SUNDAY TONIC: THE HYPOCRISY OF THE APC IN ABIA STATE (PART 1)
By Onyebuchi Ememanka
The membership of the APC in Abia State is bunch of hypocrites. If you listen to their candidates or their beleaguered supporters, they will tell you tales and fables of how bad the PDP is and how they have ruined the State for the past 20 years.
They sound as if they are a set of angels from the heavens who have come with hyssop and clean water to wash the many sins of the PDP here.
For someone who doesn’t know the political history of Abia State since 1999, you would believe that these guys have had nothing to do with leadership in Abia State, judging from the way they tell stories of how the PDP has ruined the state.
Let us look at the characters that the APC parades as candidates in Abia State.
Their Governorship Candidate is Uche Ogah. Until few months ago, Ogah was a Chieftain of the Abia PDP. He was a key part of the inner caucus of the party here. His company, Masters Energy was the sole supplier of petroleum products to the State Government for several years. He was given a slot to produce a Commissioner in the last administration and he swiftly nominated his biological brother, Dr. Ogah who served as Commissioner for Health. I don’t know how many hospitals the guy built in his time.
Uche Ogah ran for the office of Governor of Abia State in 2015 under the PDP. He campaigned vigorously then, took part in the primaries and came second after Ikpeazu. Not satisfied, he ran to the Court and held the entire State by the jugular for several months seeking to be made Governor when he never participated in the general elections. When he lost out and saw that it was game over for him, he ran to the APC. Some say he ran to get some shied over some oily and subsidy deals.
Today, Ogah says the PDP is bad. But the oil of the PDP in his mouth remains strong to the point that he committed a massive blunder at their last rally when he said “…we have been in the PDP for the past 20 years. Now we are tired and we are moving to the PDP!”. Someone should tell Ogah that he can’t escape his shadow.
The APC Deputy Governorship Candidate in Abia State is Rt. Hon. Martins Azubuike. He is from Isiala Ngwa North LGA. He too says the PDP is bad.
Azubuike was elected as a member of the State House of Assembly in 2007 as a PDP member. He was reelected in 2011 as a PDP member and reelected again in 2015 as a PDP member. In June 2015, he was elected Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly. Then, the PDP was the best thing that ever happened after Egusi soup with Stockfish and dry fish. In December 2016, his colleagues at the Assembly impeached him. Few weeks after, he ran to the APC and now says that the PDP is bad. After enjoying the PDP since 2007!
What of their Senatorial Candidates? Did they come from heaven?
Orji Uzor Kalu is their Senatorial Candidate for Abia North. He says the PDP is bad. OUK was elected Governor of Abia State in 1999 as a PDP member. He was Governor for eight straight years. He ran for the Senate in 2011 as PDP Candidate. He lost. He ran in 2015 as PPA Candidate. He lost again. Today, he is in APC and claims the PDP is bad.
Senator Nkechi Nwaorgu is the APC Senatorial Candidate for Abia Central. She is from my Osisioma Ngwa LGA. She too says the PDP is bad.
In 2003, she was elected to the Federal House as a member of the ANPP to represent the Obingwa/Osisioma/Ugwunagbo Federal Constituency. Few months to the end of her tenure in 2007, she decamped to the PDP and ran for Senate in Abia Central. She won and went to the Senate, straight from the House of Reps. At the Senate, PDP had the majority then and was controlling the Federal Government. She was named Senate Committee Chairman on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions. Under her watch, the only Bank of Industry branch in Abia State which was then in Aba closed shop and left the state.
In 2011, she indicated interest in running for a second tenure, something that clearly was against the zoning arrangement in the Senatorial District. Senators from the zone before her went for one term each and the seat swung between the Ngwa and Umuahia zones. She pushed for a second term and got it. She went back to the Senate under the PDP and was made Chairman of the powerful Senate Committee on Gas.
For the 12 years she spent at the Senate, the road to her palatial residence on Kamalu Street, Aba was a death trap. Not even ordinary grading was done there throughout the period. Her response was to buy massive SUVs that helped her navigate the decrepit road. That road was fixed within the first six months of the Ikpeazu administration and former President Obasanjo commissioned it in December 2015. Today, she rides on that road with glee.
She is now in APC and says the PDP is bad!
Sir Mac Wabara is the APC Senatorial Candidate for Abia South. He is from Ohambele in Ukwa East LGA. He was the former MD of the dead Hallmark Bank which went down under his watch. He is also the biological brother of Senator Adolph Wabara, former President of the Senate. Then, Sir Mac ran things under the PDP. He was in charge and PDP was fantastic then.
Today, he is in the APC and says the PDP is bad.
To be continued…
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