in character can do is to lie that a traditional ruler was murdered in his desperate efforts to score cheap political points while the traditional was hale and hearty. Otti did this with a notable traditional ruler in Obingwa in his futile attempts to paint a gloomy picture of the security situation in the state.
The truth is that as long as Christ tarries, Otti’s frivolous claims, including the recent one that has been well responded to, would not cease to come. But one important lesson that he should learn is that ambition is noble and should be pursued with vigour, but what is disastrous is over ambition because it defies decency, honesty, fairness, and responsibility. Over ambition has marred kings and rulers; it has plotted the downfall of many mighty warriors; over ambition can equally pull down angels.
We therefore charge Otti as Wolsey charged Cromwell thus:”Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition:By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then,The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?”
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